captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2008 i think that when i look at the gap between the man and the supply, the difference is the technology that elena is talking about. we have positions going -- because the higher unemployment rate we're dealing with, as i mentioned a high percentage are less -- high school degree or less it's because they don't have the knowledge. we've the got to redirect our people and our nation's workers into the areas that are high growth. >> so you in many ways are the bright spot on the panel because you're in the industry that's actually succeeding. how do you think about the growth opportunities, what your products provide in the way of students for especially hispanic communities and the skill sets that go in to participating in the industry? >> right. so let me just make one broader point and then respond to more specifically to your question.

all the points that my fellow panelists are making are absolutely right on, and if you look more broadly throughout the hemisphere, you realize that the reduction in regulation, reduction in taxes and reduction of red tape and so forth, they are so important when you look for example at economies like mexico's, where there is actually a lot of entrepreneurial spirit, but the red tape and the lack of access to capital, the lack of the concept of venture capital is really holding down that economy. argentina is another really great example of a lot of entrepreneurship but again no access to capital, and so what we have here in this country is all of that foundational, you know, that whole foundational element that, to your earlier point we just need to continue building upon. in terms of the direct thing that we can do right now, to encourage job creation and encourage more entrepreneurs, two things to point out.

one, there's a university of maryland study came out about a year ago that indicates that job creation in the united states is not just small business job creation but it is job creation by new small businesses, start-ups, so anything that we can do to continue encouraging start-ups, continuing reducing the barriers to people creating their own businesses, in whatever trade they're in, that is tremendously important. the second thing is the point about information technology and the internet. statistics show even a standard brick and mortar company, a trade, a plumber, anybody who is using the internet is increasing the revenue 2x, they're increasing employment 2x, for those involved in import/export they're increasing that part of their business by more than two, two times, so these, again, everybody i think is talking about the same thing. there is, we need to encourage the entrepreneurs. we need tone courage the use of

technology, and those things behind from google's perspective we think that would achieve tremendous results. >> wonderful. well in the spirit of using technology, i have been given technology, and we have a question in from twitter that says "what ideas do the panelists have to increase public/private investment in labor training." >> could i answer that? >> yes. >> we are incredibly compassionate nation, so when we talked about the skills gap, there are actually many attempts by the government and the private sector to address increasing the skills level of our workforce. so you as public taxpayers, you are already funding a $7 billion, i know in washington it's not such a big number, it's a huge number, $7 billion, $7 billion to $9 billion, and i can explain to you why it's $7 billion to $9 billion but it's not worth it at this point, the

government engages in job training. there are over 1,300 what's called local one-stop centers dispersed throughout our communities to help people with unemployment, to get jobs, and to provide training, whatever. these are good people who man these one-stop career centers, there are many i know in puerto rico, but we must do more. we need to make the training that the government is giving relevant. the private sector does a lot of training already. the government does some training, so it's a good partnership, but i have challenge, when i was in office, the government-run training centers to provide more relevant training and to listen to the job creators, the employers within the community as to what types of training programs are best for that community. it doesn't make sense to have a training program to produce let's say 1,000 hairdressers for a community that only needs 13,

so there needs to be a partnership between the employers and the job trainers, so that those who are going through these job training programs are indeed being trained with relevant skills so that they can get real jobs when they graduate from these programs. >> are there any special tricks for the skilled trades issue? this comes up again and again. there was recently a panel of the large foreign-based manufacturers, you know, the mercedes-benz, the folks who are going to invest in seimans and their biggest concern about building a plant in the united states and the reason it was difficult to feel welcome here is we didn't have the skilled trades. how do we address that? >> actually, i would say it starts at k through 12, and that's a challenge that i'm facing right now at the state level, if i may say so, i'm a lawyer. i'm going to say what i'm going to say. we have too many lawyers.

really. we have people that are training in the wrong skills, whereas, and we need more scientists. we need more technical people. we need people, engineers. we have actually a lack of engineers, not just in puerto rico but across america, and that's what we need to do, but we must commence k through 12 and that's what we're trying to do right now. we call it schools for the 21st century and it's a whole program and it involves the use of technology to actually entice the students to stay in school and secondly to actually like math and science. >> terry, you wanted to -- >> i just wanted to add i think the public/private partnerships are key, contrary to what washington says, the private sector is who is creating the jobs. the government does not create jobs.

