numbers of people that we think are in libya and even in the age of the internet, cell phones, computer databases and the rest of it, getting in the those numbers, as i believe we now have and will go on publishing, it is difficult. we're looking with the government and it is clearly the central part of that. >> with my old friend agree with me that much we have heard from the opposite party over the last trick of the height of the libyan crisis is nothing short than naked, political opportunism and as deputy leader of the labor party should apologize for comments about "a rapid deployment force?" >> you erred in assiduously keanu parliamentarian, but asking the prime minister about something about even with the prime minister does not even a responsibility, we will leave it there. >> our efforts being

coordinated by this parliament and others to prevent the turmoil that can be an immigration problem for italy and southern europe? cracks at my friend makes a very good pointnd there are urgent conversations under way the moment, the pressures on the borders between libya, tunisia, and libya and egypt. a lot of it is margaret workers from geneva indeed returning to their countries. as a said in my statement, the secretary of ste for international development will be visiting the region soon and we're sending technical experts to advisor but what is necessary. it is a real job for the european union to work together and make sure that this es not turn into a refugee crisis. >> i would like to think the prime minister and colleagues whoade >> the people of libya have made

themselves clear. it is time for gaddafi to go, now, without further delay. >> world leaders continue to speak out about the future of muammar gaddafi e-lead libya. listen to their comments on line and the c-span at video library. what what you want when you want. in a few moments, president obama tells the national governors association that he would support their efforts to present alternatives to his health-care plan. in a half-hour, a discussion on how states can be competitive in the global marketplace. after that, a hearing on the mission of future of presidential libraries. then we will return to the national security -- national governors association to hear bill gates' speech on education. one open " washington journal,"

we will talk about federal spending with march up fudge of ohio and senator mark kirk, a republican from illinois. we will focus on libya of with an ambassador to the united states. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke told sobers his semi- annual -- delivers his semi- annual report to the senate this morning. he was last on capitol hill in february before on race -- unrest had let to the increase in the price of oil. >> experience american history on c-span3. 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. here per person account from people who have shaped modern america on oral histories, and

the best known history writers of the past decade, and travel to important battlefields to learn about key figures and events that shaped an error during a 150th anniversary of the civil war. every weekend, visit college classrooms across the nation as we build into america's past during lectures in history. go behind the scenes that you him exhibits on "american artifacts." and personal insights from administration officials and experts. american history tv on c-span 3, all weekend, every weekend. sign up to have been e-mailed to you using our c-span alerts. >> president obama says that he supports allowing states to allow alternative plans to the health-care law. mr. obama also talked about economic stimulus and public

employee unions. this is a half-hour. >> thank you very much. i m joe biden, joe biden's husband. that's how i'm getting to be known around here. we decided to bring in the second team now to talk to you all. welcome back to the white house. this is your first visit as governor, welcome and congratulations on your elections. the older governors will tell you that they have been tired of hearing from me. i was on the phone with you all so often during a recovery yet. i know none of you liked the recovery act much. [laughter] but i wanted to start off by

taking the government -- thanking the governors who have been here for the last two years for the way in which you implemented it. i wanted to give you a little fact. there were over 75,000 individual projects that went on in your states and a total of 250,000 awards, meaning a check had to be cut to 250,000 different entities. and a group of inspector general's and outside examiners pointed out that that is less than 0.01% of fraud in the entire operation. and that is because of you. and it is because of the mayors. the new governors, although there is no recovery at, there will be a continued relationship between the federal and state and local government, and we plan on trying to use that as a template as to how to move forward to save taxpayer money. the recovery is underway, although i am sure a lot of you, having to cut your budgets, do not feel it. it is a very difficult time for

you all. and i want you to know that i think we probably can all agree on the major initiatives we may have a different prioritization, but we all ought to do something about the long-term debt. we know that we have to do something about preparing ourselves to compete in the future in terms of education, innovation and infrastructure. but i want to remind you that -- you know but sometim our titu, when you look at some of the polling, they think we have already lost the future to china or india. if they think we are already behind the eight ball. we are still better positioned than any country in the world, any country in the world, to own the 21st century economically. our gdp is bigger than that of china, japan, and germany combined. in the united states, the median income is close to $50,000. in china, it is $4,500. we wish them better.

but to put this in perspective, it is an important know where we are come up the platform from which we now operate, and why if we do the right things we have an overwhelming prospect of not only recovery here in the united states, but leading the world in the 21st century. the man i'm about to introduce to you shares your view. americans have never settled for number two. literally. this is not hyperbole. it is not one of these chauvinistic things. we want other nations to do well and we will do better if they do well. but we are not prepared, nor are you, to settle for being number two in anything. that is why we have laid out of -- the president has laid out in his state of the union speech the need for us to innovate. we have the most innovative economy in the world. if we have the freest of free- enterprise systems. we want to one least the free enterprise system.

we also know that we cannot rank tied with five nations for number nine in the world in the percentage of people we graduate from our universities. it is not acceptable. that is why in 2020, we will be once again leading the world as we did in the past. that is a goal we will meet. as my wife you just heard from, a community college teacher, would say, any out -- in the nation that out-educate us is going to out-compete us. it is as simple and basic that. we cannot have a 20th century infrastructure for the 21st century, which in some areas is teetering on needing major repairs. and by infrastructure, we not only mean ports, roads, airports -- we also mean modern infrastructure from broadband to the new changes that will have to take place for what reason? to make american business more

competitive, to make american employees more hire-able -- there is no such word, but able to be hired. but the neighborhood i come from, people understand what i say. [laughter] i am sure that you disagree in the details, but i'm sure you share this man's view that there is no acceptable rationale for america being anything other than number one in the world. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states of america. >> thank you, joe, thank you to

the members of my cabinet and my administration who are here. thank you, governor gregoire and governor heineman, for your outstanding leadership. and i also want to a acknowledge ray scheppach. there he is, who has been nga's executive director for 28 years, and this is his final meeting. ray, thank you for your extraordinary service. [applause] so i hope everybody had fun last night. i know that you had a wonderful time listening to michelle and jill. jones main function is to provide a buffer between me and them so that i do not have to follow them immediately. they are really good and care about what is happening with military families. i hope today, all of you, feel free to make yourselves at home.

for those of you with a particular interest in the next election, i do not mean that literally. [laughter] we meet at the moment when all of us, democrats and republicans, leaders at the national and state levels, face some very big challenges. our country has come through a long and wrenching recession, and as we recover, the question we are going to have to answer is -- where will the new jobs come from? what will the new sources of economic growth be? how can we make sure that the american dream remains a reality into the 21st century? in the short term, we came together here in washington at the end of last year and enacted

tax cuts that are already making americans paychecks bigger and are allowing businesses to write off major investments. these are tax cuts and changes in the tax credit system that are going to spur job creation and economic growth and i am proud that democrats and republicans worked week -- worked with each other to get it done. in the long term, however, we need to address a set of economic challenges that the housing bubble largely papered over for almost a decade. we now live in a world that is more connected and more competitive than ever before. when each of you tries to bring new jobs and industries to your state, you're not just competing with each other, but with china, india, brazil, and countries all around the world. and that means that we as a nation need to make sure that we are the best place on earth to do business.

we need a skilled and educated work force, a commitment to cutting edge research and technology, and a fast and reliable transportation communications network. that is how we're going to bring new jobs to america and that is how we are going to win the future. making these necessary investments would be hard at any time. but is that much harder at a time when resources are scarce. -- is that much harder at time when resources are scarce. we cannot afford to kick the can down the road any longer. the budget debate that we are having is going to be critical here in washington. so far, most of it has been focused on entirely on how much of annual domestic spending -- what in the parlance we call domestic discretionary spending -- that we should cut. there is no doubt that cuts in

discretionary spending has to be a part of the answer for deficit reduction. that is why as a start, i have proposed a five-year spending freeze that will reduce our deficits by $400 billion. the budget that i sent to congress cuts or eliminates more than 200 federal programs. and it reforms dozens of others, from health care to homeland security to education, so that rather than throwing money at programs with no accountability or measured results, we are committing to funding only those things that work. all told, the budget cuts i have proposed will bring annual domestic spending to its lowest share of the economy since dwight eisenhower. the me repeat that. under my budget, if it were to be adopted, domestic discretionary spending would be lower as a percentage of gdp than it was under the nine previous administrations, including under ronald reagan's.

but we know that this kind of spending, domestic discretionary spending, which has been the focus of complaints about out- of-control federal spending, makes only about 12% of the entire budget. if we truly want to get our deficit under control, then we will have to cut excessive spending wherever it exists. in defense spending, bob gates his has been a good a steward of taxpayer dollars when it comes to the pentagon, as just about anybody out there. but we're going to have to do more. in health care spending, on programs like medicare and medicaid, and in spending through tax breaks and loopholes. that will be a tough conversation to have, but it is one we need to have, and it is one i expect to have with congressional leaders in the weeks to come. those of you in this room are on the phone lines of this budget debate. as the recovery act funds that

saw many states -- that saw ministates through over the last two years are phasing out, and it is undeniable that the recovery act helped every single state represented in this room manage your budgets, whether you admit it or not -- you face some very tough choices at this point on everything from schools to prisons to pensions. i know you are making decisions regarding your public workforces, and i know how difficult that can be. i recently froze the salaries of federal employees for two years. it was not something i wanted to do, but i did it because of the very tough fiscal situation we are in. so i believe that everybody should be prepared to give up something in order to solve our budget challenges, and i think most public servants agree with that. democrats and republicans agree with that. in fact, many public employees in your respective states have

already agreed to cuts. let me also say this -- it does not do anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon. we need to attract the best and brightest to public service. these times demand it. we are not going to attract the best teachers for our kids, for example, if they only make a fraction of what other professionals make. we're not going to convince the bravest americans to put their lives on the line as police officers or firefighters if we do not properly reward that bravery. so, and yes, we need a conversation about pensions and medicare and medicaid and other promises that we have made as a nation. and those will be tough conversations, but necessary conversations. as we make these decisions about our budget going forward, though, i believe that everyone should be at the table and that the concept of shared sacrifice should prevail. if all the pain is borne by only

one group raised -- only one group, whether workers, seniors, or the port, while the wealthiest among us get to keep or get more tax breaks, we're not doing the right thing. i think that is something that democrats and republicans should be able to agree on. now as we begin to get our budgets under control, if the other thing we cannot do is sacrifice our future. even as we cut back on those things that do not add to growth or opportunity for our people, we have to keep investing in those things that are absolutely necessary to america's success -- education, innovation, infrastructure. on education, our approach has been to partner with you, offering more flexibility in exchange for better standards, to lift the cap on charter schools, the spur reform not by imposing it from washington but by asking you to come up with some of the best ways for your

states to succeed. that was the idea behind race to the top -- you show us the best plans for reform, we will show you the money. we are also working with you and with congress to fix no child left behind with a focus on reform, responsibility, and most importantly results. and we are trying to give the states and schools more flexibility to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad teachers, because we know that the single most important factor in a child success other than their parents is the man or woman at the front of the classroom. and i had a chance to speak -- to see this recently. i went over to parkville middle school in maryland, where engineering is now the most popular subject, mainly thanks to some outstanding teachers who have inspired students to focus on their math and their science skills. we know teachers can make a difference and we want to help you have the very best teachers in the classroom. we also have to invest in

innovation -- american research and technology, the work of our scientists and engineers, and in sparking the creativity and imagination of our people. a lot of this is done in private practice. but as much as the private sector is the principal driver of innovation, it is often hesitant to invest in the unknown, especially when it comes to basic research. historically that has been a federal responsibility. it is how we ended up with things like the computer chip and gps. it is how we ended up with the internet. it is also how a lot of your states are already attracting jobs and industries of the future. i went to wisconsin a few weeks ago in visited a small-town company called orion putting hundreds of people to work manufacturing energy-efficient lights in a once-darkened plant.

they benefited from federal research. in ohio and pennsylvania, thanks in part to federal grants, i saw universities and businesses joining together to make america a world leader in biotechnology and in clean energy. and you have any doubt about the importance of this federal investment in research and development, i was just talking to the cutting edge businesses in your own state. if we want the next big breakthrough, the next big industry to be an american breakthrough, an american industry, then we cannot sacrifice these investments in research and technology. the third way that we need to invest is in our infrastructure, everything from new roads and bridges to high-speed rail and high-speed internet, projects that create hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs. and in some of your states, infrastructure projects have garnered controversy.

sometimes they have gotten caught up in partisan politics. this has not traditionally been a partisan issue. lincoln laid the rails during the course of a civil war. eisenhower built the interstate highway system. both parties have always believed that america should have the best of everything. we do not have a third rate airports and third rate bridges and third rate highways. that is not who we are. we should not start going down that path. new companies are going to seek out the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods, and information -- whether they are in chicago or in shanghai. and i want them to be here in the united states. to those who say that we cannot afford to make investments in infrastructure, i say we cannot afford not to make investments in infrastructure. we have always had the best infrastructure. the notion that somehow we would

that leadership in that history makes no sense. system as the folks that i met up in marquette, michigan -- i was talking to rick snyder about this, and the upper peninsula. this is a town of 20,000 people, far away from the hustle and bustle of places like detroit or grand rapids. but because of the you wireless infrastructure that they have set up, they have now got -- the local department store, third generation family-own department store, has been able to hook up with the university and have access to wireless, and now they are selling 67% of their goods online. they're one of the 5000 fastest growing companies in america -- up in the upper peninsula, because the infrastructure was in place to allow them to succeed. you have schools and -- kids in

schoolhouses in even more remote areas who are able to plug in to lectures and science bears anywhere in america because of the infrastructure that was set up. that is a smart investment for every state to make and the federal government wants to be your partner in making those investments. visa the kinds of investments that pay huge economic dividends in terms of jobs and growth. they are the fundamentals that allow some states to weather economic storms better than others. they are the fundamentals that will make some states better positioned to win the future than others. these investments are not as critical for your states success. they are critical for america success. i want to be a partner in helping you make that happen. with press me to the final topic a will help determine our ability to win the future, and that is getting control of our health care costs. i am aware that i have not convinced everyone here to be a member of the affordable care

act fan club. [laughter] surely we can agree that for decades, our governments, our families, and our businesses watched as health care costs ate up more and more of their bottom line. there is no disputing that. that did not just happen last year. it did not happen two years ago. it has been going on for years now. we also know the biggest driver of the federal debt is medicare costs. nothing else comes close. we could put -- we could implement every cut that the house of representatives right now has proposed and it would make the -- it would not make a dent in our long-term budget, would not make a dent in our long-term deficits -- because of healthcare costs. it is one of the biggest drains in your state budgets -- medicaid. for years, politicians of both parties promised one thing --

real reform. everybody talked about it. will we have decided to finally do something about it. create a structure that would preserve our system of private health insurance, protect our consumers from the worst abuses of insurance companies, create competition and lower costs by putting in place new exchanges run by the states, where americans could pool together to increase their purchasing power and select from various plans to choose what is best from them -- the same way that members of congress to, the same way that those who are lucky enough to work for big employers do. and the fact is that the affordable care at this done more to rein in rising costs, make sure everyone can buy insurance, and attacked the federal deficit that we have seen in years. in the test is not my opinion -- that is the opinion of the congressional budget office, a nonpartisan, the same one that

puts out numbers that when it is handy to go after me, people trot out and say, boy, look at these numbers. so they say we are saving $1 trillion because of this act on our health care costs. otherwise, we would be $1 trillion more in the red. that is something we should build on, not break down. that does not mean that the job of health care is incomplete. we need to implement it in a smart and non bureaucratic way. another many of you have asked for flexibility for your states under this law. in fact, i agree with mitt romney, who recently said he is proud of what he accomplished on health care in massachusetts and supports giving states the power to determine their own health care solutions. he is right. alabama is not.

