continues the way it is today, we will not be competitive. if our tax policy does not change, we will not be competitive common and and that is key in this discussion, because we cannot talk about what the future will look like if we do not have the proper basis to launch the economy >> i believe the fundamentals must be there, and that are not there right now. with that, i will stick to your rule. >> there is relevancy to looking at history. from 2001 through 2009, our

country experienced an unemployment rate, on average of 5.2%. it saddens me so much that we are asked to get used to a new normal of unemployment which is over 8%. when i was in office, the average unemployment rate for our country was 5.2%. at that time, we looked toward your with askance. reject europe with askance. because they have these really high unemployment rates of over 8%. well, we find ourselves in a similar situation. in august of this past year, 2011, there was no job creation in the economy. last month, it was reported even amidst all of the holiday season, retail trade was still weak. 200,000 jobs were created. that was cause for great celebration. while 200,000 new jobs created

every month is nearly necessarily to keep pace with their population growth. we forget two-thirds of the net new jobs being created these days are greeted by small- business is. i think the hispanic american community, especially the young people, understands that. as was mentioned by our wonderful emcee, the current unemployment rate is 8.5%. among hispanic population, well over 11%. over 24% for young hispanic americans. if we took in people who wanted to work full time but cannot find jobs, the marginal an unemployment rate in our country is really 16%. i have a colleague who used to work with me at the department of labor and colorado conway. he started a new group called generation opportunity.

it is a new non-profit, non- partisan organization dedicated to educating, engaging, and mobilizing young americans between the ages of 18 and 29. they just did a survey of young hispanic americans. listen to what they say. young hispanic americans ages 18 to 29 years old want to see less government interference, lower taxes on business profits, reduce federal spending in general, specifically for for more cuts in federal spending over raising new taxes to get the economy back on track. because they know that we cannot tax our way to prosperity. i think we have a lot to learn from these hispanic young people. [applause] >> thank you. >> first of all, thank you for inviting me to join. i'm in the awkward position of having been left a little speechless by senator rubio's speech.

as a first-generation american, it was an amazing talk. it really struck a chord. i will move on, though. let me go over a little bit on the theme of opportunity and optimism that he was touching on. i work in the internet space and have done so for about 15 years. it remains one of the very bright spots in the economy. the secretary is correct about the numbers. this is an industry that is demonstrating a tremendous amount of course power could then be given a couple of examples. -- power. let me give you a couple of examples. over the last couple of years, we have started to see some data, in terms of economic growth, the internet in the

u.s. committed about 15% of gdp growth over the last five years. that is a significant price spot in the economy and something we firmly believe we should be building upon. just with a small picture from google, the chief economist running the numbers about our own companies' economic outlook. the numbers are available for the last year, we generated about $64 billion in economic activity in the u.s. that is money being generated for business partners. in florida alone, that number was about $3.6 billion. 130,000 partners here in this state. it is a tremendous success story. google is a small picture of a much bigger, much brighter picture that i think this industry is drawn. a second quick point on job creation, again, the figures are very positive.

about 3.1 million american jobs are based today on the advertising support of the internet but a small sliver of the broader picture. when you think about it, their jobs that did not exist 10 or 15 years ago. internet advertising. brand new. facebook has released numbers about the number of apps developed for its platform. 130,000 to 180,000 jobs depend on the facebook platform. that is fantastic news. those who down whether the internet has accretive impact on jobs or deleted in fact, a new study indicates for every job from the internet, 2.6 art critic -- for every job lost to the internet, 2.6 are created. that is incredible growth.

hopefully, we can talk about how we build on that, bil'in on your point, governor, about information. thank you. >> wonderful. >> thank you. i want to add my thanks to the hispanic leadership network. what an awesome event we're having. i felt privileged to be part of this panel of impressive leaders. and to be was a man like minded hispanics and fellow believers in what makes our country so great, which is freedom to rise and far as high as our talents and abilities allow. [applause] the world of work is changing. we are seeing all kinds of work force consolidation. we're seeing huge gaps between supply and demand.

i think hispanics have an important role to fill with respect to that we know approximately 15% of our u.s. population is made up of hispanics. this population is forecasted to grow as 7% over the next three years, compared to the national growth which is only going to be 2%. two% national, 7% hispanic. that means a lot of the growth will be fuelled by the hispanic population. we have to be prepared, ready to face the challenge. unfortunately, 38% of our hispanics have less than a high-school diploma compared to 10% of non-hispanics and whites. we have 19% of hispanics with college degrees compared to 39% of white, non-hispanics.

