the people who were intended to be the audience were really what we would call for middle-class. the programs that most of the chautauqua were very similar. combination of the speakers of the day, also a variety of both we might consider highbrow and lowbrow entertainment, opera, classical music, and probably what would be considered a vaudeville of that day. >> watch all of our events from boulder saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv and sunday afternoon at two on american history tv on c-span3. >> general petraeus and former bush administration trade representative robert zoellick talked about u.s. relations with mexico and canada. they were interviewed by jonathan karl of abc news at the council on foreign relations.

[inaudible conversations] >> are we ready to go? great. welcome to today's launch of the council on foreign relations and the pendant task force report north america time for a new focus to rid the co-chairs hear robert zoellick of course, somebody who i think last time i interviewed you we were both in sudan. so thank you very much. shannon o'neil, director and co-chair, david petraeus i think last summer i into the jew we were in iraq. so it's good to be in a slightly more tame environment. i want to get right to the question of why now, why this? reading newspapers, the attention, the focus of this administration clearly on foreign policy, current prices the in the middle of these, please to the idea of a pivot to asia and effectively what you're talking about in the task force report is a pivot to north

america. so why? >> it's time for a new focus. the reason is when you come back to it, our number one and two trading partners are our two neighbors, not other countries or regions of the world. we are enjoying the extraordinary opportunities as a result of the use energy revolution which very likely be replicated in some scale in mexico and already is producing a great deal of energy in canada. the fact is that a couple of months ago i was in london for a conference and i was asked the question after america, what do i think the expectation was? i would respond the chinese century, whatever. actually i said north american decades. in fact, i teach a course on this at the city university of new york. i'm in the third semester of having done it. actually with each passing semester i am more convinced of the power of north america 20 years after bob helped negotiate the north american free trade

agreement. you see the level of integration of these economies and you see the complementary strengths that each of these countries present in a region that really doesn't have the kinds of security issues that you would find in most of the other parts of the world. again, mexico is not asking china to balance with them against us. we are allied with canada in the biggest alliance since world war ii. so the opportunities are enormous in a region that has shared values, democracy, generally a free market economics. and this enormous the integrated market, albeit we also say we are not looking for the eu of north america either. >> when you look at the point, the first point you make on energy, just a staggering fact that the united states asked us a vast saudi arabia as a producer of natural gas and oil. >> russia. >> but of the two --

>> and oil liquids we are the number one producer in the world. we will probably surpass saudi arabia in crude oil production, that subcategory in a couple years as well. the fact is that brent crude would not be traded what is today, and by the way, it just dropped another $2 today. it's plummeting. the reason it has gone or state stable actually in recent years despite a million does coming off the market because of sanctions on iran which is wanted for started getting into this being asked as the director of the cia but with the price of brent crude be -- >> with the assumption that would be a spike. >> yes, but what happened in fact because we've added a million barrels per day additionally in each of the last three years, we have more than compensated for what came off in iran, what came off from libby because of the violence there. and some other disturbances elsewhere. so you see an extraordinary development in the oil markets,

and energy markets writ large and again that is the foundation of whole north american decade thesis. >> we have a number of the task force members here i want to thank them. and in addition to enjoying the work with david and shannon, also the canadians and mexicans were really kind. we went to auto in mexico city and with great meetings which gave us some important perspective. i want to pick up exactly where you started off talking about sudan and where ever you talked -- >> iraq. >> because in a sense what distinguishes this report and the approach we took is that our experience has really been both global. we both work with canada and mexico but we worked with a lot of other regions in the world. rather than look at this as a question instead of regional policy, the heart of this idea is how to think about north america as a continental base to

deal exactly with the questions are dealing with, sort of future power and strength or the energy, whether economy, security. we think what's missing in u.s. policy is a recognition that rather than deal with north america after you deal with all the crises, we have to start with north america in the process. the big difference here, and david alluded to this with the european union, is european union has a lot of shared sovereignty and tried it with issues of globalization. the history and culture of canada and mexico in the united states certainly heightens it each one is very sensitive to independence, sovereignty. so here is the challenge to how do deepen integration, build off of we did 20 years ago with nafta to try to take advantage of integration with developing developed economies but at same time respect into pendants and sovereignty? at a different angle we tried to take the each of these issues. >> if anything we've taken a step backwards on this.

nafta remains, much of it unfulfilled, and steps that were moved forward towards emigration in the last administration seemed to have been -- give us the state of play. >> i don't know if we've taken a step backwards but we have definitely stagnated. you saw almost 10 years after nafta you saw a huge explosion of trade, three, four times in the country. it's a huge mug of investment within the region, within the three countries. after 2001 in part because china coming into the wto and part because of 9/11, changes of the border, we started to see slowing down of trade, slowing down of movement of people and goods and light. so as we look at this report we thought how can we can we know the benefits of this. we know that it makes the united states and the other countries much more economically competitive in the world. the industries that integrated are very competitive vis-à-vis other areas around the world if you think about automotive,

aerospace, increasingly electronics, technology, computers that are produced between the countries. those we are able to compete and expand in terms of production, benefiting companies that workers on both sides of the border. so how do we move that forward? so within that we thought about for big areas. one is energy that we started to talk about. all of the country are changing in terms of energy. there's more production here, more production and candidate. in mexico they just reform so there's more production to happen there. how do we take advantage of that, not just as individual countries but has the north american region to provide stability, supply, resiliency, and integrate our network? we look at economic competitiveness. nafta did a lot of great things. one of the biggest things was lower tariffs. after lowering tariffs we saw there are other various it were not part of nafta. to our regulatory differences, some important and some trivia.

there's weaker or outdated infrastructure at the border that flows -- slows the flow of goods back and forth. how do we do with those things that stop or slow the speed of trade because it's part of the reef where economically competitive? then we also looked at security. we've seen a change in security after 9/11 for lots of good reasons. how do we start working with our partners not just bilaterally bound together to improve making sure everybody is safe but also allow the economic benefits of trade back and forth to the final area would look at is what we are calling community. this has to do with people in the region. part of it is immigration, how can we facilitate movement. heart of it is more than that. but it isn't thinking about a region workforce and labor force. as we've seen a deepening of economic integration, companies with a plant on every side of the border for production happens going back and forth across the border, workers depend on each other. what happens if a plant in

mexico and the protective and expertise of those workers affects every jobs of the people on the use of border side because of this. how can we think about upgrading the region workforce and allowing the movement back and forth to enhance north america. america. >> i want to focus on two of the recommendations. you hit on two pretty hot button political issues. one, you come out in favor of approving the keystone pipeline. and the of you come out in favor of immigration reform. first let's take a keystone. you spent some time at the state department as deputy secretary of state, under secretary of state. the explanation i get whenever asked this question at the white house, well, this is just over at the state department we're waiting for them to go to their process. [laughter] can you tell me why is this decision taking so long, really? >> we are on the record by the way. [laughter] i should remind everybody we are on the record and that's why we have cameras back there.

[laughter] >> the courteous answer is to say that i think it administration have some political priorities. that really goes to the heart of what we're trying to prod with this report because we will put up to canada, the xl pipeline is much more than question of infrastructure and the pipeline. frankly, canadian's across this country can't even people you might suspect are not supporting the pipeline, were really affronted by how they were treated by the united states on this. having been in diplomacy for some 25 or 30 years, frankly you don't treat your friends and partners that way. if you want to but a long-term partnership, particularly if you're the biggest country, the united states, you've got to be sensitive of those things. the point is the state department, you refer to, has also made the case that environmentally you are not doing anything for climate change or frankly for safety or for potential dangers from the railways or the other ways of

getting the oil to the oil will move anyway. maybe people of a different conclusion but that would be my answer, in terms of what's held it out. i think, however, the bigger point here is, both shannon and dave talk about sort of how energy is one of the catalysts for this. there are other factors, the reforms in mexico, demographics, wage rates are going up more in asia and those are. i think the technology innovation in the united states and candidate. you combine the best of develop market innovation and the best of developing country, a new growth market. one of the issues to make this work is yet to create the infrastructure. it's partly pipeline but it's also partly electricity grid. we actually have electricity grid connections with candidate in the west and the north. its modest in terms of amounts, about 2% of the float. we started to this a little bit with mexico but when we went to mexico city one of the things one of the mexicans for a to us, look, these energy reforms that

the peña nieto and ministers are doing, they are politically tough and don't surprise yourself. it would be opponents that say this doesn't benefit. the oil reforms will take years to show up in jobs and other things. they said if we could expand the approval process to extend the electricity grid across the southern border, then we could get lower electricity prices which are quite high in mexico based on lower natural gas prices. we could produce more, as dave said, about 40% of everything that exports have u.s. value content. so that's another example where you connect the xl pipeline with the overall question of infrastructure for energy. there's parts on the u.s. site. you talk about slightly controversial recommendations. we talk about lifting the ban on the crude oil exports. if you want this energy revolution to continue in the united states you've got to be able to have pipes. that's what signals investment. if we don't export it we would not get the benefits of the. in the wake a lot of these

parts, another point is natural gas line everybody is concerned about the poor children coming from central america. as you know part of that region is that countries are fragile states. they have high energy cost. they don't have developed the we could extend the pipeline that go down to central america. part of this idea is how can we think about north america, not only among the three of us, but with the western hemisphere and our global power and economic competitiveness. >> one thing i didn't see much funnier was alternative energy, and not a lot of discussion of climate change. you do mention it as a concern. you do talk about creating a market-based solution for carbon. >> which is a fairly big deal. >> which is also controversial. >> but again -- >> how big of a concern is climate change? >> it is a big concern. >> and the downside -- >> it's represented in your.