have exactly the same needs as massachusetts or california or north dakota. we believe in that flexibility. so right now under the law, under the affordable care act, massachusetts and utah already operate exchanges of their own that are very different. they operate them in their own way, and we made sure that the law allowed that. the same applies for other requests, like choosing benefit rules that make the needs of your citizens, or for allowing for consumer-driven plans and health savings accounts. and this recognition that states the flexibility to tailor their approach to their unique needs is why part of the law says that, beginning in 2017, if you can come up with a better system for your state to provide coverage of the same quality and affordability as the affordable care act, you can take that

route instead. the portion of the law has not been remarked on much. it says by 2017, if you have a better way of doing it, help yourself. go ahead, take that route. some folks have said, that is not soon enough. a few weeks ago, oregon senator ron wyden, a democrat, and massachusetts senator scott brown, a republican, and louisiana senator mary landrieu , they proposed legislation that would accelerate that provision. it would allow the states to apply for such a waiver by 2014 instead of 2017. i think that is a reasonable proposal. i support it. it would give you flexibility more quickly, while still guaranteeing the american people reform. if your state can create a plan that covers as many people as affordably and comprehensively

as the affordable care act does, without increasing the deficit, you can implement that plan. and we will work with you to do it. i have said before, i do not believe that any single party has a monopoly on good ideas. i will go to bat for whatever works, no matter who or where it comes from. i also share your concerns about medicaid costs. this is been a topic of significant conversation over the last couple of days. we know that over half of all medicaid costs come from just 5% of enrollees, many of whom are what is called dual eligibles -- seniors in medicare as well as in medicaid. the affordable care act helps address this by changing the incentives for providers so that they start adopting best practices that will work to reduce quality -- reduce cost while improving quality. but we ended and the pressure that you are under and that we

have to do more. i mentioned this to christine last night, today i am asking you to name a bipartisan fervor of governors to work with secretary sebelius on ways to lower cost and improve the quality of care for these americans. keep you can come up with more ways to reduce medicaid costs while still providing quality care for those who need it, i will support those proposals as well. here is the bottom line. once fully implemented, i am convinced the affordable care act will do what it was designed to do -- cut costs, cover everybody, end the worst abuses in the insurance industry, and bring down our long-term deficits. i am not open to refighting the battles of the last two years or undoing the progress we have made. but i am loyal -- willing to work with anyone, anybody in this room, democrat or republican, governors or members of congress, to make this law

even their -- even better, to make care even better, to make it more affordable and fix what needs fixing. part of the genius of our founders was the establishment of a federal system in which each of our states serves as a laboratory for our democracy. through this process, some of the best state ideas become of the -- became some of america's best ideas. so whether it is race to the top, or improving the affordable care act, or reforming the way that we approach social 6 programs by ensuring that spending is tied to success, our approach is been to give you the flexibility that you need to find your own innovative ways forward. in fact, this week i m issuing a presidential memorandum that instructs all government agencies to follow this flexible approach wherever law law loss.

-- wherever the law allows. but even as we pervert -- preserve the freedom and diversity that is at the heart of federalism, let us remember that we are one nation. we're one people. our economy is national. our picture intertwined. we're not competing with other -- with each other today, we're competing with other countries hungry to win new jobs, hungry to win new industries. i'm confident we will win this competition as long as we fight it together. whatever differences, i know that you share that goal. you have a partner in the white house to make this happen. and i hope that this becomes part of a productive and serious conversation going forward. >> more from the national governors' association. this focuses on how states can be competitive in the global marketplace. it is an hour and a half.

>> good morning, everyone. >> as the chair, i would like to welcome each and every one of you to the 2011 nga winter meeting. i want to start by apologizing for my laryngitis and to assure you that you can shake my hand. this is just an overzealous reaction to the boeing tanker award. this is an attack for allergies. i took your advice last night to shut up. they have a motion for the adoption of the rules of procedure for the meeting. it has been moved and seconded. any discussion? all in favor? those opposed? part of the rules require that any governor who wants to submit in a policy resolution for adoption at the meeting

will need a 75% vote to amend the rules to do so. please submit anything in writing by friday. i would like, if i could, to take a moment to recognize our new colleague. this is a historic moment for the national governors association to have 29 new colleagues. congratulations to each and every one of the and welcome to the national governors association. [applause] all of us who are incumbent governors would say to you that it is one of the best jobs in america. we would also say to you that based on the circumstances of our times that it is truly one of the most challenging jobs in america. we have a wonderful group of governors, spouses, former governors, state officials, federal officials, foreign

government, dignitaries, corporate partners, members of the media and many others here today. i want to thank all of you for coming. anyone around this table knows that we did not get here without the tremendous support of a spouse, a friend, a family member. gov. heineman, our two spouses are leading them as they go to this meeting over the next three days. he would like to introduce to you are two responses to tell you that today they will make all of us proud as they lead the spouse's delegation to walter reed. there they will participate in supporting our military families. they will read to children there and they will greet their families. they dedicated their time to the veterans of my home state in the washer tanned of veterans

across america. my husband, mike, and gov. heineman's wife, sally. if you would stand? thank you. [applause] we're joined here today by a delegation from the hunan province. we also have a delegation from canada who has joined us today. a point of personal privilege, if i might. to all of us who have known ray, he served as national director for the nga for 28 years. he has seen us through amazing times. this is his last meeting. please take the time, if you would, to thank ray for all that he has done on behalf of all of us over the 28-year span.

join olla said the reception following to honor ray and all that he has done for our nation and the governor. [applause] [applause] for those of you who do not know where he is headed, he is moving to higher education to inspire a generation to join us in the public service and to lead the nation of tomorrow. let me begin today by saying that we certainly live in interesting times. the times are downright challenging for all of us. from conflicts abroad to fiscal challenges on the home front to families needing to save and build for their futures, these

times are testing all of us. as americans, we always face up to our challenges and our job as governors is to leave those solutions to find a path for root for a competitive america. we're now just beginning to regain our footing from the severest economic downturn that most of us will ever experience in our lifetime. we have not yet fully recovered and we may have many tough fiscal challenges ahead. as we gather here this morning, all of us have one thing on our mind and that is how do we regain quickly our competitive edge. we're going to address that question over the next three days and leave you a lot of good ideas to take your home state to grow your economies and

balance your budget. that is what the governors do at these meetings. we share ideas and experiences. we figure of solutions to the problems that we face. that is with the national governors' association is all about. our greatest opportunity in the most fervid challenge is building a strong, competitive state economy in each of our home states. all the demands that we face, health care, pensions, infrastructure will all be much harder to meet if we do not have thriving economies with more people employed in high- quality jobs in growing industries. we also know that having a more educated population is an essential ingredient for a competitive economy. the days when jobs paid middle- class wages and required only high school diplomas are behind us. the job market of tomorrow will belong to those who have some credentials beyond high school. a certificate or a degree. the jobs will move to where those skilled workers are and if we're not careful that means overseas.

that is why we are opening the 2011 winter meeting with the discussion about competitiveness with one of the leading experts in america on this subject. it is also why i am focusing on productivity in my chairs initiative, complete to compete. in front of you are materials that to the little bit about this initiative. i would like to draw your attention to a couple of points. complete to compete is about promoting better measures of performance for our higher education institutions. it is no longer and have to know how many students are enrolling in our colleges. we need to know how many students are actually completing their certificates and agrees. how long is it taking them? are they taking up a spot that to go to entering freshmen? how many students end up in remedial class is making a for the k-12 system are preparing their students. it also highlights what is

working in our state. when it comes to graduating year students, there will be new and innovative ideas for how we fund and maintain high quality higher education in america. we will be hearing more about this initiative and opportunity to participate over the course of the meeting. i encourage your to contact the nga staff if you need more resources to deal with these higher education issues that are facing us today in these difficult economic times. we are truly fortunate today to be joined by dr. michael porter who has spent his career examining factors that allow nations, states, and businesses to compete in the modern, global economies. pressure porter's 1990

publication, the competitive advantage of nations, printed a new theory that is well accepted today about nations and regions competition and what powers their economic prosperity. his theory of industrial clusters has given rise to new ways of thinking about how governments create environment for high quality job growth and strong business expansion. his way of thinking recognizes that human talent is a critical element for such growth and that a state higher education system can be a powerful engine if it is properly aligned with the region's economic goals. prof. porter is recognized as the father of the modern field of competitive strategy and has been identified in a variety of rankings and surveys as the world's most influential thinker on management to competitiveness. he's the bishop william lawrence professor at the base at harvard business school. this position is the highest professional recognition that can be awarded to a harvard

faculty member. in 2001, harvard business school and university joined nacreous the institute for strategy and competitiveness dedicated to furthering progress reporter's work. i commend his reza made to you. you will find it both interesting. one thing i found more interesting is that he is the senior policy adviser to the boston red sox. my home team could use a little strategy session with dr. porter. this is why you guys are doing so good. prof. porter has been kind enough to bring to each of us some very specific analysis regarding our state's economy and competitive strengths. if you pay for this backup, it would cost you thousands of dollars. you will find that analysis and materials in front of you. i think i speak for all of us in saying, tell us how we can use this information to grow our economies and their citizens back to work which is

the fundamental challenge that each of us as governors face. dr. porter, think for joining us and we look forward to our discussion with you. [applause] >> thank you, governor. that is very kind. we are very hopeful for the red sox this year. hopefully we will have a good year. i am so honored to have this opportunity to speak to all of the. it is really quite a remarkable moments in our country's history and also in the history of many of our states. you had your hands full. all of you. the country has their hands full in terms of our competitiveness. this is a time when i think our position is challenge of a level that i have never experienced before as states, we are of focusing on a

fundamental challenge of trying to get fiscal houses in order. ultimately, that will not solve our problem. as governor grigory just said, the only way to create prosperity is to actually build competitive economies. that is a long term agenda. at a time when there's so much pressure on now coming the here and now, dealing with the fiscal problem, what i like to talk to run to dave may seem a little difficult to think about at this moment, but ultimately, i think it will be single greatest agenda that will determine ultimately the success of your states. that is building an economic strategy in which you can get the consensus of of the key stakeholders in your state to create competitiveness. that is the fundamental agenda.

if we can do that, they will have the resources to deal with the other problems and issues in our society. that is the ultimate agenda. that is the core agenda. how do we build competitive state economies? we have very limited time this morning and we will only be able to give started on that discussion. in order to try and make this discussion continue from each of you and from a year has a presentation that we prepared about your state. it has a lot of very rich data to try and benchmark where you are, talk about the nature of your economy as it is today, how it is progressing and the stars to provide some of the facts that i think you will all media and many of you probably

already know which of the necessary to create that economic strategy. i would like to put the presentation the side for the purposes of this discussion. i'm not going to follow those presentations. i will talk to you now about strategy for the next 20 minutes or so. this presentation is background information for you. as we go out of this meeting, we would offer to work with any of you. we would work to continue this discussion. hopefully, we can have a dialogue. we want to create successful economies in your states. this ultimately, i believe is the fundamental challenge that you face. as i said one minute ago, already has some very short- term challenges in terms of achieving fiscal stability in your states. gov. gregoire talked about that.

when you are doing short-term things like cutting, it is important to do long-term things at the same time. you have to offer not just a challenging short-term agenda to the citizens of your stay, but you have to offer some kind of a positive longer-term agenda. if you can do these two things together, we have found over and over again the you'll be a lot more successful. if all of you talk about is the negative stuff, you will get much less of traction and willingness of citizens to move ahead than if you could also offer a positive agenda. that is why even though it time like this, you talk about economic strategy, and you get by, it is incredibly important. we see that states differ tremendously and the economic performance. this is one of the many charts that talk about how the states

are doing in terms of the fundamental agenda of prosperity. we see tremendous differences. we see states with very high levels of prosperity that are not growing. we see states that are moving up, states moving in every possible direction. you have to get a handle on where your state stands and that will dictator particular strategy that you will pursue. the question is, how do we think about that economic strategy? what will it take for your state to actually build some momentum and build a competitive economy that will allow you to create jobs over time? that is the agenda that we would like to talk about today. in order to do that, we have to understand this idea of competitiveness. but i have found is that competitiveness is widely misunderstood. it is misunderstood in ways that create unnecessary

divisiveness and controversy in states about economic strategy. combativeness is it fundamentally the productivity with which you can use the state's people and capital and resources in order to produce valuable goods and services. if you are a productive state, you can produce a lot of value in a de's work. they could be able to support high wages. it is as simple as that. your prosperity is determined by your productivity. but if you're never productive, you have a really hard time competing against other locations. if you are setting policy is that improve productivity, you're going to have ultimately improved wages and create jobs. if you are setting policies that make it harder to be productive in business, you will

be moving in the wrong direction. productivity determines wages. productivity sets jobs. productivity determines the standard of living. this is the fire loss of the modern global economy. the more we are open to the rest of the world and the more our businesses can invest, it is productivity that determines whether your particular state is going to succeed. your agenda must be limited on your question of how can we improve productivity. we also need innovation. if a company in your state is doing the same thing that it did 10 years ago, using the same production process, producing the same product come it will be hard to succeed. we have all these other nations out there with the low wages. this is why innovation and so on fortin. we have to keep moving the bar,

particularly in the united states where we want a high standard of living. we need to stimulate innovation and process these products. part of a stay competitive this agenda has to be how can we step up the level of innovation in our state? to do that, again, we have to create the right environment for business. that is your job. the job is not to compete but create the right environment. when we find is that if you can trade the right of barman for productivity and innovation that competitiveness is not a zero sum game. your state success does not mean that another state needs to fail. few are addressing fundamental productivity, we could now get more prosperous. that is something on which there is no doubt. if we think the wrong way about competitiveness, the making their cells in serious trouble. we will talk with iran about

how state should compete. when some level, you all the compete. the question is how should we do that from a strategic point of view. this benchmarks the performance of this state. i've got some of gov. christie because he also works with princeton university. i will take an opportunity to use him as an example. you can see that it is the seventh most prosperous state in america. look at the productivity metric here. it is also the seventh most productive state and that is not an accident. prosperity depends on productivity. is the fifth highest wages stayed.