so that's number one. we need the input from the private sector. number two, i think there's an attitudinal bias against skilled trades, and it's an honorable profession. it's an important profession. so a lot of times family also direct their children to college and then they end up dropping out because they really want to be a welder or an electrician or a carpenter. we have to really encourage a very positive attitude about individuals. that's honorable work and we have to promote that. >> i think now we're going to open up questions to the audience. if you have one, someone will bring you a microphone here. please identify yourself and ask your question in the form of a question. >> good morning. elizabeth from the puerto rican chamber of commerce from florida. first of all, you are my hero. >> this is local. >> i am from the center of the

island where you very well know that we have a serious problem with unemployment, and our youth that live on the island, but we have an astronomical amount of land that has not been used and i would like to see that land used with a partnership with florida, that has the citrus, and the citrus many times in florida is completely lost, and we can make a partnership to make sure that that part of economic empowerment can be a sister, brother and sister kind of marriage that we can have. the other thing is, we have to have the route opened between ponce and tampa. it is a major empowerment that we need. we will be putting thousands of new jobs. the economy in central florida is going to be magnificent and puerto rico is going to be incredible. >> question? >> will you promise to help us to do that? >> by all means. actually i strongly believe in agra business.

we've seen a trend recently of a lot more from the younger generation getting into agra business, and this makes a lot of sense, and certainly she's talking about a port facility in the southern part of puerto rico, and it makes all the sense in the world, and we should be fully connected with florida, not just through one but through ponce as well. [ applause ] >> over here, question? >> hi, good morning. >> we're going to get you a microphone. thank you. >> good morning, my name is nadia. i just wanted address something miss dominguez said. there is an attitude about skilled labor and you can't blame a parent for wanting their child to gofor aspiring for greater things. there are plenty of kids not cut out for school even in the high school level. why not build up technical skills at that level so they can

graduate from a trade school with a license so they can work in their area of interest right from the get-go instead of having high school drop-outs, then try to apply for jobs that they may not even be trained to do. that's number one, but my real question was, for mr. chavez. would you, please, address our government's recent attempt to censor the internet, considering how important the internet is in job creation. thank you. >> so certainly, i think that's a reference maybe to the stop online piracy act? somewhat controversial topic. look, i agree with all four of the republican presidential candidates that, that that particular bill, though well-intended, had a little bit of an overreach and here's the problem. the internet is american in so many ways. it was developed here. we are leading in the internet

space. our businesses are the model for the world. the chinese, the iranians, others look at exactly what we're doing, and they take cues from us. the moment that we start censoring the internet here, all of those people will start doing it, even worse than they're doing it today, and i'll say to you have a very personal experience with regard to the situation with china, that is not the environment that you want to operate in. it is not morally correct. it is not ethically correct. it is not good for business and we should not be encouraging that. we agree that piracy is a big, big problem and we are very, very committed to finding the right solution in this particular bill because of the censorship elements of it was not the right way to go. >> thank you. >> elena, do you want to -- >> i was going to be, i was going to go back to another point, and were you going to wrap up or -- >> no, i was going to ask you to go back to another point.

>> you know, this is a group that's really non-partisan, but talk about job creation, i think it was really, really disappointing to hear from the white house that the president decided to veto the keystone pipeline issue. [ applause ] you know, because -- and i used to work with labor organizations, major swathes of the labor movement wanted that project, because it would have created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and not only jobs, but skill trades jobs as well. so it was really disappointing to see how politics came in and the president aligned himself, you know, with the environment. we're all environmentalists. we care about the environment but this is such a large product that could have done so much to promote our economy and jobs. it was very disappointing. >> thank you. i think we're going to take one question here and then probably have to wrap up. >> thank you.

actually, as a canadian originally to follow up, i think canada is pretty disappointed with the president via that as well. this is also i guess a comment/question for governor fortunia. i'm ryan roth, from a company called owe lar tech. i'm on the island of puerto rico. under two years under your administration the island has done a 180 as far as customer service. [ applause ] as far as permitting, when i first interacted with the paurt ricoh electric power energy they were allergic to paying a penny for any other energy source. we were talking about hundreds of mega watts coming online in solar, wind, waste energy, landfill gas. the legislation that was passed and approved had a huge impact on the mind-set, and i think that that's, i mean it's heartening to see developers

from not just other parts of the united states but other parts of the world coming to the island, and if only that were a microcosm for what would happen in the rest of the united states, where you see the opposite trends and there's outsourcing elsewhere, and i think that if those trends continue, great for puerto rico and other places that get it, but sad for the rest of the country. >> thank you. thank you. i appreciate your comments. when you live on an island, you cannot connect to the national grid. so you must actually you must act, and being 70% dependent on foreign oil makes no sense, period. we're just looking at what's happening in the strait of hormuz right now, and we're crossing our fingers. that's why we're moving aggressively, but in a fiscally responsible way to promote other sources of energy, that will create, you know, actually the climate, business climate you're mentioning. if i may, not just in energy wise but in other areas like

toll roads, airports, schools, there is plenty of capital out there that is waiting to be tapped, and it makes no sense for us governments to try to build everything, all the infrastructure that is needed to run, you know, your community, to run your state or your city. we have, i believe, the most aggressive and public/private program in the country. we just closed the largest deal in six years in the country with a toll road, and it's a 40-year concession, in about two or three months we should do the first airport in the country which is our main airport, and the same way we'll be doing later this year with correctional facilities and otherwise with. that applies to energy production, and that's what we're trying to do, do it in an a way that's creating thousands of jobs. so thank you. [ applause ]