but the fact is that again, our industries do need energy. the united states has been going about this in a way that is actually pretty responsible. our emissions have been going down. our consumption -- >> so they picked up this year, right, for the first time? >> i saw that china does more than the eu and the u.s. together. and by the way, we are actually consuming less because of efficiency in the united states as well. so when you look at the overall aggregate demand throughout the world for oil and so forth, you actually see that argument has gone down a bit. by the way, so has europe's again as result, a large measure of efficiency. but again this is going to be the foundation for an awful lot of our economic progress. it already is. if you are in an industry that requires natural gas as a raw material or requires cheap

electricity you are going to build your plant here in the united states. just ask dow chemical and all the other global firms that do the petrochemical industry, they all have construction ongoing in the united states. but certainly we should. we say that there should be a support for the sustainable energy industries. and, indeedand a deed that thate promoted, but in the meantime until that is competitive you got to continue to what it is that we done and to do it in a responsible and as climate friendly a way as is possible. >> let me add one other dimension to this. in the first bush administration, bush 41, i was in charge of the strategy for the rio treaty which was the last climate change treaty the u.s. senate has confirmed, has acted on. the key point is this is only going to be dealt with at a global level. certain countries have to put a leadership role, no doubt. what we saw after the

copenhagen, was a mexican president, calderón, take the lead and have a successful climate change summit in cancun. and he took apart the problem by looking at different pieces. some alternative technologies, some energy efficiency, which there's huge potential savings globally you look at any subsidies. you look at deforestation, carbon, different technology. our point here is if we're going to lead effectively, we will be much more effective, in this case it the climate change agenda has a developing country and a developed country working together. the key to this of course is if people don't of low-cost energy sources to start you'll have a hard time pushing this. but it's a good example across the board of how as we start to think about north american issues, how we can leverage them for global influence. >> is there a national security implications? one of the things that's interesting, you've had the oil

and natural gas boom here in the united states. you've had a similar boom and candidate. mexico's production is down as you point out. >> but it's going to go. again, among the 16, that's a historic number, constitutional reforms that were approved in president opinion yet to come just in his first year, that's more than all three of his predecessors in all 18 years -- president peña nieto. among those very prominent is the reform of the energy industry in mexico. it also has to do with electricity production. >> what are the broader implication terms, the concerns for some readers the u.s. was dependent on oil imports from the middle east? >> a huge issue. in fact, it is conceivable that north america as the continent could be self-sufficient in energy, in a certain number of years. there's no question that we are more indie than it in terms of

our energy. doesn't mean by the way we are not still going to have a vital national interest in the free flow of oil and gas through the gulf and to our trading partners. mideast oil still fuels our trading partners economies. so we will still have a vital national interest in that but we will not, at the risk of a time, we're not going to be over a barrel of the way we used to be on this issue. [laughter] >> a horrible pun, sorry about that. >> the other kind of hot button or one of the other hot button recommendation is on immigration reform. the task force strongly recommends the passage of copper into federal immigration reform that secures the u.s. borders, prevent illegal entry, provides visas on the pace of economic need, invites talented and skilled people to settle in the united states and offers a pathway to legalization for undocumented immigrants in the

united states. were you talking about the senate bill? is that essentially what you're talking about? >> no, i don't think so. these are very carefully chosen words, legalization. and again the task force members contributed enormously. but look, i think everybody in washington agrees, however fractious this city may be, that there is a need for immigration reform. and that it does include border security in various measures. but we have to the low skilled or unskilled workers for a number of industries in the united states, and we need a legal pathway for them to come to our country. we also need the h-1b visa limit lifted. that's another one. we have this peculiar situation would educate the world's best and brightest into we don't keep all of them even though our industries need them because there's a limit on the number of visas that can be given for that particular category.

>> you are right, we tried to work out what we think is a pretty definite position on immigration reform. there's different ways you can get to it. that's the kind of, we are not making a tactical judgment about how one does appea that. i would come to a point at shannon touched on which is where we're tried to look beyond immigration reform. one of the strengths of north america is not just the energy and natural resources. it's the 500 million people here. if you look at the future of any kind our society, it's what they do with their human capital. and part of a peña nieto reform is immigration that is the challenge but how do we implement. portable we try to talk about here is drawing of some discussions we had, and we were in canada with all the energy from they were describing having the petroleum engineers but they can't get u.s. trained petroleum engineers because they don't meet certain certifications. when we were in mexico ahead of

pemex said frankly because women developing a lot of these resources, we need petroleum engineers. you can start to see in north america with wide you can start to identify skills but our own systems prevent the mobility of people based on professional certification and overall mobility. we introduce this idea of mobility. the idea people can work across countries, maintain their citizenship. this has been discussed at some of the areas that are kind of less skilled jobs but also serve higher skilled jobs. one of the areas that shannon and research is coming out of nafta, a special visa program that frankly has not been used very much because it has a whole series of restrictions compared to h-1b visa. we talk about if you want, after 20 years, the educational and skills and certification area, the future of all our countries compared to europe, japan, china, russia is better for the

demographics. we don't have the same aging workforce overall but that only works if you have some of the supply and between. and, frankly, i think in all three countries you were on the edge of a transformation, public and private with use of technology, perhaps different types of degree programs, different types of hybrid and sort of use of other issues. you can see this in the private and public sector, while there is a need to focus always in all three countries on local control of education. we missed a big opportunity we don't interconnect the three countries because the core resources are the people. >> i've got to ask you about the tactics. this task force, very nicely provides a vision, it's very convincing case. but there is the question of how it gets done. immigration reform, we've seen stalled by the fact that so many major interests involved to push for it.

we mentioned the market-based solution, carbon. that might have, pushing that might have crossed the democrats -- cost the democrats thousand 2010 or help cost than that. i wonder if today nafta, could nafta passed today? could it get through, you know, the political -- >> we will find that with tdp. >> first unique epa which is another thing, trade promotion authority. look, to be honest some of this comes back to political leadership, particularly in trade, no way around. but to go to the issue about sort of the politics of these issues, i'm shocked you think just the three of us alone won't be able to move the agenda. [laughter] when you say go -- >> you will see the needle moving. >> assuming that you are right -- [laughter] >> one of the points of this report and what we're trying to do is kind of to stir the pot

and the debate and that's why we explained the logic and have taken some positions. we hope the research will act on some of these things in the last two years but a part of is to set up the 2016 debate. i've talked to people, primarily the republican side but i know some of the ones on the democratic side as well. the standpoint is for candidates to go off to europe or maybe do some stops in issue. you are now starting to get people to go to mexico and to help go to canada first, recognizing this is the policy and, frankly, there are some good politics in this if people look at the hispanic american committed as well. thursday public place to go forward with some of these issues but, frankly, we're to get people to understand that foreign policy is not just, your reporting daily instead of the hot story, but it's his story. >> with the congress i've to say, again with both democrats and republicans i try to stay in touch on some of trade issues, when you present these and to make a point about how this can

help our economic competitiveness compared to other regions in the world, there's an audience for this. there's a number of people is that when you get the task force report we like to follow a different context. like anything else i think we have now provided the grist for the don't another question is can we get some political attention. >> let me add into this. we lay out a big vision for north america and where it could be 10, 20 years. some of things to get us pretty long way there are you don't have to be a huge comprehensive immigration reform. are things that take away some of the little bumps in the road. six in particular industries, some of the irregular differences, that would make a huge difference for particular sectors. improve the infrastructure of the border. one department of transportation studies it will cost between six and $10 billion which is not a lot of money. they can make a huge difference in the flows back and forth. start working with our counterparts on the other side. one of the main things we lay