that is the maximum. these are all connected. in order to be so productive, we see that new jersey has a very high ranking in innovation. they have been a great state in generating patents and new ideas. as you look at this chart, you can see that there are some yellow and red highlighting. new jersey, although they are in a good position today, they have slowed down their productivity improvements. they have slowed down the rate of innovation. the clusters are not growing any more. gov. christie's fundamental challenges non the level of productivity. his fundamental challenges to

had to get the engine of innovation and change improvements going again. that is the fundamental challenge. other states will be in very different circumstances. some of you have to create stronger foundations so you can move up in the first place. others of your starting to progress in you're going back to make some transitions in terms of industry. every state has a different strategic challenge. every state must have its own unique strategy. that state's strategy will require, will demand that you engage the private sector. if you do not engage in the private sector, all of the strategy in the world will fail. it is 85% or more of everything economic in your state. you have to give the private sector on board. is a challenge when things are little bit partisan. competitiveness and economic strategy, you cannot be partisan. you have to fundamentally and gives the private sector to be successful.

let's talk about strategy at the state level. at the state level, there are three big strategy issues that we see over and over again as we have a chance to work at the state level, not only in the united states but elsewhere in the world. one has to do the general business environment. everyone of you that has estate offering a business environment. the business environment has to support productivity. how do you improve it? where are the constraints in your business environment relevant to peers at your level? what will it take if you want to move up? that is agenda number one. number two are the clusters. what fields are you strong in?

where do you have the merging or existing strengths. it is not about having firms in a lot of different industries. it does not work like that. the way to build productivity is to have critical mass is of expertise, suppliers, and supporting industries in particular fields. every state economy is specialized in a certain set of fields in which it builds up some unique position. the question is where is your state specializing in how can you reinforce and improve that? that is the second agenda. the third agenda of is the one that has to do with multiple levels of geography. it is partially due to federal policies but your competitiveness is also affected by how well your neighboring states do, what we found is

that you want a strong neighbors. strong neighbors making more prosperous. that is an actual fact. your state is not homogeneous unless your tiny. most of your states consist of multiple subregions, different metropolitan areas. in some cases, your actual economy crosses state borders. four of its successful strategy is to manage across geographic levels. you need to work across state borders and effectively with the federal government. they're better leave a piece on that shelf. what you're going to find is that you will not achieve the success were hoping for. the business environment can consist of four big pieces.

one is the input available. you have to improve the uncut. if you're going to be more productive, you need to have more input. yet the better people if you want to be more productive. the second piece is the set of rules that you put in place about how businesses than in your state with other rules and regulations that govern competition. you want rules for efficiency and productivity. with their peace has to do with the relevant to the -- the supporting industries in your state. finally, the demand conditions. whether the state is a sophisticated market for goods

and services because the regulations that encourage sophistication because the policies you said there really encourage new businesses to grow because you're really encouraged -- encourage it accumulates that demand. of the state level, there are many differences in instances, but there are a number of issues that are important in almost every state in terms of the business in burma. one is regulation and permitting. getting that to be efficient and fast is fundamental. most do have that issue and almost all of you do better. two, there is a lot of unnecessary costs of doing business that we have allowed to grow up in america and your states. unnecessary costs in the sense that we're spending more of the

value that we're getting. whether it is energy, health care, you have to find a way to reduce those unnecessary costs. when there are unnecessary costs to doing business, do you know what that does? it reduces the wages in your state. the depend on productivity. if companies are wasting money because they're spending too much time on permitting, that means they can pay less. do not think of this as some abstract thing, these costs. think of this as coming out of the pocketbooks of your citizens. states have an obligation to make the environment as efficient and supportive of productivity as possible. again, time is short. most of you need to get your training system better aligned with the needs of industry. we see that in state after state.

many of you need to improve your infrastructure. we spend a fair amount of money on infrastructure, we just do not spend it smartly. we do not spend it on the pieces of infrastructure that really have a big economic impact because we tend to spread it around because of the political process to put in place. if you could do a better job of prioritizing investment, it would make a big difference. infrastructure investments that speed up commerce, support productivity in the economy. anything you can do the ease the burden on small businesses will pay big dividends. we know small businesses really generate most of the jobs. any cost falls disproportionately among small businesses because they're small. anything they have to do hurts them more. finally of course, there's the issue of education. education is fundamental and there will be more discussion of that in the session, so i will not cover that. without the talent pool and the skill base, we simply cannot be productive.

this is the biggest single issue facing america. we do not have a strong enough talent pool to allow us to justify our high wages. that is a challenge of the state level as well. the business in burma is part of the story and improving that overall, for all companies but also we find that true competitive success requires you go further and really understand the composition of your economy, what kind of business is the state in? by the business is developing these clusters? we look a state economy, there are two types of industries. one of is what recall local industries. these are industries that every state will have a retail come utilities, health care. these are industries that serve

almost totally the local market. there are based on serving the population that lives in your state. there are the majority of all jobs, local jobs. there are also what we call the traded clusters. these are industries that have to compete across state and across countries. it is this traded a part of your economy that really drive you to prosperity. they have much our wages. they have much higher productivity. they have much higher rates of innovation. we have given you the data on your state in terms of the mix of your state economy in terms of the treated and local clusters. what is a cluster? it is a critical mass in a particular field. this is the crown jewel in massachusetts, as governor matthews knows. is the life sciences cluster.

it is not only manufacturing companies but also service, support, supporting institutions like universities that all come together with expertise and technology in a particular field. here is another cluster in the oil and gas in houston. this got its start selling oil. because houston has built this enormously successful cluster, now they did not sell much oil. when it sells technology, services, skill, and supports a very high wages. this is what happens when you truly can build a cluster. this is how productivity gets built. this is how innovation occurs making it a critical mass a series of fields in your states and reinforce that process. you let the state government support those clusters. that is how successful economies.

we have growing evidence of helen fortin these clusters are. -- how important these clusters are. here is what we know. if you can build a strong cluster, it will create faster job growth. we know that if you can build a strong cluster that it will provide higher wages. we know that if you can build a strong foster that you will have more parenting and other types of innovation. we know that if you can build a strong cluster, that is where the new businesses form. they do not form randomly in any field in your state. they tend to bird is proportionally out of the clusters that you have. if you can get the fly wheel turning, and it spits out of touch of the things. not only do more businesses form, but they grow better, survive better over time. these are something very fundamental to the success of your state. this slide is complicated and

it is in your packet. there is a tendency to think that some clusters are better than others. some clusters, like financial services, have higher wages than other clusters than, for example, tourism. what we have found is that it is the wrong way to think about it. what we find is the dominant influence on prosperity is not what clusters you are in. the dominant influence on prosperity is how you compete in each of the clusters that you are in. 75% of all the differences across the states in terms of wages are not determined by the mix of cultures that you have in your state but by how good you are in the cluster you are in. the last thing for economic development here is very clear. build on your strength. do not chase hot field or try to get into biotech because that

is whatever losses as cool. you have to build on your existing strength. you have to build on your emerging strength. that is the way to build your state economy. do not dream about some field where you have no capability or assets. it will not work. for strategy is to build on your strength. for each of you in your presentation, i have given you the portfolio of clusters in your state. this is south carolina. the red clusters are losing jobs. the green clusters are gaining jobs. the ones in the upper right are gaining market share. the ones on the left are losing market share in america. everyone of you has your own portfolio. everyone of you has your own

circumstances. getting a handle on this, what is going on, and how you can help is going to be fundamental to your strategy. this will really this proportionally drive your prosperity. what we find is that clusters in an economy are interconnected. some of them are related. this chart is a little schematic in the sense that it is try to capture multiple dimensions. see the areas that are overlapping? these are the roughly 40 coster's that exists in any modern economy. when these overlap, that means they are synergistic. with that says is that if you are in education, it helps to compete in the medical devices. if you can put those two together in your state, that

will create an even greater strength. the way states diversify is not random. it will not scatter shot over the chart. it will follow the connections. if you are in medical devices, you have a better chance in analytical instruments. this is how economies develop. here is m massachusetts. you can now see why it is so prosperous. it has an array of clusters. they are synergistic. the challenge is how to keep the vitality going. ok. having the dreaded computer

issue here. thank you. there we go. it's done. ok. now, this picture is a great story about how economies evolve. this is san diego. it is a some region of california, but it is its own defined economy. california needs a strategy for not only california, but each of these defined regions. you can see that the california economy built from one cluster to the next. there are a random. the position in one area give

the region some assets that allowed them to get into the next area. this is how each of you needs to think about this state. where do you have assets to we can build upon and had we facilitate diversification process? let's talk for a second about multiple geographic levels. you all are affected by federal policy and federal programs. one of the jobs the you have to accomplish is that you have to do a good job of getting your fair share of the support. you all work on bottle law. all of you are affected by your neighbors. the department of commerce, when it defines what an economy is, usually the concept is an economic area. there are regions in which the data shows that congress takes place.

i have shown a picture of the northeast of the united states. what you can see is that massachusetts is part of three different economic areas. it is connected to the albany economic area, boston economic area, then down with the connecticut area. when you are thinking about economic strategy for your state, you cannot think of this has the right unit. they're usually not the right economic unit. your state is often connected to multiple economic units. setting the policies to understand and it established that will be very important. the other thing is that you have both rural and urban areas. they're systematically less

prosperous. the average rural wage is $32,000 and urban is $45,000. had to get those connected is a fundamental challenge. we have a big problem in massachusetts year. we have a very high wage state in massachusetts. we have a below average wage state ever else. one of the biggest challenges is to move the prosperity is to not to make the boston region better, of course you would love to do that, but the real problem is how to get the rest of the state that does not really participating engaged. any state economic strategy coming you cannot just look at the capital city. you have to understand how the state's success is built up into these multiple geographic areas. there are a few comments we can talk about later. what i am been talking about, i hope the impression about was to build strategy for your state and the competitiveness that you would have to deal with a fair number of things. there is no silver bullet.

you have to deal with a lot of issues. many things matter. the roads matter, schools, regulations. lots of things matter. when you have a problem like that, you need a strategy. it is the list of 55 action steps. most of them are 55 action steps. that is not a strategy. a strategy is where you develop an overarching view of where your state can be unique. how your state can create a unique platform for a particular set of businesses. as you understand the strategy, it starts to give you a sense of priority. one of those things and i really need to do, because these are critical to how my state will be different, is because strategy's about being different.

also, that type of thinking should tell you which weaknesses that you really have to deal with. every state needs a strategy rego every state needs a strategy that can allow themselves to find their own distinctive role in the american economy and the world economy. i am confident that everyone of you can develop a strategy. all of you have access. it is a question of doing the thinking to think about it that way. how should you be competing with each other? barbara question, is it not? we are all sitting around this table in trying to build competitive economies. yet, we're competing. at the level of individual businesses deciding where to locate. one of the problems is that we

have not been competing the right way. we have been falling into the trap which is sought -- which are cozier some competition. one state wins, the other loses. we have been using the wrong tools to compete. this talks about how we need to change the nature of competition in america. we have to focus even more on getting our existing companies to invest more in our states. we will have much more success if we doing your job of existing with our companies rather than going out looking for new ones. it is the existing companies that are really going to drive success. we have to stop competing for every plant.

our state has this position, these strikes, and let's focus on reinforcing their strength. we have to be more strategic about the way that we compete. if we could lead to specialize and get better at what we're good at then we will see everyone living a much more rapidly. offering general tax breaks does not work. all it does is take money from the state and give it to businesses in a way that is not very productive. if we're going to spend subsidies, we need to do not assets that will stay in our state. we can support training, infrastructure, help build the institutions. those kinds of state investments are going to lead to

a long-term return on investment. just competing for tax breaks will make this neutralize each other. we have to think about how we support and how we've had businesses come in and not just doing it. many states come i find, offer subsidies to offset the high cost of doing business in their state. what you're going to do is fundamentally lower the cost of doing business. do not hunt. tackle the real problems rather than try use subsidies to offset our neutralize them. that principle is ineffective over and over again. many states are in free-for-all. every city, region, subregion, county, is out there struggling. the states generally successful are the state's that can get some appropriate efficiency and collaboration. understand that is not a zero sum game.

the issue. looking for those investments that it is circumstantial and everyone should not be going after everything. if we're going to attract investments, we have to engage the private sector. of the best efforts i have never seen around the world are those where the government in the private sector do it together. where you can get business leaders in a particular field to help and work with you to the record the next in the next one, it will be much more effective. i promise you. we also understand that the process of economic development has fundamentally changed. it used to be government driven. today, it is a collaborative process and involves engaging companies, universities, trade groups, and all types of other institutions in the process. the you have that five of

collaborative process going on in your state. i do find a way of engaging these and other actors around a fact-based agenda? as this time when you are having to take all these really tough actions that is important in achieving the ultimate success. let me make a few final remark said that if we have time, we will take the questions. what we have to understand is that the goal of the economic shredded you for your state is to enhance competitiveness i hear too many governors say their goal is to create jobs. you cannot do that. the only way to do that is to enhance competitiveness. we have to get the cart before

the horse. is about building competitive this and then that will create jobs. two, as we go about doing that, productivity and innovation must become the guiding principles. everything we do, every policy that we said, every executive order, you need to be thinking, is this moving the ball on productivity? will this make us a more productive state taxes is moving the ball on innovation? will this allow for more innovation? if the answer is yes, usually the thing to do. number three, sometimes the five governors get it into their head that to do competitive finishes that they need lots and lots of new money. the answer is you do not. this is really about using existing resources better. there is often plenty of money being spent on economic

development. do not think that this is capital intensive stuff. bayh they give we could just make our infrastructure investments more effective that we could get a huge impact even if we did not have more money, even if we had less money. they give competitiveness as setting the rules, policies, collaboration, strategic agenda. it is not about taking out your checkbook in deriding a big check. as i said, to do this welcome you have to mobilize the private sector. you have to get them on your team. they can do a lot of this themselves. if you could just get them energized and if you to give them a feeling like you are all in it together. i'm confident many of you are doing so, but i cannot emphasize enough from the world. finally, i want to say that

coming out of the bruising political campaign, in which many of you have been engaged recently, on what to say that improving competitiveness and economic strategy is not partisan. it is about building the prosperity of everyone. the benefits of economic strategy are going to be even greatest for the middle and lower middle income brackets that it will be for those who are at the top. we have to turn this issue into one of getting results, not ideology. there is no ideology here. in the competitiveness, there is the iron law of productivity. it is just a fact. we have to be able to convince all of our colleagues the matter would discussion we have all these other issues to think of it that way.