>> vifb negotiating with the management and i have bought us some more time. i want to do two things with that, rapid-fire round if you could do one thing in terms of federal policy to improve the outlook for jobs in hispanic communities what would it be? >> i would lower taxes so small and medium sized businesses especially those owned by hispanics, can grow. >> reduce the excessive regulations. since this administration has come in, the level of what's called significant rule-makings have increased more than 40%. that's not all rule-makings, that's not all regulation. that's just the significant rule-makings over $100 billion and up. >> shameless self-promotion, go to americanactionforum.org and look the at the regulation button you'll see the catalogue of the cost of regulations in recent history. it is staggering. i encourage to you look.

pablo? >> we think that expanding trade, having a 21st century trade agenda that includes a free and open internet that is part of blocking non-trade barriers from happening and turning the western hemisphere of the internet would be great for the economy for latinos and many other members. >> i would encourage a balanced budget and trying to reduce the deficit. i think that will give employers a sense of confidence and comfort that we just don't have, because the deficit is skyrocketing so i would focus on that. >> wonderful. and we have time for more questions. right here. >> hi i'm dee sutton velez. i have children with disabilities that are of puerto rican heritage. one of my beefs was when i was

in school, i had disabilities as well and they told me i should do the english only immersion. we spend billions of dollars in cultural education at the expense of cutting speech pathology and special ed out of the budgets. we had millions of dollars for the state of oregon go to special education but none of the money went to the kids. if we want a good workforce, why would it be okay to fail my children, fourth generation puerto ricans that are legal citizens of this country at the expense of promoting culture for kids that are coming into the country illegally? therefore leaving them behind in esl as well. there are some kids sitting in the classrooms that are new immigrants getting no services at the expense of others getting services in all subjects where they're getting the same amount of time where that one child that needs the additional help isn't receiving it. as funding becomes an issue, i think we're leaving a lot of our hispanic community behind, whether they're illegal immigrants or that of the american citizens and i would

like to see some of these issues being addressed. it's important because without the early help i wouldn't be here today. i have a son attending grannell, first-time latino-american and hundreds of years in my family, none has ever gotten a college degree. i'm so proud of that. this is not just the first generation minority. we've had four generations of fail tour in this country and it's like my son is failing. he's the fourth generation of failure in this country, my younger son, with the disabilities. >> do you have a question? >> my son is graduating from -- i would like if you are really advocates for the latino community, how are we going to help our latinos when there's less funding than ever before in education? it's going into other areas and not going into these kids and the schools. >> so there is a genuine question of how we set priorities. we have an enormous deficit, $1.2 trillion. we have enormous debts over $15 trillion, and we have needs. how do you balance those? >> let me tell you, and she

brings a valid point. i'll tell you how i'm doing it, and again, all governors are executives and they have to make choices. it's not always easy to make choices. special ed and puerto rico we failed for 30 years our children. actually it was under both parties we should litigate against the parents and the children and not grant what should have been done. my, our team decided to do otherwise, and it's a choice, so you cut elsewhere, and you devote resources to do this, and we have been actually at the same time we're cutting our budget by 20%, reducing our payroll, i have added about 1,500 additional employees just in special ed. and actually there's very strict ways in which we are following up on

what we're doing. we are adding resources for the first time in 20 years, sport events are open to special ed. kids and so son and so fosort s it's ate matter of choice and where are your priorities. >> i want to emphasize everything i don't know if anyone caught. cutting the budget by 20%, if that was the federal government we're talking over $700 billion a year, it's an enormous accomplishment. [ applause ] i think there's been a bias toward the front because i'm blinded by the lights so let's go back there. >> this is our last question. >> i'm bob from goya foods and my question is for secretary chao. my grandfather came to this country from spain, left the depression at 17 years old to look for new horizons in this