out in the task force is that in all these areas, whether economic, energy, said judy can we can start thinking trilateral where we can and bilateral where we must. some of that change come we could start doing those things now and later on if there is more of a political will or cooperation to try to go for some of the bigger things. you can make a lot of progress with smaller issues. >> the chamber of commerce is here. i belong to the sort of aco task force between u.s. and mexico. these are major companies went back to something david said us and look him we are applying information technology in ways you couldn't conceive of in much of our business. why can't we apply this to get stuff across the border safer and quicker. >> mexico is in the midst of a manufacturing boom. it's now the number four car exporter in the world. i was just in tokyo last week. they mentioned that toyota's new plant is not in japan but it's actually in mexico where by the

way, their production facilities are just about every other make and model of car in the world. so what's going on there is quite extraordinary. now as you see the 16 reforms actually start to be implemented. you see them get the benefit of our cheap natural gas. got two big pipelines being built that will help them lower their electricity costs with some 75% more than ours are right now. so this largely provide even greater opportunities for integrating our markets, noting that bob mentioned earlier, a car that is produced in mexico actually is 40% american. the same if you do that up in the north. so there are really historic opportunities here, and the question is can we take full advantage of them? >> let me give you two examples. shannon mentioned the tpp, the trans-pacific partnership. so this is the united states negotiating with 11 other countries. we have free trade agreements with six of those including

canada and mexico. it took a while to agreed to include canada and mexico as part of those negotiations. and yet given that there are sort of 20 oh aspects of nafta, why not use the tpp to be able to try to cleanup of some of those things? and also in the process start to think about the north american market. we have a trade negotiation going on with the european union, the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. i have been a trade negotiator but i know it's not easy with more people at the table but, frankly, it's a big strategic mistake not to include canada and mexico at the table. one of the key areas of the ttip, for example, for the auto industry which was trans-atlantic. when we were in canada they pointed out they don't have an auto industry. they have an auto parts industry. a lot of into sure index is based on assembly. so frankly we are being shortsighted in terms of our future competitiveness, not to include them. those ever practical things.

you don't need to pass a law to do that. >> i want to get to questions next but before we do of wanted to ask about another issue raised which we haven't touched on much, which is security. general petraeus, what is the greatest kind of security concern for this region? isn't the whole issue of foreign fighters we're talking about now? is that the violence in central america? is it the criminal cartel? what do you see going forward as a central security concern? ..

to the extent that we should again to make the most of these highly integrated economies. time is money at the border. there is a lot of wasting of that that goes on. >> just connect, for example, people have seen in the newspaper. we have the terrible example of poor children coming up from central america, okay? they didn't fly here, okay? they came across mexico. part of this if we develop deeper cooperation on some of those issues from mexico, well, frankly you will deal with them in earlier point. we need to go beyond that. we talk about the planned colombia example, mexico, kilometer ba, panama, united states, canada can go at some

root issues in central america. you have fragile states dealing with organized crime, criminal networks. goes to the energy issue and larger development issue, the type of thing i dealt with at the bank and state department and elsewhere. wouldn't we be much more effective if we doing that in concert with mexicans and colombians as we did with central america 20 years ago? part of this is to stretch people's thinking. david mentioned this. you have new issues like cybersecurity and ebola issues and other disease issues we've had in the area. part to get people to recognize for our own security, not out of niceness, we need to create a unified security lodge from the arctic, through which you have a set of issues through central america. >> questions to remind you, when i call on you wait for the microphone to get to you. stand up, state your name and affiliation and remember to keep

questions short. so, do we have a first question? that never happened. there we go. >> thank you very much. avis robinson, a member of the executive committee of the canada-u.s. law institute. i've been struck by the fact that none of you has either mentioned water, or the effect of the inability of the national governments of these three nations to act upon the states and the provinces. just as one single example. the great lakes are losing an enormous amount of water. neither washington nor ottawa has been able to do anything about it. so now the two provinces and the six states, they have gotten together and they are going to do what ottawa and washington

should have done, what they may be doing, it may violate the constitutions of the two countries but at least they are doing something. well -- >> there is good opening because there are certainly discussion of water in this report. >> there actually is. and interestingly it came in large measure as a result of the encouragement initially bit canadian ambassador. we had both ambassadors were quite involved in this in addition to the trips we all made to ottawa and mexico city. water is in there if you go through that. there is strong recommendation we do need to confront these kind of issues. these are issues of future in many respects. >> two additional connections. one as you undoubtedly know there is century-long history with u.s. and mexico an canada. at least from our examination of that, the boundary waters commission worked well live at

this well in part because they involve a lot of stakeholders outside of the capitals. your second point i really want to draw attention to. one of the challenges for north american policy a lot is not made in washington, ottawa, washington, mexico city amount lot is made in state, local, private sector. what we're trying to address, how do you think about foreign policy, so-called foreign policy in different way where you deal with a set of transnational actors. we talk about the role of governors and provincial authorities and how you connect wit. all countries have to respect federalism or in the cased canada, con-federalism. i'm a little skeptical about this, i don't believe government reorganizations tend to solve problems. i tend to think you need to go at the problem but what we did say because of this challenge about getting attention to north america, you need to

change, we talked about a north america director in the nse, state departments, high level champion among various officials. not to just bring attention of issues to the u.s. government and work on this challenge, how do you work more closely with the states, local and other authorities. capture, energy, knowledge, activity of those bodies. so i'm glad you raised it. >> next question. sir. >> new. thank you. one of the points the panel made repeatedly that they need greater political leadership and focus to move an agenda like this forward but that is perennial problem with the united states and latin america. we oscillate with deep crisis in the region that become political issues here and we go off and do other things. so are there structural changes we need? make one other parenthetical point.

makes a difference who the personnel are. you know, bush 41 which bob i both served, president and secretary of state from texas. >> secretary of commerce. >> secretary of commerce. the vice president wanted to be involved in latin america. >> he wanted to be, even though we didn't let him. [he was for a short period of time. >> that is episodic and quixotc. we can't depend where the president was raised and secretary of state and commerce secretary. are there ruch central changes we need to make to make sure the north american agenda at higher level than it is currently at? >> yes. bernie, thanks for that. thanks for your contribution to the task force. clearly that is what bob was getting at with the idea of nse, you have someone truly focused on north america, not just entire hemisphere. interestingly the department of defense already has that,

northern command which encompasses those three countries and focused on security aspects of those various relationships. so indeed structural change would help, as would again, as does personality. the fact that penny pritzker, secretary of commerce has been as active in actions with mexico in particular but also canada, has been a real plus in our view over the course of year or so as you know that we have done this report. so, certainly there does need to be that. the reason for that is, you do have to have champions in our government for different regions, initiatives, activities. if you don't, they never get on the table until you're a week away from that year's summit and somebody says what will we talk about next week? you know, the principles committee is dominated by the crises of the day. arguably right now, we have really more crises you can even funnel through the situation room on a daily basis t would be

a tough time to be a deputy cabinet secretary right now in fact. you would live down at the white house i would imagine. so how do you get north america on to an agenda already overcrowded? you get people invested in it and constantly push it back into the table. >> let me compliment this a little bit. this problem of kind of living down at the white house is part of the problem. we talk about champions and i want to draw it out a little bit. a lot of people in this audience served in government. they probably have a sense of this. the danger of course that each bureaucratic agency sticks in its rut. it is hard to move things through. with north america it is compounded as we note everything from social security to transportation becomes part of quote, foreign policy beginning with north america. we try to capture was that notion that i personally think it takes a very senior post, state, treasury, maybe nse

advisor, maybe vice president. it can't be one of these deals where that office gets 100 of these assignments. then they're all diluted. it is probably less important, the exact seat that the person, sort of believes in it. as you know, bernie, you have to push the system. you have to have a sense how to break through some restrictions that when bureaucratic issues comes up. that is the champion idea. but the offices, as you have experienced it helps to have right now, what the u.s. government has, it has western hemisphere bodies. that is very important. they tend to think latin america. canada moved back and forth from the european bureau to the western hemisphere bureau reflecting different attitudes of security and other topics. what we're saying if you create north american bureau, create an internal advocate. when people talk about negotiating with the european union, someone says, what about our north american lodgic? re we missing this issue? we try to drive it with that

point. frankly we had a bit after discussion that also said where should central america fit in this? my own sense central america is key part of our security, you see with children, narcotics and other issues. that is debatable point. if we avoid this pendulum of kind of ignoring some of these regions until fires break out and burning our fingers we need to add central america and north america in more strategic way. i have to say, this is couldly meant to mexico. when i was working with the augustine, the central bankhead, three central bankers in north america are world class, he was finance minister. he was first mexican finance minister i met that would meet with the central american finance ministers. as you know mexico treated central america with some of the distance we treated mexico. that won't work if you try to deal with underlying problems.