that comes from being clear about what we need about competitiveness and taking the collaborative approach to the process. hopefully -- will take a look and this will provide you with some specific advice about your state. this is meant to start the discussion and not concluded. we would be thrilled not to take some questions and have dialogue with you in your economic development directors over the coming years. i will say this to conclude. i hope things get better in washington. i hope our federal government is more successful in tackling some of the issues it has to tackle in terms of economic strategy. i'll tell you that what is really going to determine the success of america in restoring competitiveness is actually what all of you do.

the real greatness of america from an economic point of view is the decentralization. every state, and many cities, take responsibility to drive competitiveness themselves. i hope washington will help, but i have great hope that the skipper people can be those who will turn around the competitiveness of this country. thank you very much. [applause] >> we do have time for questions. can we begin? gov. herbert? >> thank you, dr. porter. i think the states are the laboratories of democracy and we can lead to this economic recovery. i am fascinated to hear the discussion about how this is not about ideology and how this works. there are certainly differences

among the economists in the country to stimulate their not to stimulate. how do we get past the ideology because there were certainly in -- >> may i have your attention please? may i have your attention please? we have an emergency report in the building. please leave the building in the nearest stairway. do not use the elevator. may i have your attention please? may i have your attention please? >> there has been a fire emergency reported in the building. please the the building in the nearest exit. >> do we need to do it? >> we need to go. [sirens]

>> a big hurry up and get back to your seats we will reconvene. -- if you could hurry up. please take your seats so we can resume with dr. porter.

>> ladies and gentlemen, if you could please take your seats again, especially the governors, we will resume our conversation with dr. porter. this is at the request of our chair who is losing her voice, and maybe her patientce. >> should we continue, governor? >> this is much more like my harvard business school class than such an august meeting. let's move quietly, and we will continue the discussion in the time we have. governor herbert, your question about partisanship.

i think there are many macroeconomic issues like the stimulus or not that there is a lot of debate on. i think when you get down to the level of competitiveness, there is quite a wide consensus on many of these issues. the big partisan issue that i encounter over and over again is if people think that competitiveness means lower wages, that it's very partisan. but of course, competitiveness is not about lower wages. if you have lower wages, that means you are not competitive. competitiveness is about higher wages. if we can get everybody to understand it is about creating productivity so we can support higher wages, then a lot of the partisan concerns tend to get less vigorous. i think you can communicate to your citizens that my job is to

create conditions here so we can all get paid more, but we cannot get paid more unless we turn that, unless we can be more productive and have better skills and have a more efficient infrastructure. hopefully that can be a less partisan discussion that some of these broad issues of stimulus or not stimulus, should taxes be this high or that high. those issues get very partisan. a lot of the fundamentals can be agreed upon, certainly within the business community. i would not go into this thinking it has to be partisan. i know there are other governors here who have had these experiences. >> dr. porter, you were describing the importance of not having resources leave the state, and the competition that often exists between states going and offering significant financial incentives to get a corporation to build a plant or

open an office in their state. is it feasible to consider if the governors all agreed that no state would offer financial incentives for existing jobs, that would only try to fuel new jobs or new offices. no would tried i try to frame the discussion as what kind of competing across states, keeping the total the same? i call that zero sum her. what kind of competition is a healthy competition? that build strength. in this particular area, i would suggest a distinction between general tax breaks, you just get lower tax breaks and incentives that are tied to the company

making investments in training in the state, in infrastructure in the state. if we could get the competition and incentive game to be about investing in state assets rather than just giving tax breaks, i think that would be a very great step forward. maybe that is something many states could agree on, because ultimately plants that come to your state just because of lower taxes will be what economists call footlose. so you want to attract investment to your state, because you offer assets. because you have a cluster in that area, because you have trained people in that area. and that is the way we want to compete, because that makes us all better and more productive. i hope you can lead us in that

direction. >> in oregon and washington, almost half of the competition is in health centers. we have medical devices that are extremely expensive that benefit individuals but have no impact of population health. we're now spending a bit of our gdp on that industry. can you talk a little bit about the apparent contradiction? >> absolutely. health care delivery is a local industry, not a traded industry. that is part of their problem. if health care delivery in your state had to really compete with health care delivery centers around the world, they would

probably be a lot more affected. it is a local industry, and it is almost a local monopoly, that is people go to the hospital and they really do not choose where to go. and i have done an enormous amount of work on health care delivery and how to move away from the mess we're in, which has a lot to do, i think, with the finding of value as a goal, starting to measure health outcomes, starting to reduce the incredible -- incredible implementation of services we have in every state. every community hospital offers every service. and the governors that would be interested, i would be happy to send you easy to read, not to dense material about some of the critical steps to drive productivity in health-care delivery. i think we're starting to get consensus on some of the key

principles. i am very encouraged today. i think there has been the wake up call in our health care delivery system, and there is a lot more flexibility to actually change, but i think every governor needs to be making sure that your medicaid program is leading restructuring, not just pumping in more money. if we bump in more patients and more money and do not change the way we do it, we are in deep trouble. >> governor ran paul. >> it seems like years ago whenever we saw state-by-state comparisons of personal income, you would see relative cost of living statistics state-by- state. why is it that i feel like i never see those statistics anymore? >> well, you know, you should

not be comparing your wages to your cost of living to really understand your true prosperity. in if you earn the high income have to pay a lot for everything you need to buy, somehow the income produces less. when we compare countries, that is pretty easy to do. we adjust it for what the dollar will buy or yen will buy. in the state area we do not see those comparisons. when you are trying to improve the standard of living in your state, driving up the average wage is all smedley will matter. you also have to make sure you are controlling the cost of living the best you can. if you have a high cost of living, that will for you in competing for talent. this is an issue gov. patrick and i and many others have been talking about for a long time.

we have a tremendous amount of talent. that is likely getting better now for unfortunate reasons. i think the cost of living is another agenda i did not emphasize, but in the overall equation, it is a piece of the pie. thank you, governor. >> thank you. i thought it was a great presentation. you said a state is best off when they have neighbors. i was wondering if you could give a couple of specifics about how states can work together in a regional area when they of different policies and different industries and the like? >> one of the things that we found was if you are in the

pharmaceuticals and your neighboring region, which may be in the state next door is also strong in pharmaceuticals, it turns out that both of you are disproportionately stronger than if you'd just had one region in that area and not the neighbors. , and that is because the economic choices do not respect state boundaries. they are more focused on where the people are, where the gut -- where the geography is. you often see clusters and other economic activity spill across state borders. all of you have examples of that in your state. that says if you are in delaware, you cannot think of delaware as the economy. delaware is connected south and into the philadelphia region, and when you are thinking strategically about how to drive

to lower for work, you have to start thinking about how to make it easier and avoid any distortions or barriers or a silly policy differences that would somehow hurt the ability to tralee and freight across the region. -- to truly integrate across the region. certainly having a good transportation and logistical connections is key. trying to harmonize taxes and things like that so we do not have these artificial things that would distort the economically most productive thing to do. that would be the way i would think about it. >> one last question. please. >> thank you for the presentation. i think all of us around the table sure that same goal of wanting to create jobs, and that is what most of us ran on or are trying to do.

my question is, my frustration as a governor, and i bet we all share this is when i go talk to my job creators and say as governor what can i do to help you grow jobs, their answer is i have jobs, i just cannot find the work force that is trained to do those jobs. that cost money. what we're trying to do is look at early heard -- early childhood education. it children ready to learn across the spectrum since education is one of the places where governors can close the gap between the jobs of are out there and the lack of folks to do the jobs, how do we do that if we do not spend more resources?

>> you raise an excellent point. i certainly do not want any of us to oversimplify this challenge. i would make a couple of responses. absolutely the talent and skill issue is at some level fundamentalists. as we think about productivity in supporting high wages, the only way we will be successful at that is to raise the skill level. the americans with very high education are just striving the americans do not have a high school degree are struggling. it is all about skill. it is all about education. ultimately that is a long-term agenda. now the question is what do we do as governors to try to move the needle on that? i would say first of all that all of you are probably

spending money on training already today. every state has training programs. you can spend that money all lot better. you can get those programs much more tied to your clusters, private sector needs. if you think about how to reorganize, some states move faster than others. if you have more money to spend on training, so much the better. ultimately there is a lot you can do just by doing it more effectively. i would tell you that the private sector will spend more money on training also. the private sector is willing to step off on this, because they understand it is lacking skilled people. companies do not want to train in house. they would love to have well- trained people they can just hire. they will often contribute.

in the area of public education. the logistics' -- system sticks statistics i have seen show that we spent quite a bit on education. in massachusetts we had a commission a few years back and we had all of the school districts. there was an estimate of $1 billion we were wasting because we have the school districts and they were doing overhead functions and doing redundant and repetitive and so forth. i do not want to make this simple. if we have more resources we want to deploy them and spend them, but i find so much opportunity to deal with human resources issues much more objectively than we are now if we are willing to take on some of the system design and structural issues that we have in other areas like health care. we have a moment where maybe

some of these issues around fragmentation in school districts and duplication, maybe we can take some of these issues on right now. so what i would encourage you to do not be paralyzed by your budget. realize there is a lot you can do to spend the money you have available better, and drink -- think structurally. think about innovation in terms of tackling some of these things. very good question. i know there will be an extensive discussion of education issues later in the program, so i shied away from them given the limited time, but governor, your best part question. [applause]

>> thank you, dr. porter. not only has he done a wonderful presentation here today, but he has volunteered to give us his presentation, which we will get out to each of you, that there may be ways in which we can continue the collaborative work with him with our commerce department agency head and in other ways. i cannot tell you how valuablen

>> i think we can wave that since we're in your hearing room. >> thank you. thanyou. you're recognized to recognize the panelists. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> our first witness is the honorable david s. ferriero, the archivist of the united states. and probably the most important part of today's hearing really has a great deal to do with how the national archives and record administration can, in fact, oversee all but one of the people here in their organizations. our second witness is thomas putnam, director of the john f. kennedy presidential library and museum. and our third, mr. duke

blackwood, director of the ronald reagan library and a fairly constant host to me when i get up there. >> we'll start out by recognizing the -- i'm going to -- i'll catch those when we get -- when we get to them. but we'll go ahead and what we're going to do is we'll have the first three give their testimony. we tried to limit you to five minutes. if you have a lengthy statement, or anything you would like to have included in the record, that will be part of the -- made part of the proceedings today, but first we'll recognize mr. ferriero. >> by the way, if david has to have something put in the record, make sure it is not all of his archives. that could be over our limit. >> we'll make note of that. thank you. and you're recognized. welcome, sir. >> chairman mica, chairman issa

and chairman of the other committees, i appreciate the opportunitto testify to you today on the important role of the presidential libraries. both the nation and to their local communities. presidential libraries preserve, interpret and present the history of american democracy in the 20th and 21st centuries through the words and deeds of our government. these libraries are among the country's finest examples of public archives offering research rooms, interactive museumand education centers to millions of researchers, students and visitors each year. president franklin d. roosevelt's vision for his library created a process that has been followed by each succeeding president. he established a private foundation to raise funds for the construction of the library building that was then donated to the national archives. each library is supported by the federal government and in part by a presidential foundation. situationed around the country, presidential libraries reflect and enrich their local communities. they offer exceptional research facilities that are hailed for the personalervice they provide to students and

scholars. each museum tells a unique story concerning the life and times of a 20th century and soon a 21st century president in the pivotal moments in history they faced. libraries extensionive outreach to teachers and students is a powerful vehicle for civic engagement. as you know, 100% of all initial construction funding for the libraries including the initial museum exhibit, comes from nonfederalources. the majority of which are private donations through the presidential foundations or their predecessor organizations. the construction of presidential libraries rves as an engine of economic growth in regional areas, revitalizing communities and guaranteeingontinued revenue streams for millions of national and international tourists, local chambers of commerce, state tourism boards estimate each visitor to the library spen an additional $100 to $200 depending on the community during the visit at local restaurants and hotels, thus with nearly 2 million

visitors visiting our museums in 2010, thsupport to the community is significant. $15 million added to the economy in abilene, kansas. $43 million in boston. $55 million in austin, texas. equally important is the educational and cultural impact presidential libraries have on their commities. over 500,000 people attended cultural programming, conferences and various speaker series at the libraries in 2010. with the country's first finest historians, political leaders, journalists and biographiers came to locales where they would not typically speak. moreover, the libraries provided educational programs for 350,000 students and 5,000 teachers. at a hearing last year, which i testified, there was some concern about the use of resours for educational and ltural programs. as i said at that hearing, the problem of civic literacy is real, access public records is a part of the solution to that problem, and no one is

better positioned to provide access to public records than institutions like the national archives. and i would add that 13 presidential libraries and 12 regional archive programs are across the country. one of the greatest challenges at the national archives is the backlog we experience and processing many millions of pages of records so that those records can be accessible to the public. several of our libraries have over 90% of their collections processed. our most significant backlogs are in the presidential records act libraries, reagan through bush '43. in 2009, congress approved funds for 25 new archival positions for the four libraries with records controlled by the presidential records act. these newly hired archivists are remarkably talented group trained on processing presidential records and along with other streamlining measures are beginning to make a real difference in the volume of records processed. we expect this year to increase our processing by at least 1.3 million additional pages and