country. he built the largest hispanic food company in this nation, and he did it without one single entitlement or occupying wall street. [ applause ] he came to new york and built a business in 1936. my question is, and i'm concerned about the health of our nation, and i see ourselves going in the similar way to what's happening in europe. how do we build jobs when we have a department of labor that works against businesses, makes it more difficult for us to create jobs and to be successful in this country? what is your suggestion to our candidates on how to improve our system, how to make it better? >> i'm very -- >> you get all the easy ones. >> i love your story. and i love your story because it is a quintessential american

story, and senator rubio talked about it, the governor talked about it, you know, the panelists talk about it. this is the land of opportunity, and somehow there are people who believe that we can't get a fair shake in life if we look different or we come from a different background, and there's nothing further from the truth. i have that story myself. i came as an 8-year-old immigrant. i didn't speak english. i learned. and we've been very, very blessed. i'm very concerned about what's happening not only at the labor department but the administration. when we were in office the department of labor represented 100% of the workforce, and we were trying to prepare the workforce to compete in a global economy. this labor department unfortunately seems to only represent the 12% of the workforce that unionized, only 70% of the workforce that's unionized in the private sector. the amount of regulations coming out of this administration, not

only in the labor department, is very anti-employer. they really believe that if you are making money, that if you are an employer, you're up to no good. you've done something bad. you've exploited your workers, you get up every morning and you exploit workers. and i think that's so wrong-headed. so i think we need to let people know about these actions. you got to go on the american action forum, go on the regulations. the regulations hit every single workplace in america, big and small. when you go down that list, you will be amazed at what regulations touch upon your life, and you will find that regulations in the energy department conflict with regulations from the labor department, which conflict with epa, and if you are just a good, honest person trying to raise your family, take care of your children, you cannot meet all these regulations because many times it's confusing, and they conflict with one another. [ applause ]

my last word is elections do have consequences. and i want to point out to a great american in the front row my former cabinet colleagues, secretary carlos gutierrez, now vice chair of citibank. >> stand up. [ applause ] with that, the door's open for final comments from the panelists and we'll have to bring this to a close. >> again i just want to echo what everyone has said. i think that like i said earlier, employers are on the sidelines waiting to see what's going to happen. we need to help them and get someone elected that will deal with the issues that we've talked about. >> pablo? >> i work in an exceptional sector that has, really represents an exceptional country, and we have such great opportunities to keep building on this, whether you work on the internet, whether you do technology or not, this is a

wonderful, wonderful country to really build a future, build an opportunity, and it's a great pleasure to be here, and part of this and joining you guys and delivering that message. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> i want to thank all of you for coming. this was an amazing event. i want to thank senator coleman, and doug as well, and they believe in this community and they spent a great deal of time planning for this to empower and to let your voices sing and soar during this particular time in our nation's history. you're going to hear from wonderful speakers, ed gillespie will talk about know your power. there is power in this community. there is power in this room. so i compliment you all, and i say let's do the right thing for our country. [ applause ] >> governor? >> well, doug, i want to thank the organizers of this

conference again for allowing me to share with such a distinguished group of panelists and with you all and i want to thank you for showing up here. most of us are hispanics here. this is a great country. you can achieve whatever you want if you work hard, and what the governor needs to do is get o the government needs to do is get out of our way to allow us to enjoy freedom and actually the fruits of our labor. i only wish that we will get back on track as a nation. i am convinced we will and i want to thank you all for allowing me to share with you this morning. >> please join me in thanking the panel. [ applause ]

>> now we are going to kick off the afternoon portion of our conference with the discussion, very important discussion on workforce and immigrants, dispelling the myths. on the stage where public policy issues are debated there's perhaps no other topic left that lends itself to more, excuse me, misinterpretation that ends in polarization than immigration. please welcome our panelists to the stage, we're going to start debunking the myths about immigrants and the workforce, this is a very important panel, and i think that it will be history in the making here. i'd like to call up all of our panelists, alexa costa, scene of dean of the college of law at florida international university. he's served our country as law clerk to justice samuel alito jr., judge on the u.s. court of appeals for the third circuit as the longest serving u.s. teern in south florida and senate confirmed member of the national labor relations board, dean

acosta has had the distinct honor as being the first hispanic to serve as the assistant attorney for civil rights president the department of justice under president george w. bush. thank you, dean acosta, for being here. [ applause ] next, carlos gutierrez, we're honored to have secretary gutierrez, our conference co-chair, alongside governor jeb bush with us today. [ applause ] he is the 35th secretary of the united states department of commerce, currently secretary gutierrez is vice chairman of institutional client group at citigroup. before his government service, he was working with tony the tiger as chairman and ceo of the kellogg company. thank you for being here. adam putnam. adam serves as florida's commissioner of agriculture. in this capacity he leads a state agency with the mission to promote florida's agricultural