frankly as i mentioned before, it helps to have latin americans deal with central america as well as gringos from the north. >> one of the very, granular level, one of the examples you cite on nafta and things that have been followed through on nafta is issue of mexican truckers. mexican trucks, correct me if i'm wrong, by 2000 were to go everywhere in the united states. >> much earlier, actually. >> right now, you point out, is it, 45 mexican trucks are permitted. >> individual trucks. >> talking about trucks. >> of 14,000 that cross. >> of 14,000 cross. the rest are limited to the states around the border. so, question? >> my name is ozzie brown. i'm i.t. and information security professional. i notice you have a few paragraphs about cybersecurity.

my interests in what did you learn in terms of your work in terms of best practices that canada and mexico may be employing that we could benefit from? then the other question is, in terms of this, i'll call it joint, unified cybersecurity sale on the north american continent, how do you envision that working? can you talk about that a little bit? >> i think the sell clearly will have to link to dhs as a result. one of the foughtout items from the snowden affair is obviously that nsa is, we're going to be able to draw on them less i think for homeland activities than we otherwise might have. eventually if you link to growing expertise that is developed in dhs without question. having said that there are other areas where there is need of legislation is cyber legislation. we were very close a couple years ago when the chairman and vice chairman of the house

intelligence committee were moving forward, the rogers, ruppersberger bill, would have been a good, solid, modest step forward and even that couldn't get through unfortunately. this is an issue we do need to deal with here in washington very much, even as our own domestic cybersecurity authorities are working more closely with those of canada and mexico. >> let me just add, on the infrastructure side, especially on the canadian side, also beginning on the mexican side, since we share infrastructure, electricity grid, pipelines and like, cyberattack on one side would presumably affect the whole northeastern electricity grid, even if it happened in the canada. working a bit more closely to establish common protocols. if there is an attack, post-attack evaluation sharing, experiences and effect, we could deal much more closely with our neighbors in the long run would be quite useful for us. >> let me add one thing.

david is more expert on this terms of policy and security. but, your questions particularly interesting because, like david, i work with a lot of different financial audiences. and often get asked, what will be the next crisis? what will create the next illiquidity event? the first answer is, it is always the one you don't foresee. but frankly, if i would pick one, i would pick something in the cyber area. i could see what created, for example, events in 2008, is that markets won't clear. you can't get a price, okay? so that can happen through financial terms. it can also happen through breakdown of a system. it is interesting i was with mike rogers earlier this beak. with a group of chief financial officers, i was trying to say, if you're not looking at this, be aware not only question of sort of business management, but in a world where, you know, we've got issues with russia or iran, you better be darn

well-prepared for them going after your systems. it's a good example of kind of stretching people's thinking in this. frankly as shannon mentioned, this will go to the heart of the electricity grid and other utility resilience. >> this is area where we have much tighter relations in one bilateral relationship because of course of the five is, intelligence sharing agreement, than we do with our southern nabe bod with whom we don't have that same level of relationship. so it gives you an idea of what it is that we need to do there, even though again without getting into details there is quite a bit of cooperation as well. >> just to pick up on a stratbig point again for cfr audience, bernie and others in the room have seen this, david talked about the depth of relationship with canada as opposed to mexico. when i first started to work with mexico on foreign policy issues in the 1980s, basically if i needed to know mexico's foreign policy i could find it from the u.s. and put a minus sign in front of it.

because in the old system, under the old pri in those days, foreign ministry of mexico was partly an intellectual haven that collected anti-americanism whale while pri did its business with the united states. when i came back to the government in 1:00 and world bank, that -- 2001, particularly in economic area, microssest partners on international trade issues were my mexican and canadian counterparts. we worked hand-in-glove trying to solve the trucking and other problems which people reversed going back to try to play a role globally. my hope is that a group like this 25 years from now might be able to sit and talk about deeper cooperation with all three countries on other security issues. that is the bit of a vision we're pushing for. >> christine. >> i'm christina long from "the hill." my question for general petraeus.

sir, you have had great experience and expertise in iraq and i would be remiss if i didn't ask, there is some doubt in washington whether or not these strategy against isis will be successful, what are your views of whether strategy will work, how it will end? what are your views on that? >> i don't want to turn this into an isil q&a but i think that i can see how it can end in iraq. i think the strategy which we're embarked has a reasonable chance of success. it really comes down as the president has been very clear, it comes down to prime minister abadi performing tasks and the iraqi security forces performing tasks we had to do in 2007 because the place was literally on fire and about to burst into civil war flames had we not done that. we should not underestimate, given all the challenges they have had, we should not underestimate the ability of this new government to reach out

to the sunni-arab community and make them part of the fabric of society and iraq again and also to accommodate some very legitimate demand requests from the kurdish regional government as well. i think that is all doable. those are critical, political components so what will go forward. if that becomes the foundation for iraq, then i think you can reconstitute in some cases iraqi security forces and with help from us in terms of the intelligence picture, assistance with planning and then provision of close air support and fires, i think that those forces can, and must, again, if this is to be sustainable, this must be a result of actions by iraqi security forces, noting that term is inclusive of what will undoubtedly stand back up the former sons of iraq that will be now part of the iraqi national guard under prime minister abadi's initiative and

encompassing, kurdish peshmerga and other force as well. >> can i follow-up, can you promise from the start no boots on the ground? do you need some special forces? this would be north american boots on the ground? [laughter]. >> nice try. as we look to the north american decade of the future here, i think general dempsey has been appropriate and forthright in noting that if it comes to it, he would ask for certain capabilities as required to assist iraqi security forces on the ground. my point is, that, can and must be done by iraqi security forces. and that includes not just the army but also the police elements. and indeed even air components that they're gradually developing as well. >> yes. >> german martial fund of the united states. i would like to ask speakers

regarding the current trade negotiations between the united states and europe and how those negotiations would affect the north american partnership? >> why don't i start? those trade negotiations are in trouble. they have been drifting. it goes a little bit to jonathan's political question, until you get trade promotion authority which is the ability for the executive to bring an agreement for congress for an up-or-down vote without amendment, it will be hard to make people, face up to the toughest decisions. trans-pacific partnership is a little bit ahead in the negotiations and you're seeing that with japan. japanese will not take sensitive decisions on agriculture unless they know the executive is willing to really carry out his side. this, of the pacific and frankly, push it with congress. i'm actually hopeful but i'm an optimistic person, that from

talking with members of congress there is strong interest on the republican side on moving this as there was with senator baucus, the democratic chairman of the finance committee and dave camp, the republican chairman of the house ways and means committee earlier in the year and senator reid said he didn't want the issue and administration backed off. if they have prospects for transatlantic or tpp they will have to move that forward. speaker boehner said he would do it if he got 50 democratic votes. even tough deals i did with only 30 democratic votes, i think that is doable number. if you get a republican senate you will be in stronger position to move this forward. i urged senator wyden, i talked to him, i urged him to start the markupperrer i think there -- earlier, because i think it is key for democratic interest in this. there is lot of talk in washington. tough decide whether you will push the stuff or whether you close the deal. comes back on the transatlantic side, the reason i feel so

strongly about this, in trade if the bicycle isn't moving forward it false down. what you can see in europe is there has been an increasing crescendo of this element, that element, there is not forward momentum going forward. i see that agreement in difficulty. that is terrible given the fact probably the most important partner in europe going forward is germany and chancellor merkel has a very strong interest in this. so, coming back to the north american point i would just say, we support the tpa and we say we ought to look at this in north american context. europe has actually done a pretrade agreement with canada. and they took, they're back and forth about the closing aspects of that. so i congratulate the canadians and europeans. i think, the united states need to get its act together. >> if i could, by the way, just on the note of canada, we actually have canadian ambassador here and we're grate if you recall for what he did.