more in future years as these new archivists complete their training. presidential library foundations provide the funding from museum, education and public programs. websites, archives, support and digitalization, marketing and other initiatives these contributions have allowed the presidential libraries to leaders and innovators in the national archives and beyond. let me provide a few examples. presidential libraries were among the first public archives in first of the national archives to develop interactive websites and online document-based educational programmi programmin the presidential decision-making classroom pieered the truman library is now a futured part of the education programs in several libraries and served as a model for our education programs here in washington. the presidential timeline created through support of the johnson foundation and the partnership with the university of texas learning center and all of the presidential libraries is an innovative teacher-student resource for digital assets

reflecting the life and administration of each of the presidents. because of the foundation funding, the clinton presidential library became the federal government's first existing building to be certified at the lead platinum level. the george w. bush library will be built to lead platinum level as well. in addition to support for the libraries, the foundations contributed tens of millions of dollars to renovate our permanent museum exhibits. the hoover roosevelt truman kennedy johnson ford carter reagan and both bush libraries have recently completed new permanent exhibits or are in the planning stage for a new exhibit. i'm supported in this partnership by my advisory committee on the presidential library foundation partnership. this committee is made up of representatives of the various presidential library foundations. through these meetings, the public-private partnership can work to leverage our strengths and resources and resolve or at least understand how differences on our mission can sometimes

strain our relatiohips. i meet with this committee at least twice a year to discuss and ask their advice on the activities of the national archives, our strategic plans and vision, collaborative activities, funding and legal issues that can affect public-private partnership. the presidency is the one office selected by all americans. through our geographic disbersment, the presidential libries are a positive force contributing to diverse communities making history transparent and strengthening the civic fiber of our nation. while i continue to believe in the importance of presidential libraries it my belief that technology will impact future presidential libraries. the size of digital collections at the clinton and bush 43 libraries is far greater than the paper records. in the near future, we can expect a presidential library's collection will be mostly digital. those documents acted on in a paper format will probably be digitized by the white house and only those documents of significant intrinsic value will

be saved in their original format, such as documents an tated by the president, correspondence with world leaders and decision memoranda. long-term preservation and storage of digital records is a delicate, but worthwhile option. nonetheless, i bieve presidents in the future should continue to establish a presidential library if they wish do so. some collections may well be digital, but it is the curator's, archivists and educators who work in these libraries that make the collections accessible to all of our students and citizens. thank you for this opportunity to testify and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you. mr. putnam. >> chairman mikia, chairman issa and members of t committee, i'm tom putnam. i appreciate the opportunity to testify on behalf of my fellow library directors. we're so pleased that you have called this hearing and are honored to appear before you with david ferriero, fellow

historians and especially with anna eleanor roosevelt. those of us who work in the presidential library system are indebted to her grandfather's vision which led to the creation of the first presidential library. franklin roosevelt encouraged the country not to be fearful as he launched his presidency, during which over time we became the leader of the free world. reflective of his infectious self-confidence, he valued transparency as an essential element of democratic government. citizens must understand how their government works and have access to the documents that define their past. with the recent addition of the nixon and george w. bush libraries, our presidential library system representing our 13 most recent former presidents is made whole and has become a model for the world. presidential libraries hold the memory of our nation, they're unique repositories that allow researchers and museum visitors an opportunity to relive the events that have shaped us as a people. they're educational programs create a more active and informed citizenry. i believe the current model works well and provide a measurable benefit to our nation. we rest on fr pillars, first,

the private funds used to construct these buildings. second, the federal funds that operate, maintain and administer them. third, the private support we receive from our respective library foundations. and finally the revenue streams from our museums and related enterprises. one of the strengths of the present system is ittrikes the right balance between centralization and dentralization. each library is built in a location determined bit present and his family. when visiting them, one is immersed in locales like independence, abilene and grand rapids which our presidents lived and matured politically. yet we're also guided by standards set by the national archives that ensure our holdings are protected, our museums objective and our access universal. over the years, there have been calls toentralize the presidential library system n 1962, president kennedy was asked if he would locate his library in washington, d.c. he made two points in his reply, first, he stated that through the use of technology it would eventuly not matter where a library was located. the kennedy library recently

made jfk's vision a reality by digitizing over 300,000 of the most important documents and photographs of his presidency and audio and video recordings of all his speeches and press conferences providing worldwide access to them via our website. second, jfk replied in 1962 that by locating these institutions throughout the country, each could serve as a vital education center connecting the residents of that region to their national government. in addition to our robust local planning, presidential libraries often collaborate on initiatives like national issue forums, global, traveling exhibits, nationally televised conference and interactive web-based timelines. here students cannot only watch the iconic speeches of president kennedy and reagan at the berlin wall, they can also learn of a quiet diplomacy president george herbert walker bush engaged in after the wall fell and uniting thatdivided land. and view president clinton reciting his favorite line from jfk's speech in berlin, quote, freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect,

but we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in. i would not be honest, mr. chairman, if i did not admit that the presidential library system like our democracy is not perfect. would like to conclude with two examples of the difficulties we face. the first is the question of the sustainability of the current model and the need to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship as the presidential library system ages and grows. the second is how we meet the need of releasing and opening the materials as quickly as possible while also protecting national security interests. ours is a young country with fewer coliseums and cath dralz than our european forebearers. trying to understand theherited we mig make our upon it. we serve as beacons to the world, shedding light on both the genius and the shortcomings of our history during what has been called the american ntury. today young people from all corners of the globe come to the kennedy library in boston.

they have often already visited the battlields of lexington and concord and our museum they then listen to jfk's inaugural address and in which he states, quote, we are heirsf that first revolution, and the beliefs for which our fobeyerers fought are still at issue around the globe. my colleagues and i feel privileged to share the story of john f. kennedy and his 1,000 days as president withstudents from binghamton to day jing, daytona to dachau as they look to make their mark upon it. this is why we undertake to preserve and provide access to the priceless historical treasures for their ability to unite us as a country and a people and to serve as the foundation on which new generations will self-confidently build our future. >> thank you. that's as close to a perfect finish as i've ever seen in committee. mr. blackwood, next, you know the challenge, five minutes. >> tough act to follow

chairman mica, chairman issa, members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to be here today. when franklin roosevelt established first presidential library, i'm not sure even he envisioned how transformational they would become. his library and 12 others that have followed have had unparalleled impact on tens of millions of people. what he did for our country, our citizens and most importantly our schoolchildren continues to pay dividends. today i will address the impact of presidential libraries and why they should continue as they are. i will argue that our mission should be multifaceted. ultimately, though, everything starts with access and the definition of access should be expanded. over the years presidential libraries have grown, changed and adapted. this growth is due in good measure to the support we received from our attendant foundations. working closely with the reagan foundation, the current library is working well and is a successful public-private partnership. the foundation support allows us to better serve the public.

the reagan foundation provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual support and more than $50 million in capital improvements. this is on top of the $69 million they built the library. this support has had tremendous impact on three key areas. more than doubling our attendance, expansion of education programs, and heightened awareness of our facilities. the federal government's involvement and support is also critical. and leverages the foundation's support providing tremendous value for the government and the american people. with that support, we now serve many constituencies, broadly categorized into three groups. citizens, students and scholars. providing scholars access to the collection is critical. if there is one criticism, it would be they want more materials sooner and i would concur. at the reagan library, our archives team has improved efficiencies, set new standards

and even though we're processing more than 1.5 million documen with shorter cue times, the research community clammers for more. let's look at the impact of the use of our materials, a single scholar might publish multiple articles, books or blog entries that will reach hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of people. should we just digitize everything then? not so fast. there are practical concerns of funding, staffing and processing time. access through technology is one critical area that needs serious attention and significant investment. why not just centralize? tom presented a very strong case why presidential libraries should continue to grace different location. i agree and would vigorously argue agains centralization. why it is critical to move towards a goal of digitization, we cannot lose sight of working with the original materials. the historic documents can inspire, motivate, and cause you to think differently. when you hold president reagan's

personal diary and read getting shot hurts, or leaf through t day in infamy speech, it puts the researcher in a different frame of mind that can lead to new thinking. access is more than just about the materials. presidential libraries offer unique, educational opportunities for hundreds of thousands of students across the country. so is access important to them? archival access is not a priority for my dauger abbie's sixth grade class, but access to the museum, the curriculum, and the amazing air force one discovery center certainly is. abbie's class and thousands like hers want to and deserve access to these opportunities. so should education be a part of our mission? absolutely. students represent the future and learning about our history the presidency and civic engagement is critical for an informed citizenry. presidential libraries offer an important avenue to access learning. at the reagan library, our

approach is simple, the three es, excite, engage, and you will educate. that's what presidential libraries do. our last constituency is the millions of citizens who visit us. they tour our museums, study our materials, attend our remarkable programs, and they, too, learn all of which are different forms of access. so what is our mission? what should the future bring? in summary, presidential libraries are repositive toirz of historical materials, tourist deinations, muse gathering places for civic and debate, educational institution and places where communities learn. our mission should reflect this diversity. let's embrace president roosevelt's vision and broaden it to the multifaceted definition of access. furthermore, we need to be proactive with the use of technology. presidential libraries are unique institutions that cause us to think, offer to look at and perhaps question our government, help educate and provide exciting opportunities for millions of people. i believe strongly they are

vital. >> thank you. >> thank you for our three beginning witnesses. let me introduce the three remaining panelists. we have first dr. thomas schwartz and dr. schwartz is the illinois state historian. he's involved with the abraham lincoln presidential library and museum. that's sort of a hybrid. it is not federally funded as far as its operation, but the state and private foundation, i believe, and he'll explain their operations and their relationship with the federal government. and i think they got a little federal money towards some of their recent projects. then we have -- we're honod to have anna eleanor roosevelt, she chairs the board of directors of the roosevelt institute. it is quite fitting that we have one of the family members who has been actively engaged with

the presidential library and that also being the first of our libraries. and then we have dr. martha mar. she is a professor at towson university but also a distinguished, recognized presidential historian and also author. and we'll hear -- she'll sum it all up for us. we'll hear from her in just a second. let me recognize dr. thomas schwartz, again, the illinois state historian and with the abraham lincoln presidential library and museum. welcome, sir. you're recognized. >> tank you. chairman mica, chairman issa, members of the committee, i thank you for the opportunity to testify on the mission and future direction of presidential libraries. my comments will focus on the abraham lincoln presidential museum and possible areas for

further collaboration. he declared if we could first know where we are and whether we are tending, we could then better judge what to do and how to do it. the an ham lincoln presidential brary was created in 1889 as the illinois state historical library. its mission was to collect the written history of the state of illinois, an effort that l to sizable holdings concerning its favorite son, abraham lincoln. discussions since the 1980s and how to build a new facility for the library moved toward the larger concept of a libry museum complex. a federal state and local funding partnership was created to finance the $167 million complex, most of that provided by the state of illinois. the library with its new name opened in october 2004 and the museum opened on april 19th, 2005. of an fy 2011 budget of $12 million, the state of illinois provides the largest source of revenue. with additional revenue streams

provided by admission sales, parking and facility rental and the support of the organization. we have 56 full time, 15 part time and more than 500 volunteers to maintain a 215,000 square foot complex. under the administrative authority of the illinois historic preservation agency. a total visitation of 2.5 million people from more than 100ations since opening in 2005, have had annual attendance that surpasses any presidential museum. we have temporary exhibits that explored topics like lincoln's assassination, his views on agriculture, his actions as president-elec to author talks, theater offerings, teacher workshops, activities for young children and conferences and symposium on lincoln's slery in his time.

we have a project compiled in a 2009 placed online all of abraham lincollincoln's legal documents by case and selects from his legal practice. currently the project is scanning every letter sent to lincoln and every document he wrote with the goal of placing the entire corpus of lincoln's writings online. we hope to have the prepresidential materials s up 2019. most requests are for the loan of lincoln materials for special exhibits. several nonfederal presidential museums being contemplated and one to be added to the system have sent planning teams to see the alplm and imagine how its elements might be incorporated into their facilities. the museum is known for being different from traditional museums with its emphasis on compelling narrative of lincoln's life, supported by creative uses of technology and

environments that actually place you within scenes of lincoln's life. all of the senses are engaged and the interactivity the visitor discovers is not that created by technology, but rather the intellectual and emotional engagement he or she feels th the unfolding story of lincoln's life. ese techniques inspired the mount vernon ladies association, for example, to incorporate many of them into their new orientation center and museum. everyone in this room acknowledges the importance of presidential libraries and museums as vital to preserving our national history while providing the general public with the broader and deeper understanding of our past. moving forward, we see several areas cooperation to consider. one, sharing resources to the traditional loan and materials, digitization of collections and extending both to joint exhibs with one or more presidential museum partners. two, linking to one another's website, utilizing satellite uplink to offer joint programs and providing comparative study

and curriculum materials to encourage the public to explore the entirety of our presidential hiory d not simply that of one administration. three, continuing the larger dialogue with presidential mu zamz outside the nara system on issues common to all. finally striving to be entrepreneurial in finding creative funding solutions to the long-term solvency issues facing all presidential libraries and museums. as lincoln aptly reminds us, the struggle of today is not altogether for today, it is for a vast future also. thank you. >> thank you so much f your testimony. and let me recognize now, welcome anna eleanor roosevelt. welcome. >> chairman mica, chairman issa -- >> you may not be on there. okay. pull it up real close. >> okay. >> great. >> well, chairman mica, chairman issa, miss norton, mr. cummings,

members of the committees, thank you for the opportunity to testify before youtoday. my name is anna eleanor roosevelt and i am chair of the board of directors of the roosevelt institute, the nonprofit partner to the fdr presidential library and museum in hyde park, new york. i've been a member of the roosevelt institute ard for more than 30 years and i have been board chair for a little more than a year now. in my professional life i am the head of globalorporate citizenship for the boeing company and serve as the company's representative on the board of the national archives foundation. the fdr presidential library and museum is the nation's first presidential library. prior to franklin d. rose develop's decision to build the library in hyde park, the final disposition of presidential papers was left to chance. and much of that historical record has sadly been lost. president roosevelt created an

institution to preserve in tact all of his papers and related materials so that the nation could make use of the knowledge and experience contained there. the library's holdings include my grandfather's personal and family papers, the papers covering his public career at the state and national level, my grdmother's papers as well as those of many of their friends and associates. it is a treasure trove of material that captures one of the most important eras of american history, the great depression and world war ii from many perspectives and directions. my grandfather, as you may know, was a great collector of birds, ship dels, stamps, books, documents, and many other items. he once recounted after being elected to be the librarian of the hastings pudding club at harvard, some advice he was given by an old bookseller,

never destroy anything. much to my family's chagrin, my grandfather heeded that advice and kept everything. the result, as he himself put it, is that we have a mind for which future historians will curse me as well as praise me. fdr wanted to give these materials to the people of the united states and house them in an archive and museum built with private funds, but maintained by the federal government. he felt it was important to keep all of his papers and artifacts together in a single collection. he also felt it was important that future generations who wished to understand him and his presidency should come to hyde park, to the community and home that helped shape him and meant so much to him high on the bluff above the hudson river. fully expecting to retire in 1940, work on the library began

in 1938. but with the outbreak of world war ii, my grandfather's plans for retireme had to be cast aside. work on the library nevertheless went ahead as planned and it was open to the public on june 30th, 1941. at the very time whenost of europe was suffering under the cruel dictates of fascist oppression. taking note of this, my grandfather used the opening as an opportunity to remin the american people of how important history and the free access to information are to democracy. this latest addition to our nation's archives, he said, is being dedicated at a moment when government by the people themselves is being attacked everywhere. it is therefore proof, if any proof is needed, that our confidence in the future of democracy has not diminished in this nation, and will not

diminish. and he went on. the dedication of a library is itself an act of faith. to bring together the records of the past and preserve them for the use of men and women living in the future, a nation must believe in three things. it must believe in the past. it must believe in the future. and it must, above all, believe in the capacity of its people, so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment for the creation of the future. as planned, the library was built with privately donated funds at a cost of $376,000. raised by committee that was headed by a republican, waldo g. leeland. it was tn turnedver to the federal government on july 4th, 1940, to be operated by the national archives.