i -- grateful to see him earlier. we had the mexican ambassador for the segment at the council to release this. there has been very, very good involvement in this. to cast the answer that bob was just giving, the task force strongly looks forward to confirming the excellence of our legislative and executive branches in the wake of the upcoming elections in passing tpa. then getting ttp done and then moving on to ttip. there is huge interest in it. pp again. i was out in hong kong and tokyo last week. i can assure eurasian partners are being part of that, but our asian partners are very keen get this done as well. it will help not just the united states. ttp will help all of north america because they're all three involved as bob mentioned earlier. >> one last point. this is partly people often look at these as narrow trade

agreements this is big-time strategy because, i, dave spent a lot of time in asia. i was just there last week. economics is the point of the realm in asia. frankly if you're not moving forward with your economic relationships they wonder, what is the pivot and rebalance? 2500 marines in darwin? that doesn't look serious to them. very serious questions here. frankly on transatlantic side too it fits in the with types of challenges you see mario draghi talking about. questions whether his new monetary policy will move forward. the french came out with their budget on fiscal side. none of this will work unless europe will take structural reforms. t pip tip is vehicle for structural reforms. if you want the global economic strength and united states play a leadership role and get tpa done and close the two deals. >> yes. >> i just wanted to ask how out

of the box perhaps it, did the tack force consider creating new multinational organizations? so for example, things that would provide investment fund for infrastructure worldwide investments, education, all those types of things in, and i know you started by saying we're talking about this in sovereignty context as opposed perhaps the way the europeans did it, were there such crossinvestment fund s that part of the thinking now or is that a bridge too far. >> go ahead, bob. >> we started with what exists. so one of the items we went back and looked at was the north american development bank which was part of the nafta process. it was part of the political vote trading but it also had a interesting mission, somewhat constrained. and we talk about given some of the infrastructure and other issues, whether that could have its mandate expanded and be used more effectively. frankly here, and this is some of the things dave and i work on

frequently, is, the question is how can you connect the private and public sector in this? for example, instead of infrastructure fund. we also talk about the role of the interamerican development bank, possibly world bank, ifc, private sector arm. so i think we're biased more towards how you can upgrade and use existing structures as opposed to create new ones. a little bit on your water question as well. and, just to give you a sense of the possibility here again, what i was, about a week ago i was struck by, i was talking to some of my former colleagues from ifc, private sector arm of the world bank. one of the things they told me was fascinating. we created a asset management company which allowed sovereign fund and pension fund to join with our equity investments which would add over 20% rate of return. a way of bringing more capital in without raising capital for ifc. we started this with africa,

latin america and other fund. they told me that china gone to the asset management company of ifc, look we like to do more investment of mexico. rather than do it bilaterally we do it with the mexicans and ifc so it has a different shape to it. that is creative use of multilateral institutions. doesn't require a new one although this asset management company is quite interesting. it is first subsidiary of a multinational that has been created. no one paid any attention to it but it is working quite well. while sense we're looking at evolutionary models in a pragmatic way. >> yes, in the back. >> thank you. i want to get to something that wasn't directly addressed in the report but that we touched on a little bit here and there. as far as common security threat. >> give your name. >> sorry. lauren kern with cnn. as far as security threats we talked a little bit about

threats posed by foreign fighters, going to and possibly returning from syria. there are, it is estimated about 100 foreign fighters from the united states in the region. about the same amount from canada. what can be done between north american allies to first of all, keep people from going there. monitor them as they return and then also even before that, i guess prevent kind of radicalization that can happen easily on computer that could lead to an attack within any of those three countries? thank you. >> this comes down basically to intelligence sharing. as i mentioned earlier we long had a very, very close relationship with canada. indeed they're one of the five is. there is extraordinary amount that goes on there but there is actually a good deal more perhaps than people realize that goes on with our mexican colleagues as well. but it is all about, again, creating access to common databases, sharing threat

streams, sharing information. also sharing tactics, techniques and procedures if you will of a variety of different methods of collecting information that then becomes intelligence, on the flow to and from these areas of conflict. >> one other point that david mentioned yesterday in new york. i want the americans here and certainly the canadians to know this. . .

>> in afghanistan we had some 50 countries, actually, in that headquarters. but in between that the central command i said, jeez, this worked really quite well in iraq, why can't we replicate that right here in tampa with our headquarters x we did. and even had a number of other countries that had very robust liaison elements there, several dozen of those as well. >> so canadians are making the ultimate commitment to go down from canada in the winter. [laughter] >> what they did was add to number of canadian license plates that are already populating the streets of tampa. [laughter] but, actually, to come back on a very serious note, canadians, i think, were the highest -- had the highest loss rate per capita of any of the coalition contingents in afghanistan. they did some very, very heavy fighting and, indeed, during the surge in afghanistan the canadian contingent in kandahar

was part of some very important offensive gains that helped not only hold the taliban where they were, but, indeed, to push them back in some very key districts to enable time and space for the accelerated development of the afghan security forces, certain institutions of its governance and even to start the transition positive process to our afghan partners. >> so you need to tell the cnn audience on the 200th anniversary of the end of the war of 1812, we're glad the canadians are on the right side. [laughter] >> and i the still remember the signs, "thank you, canada," after the iranian hostage -- >> yeah. >> -- mission that became known. >> you bet. >> in argo. thank you very much. we are out of time. general david petraeus, shannon o'neill and bob zoellick. thank you very much for joining us. [applause] >> thanks, gary.

[inaudible conversations] >> vice president joe biden headlines a forum on youth employment and work force development today. u.s. claim per of commerce president -- chamber of commerce president and ceo thomas donohue, and executives with bank of america, marriott international and morgan stanley also taking part. u.s. chamber of commerce foundation and the urban alliance are hosting this conference here on c-span2. [applause] >> good morning, and welcome to the u.s. chamber of commerce. as you heard, i am the president of the u.s. chamber of commerce foundation, and wouldn't we all hire that young woman in a minute? we are so pleased today to be teaming up with urban alliance to bring you today's program on youth unemployment.

the chamber foundation focuses on challenges that our country faces in our public policy area as well as emerging issues that will impact economic growth and american competitiveness. high on our list of priorities is addressing this vexing skills gap that we have in this country. the skills gap is putting great distance between unemployed and underprepared american workers, and many of the stable, high-paying jobs in our fastest growing industry, and it has to be addressed. it poses a serious threat to our economy and america's long-term prosperity. today we are excited to be able to focus on a narrow but critical aspect of this broader problem, and that is youth unemployment. youth unemployment telegraphs a growing trend of an unprepared work force for the future. and so the combination of our

struggling education system, our middleing economy has created an opportunity gap that is severely impacting americans between the ages of 16-24. you know, we call them the opportunity youth, and we call them that because there are more than six million of them that have fallen into this gap of being out of work and out of school. and more and more young men and women are at risk of following them into that gap. when they can't make the leap from the school system to the economy, where do they go? what are their prospects for getting a job and making a good living? how do they support themselves and their families? taken in even a broader context, what does it happy for our nation's future? what does it mean for our continued growth and for our

ability to innovate and to advance and for our very competitive standing in the world? these are the questions that weigh heavily on all of us here at the chamber. and i can tell you they weigh on our nation's leaders at very highest levels as well. and so we're very fortunate today that a little laterrer this morning we're going to be joined by vice president joe biden who will share the administration's perspective. now, the white house may approach the problem a little differently than we do here at the chamber, but they are keenly focused on it, as we all need to be. in fact, just this week the vice president announced the new recipients for the trade adjustment assistance community college and career training grants. and that's just one of the initiatives -- and we've been involved in a number of them -- that the white house has led to promote the importance of better aligning our education delivery to in-demand jobs, particularly recognizing the need for more

employer input. if we're going to make strides to close this skills gap, job-driven partnerships between these critical stakeholders are going to be crucial to our success. today we'll have a chance to consider the causes, the implications and the solutions through our speakers' presentations and the panel discussions that we're going to have. but make no mistake, i really want to stress that today's program isn't just a discussion, it's a call to action. we must take what we learn here today and apply it in our businesses, in our organizations and throughout our economy. now, urban alliance provides a great example of how taking concrete steps can make a difference. because through work with local business and corporate partners, urban alliance has established a year-round internship program

that is working incredibly well for both students and for employers. an organization that the chamber is also proud to sport is set -- to support is setting out to change employers' perceptions of opportunity youth, that six million number of young people who are falling in this gap. and they're doing it through a new public service campaign. you saw one example of that psa just a couple of minutes ago. and i think the thing that we have to keep in mind is that psas like that one highlight how opportunity youth are a potential source of valuable talent for employers. and we just have to shift our thinking a little bit and understand the importance to all of our future that this opportunity does not go wasted. many businesses already have and they are tapping into this vast

pool of talent. and they're doing it through their own youth employment programs. we'll hear today how they're doing that, and we'll hear it during our corporate engagement panel a little bit later this morning, and i think it's going to be a very interesting discussion. we hope that their experience is going to inspire other businesses to adopt similar programs. and for our part, the u.s. chamber foundation through our center for education and work force is working to bring national attention to the youth unemployment challenge and to help drive solutions. with a three-year grant that we've received from the daniels fund, we will be conducting research, producing case studies and reports. we're establishing a career readiness network, and we're working to build community-based pilot programs across the country. and finally, we're also gearing

up for a national conference here in washington in february. so action to tackle the national youth employment challenge is underway, and many of you are involved in those activities that are so important. but as you know, we have a lot more that we need to do. and as we'll hear over the course of this morning, the stakes are incredibly high. this is not just about economic growth and competitive, and let's keep that in mind. as important as economic growth and competitiveness are to this nation's future, it really is about opportunity and advancement in the lives of america's youth. we have to keep in mind this is an important topic. we owe it to the young people in this one to come up with solutions and to continue to back them up with meaningful action. and i'm confident that our discussions today will help us make progress towards those goals. and one of the major reasons is because of the partners that we have involved in this effort.

so i'd like to welcome our first speaker and our partner in today's effort, shawna smith. shawna is the chief executive officer of urban alliance. we are excited to be collaborating with her. we've spent months now getting ready for this big event here today, and we just love working with her and with her team on this important issue. so please join me in welcoming shawna smith. shawna? [applause] >> thank you, jock. good morning. >> morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> so excited to be here and to have the opportunity to see so many of you and these wonderful faces. as jacques said, i am the lucky, lucky, lucky ceo of urban

alliance. i want to, first, start this morning by thanking the united states chamber of commerce for partnering with us on this conversation and very, very important call to action. we are just so grateful for the partnership with the chamber and really appreciate you all hosting us and being such great partners with us on this endeavor. i also want to acknowledge all of the urban alliance interns and program graduates, our esteemed alumni who are in the room today. will you please take a stand or raise a hand if you're here in the room? [applause] we are so very proud of all of you, and you are the reason why we are here today and why it is we do what we do. i thought about what i wanted to

share today. two words came to mind; leadership and risk taking. eighteen years ago urban alliance's founder -- who has now today helped me out with this -- the global corporate social responsibility officer for bank of america but was then, 18 years ago, a young attorney with the department of justice, he walked into anacostia senior high school, and he offered a young man a job on the spot. and with the help of his friends, jeffrey zients, thomas nides who is vice chairman with morgan stanley and others, urban alliance was born. our founders were bold in their leadership and so was that young, first young man who was offered a job when he confidently told andrew, hey, it's great that you're able to get me a job, but i have five other friends who also need

jobs. so he showed some very early leadership promise. and so the founders set out to find jobs for all six of those young men. but perhaps even more or most important with that story is that the young men actually, i believe, took the biggest risk in trusting that those early urban alliance founders, that those adults would do what they said they would do and make those paid jobs a reality. i'm also happy to share that i believe one of the original six interns who got one of those very first jobs might be here with us today, andre williams. if he's not in the room, i know that he was coming, and he was going to be here. and, andre, i heard, gave those early urban alliance founders a run for their money but has gone on to do wonderful things in education including being the former dean of students at wilson senior high school. [applause]

now, since that time urban alliance has served, excuse me, has placed over 1500 underresourced youth in various paid internships and served over 15,000 youth overall. today i'm proud to say that 100% of our interns graduate from high school, 90% of them go on to two and four-year colleges, and 80% of them persist to their second year of college. [applause] and, yes, even with that work and the work that many of our outstanding partners, our peers in this field such as europe, genesis works, futures and options, youth build and many, many more, even with our work and all that they do as well, we continue, unfortunately, to have large segments of our youth population who continue to be left behind socially and

economically, and in particular our african-american and latino youth. you heard jacques say a few minutes ago, he talked a bit about the out-of-school youth, the disconnected youth, and he mentioned the 6.7 million young people who are out of school and out of work. and each of those young people costs society $700,000 over their lifetime, and 60% of black teens are unemployed or underemployed. so there is still a huge amount of work that needs to be done. the good news, a little bit, is that today as a youth development community we have a deeper understanding and knowledge of what is actually working to solve those issues and help our young people. the high school internships that we provide at urban alliance act as a vehicle for early connection through employment, they allow youth to earn

money -- very, very important -- they foster healthy youth/adult connections and then in which those adults can help them to access much-needed support of services, and it also, the internship includes four years of alumni or post-program support. and research shows us that when all of those elements are in play -- i'm going to repeat them again -- early connection, financial incentive, positive connections to adults, supportive services and follow-up support, that our young people succeed. and so while we know more and more about what is working and many of us are doing that good work, the need is still great. and so i just want to end by saying that we need all of you in this room but many, many more, bold leaders and risk takers to help us meet this need and prevent that 6.7 million number from increasing.

i also just want to end by saying that as you listen to today's program, i hope that you will walk away from here, jacques said today is about a conversation, but it's also about action. so i hope you will walk away from here thinking about one thing that you can do, big or small, to continue contributing to this movement and bring others along so that all of our young people no matter who they are or where they're from can become full members of the labor force, so that they can build the lives that they want and the lives that they deserve to have. thank you. [applause] i'm just so excited to be up here. think i'll stay for a while. you haven't gotten rid of me yet. i have been charged with also running you through today's

agenda, so if you want to follow along with me, you can. but after -- next you will hear from david williams who is the ceo of deloitte financial advisory services, and he will speak from the employer perspective about this issue. and then we will have the introduction of our keynote speaker, and that -- you're in for a treat. we have two actual urban alicense alumni -- alliance alumni, nathaniel cole who is the executive director of our washington, d.c. program as well as jonathan hill. they will be coming up here to introduce the vice president. then we will hear from the vice president. then after that we will hear from mr. tom donohue, the head of the u.s. chamber of commerce, and he will talk about business as a critical partner. and then we will have our esteemed panel moderated by sarah warb tel, and she will

moderate our panel, the role of corporate engagement, which includes melody barnes and andrew prepler from bank of america, kathleen matthews and thomas nides. and then you'll have to see me again, and i will come up right at 11, we'll try to get you out of here on time, and do our closing and call to action. thank you all so very much. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. >> morning. >> my name's david williams, i'm pleased and honored to be here with you today. i have the pleasure and the privilege of being the ceo of deloitte financial advisory services. let me start by saying every time i hear that story that eshauna just told, i am very moved by it.

i've heard a couple of versions of it, and i'm just going to throw out one version that i've heard that i like. i assume it's true. i'm not quite sure whether it's fact or fiction, but i assume it's true. so you heard about this wonderfully honest and direct young man who walked up and asked for a job. as i heard the story, the question he was asked, what do you need to succeed. and his answer, so honest and direct, was i need a real job. can you imagine a high school student being that honest, being that direct to say that to somebody from the business world? i'm here to say that those types of folks are exactly the folks that we in the business community and, certainly, we at deloitte are looking for. so this cause is a labor of love for us, but it's also a labor of business because we get great benefit from the types of folks who are willing and bold enough to say what that young man and

others like him wanted to say from the very beginning. today we will talk about how we can close that opportunity gap for those young folks of color who face the sort of situations that they're in today. it's a situation that we must now act quickly and honestly and forthrightly to resolve, but with this notion of collective impact and that is each of us doing something to take us toward the answer. i'd like to thank vice president biden who will be here shortly, the urban alliance and the u.s. chamber for bringing us together to talk about this, and as both of our previous speakers have pointed out, to take action. you will hear a lot of statistics on this particular issue. youth unemployment, we had jobs numbers come out today. the situation is as bleak as it has been in the past with the youth unemployment numbers being a multiple of the unemployment numbers. under any circumstances that's an unacceptable outcome.