by his actions, president roosevelt ensured his papers would becomehe property of the nation, housed in a library on the grounds of his hyde park home, also deeded to the nation upon his death, where they would be available to scholars. my grandfather's creation served as a precedent. the roosevelt institute supports the library's exhibits, outreach and educational activities, and its special programs for its wide ranging audiences. we understand our mission to be to preserve, celebrate and carry forward the legacy and values of my grandparents. an important part of that mission is our partnership with the fdr presidential library. in 2003, the roosevelt institute joined the national archives and the national parks service in opening the henry a. wallace visitor and education center, which serves as a joint visitor center for the franklin d. roosevelt national historic site, and the roosevelt presidential library.

and as a conference and education center. it is also a valuable community resource used by hundreds of nonprofit organizations for meetings and events. the wallace center was constructed through a unique public-private partnership between the national archives and records administration. the national parks service and the roosevelt institute, which raised substantial private funding and support of this project. the roosevelt institute supports all four of the library's main program areas on an ongoing basis. archives, museum, education and public programs. the library's research operations are consistently one of the busiest in the entire presidential library system. the library serves thousands of on-site researchers and more thousands of researchers who contact the library through written requests, mostly via e-mail. the roosevelt institute provides grants in aid to researchers, demonstrating new scholarship in

study of the roosevelt era as well as assisting the library in purchasing new books for the collection. we are working with the library to secure the necessary funding to digitize and make available online some of the most important documents in the collection. since the opening of the fdr libraries, william j. sarandon hoover special exhibitions gallery in 2003, th roosevelt institute provided more than a million dollars to support changing exhibits in this gallery. along with enhancements and improvements to the library's permanent exhibits. this money made it possible for the library to purchase high quality exhibit case work for the special exhibitions gallery and to present many special exhibits. the institute has also provided over $5 million to create an exciting new permanent exhibition at the fdr library. this new exhibition, the first complete renovation of the museum's permanent exhibition in the library's history, will

employ state of the art technology to bring the story of franklin and eleanor roosevelt to new generations of americans. it is scheduled to open in 2013. the roosevelt presidential library offers document-based, curriculum-centered education programs for students, ranging from the second grade to post graduate level including the united states military academy at west point. the library conducts teacher workshops each year attended by hundreds of teachers from across the united states and for more an half a dozen countries. there is only one full time education specialist who is provided by the government. the roosevelt institute provides the remaining support to the roosevelt presidential libraries education department annually. this support is critical to the operation of the library's education department as provides the funds to hire four part time new york state certified retired teachers and

one part-time education clerk and to produce quality education materials that are used by students and teachers in the hudson valley, the tristate area and across the united states. public programs and community outreachre at the core of the library's mission. the library offers a host of innovati programs and events to the general public each year. in sum, the work of the presidential -- fd are presidential library and museum and of presidential libraries generally is critically impoant for retaining and advancing the public's understanding of the nation's history and for making that history available in communities across the country. communities from which our esidents have come. the fdr library and each of 12 other presidential libraries tell the stories of the areas in which their presidents lived and the persons who rose to

leadership within them. they make these stories available to thousands of americans who did not have the opportunity to come to washington, d.c. and to the national archives on a regular basis. it is important to remember as my grandfather truly believed that these investments a not support from memorializing specific individuals, so much as they are investments that preserve, protect and promote the broader scope of the history ofhis country. all of the dimensions of that history, the good and the bad, the successes andhe challenges. as such, and with all that we can learn from the many generations of americans who have gone before us, the support of the federal government provides the presidential libraries -- represents an investment, not in our past, but in our future. i thank the committee for the opportunity to testify today.

>> well, thank you, again, for your testimony. and now we'll recognize our last witness, our historian and presidential scholar, dr. kumar. welcome and you're recognized. >> chairman mica, chairman issa -- >> pull that up real close. >> is that okay? yes. chairman mica, chaman issa, ranking member norton, ranking member cumming and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss presidential libraries and their importance to students, scholars and government officials. as preparation for my testimony, i wrote political scientists who specialize in the presidency and asked them how their students use presidential library and in their work as presidency scholars, what difference presidential libraries make to their research. the responses came from all over the country, and even from canada. with the uniform refrain of how important presidential libraries

have become for those of us who examine execute leadership as well as those studying individual presidents. my informal survey established sevel points about the use of the importance of presidential libraries to students and scholars alike. first, presidential libraries are a national and regional resource for those studying the operations of government and individual presidents. having the libraries located in nine states and most regions of the country has brought the presidency to the public. the libraries have become a valuable part of many undergraduate and graduate programs and allowed students to open a window on the presidency without traveling to washington. students nationwide can afford to travel to one or more of these libraries and have rich experiences. for one professor, a charter bus trip to the truman library means having his students consider the berlin airlift and the decision

to drop the atomic bomb. scholars depend on presidential libraries as a key resource for their own writing. the presidency section of e american association has an annual award for the best book on the presidency. in reviewing the winners for the 20 years that the prize has been given, at least 75% of the books draw heavily on presidential library materials. presidential libraries are a resources as well for those in government. but 9/11 commission made heavy use of presidential library materials. in recent supreme court nomination hearings, the senate judiciary committee members and staff reviewed presidential library files to see what actions and recommendations john roberts and elena kagan had in their service in their the reagan and clinton white houses. white house staff and all recent administrations have called up materials from presidential

libraries. as successful as the library visits of the faculty hold are, the professors singled out the archivists as the key to the success of their trips to the libraries, with millions of records in each library, sifting through for relevant materials is a challenge for resources, for researchers. the archivists fill in this gap. second, presidential libraries are important to what we know about the presidency as an institution, and about individual presidents. materials the library allows us to test common assumptions we have about the presidency, how it operates and what particular presidents did while they were in office. the president's daily diary, many of which are available line, track the minute by minute movements of a president from o room to another. the diary records who w in meetings, and when they come and go, through such careful tracking we know who was with the president when he was considering particular policies and we have the documentary

records preserved as well. one professor used the daily diaries to test the idea that president reagan had relatively short workdays by comparing the length of the workday of several recent presidents. it came out that president reagan worked a similar workday to presidents johnson and nixon, and a longer one than presidents kennedy and eisenhower. dio recordings of meetings are also valuable for understanding important decisions and how they played out. as one can see in the recordings of president kennedy's meetis on the cuban missile crisis, which are in audio. third, cooperative ventures can be an aspect of the model for future libraries. there are many ways in which presidential libraries can work together with those studying the presidential actions. in some cases there are groups beyond the library foundations that provide funds for researchers to travel to one or more libraries. students too c work as interns

or work study programs to provide needed work in appropriate areas in the libraries. an example of a cooperative venture between scholars and presidential libraries is the white house interview program. the program is built around interviews with key former white house officials to help prepare those coming into the white house in 2001. the materials were also used in 2009. the interviews are housed at individual libraries with manuctu many of them available on line. the project demonstrates what is good for scholars can also be good for those coming into the government and for presidential libraries. everyone benefits when people, students, scholars and the public learn about their government and its leaders. >> well, thank you for your testimony and i want to thank all of our witnesses. again, i think this is a rather historic joint hearing between

two committees. and first time that we have approached this subject in this manner. again, the important mission of our presidential libraries and their current status. what we'll do is start with a little round of questions, and then i'm going to ask our archivists a couple to sta. right now a big question in washington is spending and national finances. you don't have a huge budget for the libraries, but i seein approximately $77 million was the fy-10 estimated cost. is that correct? >> $76.2 million. >> okay. and of that it looks like operational costs -- operations

and maintenance was $27 million, programs $35 million, and i guess some of the rovation costs were about $9 million or $10 million. i had the opportunity to visit the kennedy library and i don't -- i don't think this is planned for my visit, t they had a big bucket in the -- it is a beautiful atrium, there is a big bucket and water coming down and they assured me that they had renovations and repairs under way. do we have a capital program for all of these libraries and i guess the submission goes through you on initial approval. is that correct? >> that's correct. let me preface my answer by a story about the kennedy library.

imp was the architect. a visitor came up and said aren't you afraid it is going to leak. he said, of cour it is going to leak. an architect. we have a repair and renovation budget within the national archives. and we have a master plan, master plan that identified all the needs across all 13 -- all 12 of the facilities, soon to be 13 facilities with an estimate of expenditure each year. that will be severely reduced in the coming year. >> one of the other things i was noticed, i was quite shocked to see the -- well, all the exhibits and all the libraries are remarkable. but i was really a bit surprised to see the condition, sort of an aged condition of the kennedy exhibit. in fact, i mentioned to caroline

kennedy and to our departing patrick kennedy representative the need to update some of those. doe have a schedule for updating some of those? >> there has been a huge focus at kennedy on digital activities to get the -- as much content out into people's hands around the country first. but there is also planning around updating the exhibits, the current exhibit space. >> i heard mrs. roosevelt talk about that. i'm not sure the stage, do we have -- does anyone look at again the overall picture of putting some of this incredible information, you know, on digital or the -- using the latest technology in all of these libraes? >> ery one of the presidential libraries has been investigating, has done

sothing in the area of digitization and long-term planning for as much content as we can afford. >> back to the financing, i understand different libraries have foundations and their support. is there any estimate you can give to us as to what additional funds are provided or what percentage of additional programs are underwritten by the privatesector? >> i can get you that figure. i don't have it off the top of my head, but each one -- i think it is safe to say that each one of the presidential libraries is pretty creative, innovative and entrepreneurial in identifying private support for a number of their activities. >> and i notice too that i was looking at the admissions and acvity from visitors for the different libraries. it seems to taper off again as the presidents fade into history. that leaves, again, a bigger

burden on the federal government to underwrite the operations. and also i noticed that some of the libraries that the department of interior is involved. their costs and figures are not included in your budget. how much, again, do we look at the overall long-term mission, the reduction in admissions and contributions from other agencies. >> that is certainly something that is in my consciousness and, you're right there is a relationship between the date of the presidency and the attendance. on the park service collaboration, those sites where we have the homestead, that's where there is a history of a park svice involvement in the site. >> then we have got mr. schwartz had an opportunity to visit

there in illinois. that's a private state operation. i also was informed the federal government had promised some help on the capital side and only met about half of its contribution. maybe tell us how you're funded and how federal commitment affects your operation and your budget. >> the original funding plan was that the state- the two structures came to a total cost of $115 milon. that was the estimate. and the idea was that the state would provide $50 million, the feral government would provide $50 million, and the city of springfield would provide the property and the remaining amount. it ended up that the federal govement came forward not th the grant fully funded, but a

matching plan. and so state regulations require for a construction project for all the money to be in place bere construction begins. and so the state actually had to then finance the full amount and we were of that $50 million match over five years, we were able to recoup about $35 million. >> mrs. roosevelt, you had mentioned that you're in the process of digitizing some of the records. is that also with federal help or is that a private activity. and where do you seat federal government helping you in the future, again, as far as protecting some ofhese national assets and treasures? >> well, that particular project i'd have to refer to our librarian to make sure, but i

know that whenever the library has a program need, we are partners with them and we work with them to discover what is the need to produce the result that is best for the library program. and so we often do co-funding on projects and i wouldssume that the -- that would be part of the digitizing project. >> finally, have any of you worked with the library of congress or you have joint efforts going on with the library of congress? mr. schwartz, maybe you could tell us that relationship. >> the papers of abraham lincoln right now the last two major repositories of lincoln's papers that we need to scan are those at the library of congress and the national archives. we have finished the scanning the collections out at archives two and are now in the main

archives and we're at the library of congress and i think we hope to wrap up both those scanning projects in the next few years. >> okay. and noon time or when we recess, we'll hear from the library of congress and this afternoon some of the questions that we can't get to with the member of the panel and other directors and those active with some of the other presidential libraries that have joined us today will have an opportunity. so if you think of a question or we can get more to the answer, i saw from mrs. roosevelt in that symposium that start this afternoon. with that, let me yield to miss norton. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. ferriero, i have a question for you. you are, of course, aware as a

federal agency that we're in the midst of making large cuts in federal agencies. we have to make many of them. in your testimony, you noted that the clinton library is platinum lead and that the bush library is also expected to be platinum lead. and, of course, in our committee we -- we promote this because of the enormous savings that can be documented. in this case, the savings would be to the taxpayers. have you advised or do you think it would be important to advise those who build these libraries, in light of the fact that the operations are paid by the taxpayers of the united states, that these libraries should be built to the highest lead standards available? >> i certain would agree to

that. and i would suggest that any future library that we build will be built to those specifications. >> thank you very much. again, a question going to the need to make savings, particularly in the year or two headed that there's great concern here about savings. however, even the deficit commission warned about doing cuts that were too stringent this year and advised to wait a couple of years lest we send the federal economy back. people like me are looking for things to cut that meet the neceity to cut. but that may not have that affect. now, i note in light of the fact

that the taxpayers pay for the operations in applying the cuts to the archives. and let me preface this by saying i sat through hearngs where the archivist has raised my very serious concern about the underfunding of the archives and your ability to maintain the precious, historical papers of the united states shouldn't the c cuts be applied as little as possible to your official work, your official documents with, perhaps, the libraries and their operations taking more of the cuts since that operation's alone? if you had to distribute the cuts and that's who going to have to do it -- you cry up here

about the maintenance of -- well, you might. we all should ed tears about the maintenance of this repository. then you've got to decide where the money goes. there's powerful people in the libraries. there are not so many powerful people saking for the papers that you complain don't have the money to upkeep. so how would you distribute this funding? >> well, i would just remind you that those papers that are sitting in those 13 repositories that we call presidential libraries are federal records. >> i'm asking about the papers sitting right in the national archives. >> they are part of those records, the federal records and presidential records. >> i'm asking about the operations. i wish you'd answer my question directly. i'm not asking about the records. i'm asking about when you've got to aly funds to operations and

to make cuts in operations versus cuts in official documents whether they are as you say presidential libraries or here in the district of columbia. >> and what i'm trying to explain is that my approach to the cuts treated presidential records and federal records with the same level of -- >> except that wast my question. cuts in operation. >> they were applied equally across federal records and presidential records. >> you can't be serious. the operations of the archives or -- well, let's take your own operations. you would give as much weight to whether or not there's going to be another security guard as you would to maintaining the records themselves?