but i'd like you to think beyond the numbers. i'd like you to think about the people behind those numbers, the individual people behind those numbers and what we as a business community can do give them an unobstructed view of what is possible. i can say firsthand that an unobstructed view is the difference between me being where i am today and me being someplace else. i had mentors, i had opportunities that, hopefully, lots of other kids can have going forward that are largely responsible for the person that you see in front of you. i and deloitte see value in supporting initiatives like the president's my brother's keeper which i'm actively involved in and organizations like the urban alliance, teach for america, city year and college summit. these organizations have one primary thing in common, and that is that your zip code, where you live, shouldn't

determine what your future is. and i think that's a wonderful outcome and a wonderful way to think about what we're trying to get done. at the same time, though, we understand that poverty -- what the zip code typically generates, unfortunately -- is devastating. children who live in poverty, and this is a statistic that moves me every time i hear about it, hear 30 million fewer words than their affluent peers by the time that they're 3 years old. that creates a barrier that those kids really can never overcome. they just simply can't catch up. and we've seen work from the federal government that suggests that is a significant contributor to some of the situations that we see, poverty and the lack of skills going forward to be successful. so the question that all of this begs is what will become of america's next generation of workers? organizations like you are wan alliance are proving -- like

urban alliance are proving the point, and that is they're developing america's next generation of workers through interventions that we know work. we just heard about a 100 president graduation rate and a -- 100% graduation rate and a 90% two and four-year college acceptance rate. that's an amazing thattistic. to drive sustainable change, organizations like ours and others -- nonprofits, the government, philanthropy, religious organizations -- all need to work together to scale programs like the urban alliance to make them repeatable in the communities where we live and work and to welcome these young folks into our organizations after organizations like the urban alliance creates them for us. as a company that's worked with the urban alliance over the past three years, i can tell you that we get much more out of what we get from the urban alicense from these great -- alliance from the great, great young people than we give. and we give a lot. i'd like to say in closing that

stars shine bright in a clear sky. we can help our most vulnerable young people clear away the obstacles so they can truly see how brightly they can shine and how upwardly mobile they can be. thank you for this opportunity, thank you for this panel today, thank you for the vice president and the chamber's participation, and i look forward to participating more as we go on. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please stay in your seats. our program will continue in a few short moments. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this forum on youth

employment about to continue, they're waiting to hear from vice president joe biden, the chamber of commerce and the urban alliance holding this. the job numbers from september coming out today from the labor department. the unemployment rate dropping to a aics-year low -- to a six-year low of 5.9 percent. vice president biden speaking shortly. president obama, mean while, traveling outside of washington heading to indiana. he'll be touring a steel plant there, millennium steel in indiana, and holding a town hall meeting with employees and others. that will be later today. we'll have live coverage of that about three p.m. eastern over on our companion network, c span.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> waiting for remarks from vice president joe biden this morning at this forum on youth employment ask work force development -- and work force development. this is hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce foundation and the urban alliance. while we wait for the vice president, politico is reporting today the unemployment rate fell

below 6% for the first time in more than six years. it dipped down to 5.9% in september with the economy adding about 248,000 new jobs. that's from the labor department. the last time the unemployment rate was below 6% was in july of 2008 when it was 5.8%. number of new jobs easily surpassed expectations. analysts had predicted 215,000 jobs created last month, that's according to a bloomberg survey. the jobs report comes as the white house is making a final push ahead of midterm elections to highlight the economic recovery. during the obama administration, we expect that the president will remark on this when he makes remarks at the princeton steel company in illinois this afternoon. we'll have live coverage of his remarks beginning at about 3:05 eastern today on c-span. also house speaker john boehner has released a statement today on the unemployment report. he says, quote: only republicans

are offering real solutions to help people get back to work. lower costs at home and restore opportunity for all. we have dozens of good job bills stuck in the democratic-run senate that would help hard working families. ♪ ♪ >> again, we're waiting for vice president joe biden to make remarks at this forum on youth employment and work force development. as we wait for the vice president, earlier today we spoke with a reporter with the latest on the u.s. response to the ebola outbreak.

>> host: ms. phillip, what are you hoping to cover in dallas today? >> guest: well, good morning. one of the things we're particularly interested in is how this community is dealing with the arrival of ebola here to the united states. of course, ebola is actually a terrifying disease and parents are worried. there are at least five children who are known to have had some contact with this virus who attend schools in the dallas area, so there is a general sense that the community doesn't quite know how to respond. they're being told to stay calm, but as you can imagine, that's probably a very difficult proposition for many of them, and it also poses a lot of questions about how other cities might deal with the sort of inevitable fear and panic that might arise if ebola should appear in other parts of the united states. >> host: abby phillip, who's taking the lead? is it dallas county? is it the state of texas?

is it the feds? >> guest: well, it's both the state of texas and dallas county there what they've told us, but the cdc has a very clear and very obvious advisory role here. this is, you know, their test case. and if things don't go well here, that could be incredibly damaging to them. so the cdc is watching over this entire operation, but we have state, and we have county health workers who are doing the grunt work of literally going door to door, calling number after number and talking to any and everyone who might have had contact with this man, thomas duncan. >> host: so you're day-to-day. -- your day today, are you going to the hospital where mr. duncan is staying? are you going to go to the apartment? what are you going to do? >> guest: well, i think the apartment complex is particularly interesting because what we know is this man was staying in a complex where a lot

of immigrant families are. there are, you know, dozens of languages being spoken, and these are the people who were the closest to the -- [inaudible] some of those people, the people closest to duncan, are being quarantined in their apartments in this complex, but i think the broader community is also dealing with the side effects of the situation. so i'll be going there trying to talk to them to see what they're experiencing. and, you know, there were reports that when he was very sick, he vomited in the parking lot of this complex, and that's a very dangerous situation. that's one of the ways that ebola spreads. so it would be, it's interesting to know what they have been told about their own safety and about the precautions that are being taken to make sure that the entire complex is essentially safe. >> host: did you consult with anyone? are you taking any precautions prior to going to dallas? >> guest: well, you know, i

think i'm certainly going to be taking personal precautions. there's no real, you know, there's only one person right now who has ebola, so there's no real risk that unless someone else becomes system symptomatic i might contract it, but, of course, you need to be careful and probably should avoid touching people unnecessarily, hand sanitizer will kill this virus. i mean, i'm taking all the precautions, but i'm not particularly concerned. >> host: and we can look for abby phillip's story tomorrow in "the washington post." thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> well, vice president joe biden is the next scheduled speak or at this chamber of commerce conference on youth employment and work force development this morning. this today is as the labor department reports the unemployment rate dipped to 5.9% last month from 6.1%, better than predicted.

we could hear more on this from the vice president when he arrives here this morning. should be just a couple more minutes. ♪ ♪ >> while we're still in a little bit of a holding pattern as we wait for vice president joe biden this morning, former pennsylvania senator rick santorum spoke at last week's values voter summit. here's a look at that.

♪ ♪ [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. very kind. thank you very much. thank you, brian. thank you for the great work that you do at the national organization for marriage. and can thank all of you for being here. this is my ninth speech here at value voters summit. it's because there's only been nine value voters summits. [laughter] i told tony backstage that i expect a pin next year like an attendance pin for ten years. [laughter] but i come here because, as brian said, you know, we together have been out there fighting the battles on these fronts. we've been, we've been

successful in many respects, much more than, certainly, anyone expected on some issues, particularly on the life issue which you're really starting to see some dramatic and dynamic changes of america coming to the realization of the dignity of all life. i can tell you for me, personally, obviously that's a very important issue for me, one that was not just one that i've been out there speaking about for a long time and taking podiums, but have been living. i want to give you regards from karen and our seven children, and particularly i want to give you regards there our little girl, bella, who through the grace of god, through your prayers is now six and a half years old, and we are -- [applause] you know, i've taken these podiums, thousands of them, literally, thousands of them to talk about life. but through bella god has given karen and i a gift of not just

talking about life, but living a, an example of the blessings and, frankly, the crosses that come with the acceptance of the dignity of all human life. it is a wonderful opportunity that i have to witness to that and, in fact, karen and i have just finished a book that will be coming out in february that will be a very raw witness as to the life of a family, a somewhat high profile family with a special needs little girl. and the name of the book which i hope you will have the opportunity to see is "bella's gift." and so i'm very excited about that, in sharing the reality of accepting life in all of its forms and respecting it for what it is. [cheers and applause]