>> proteion of records are equally important. >> i'm not talking about the difference between the two records. i'm talking about the operations that the taxpayers pay for -- for the presidential libraries. >> the taxpayers pay for tat security in the presidential library. >> and they pay for other operational matters in the presidential library. >> that's right. >> i'm not talking about the records, i'm talking about the operation. >> and i'm saying that my approach to security in this rticular case, security of the collection -- about security guards would be the same in the presidential libra as it would be at -- >> i see i'm not going to get an answer to the question. operations have to do with lot

more than security. i gave you an example. whether you have one more guard orne less guard. but i would be very concerned if you were just to -- were to find it as easy to apply funds to operational matters as to applying funds to the maintenance of these very important historic documents. and i will bear that in mind the next time you come before this committee. mr. blackwood. i note you were the one time director of the ronald reagan presidential library and was serving simultaneously as the executive director of the private ronald reagan presidential library foundation. now, there could be complications in hold iing thes

two simultaneously holding these two positions. you only hold the federal position -- is that the case? >> correct. >> do you feel more comfortable holding only the federal position in as much as you won't be -- you won't be -- you won't have to resolve possible conflicts of interest? >> yes. i think the current model the way it is with the director serving only in that capacity is the best model. >> no that's a matter of policy, isn't it? >> yes. >> it's a policy u made? or is it policy that a prior archivist made? >> it was made prior to my arrival. >> don't you believe that should be the policy of the government? not only the policy of the archivist who may change from time to time and therefore change the policy? >> that could very well be. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. chairman.

>> thank you. let me recognize the co-chair of this joint hearing. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. fario, following up on what the gentle lady from d.c. said, you do have one luxury i'm presuming, and that is that when there are cuts in your budget, some of those expenses if you're not able to do them at the 13 presidential libraries are going to be taken on by the foundation's side. >> in some cases where there are resources available, it is possible. >> that's an ierent benefit to the american people that you can operate there while those records are maintained, protected, and as ms. roosevelt said digitized at somedy else's expense, not the federal government's. >> the issue is the level of

activity that can be sustained. we have backlogs in most of those presidential libraries in terms of basic processing. >> okay. i'm going to go to the luxury of riches for a moment. mr. blackwood, your library is expaing. i had the honor of being on the airplane that was delivered just before september 11th to the reagan library or the airport and i've now seen it repainted all its glory, all of it basically at no government expense. i think we paid for the fuel to fly it out there. but my understanding is that we saved money because we didn't have to do an annual maintenance if we delivered it to you that day. the reagan library is a wealthy library. there's a tremendous amount of support for foundation donations to the reagan library to continue his legacy. should we be looking from a standpoint of government at spreading that wealth? at looking and saying for the

long-term sustainability -- not when there's 13, but when there's 33 libraries to have some sort of a sche to make sure that the dollarsre available from a common foundation or in se oer way a -- a non-direct government appropriation to help make sure these libraries are all maintained at a higher level. and i'm going to you first because you're sort of the richest library at this particular time. present here today, perhaps. >> i don't know if we're the richest. but i'm very fortunate in t support that the reagan foundation has provided the reagan library. i think it benefits all citizens. whether you visit or come virtually, it's a biflt. i was on the plane with you and it's extraordinary. but that's a perfect example of what the foundation has done. it was $35 million that they support to build the air force one pavilion. in addition, they maintained it

on a regular basis. so there's zero cost from the government standpoint on that. in addition, there was another $9 million they raised and spent for the discovery center, $15 million they spent for the current -- the recent renovation. as i relates to an overall foundation, i think that's a concept that shld be developed. you'd have to go to each of the foundations to see what each of their support might be. because i liken our organizations to a family. we have 13 kids and similar -- same parents with different needs, different wants, and different expectations. i think it's worthy of looking in to. >> ms. roosevelt, perhaps not the oldest, but the longest standing of the libraries. your grandfather's legacy lives on. and as a result, there's no doubt that people who contribute. but do you believe we have a

likelihood that the stepchildren of the presidency will either end up as wards of federal appropriated dollars if -- or simply fallen to disrepair? >> well, i can imagine such a situation. however, i think that there will always be interested private citizens who care about history and who care about its preservation. but i do -- >> that's reason for my question, ma'am. if we have interested private citizens, what i was speculating on is from this side of it, if we want to not rely on funds, should we be looking at a national non-profit ent tity asn umbrella for contributors who want to contribute to the maintenance of presidential

libraries so that would be available to wherever it was needed. recognizing that early after a presidency, the funding tends to be good. as a matter of fact, it tends to be really great while he's still in office, it turns out. and that's a separate subject of investigation. then, a time goes on, often the people who were in the cabinet and part of that group that does the fund-raising, they pass on, unless there's someone like you in the family, it becomes very hard, or like carolyn kennedy, to continue their level of fund raising. and it would be a question to really everyone on the panel sort of sequentially and it'll be my last question. should we be looking at an umbrella organization recognizing that we can't force these contracts to be modified, but we certainly could create the equivalent of public broadcasting, but public support that was a central one that would be available. i for one assume that taxpayers

are not going to be any more willing in the future to appropriate than they are today. and yet your needs will continue to increase. so that's really the question for each of you that starting, actually, martha, each of you that have looked at this problem that will go on for 200 more years of our history. please, doctor. >> for political scientists, we are particularly interested in comparative research. so for us, going to several libraries is important. and so whether it's a big library or, you know, it's hoover in west branch. all of them are impoant. how to fund them, that's beyond me. i'm a user who wants to see all of them funded. but i do think as i was saying in my testimony is i think there are ways in which academics can involved in trying to do things like create oral history

projects because often libraries don't have enougfunds for that. and maybe do internships, work study programs to help archivists go through papers. >> thank y. anyone else who wants to comment on this basic concept of 13 fodations versus a 14th, if you will? david? >> well, it's an interesting concept to contemate. we now get with the amendment of the presideial records act with the bush xliii library, 50% of the endowment will come. and a percentage of the endowments from across those libraries going to a common fund that would accomplish what you suggest. we also should factor in the fact that we want to digitize as much as possible. show in the future, is there a need for physical access to papers? could papers be centrally stored somewhere in washington, perhaps?

people have digital access. it's another option. >> anyone else? >> thank you, i yield back. >> thank you let me yield to the gentleman from maryland and the ranking member, mr. cummings. >> i want to direct a few questions back to you. you know, as i listen to this discussion, the thing that bothers me is these are records of the president of the united states of america. these are records that it shouldn't be a luxury to maintain them. this is a part of our history. although our country is far younger, with hear about, we learn about the history. and i guess that's why they have the recordings. and so that people 500, 700, 800 years from now can appreciate

this history. and i'm just wondering, do you have an opinion as to whether -- you know, i understand how we set it up with the foundations and everything. but do we have an obligation, in your minds, and particularly as an archivist, to -- to address these issues and these records? as something the government must be about the business of doing and must be about the business of safeguarding as opposed to -- say, for example, the foundations fell on hard times, they weren't able to do it. i just wondered if you had an opinion on that. yes, sir? and then i'll go to you. >> as i was trying to explain earlier, i feel as responsible and as passionate about those presidential libraries as i do about the records of the agencies that are also in my custody. we have an obligation to ensure that they're taking care of,

processed, and made available to the american public. >> and in my own research, it's made an enormous amount of difference to see what it that presidents were doing at a time in bringing records together, like working in the reagan library, working on -- i was working on some of his speeches. and to see, well, you could see a speech text, but then going through the notes that the president himself made on it and the changes he made made a great deal of differences as to what he did. but -- in the views tat he had of his own work. and i think it takes multiple sources. and also, being there. students, i think, in particular would be the ones who would suffer. because you bring -- you bring in ople that go into -- young people whoome into the environment of a presidency like in e white house decision center at the truman library and get to experience what kinds of

decisions the president made using documents that the -- that were classified at one time. and -- and it's through things like that that people learn what a government does. the benefits of a government. and what presidential leadership is all about. >> let me cut you off right there because i have a limited amount of time. let me ask you -- my major concern -- i have several concerns. one that wguard these records, we make them available. and taggg on to something you just said, i want to make sure that the kids in my district have access to those records and can -- and i want them to be able to -- they may never be able to visit. not as a kid or even as a young researcher, but i want them to have access because that's where, i think, we can -- we take our dollars and we stretch

them so that more people have the benefit of them. and i think it was when mr. putnam was talking about kennedy library doing all the wonderful things to make access more available. and i was wondering, do the her libraries have similar kinds of plans or programs and that kind of thing? and -- and, i'm just wondering, is that -- is there? when you're dealing with these folks, do you ever say was there an avenue for you to saying, look, how can we make these records more assessable -- to the web and all of these wonderful tools that i didn't have as a kid. and i'll tell you. i mean, the idea that some kid in the district insouth carolina, which is where my mother and father were former sharecroppers, if that little

kid could sit there and look at a, you know, go on the internet and whatever and access this library, he may not be able to make it as a kid, but certainly to learn an perhaps be inspired later on. how does that play? and i see mr. putnam seems to be anxious to say something. >> we did that just last week. and what we developed was an interactive where students could actually sit behind president kennedy's desk, and caroline kennedy helped us to launch it so a student in your district or a student in south carolina could literally feel what it would like to sit behind the president's desk and link on interactives to tell the story. and as the archivists mentioned, all of the libraries collaborate. we have this interactive presidential time line, to ensure it's not just the

libraries thatave these additional resources to make these materials available. but one thing related to the congressman, even though some of us have foundations with more resources, really as your question indicated, it's the federal government's responsibility to preserve these records, to secure them, and declassify. none of us getupport from our foundations to do that. they recognize that is a federal responsibility. what they help us to do is do some other interesting interactives. >> and the archivists a huge proponent of digitalization. and my goal is to make as much as we have possible available in just the way that you described it because i am firmly convinced based on my own experience that if it isn't online, it doesn't exist in the minds of those kids. >> and government itself benefit from the library materials and keeping them. because you don't want people to make the mistakes of the past. and the only way they're going

toearn is really find out what happened. and answers are in those records. and every recent administers, they've called upon the presidential library to give them materials that relate to particular instances that they're trying to figure out what happened in the past. and as i said earlier, the 9/11 commission relied heavi on materials from presidential libraries. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> thank you. let me yield now to the gentleman from california and subcommittee chair mr. denham. >> first question i have is f dr. schwartz. the lincoln presidential library is not par of the national archives presidential library system. can you describe what advantages, disadvantages that gives you and support you would like to see received from the national archives? system is

that those records remain intact. lincoln being a 19th century figure, you didn't have the records act that mandated how these were to be maintained and stored. and so we're having to actually do this process of reassembling something that has been actured and scattered to the

winds. we began as a research facility, research library, which had a broader mandate to collect the written history of the state of illinois. when we were in search of getting funding for a larger facility for the library, it was also clear to us that the public ha this great desire. they were seeing these records not as research materials, but really as items for inspiration. for example, the gettysburg address, the emancipation proclamation, the 13th amendment. and so, in order to satisfy that need of the public seeing these items more as artifacts, historical artifacts for inspiration, that's where the museum component came in. what we do, though, is in the museum we have a specific effects theater called ghosts of the library, which makes the

connection between what the research library does and the historical content that they find in the museum. and being a public institution, supported by the state of illinois, we encourage people in the museum side to go visit the library side. and to examine some of these records for themselves. our biggest problem, obviously, is lincoln has been dead for almost 150 years. and there is no group of wealthy donors that typically funds presidential libraries and museums while the president remains alive. however, lincoln still has such an iconic position within the leadership of this country that we do have a strong donor base. and we are constantly looking

for ways to expand that. >> so advantages or disadvantages compared to, say, the system that mr. blackwood enjoys in calirnia? >> he has the advantage that many ofresident reagan's close associates and donors remain alive and supportive of the institution. and he also has an advantage of having one of the most popular of modern presidents. and that's -- that's a great advantage. our advantage is that lincoln still has -- is popular within the broad general audience. but it's more difficult for us to take that popularity and to translate it into actual donations and membership support. >> and how about receiving funds locally from state and local organizations versus being part

of the federal system? >> of being in the capital city of illinois, which is maybe 118,000 people, it does not have a broad corporate base to draw upon. and we're in constant competition with trying to go to chicago, which has that kind of corporate donor base to compete with other cultural institutions located in chicago. and so it is -- it's a challenge. but, again, we are not only reaching out to funding sources within illinois, but nationally. and i think that's the only way that any cultural institution can hope to survive. >> thank you. >> pleased to recognize the

gentleman from pennsylvania. >> thank you. and i very much appreciate all of you being here, even those in the audience from other libraries and museums around the country. and ms. roosevelt, it struck me when you were speaking that we all as the chairman said feel a personal interest in this as americans, but you, of course, have a very personal interest in that particular library. and you sa in your very eloquent remarks that one of the purposes of the museum and the library is to carry on the legacy and values of your grandparents. and it struck me in the context of what we're looking at today with regard to the funding of libraries and the ongoing support, there's the initial construction, but then there's the ongoing maintenance and operational expense. and it led me to think the different roles that these

libraries and museums play. there's the library, the research component, which thankfully because of technology, more people are going to have access over the years. but there's the museum side, which is the library themselves making a determination, this is how we're going to present this former president. this is the light in which we're going to cast upon that president. and then there's the programming side. and museums have different admissions with regard to programming. the carter library has a different programming. and i wanted to ask the archivis archivists, in that context under the current presidential records law, there's no -- no ability to edit documents or prioritize them or in any way politically one way or another manage them, is that correct? >> that's correct. and one of the great things

about having the records is that we let the records speak for themselves. attempts at whether it's a user or other people trying to twist history, we have the documentation to back it up. >> and there have been very recent examples of libraries at have opened up their doors to researchers who have written very decorated books, pulitzer prize winners not flattering to the subject. and you can interpret it however you want. on the museum and programming side, the concern -- not a concern -- but worth discussing in the context of today is when donors give money, especially when the individual may still be president o very recently had been president, what's the motivation of the donor? rhetorically, but something we're concerned about. the difference between public money, taxpayer money, and private money. and i understand foundations

versus, you know, corporate or individual giving. but i would ask mr. putnam, mr. blackwood, especially, how do you see the difference between the mission of libraries and your responsibility to portray the psident fairly in a very public way? but what's the expectation when private money comes in versus public money? and what would be the difference in the way libraries in the future would carry out their museum function? >> right. well, i very much appreciate the support that we receive from our foundation, but it always comes with the understanding that it's the federal eloyees who make the final decision. in our mee seuseum, she writes texts, gets approved by me. there's no influence at all on the foundation. our foundation helps support our digilization project, but it's clear it's the chief archivist. i think that should be the model

that foundation could receive funds, but they are in charge of how we portray those stories to the public. >> i would agree with my colleague, mr. putnam. and we are similar at the reagan library. while the support that the foundation provides us is extraordinary, we work hand-in-hand for that balance. and we are very much a part of thatrocess. >> thank you. >> i would ask dr. kumar, with regard to the funding issue, there have been some presidents -- well, all presidents. they're humans and they have some things they would like to see porayed and some things they would like to see not, perhaps, shown to the public, or at least not emphasized. do you have a concern as a historian for the ability for libraries to water over or gloss over issues that perhaps might

be something that the former president would want to see? some of them have had very public failin. do you think that public versus private money can in any way lead to influencing the way that the museum operations and the programming operates? >> wel i think that the presidents understand there's going to be a lot of warts in their administration and everything they've done is not perfect. and they accept that. and they probably accept it a little more than some of their relatives do. but there's a -- i think there's probably a real difference among -- among families, for example, in the support for opening things up. for example, in the johnson library, lady byrd johnson an the two daughters were very much behind oning up all the tape recordings before president johnson even had wanted them to be released.

and i think, you know, that the archives knows what its mission is and the people who are the directors of the library. you know, sometimes there'll be conflicts, like, say, in the nixon library. but you're going to see, for example, there'll be an exhibit on watergate that is going to look at watergate in a fair manner. and so i tnk in the long run, the documents do speak for themselves. and that if people who were the archivists are very interested in protecting documents. and then they know well which ones are important to decisionmaking. and i think those ultimately win out. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. let me yield now to the chair of another of our subcommittees of jurisdiction. the gentleman from south carolina. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

mr. blackwood, mr. roosevelt was very eloquent in noting that libraries are repositories for information that is both good and bad. dr. kumar just used the word fair. those phrases are inherently subject u subjective. how do we reconcile in determining what is historically significant, what is good, bad, and fair? >> first of all, historically significan i think there's the obvious ones you can point to in each of our administrations. but there's going to be those that are interpretive. just like what is fair and what is right and what should be. and i think it needs to be a collaborative effort. and i think that's what each of us, all the presidential libraries work towar is working with the foundation, woing with the documents, the realities of the administration to put that forth.

because we're humans, you're always going to have that variance, but i feel proud with what we've been able to accomplish. and quite frankly, with my colleagues. and we're very fortunate to be able to have that support to be able to do that. >> dr. schwartz, is fund raising during the term of office problematic? and regardless whether you think it is or not, do yo advocate public disclosure of donors? >> obviously that's not an issue that we have a problem with. >> that's why i ask you. in terms of the current system, i think more transparency is better. >> and the current system for those who may not be familiar

with it is what? >> i believe that it's up to the individual foundation of whether the names are released or not. >> mr. ferrior, i was privileged to go to the archives recently and thoroughly impressed with your staff and hospitality. and given my background i was particularly interested in the safety and what you've done with respect to theft and ndalism. can you speak to that? and whether or not you think the safeguards are sufficient as is? >> a culture of vigilance is something i bring from the archives. this is not something that you can say that you've done everything that you possibly can to protect the collection. it's something that i worry about all the time.

i will continue to worry about it and ensure that we do everything possible to walk thi fine line between protecting what we have and making it available to the american public. and it's a challenge every day. because anyone who wants to either steal or destroy or alter a document and is really serious about it, there are ways to accomplish that. and our job is to ensure they don't have those opportunities. >> yes, sir. >> would you be willing to weigh in on the funding. ether or not the data base of donors should be public, whether or not there should be any chinese walls so to speak between the donors? what would you advocate. >> i'm certainly a believer in transparency. but i think it ends up depending on what the agreements were that people made earlier. and to make records available

now i think is difficult for various libraries. you can start a pattern for the future about what you expect in terms of transparency. >> would you advocate a pattern that did not allow fund raising during the term in office? >> i think that's -- that's a difficult one. i'd have to -- i'm not convinced that the kinds of efforts that have been made at this point -- and in the last administrations has made any difference. i don't see where donors got anything. you know, whether they got, you know, appointments or something like that. i'd have to be convinced. because i don't see that's been the case. i see te concern that you have. but it may be that transparency is -- would be the answer during

the period of the administration. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> very good questions, mr. gowdy. i had a couple of those on my mind. back to the archivist. to ensure everyone we did have the situation. talked about twisting a history the question of access that a president would have as we had with the berger case with some of his aides. and i think you said you have put in places as many protections as you can, but you can't absolutely garn the tee. is that the case? >> that one was actually relatively easy to address in that those kinds of records, presidential records when they're being reviewed or used by a member of an administration will be done in a skiff, a protected area. and with someone watching, you

know. that's -- >> well, again, we need to make certain that we have as many protections in place that are gowdy and altmire are intentioned to -- i think the other question of the dors. there's a lot of popularity for a president when they're in office and as they're leaving office, they have a lot of supporters and then it drops off. it's a lot harder. but i think the conclusion reshed by everyone was, again, the transparency to encourage transparency in that process. we may have more discussions about that this afternoon. just a couple of quick things. again, to the archivists. again, we have in time and space we have a dozen libraries, presidential libraries and others. and they are now looking at

maintaining their records and files and digitizing them. is there a standard format that's been developed for all of that information? and the other thing too, for those that may be watching the hearing as -- can they access through the national archives? or do they have to go to each independent library? maybe you could explain the set up we have. again for a coordinated effort to make that information and those digitized records available. >> the user has options to go to the individual library or to go to the national archives. or the first line of defense for most folks is google. and these records are searchable, retrievable through google. so thehave lots of different options. >> and the coordination with the library of congress, we're going to be meeting with the librarian in a few minutes. that's also coordinated as far

as format, access. >> there are national standards we're using in the archives that are the same national standards that we helped develop with the library of congress. we do a lot of digitalization, preservation work with the library of congress. >> okay. just sort of in closing, i had a great opportunity when i was in the high school, attended a debate tournament at emery university, and i heard your grandmother speak, it had to be about 1959, i believe, at the emery university. i'll never forget that experience. which seeing you today and reflecting on that experience. here's a question i don't know the answer to is we covered the presidents, what about the first ladies and their records? is that aequately covered in some of the, i guess, it would be your grandmother's records and documents? are they also covered adequately? >> well, i believe that the

records of my grandmother's activities are the most complete at the roosevelt presidential library. i'm not sure that the first lady's are covered as extensively. perhaps some of the more recent libraries have. but surely as these wives of our presidents have acted on behalf of the government, their papers are important for the understanding of how we operate. >> and then maybe the archivist and mr. putnam had his hand up? >> i can just speak for the library, so we recently negotiated the deed for caroline kennedy for all of her mother's papers. and they'll be open next fall. so it was contingent, though, on caroline kennedy of giving us the papers in the same way the kennedy family gave us the records. >> any standardization of that,

mr. archivist? >> we would, i think, across the presidential library system, the goal is to acquire and make available in the way we do the president's papers. it's a timely question tomorrow, it's an all-day conference on the first ladies. >> great timing. any members have any other questions? >> well, 're going to adjourn this hearing, the formal hearing. we'll reconvene at 2:30. and we have many distinguished leaders of some of the various presidential librarielibraries. will have an opportunity for everyone to participate at 2:30 in the canon caucus room. and hopefully a more informal setting and productive sting. for those who are engaged on a daily basis for operating,

maintaining, and looking at the future of our presidential libraries. we hope to in our discussions this afternoon to continue to focus on the relationship between the federalovernment and our presidential libraries. both the public and private. we also want to discuss strengthening partnerships among the libraries both federal and nonfederal. and then again, i think it's important that we look at facilitang the relationships we have, various connections, technology working with academia. other libraries. and again, both the national archives, the library of congress, and each of the individual institutions. so i think we could have a good discussion this afternoon, informal setting. everyone's invited to participate in that. and there being no further business before the joint

committees, transportation infrastructure. and this hearing is adjourned. thank you. >> it is raining i was just informed. d we will escort those who are going over if you'll meet outside the hearing room just as we conclude now. and, again, at 2:30 in theanon caucus room for the symposium. thank you.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] 1] [unintelligible] >> in a firm -- a few minutes, we hear from the head of microsoft, bill gates, regarding education. then "washington journal" is live. they will discuss the situation in libya and the federal budget. and the house is in session with

general speeches at 10:00. and the current spending bill expires on friday. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke delivers a monetary policy report to the senate banking committee this morning. live coverage is on c-span3. that is at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> it is time for gaddafi to go. >> they will continue to speak out about the future of gaddafi. if you can watch this on the c- span video library. watch what you want when you

want. >> you are watching c-span, bringing you politics and public affairs. every morning is our live call in program about the news of the day, connecting you with elected officials, policymakers, and a journalist. there are supreme court oral arguments on weekdays and weeknights. and the we have programs such as the communicators and q&a and the prime minister house -- british house of commons. this is all searchable on our c- span video library. c-span, washington your way. a public service created by america's cable companies. every weekend, experience of american history on c-span3 starting saturday at 8:00 a.m.

eastern. listen to oral history. travel to important battlefields to learn about key figures in the events that shaped in the era during the civil war. you can visit college classrooms across the nation as profs and dealt into america's past during lectures in history. go behind the scenes in museum exhibits. and there is the focus on americans presidents and policies. there are speeches and personal insights from administration officials and experts. american history tv all weekend every weekend. get our complete schedule online. you can have an e-mail sent to you using c-span alert. >> the winter meeting of the national governors' association ended monday and there was a session with bill gates focusing

on education. this is one hour. >> we need more people to have an education beyond high school. we need to them to have degrees that meets the demands of the future. i have devoted my focus on the completion of activities. the demand for certificates and agrees israel. it is growing. nearly two-thirds of the job opening over the next decade will acquire some kind of credential for something beyond high school. we are currently on track as a nation to fall short in filling those openings by 3 million

graduates. right now, we have a growing mismatch between the jobs that are open and the skills of the people that are available to fill them. the minneapolis federal reserve estimates as much as one-third of our current unemployment rate is a result of this mismatch and not the great recession. we are facing real and lasting limits on the resources that we have to invest in higher education. economic growth is likely to be slower in the next few months. this will mean a slower revenue growth in our state's and plenty of competition for those revenues and health-care issues at a time where we critically need to invest in education. the challenge before us when it comes to higher education is increasing productivity. we need to graduate more students with knowledge and skills of our state's needs and the resources we have. how do we meet this challenge?

first we need to do a better job of measuring the performance of our higher education system. as governors, we need to know how well our colleges and universities are doing moving students through their certificates in degrees, if we are going to make this kind of smart investment with very limited dollars engage the return of those investments. to do this, we have developed completion metrics that 24 states have already enrolled in. i have asked our legislature to put it in statute. we will measure to see how the colleges and universities are doing graduating students with certificates and degrees that our state actually needs. we must look at new ways providing a change for higher education. this includes everything from giving our high school students

a head start on college, to funding colleges on completion and seven romans. we need to redesign math class is so they teach students more and cost less. we have to focus on better serving the students that we need for a competitive economy, but have not been able to do a to a job at graduating. this includes our working adults. the men and women who have put in a full shift and head off to class while taking care of children or aging parents. for too many of these students, the road to college bands before they have a certificate or a

degree. that must change. the report in front of you provides strategies and best practices in the state for getting more adult students to enter through college. these are things we can do. the dollars that we currently have to make sure students have access to financial aid and provide programs and services that treat them like adults with the schedules that fit their lives. i encourage each of you to take a look at this. tell us how well your state can do to educate these students and allow them to get their certificates or degrees. it is a big agenda. governors will be looking for support from all corners to get this job done. we are fortunate right now to have an amazing asset before us today. a prominent and influential supporter in this effort across our country. bill gates does not need an

introduction to any of us here. the work of his foundation that he and his wife melinda started in the bill and melinda gates foundation is synonymous with education, innovation, and improvement. working with federal and state leaders, educators, and for north to make the promise of a quality education a reality for more americans. the foundation's higher education goal is simple and inspiring. by 2025, the u.s. will double the number of low-income young adults who have a post-secondary credential with labour market value. today, bill gates has joined us to share with us his insights about how we can achieve that ambitions and necessary goal. governors must play a role. it is a great pleasure for me to present to you a fellow

washingtonian, but really an individual who is a citizen of the world, bill gates. [applause] >> thank you for having me here. for this opportunity. i also want to thank you for the incredible amount of time all of you put into education. i think it is the key topic for the future of the country and i think although there are many groups that get involved, you are in the position to provide leadership. you are in the position to make a huge difference here. as was said, are foundation started about 16 years ago with

some of our education work. it was about 10 years ago that we decided this would be our primary focus in the united states. outside the united states, we work on a lot of global health issues but here in the united states, education is our consuming focus. consuming focus.