>> good morning. my name is nathaniel cole. i started my journey with urban alliance ten years ago as a high school intern at the world bank. today i am honored to serve as the executive director for our d.c. program. i stand on the shoulders of board members, partners, urban alliance staff and alum who have paved the way for what urban alliance is today, and i thank each and every one of you. my journey from intern to executive director has allowed me the unique experience and opportunity to see the benefits of early employment firsthand. it also has allowed me to witness the transformative impact of urban alliance internships. as a teenager, i would imagine what it would be like to enter into a professional environment; a suit, a tie, going to a conference, going into a

conference room, sitting at the large table and making hard decisions. and this was as an intern. but urban alliance quickly taught me that i had to master filing, faxing, photocopying and attention to detail first, okay? [laughter] talking about an an adjustment. but urban alliance really transformed my professional aspirations into real experiences. and every step of the way they coached me. i am blessed to be able to do that for d.c. youth today. in a moment one of the most amazing young men i've had the opportunity to work with will introduce vice president biden. jonathan hill is a 2012 alum of urban alliance and a sophomore at morehouse college. jonathan represents urban alliance young people. he has a relentless drive and exceptional talent, and jonathan came to urban alliance looking for a platform to be able to

succeed. with guidance from urban alliance and support from his mentors, jonathan -- like urban alliance alum and inters -- are able to showcase their talents and are able to thrive as young professionals. urban aa license youth -- alliance youth, similar to my 17-year-old self, were hungry and are hung myily -- hungry for opportunities to showcase their abilities. they are willing to overcome obstacles in order to create and establish a better life for themselves, but they can't do it alone. with all of the potential that our young people have, they need opportunity coupled with support, and that comes from companies like yours and organizations and programs like urban alliance. when the two come together, the result is something amazing. it is a generation of young people with limitless potential and a commitment to community. jonathan represents such a

generation. we are honored to have offered him experiences and encouragement to support his profession altera jekyllly. -- professional trajectory. it is my pleasure to introduce a young man that we should all take note of, mr. jonathan hill. [applause] >> good morning, good morning. i had a stool up here, i'm kind of small. [laughter] i hope everyone can see me and hear me. [laughter] it gives me great pleasure to be here today. i'd first like to thank mr. nate cole for all your support, all the hard work that urban alliance has done for me. and it's going to be an amazing opportunity to introduce the vice president today. three weeks ago the united states secretary of education arne duncan traveled to atlanta. he and the first lady spoke to our students, and they empowered us.

but the day before i toured the atlanta civil rights museum where i heard one of the most profound speeches by reverend dr. martin luther king jr. in this speech he defined himself. he defined how he wanted others to define him. and at the end of the day, he just wanted everyone to know that he lived a life of servitude. just hearing him and seeing the video, it reminded me, it illuminated in my mind what i want in myself. i want others to think of me as jonathan hill, the man living the life of servitude and the guy who did his homework, the guy who put in the hard work not just for himself, but others as well. and that's what urban alliance has done for me. so i stress to all current and future employers of urban alliance interns to be prepared to make the crucial impact on a young person's life. we're not only asking you all to be just our supervisors, but our mentors as well.

yes, the paycheck is a pivotal piece of the process -- [laughter] and, yes, we also need support from a great organization. but there's something in between. there's a moment that we need you all to connect with us. service relationships are not enough anymore. urban alliance interns do not refer to you all as supervisors. we really need that bond, that relationship between one another. by doing so, you create that passion, you push us forward, you empower us to not only pursue a higher education, but just to become a better person. so let me just enumerate to you all what that looks like. i've become a better worker because of urban alliance and my mentors. i feel supported in my study, and i've gained more from the holistic experience in those eight hours that i've served at work than i would anywhere else. as i leave you here today as an urban alliance alum, it is only right for me to leave you with

four notes. continue to have these critical conversations bringing the youth into the work force. pursue healthy relationships with your interns; not just the supervisor, but like i said, as mentors. we need you all. be the change agent we need and empower us to pursue a higher education. and lastly, create an experience that will enhance our passion in the field of study. so, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the united states vice president, joe biden. [applause] >> hello, everyone, how are you? good morning. [applause] please sit down, thank you. thank you very much. ms. ms. . >> well, backstage jonathan was

telling me he's a morehouse man -- [laughter] and i told him that i've been to morehouse, and when i was in high school and college, i worked on the ohs side of wilmington. an awful lot of my friends. and i got so tired of hearing the debates between what's better, morehouse or morgan state, from spencer henry and my buddies that, i tell ya, i've gotta tell ya, jon that be, i think delaware -- jonathan, i think delaware state university's the best. [laughter] but i tell you what, man, jonathan, keep me in mind because i don't know what i'm going to do in two years, but i may be looking for a job. [laughter] so remember me. just remember me. [laughter] [applause] >> when they tell you joe biden's at the door, don't say joe who, okay? that's the only thing i ask you. [laughter] tom, it's good to see you, pal. and, jack -- jacques, thank you for greeting me and the chamber

for hosting this. the urban alliance leaders, nathaniel and eshauna and the whole -- and my good friend tom needs. i told tom i saw him back there, i said, come home, tom, we need you at the state department. [laughter] by the way there's something, tom, i noticed; everybody who leaves the administration looks a heck of a lot better, you know what i mean? [laughter] they dress better, everything seems to be working, they don't have any stress in their face. i don't know what the story is. [laughter] and i want to thank andrew and mary and amy for the, for the great job that you've done in urban aa license which i've -- alliance which i've only recently become acamed with in terms of this chapter. you're focusing on one of the most critical junctures for young people at age 16-24, 18-24. if you're out of work and out of

school, it doesn't bode well statistically for you when you're going to be 35 and 45. so this new jobs report out this morning, hopefully, is going to provide a lot more opportunities, some good news. through the grit and determination of the american people and the ingenuity and imagination of american business, more than ten million private sector jobs have now been created, 55 straight months. continues the longest streak in american history, 248,000 jobs this month. also i'm told the last two months have been estimated up from what they were. unemployment rate below 6%, 5.9%. it was 10% -- that's a good thing. you can clap for that. [applause] and by the way, i want to make clear we're not taking credit for all this. i meant what i said about the ingenuity of the marketplace. i meant what i said about the

way in which the american people have shown such incredible grit and determination. but combine that with the fact that we've reduced the federal deficit as share of the gdp by 50%, the fastest rate since the end of world war ii, and the economy's recoverying, and so there's reason to -- recovering, and so there's reason to celebrate. but below the surface here, there's a lot of discontent here. a lot of discop tent. middle class is isn't moving like it should. the middle class has taken it hard not just the last eight, ten years, but it's been somewhat in decline since the mid '90s -- the mid '80s. and we've got to do something about it. we need to do everything we can to get folks back on the pathway to the middle class. you know, if you look at the edger middle class -- the average middle class wage since

2002 today, it's gone up 14 cents. 14 cents. so there's a reason there's discontent out there. with all this good news and all the, where the stock market is and total wealth of nation over $87 trillion, etc., you know, people are still hurting. you say, well, joe, what does that have to do with what we're all here today? well, i think it has a whole hell of a lot to do with it. it has to do with setting down pathways to get to the middle class so people are in a position to have a shot. in order to lead the world economically, in my view, in the 21st century we have to do two things. two things we're not doing enough of, and there is bipartisan consensus to, by the vast majority of democrats and republicans to do it, we just can't get out of this sort of rut we're in in terms of the dysfunction in this town. one is we need to invest significantly more in infrastructure. i know the chamber's been pushing that and leading that effort. but, you know, businesses go

where productivity rests, and productivity's related to infrastructure. as society's engineers points out, we need over $3 trillion in infrastructure immovements just by the year -- improvements just by the year 2020. so there's a lot to do and a tremendous opportunity if we grab hold of it. but the second thing we have to do is we have to have the most skilled work force in the world. tom, you and i have talked about this. matter of fact, you talked about it before most people did. you know, america is, you know, i don't know how many discussions have probably taken place in this room. i had one a while ago, tom, with y'all, you were kind enough to invite me, where we talked about, basically, is china going to lead the world in the 21st century economically? and i remember ten years ago, are we going to be able to compete with the eurozone.

raise your hand if anybody thinks we're going to have trouble competing with either in the next 10-12 years. folks, we won. it's very important that the eurozone succeed. it's very important that china succeeds. it's in our interests they do that. but, folks, in terms of who's best positioned in the 21st century to lead the world economically, it's not close. north america is and will continue to be the remainder of the first half of this century the epicenter of energy in the world. not epicenter of energy in the hemisphere, in the world. in the world. we find ourselves in a position we still have the most imaginative venture capitalists in the world, we have the greatest research universities in the world, we have the most productive workers in the world. american workers by every reputable study show they're three times as productive as, for example, workers in china. and we find ourselves in a

position where if we put these last two pieces together, people are going to continue to be coming home. you know, we don't hear -- when's the last time you heard the word "outsourcing"? we went through a whole generation where all we talked about was outsourcing. and we had great political fights about whether or not we should interfere. you know, legitimate philosophic disagreements. now we're going to be fighting about insourcing. what do we do about it? because folks are coming home. a.t. carney report, largest -- i think it's 500 industrialists they do worldwide, america is the best place to invest in the world by a margin larger than any time since they have kept statistics in every category. from manufacturing, every single category.