we know there is direct relationship between being prepared in the unemployment rate. secretary chao mention the high unemployment rate. hispanics without a high-school degree, let's say if the national unemployment rate is 8.5%, hispanics with less than a high-school degree have a 13% unemployment rate we have to address that. we have to fix that. we also know education leads to better pay and better jobs. a couple of statistics i am fortunate to serve on the board of manpower, a global corporation the places about 3.5 million workers annually all over the world. they have, i believe, 400,000 companies they work with. this is what they have to say. they have their fingers on the pulse of employment and sectors that are important but in terms

of industry trends, we see a growth in the health and education sectors. in the professional and business sectors. a downturn in manufacturing. we see stagnant growth and agriculture, utilities, and financial-services. according to manpower, the hardest jobs to fill, the number one hardest job to fill in the united states -- does anyone know what it is? field trades. -- skilled trades. we cannot get enough individuals in the field trades profession. -- skilled trades profession. this is unfortunate because skilled trades leads to business ownership. if you have an electrician and she cannot get enough workers, so she hires another electrician. then she has a van with a small business. that drives our economy. we have to make sure that we really change the mindset and the positive attitude about the

value of skilled trades in our profession. we need to get people redirected in those areas. we also have shortages and occupations like sales representatives, engineers, i t staff, accounting, teachers, a machine operators. where are hispanics concentrated? unfortunately, farming, construction, production, and services. professional occupations. we have some work to do. we have to make sure we redirect our hispanic talent in those areas where we have growth opportunities, that we tutor them, coach, and guide them so they can also enter the economic benefits that this wonderful nation provides. i look forward to interacting with you. thank you. [applause] >> one of the objectives is to

build further on these trends in manpower and industries. first, i think it is worth noting that we're in a situation where growth is abysmal in the u.s., and it is not an unprecedented even for country have dual problems of that growth and big debt. that is the u.s. problem. it has happened before. if we look at the lessons of history, the best solution to that problem is to keep taxes low and reform them. the pro-growth, cut spending in order to bring down the debt and deficit, and this constitutes a softball there's a person on this panel who has done that in puerto rico. if you expect a couple of minutes talking about that. [applause] >> what we have accomplished in puerto rico is doable on the national level. when i came into office three years ago, our budget deficit was the worst in the country. it was 44% of revenues. it was so bad that i had to fly

up to new york to meet with agencies but not everyone in america knows what they do after a downgrade. -- now everyone in america knows what they do after a downgrade. we should have been america's greece. when i was sworn in, we realized meet our first peril. -- first payroll. we had to rush to get a loan from the legislature. my wife asked me if we could ask for a recount. [laughter] what did we do? we cut expenses. not washington talk, if you know, when you cut expenses in washington, it is you cut back the way everyone does at home or in your business.

we cut expenses by 20%. it was not easy. cutting expenses allowed us to cut taxes our interior revenue code is similar to the federal code in the territories. what we did was -- is very doable. my predecessors, not only had they spent too much, but they had raised rates. the corporate tax rate was 41%. today, it is 30%. in two years, it will be 25%. [applause] believe it or not, they created all the different tax brackets at the corporate level and we made it a much simpler and flatter system, lower rates. we streamlined the process, contrary to what is going on in

washington nowadays. we used to be forced to go to 20 different agencies to obtain permits for projects. nowadays, you just get online and give your permit. >> wow. [applause] >> it has not been easy. i will tell you a few numbers. some statistics will show you what can be done in just three years. our state budget deficit, which was 44% of revenues is now 6%. we work 51 of the 50 states and puerto rico in terms of our size of budget deficit, and today we're 15. we got our first reading increase in 27 years. [applause] increase in 27 years. home sales are up. i was reading the journal this morning.

for 2011, they are down nationally. wholesales are up by 35% for new homes in puerto rican for 2011, and you say, how could that happen? tax policy works. if you buy a home in puerto rico, first of all, you not pay any property taxes for five years. no transfer fee. on top of that, there'll be no federal gains tax is the day you sell your home or business. [applause] properties are selling for the first time in a long, long time. car sales are up. retail sales are up. for the first time in six years, we are creating jobs print net gain jobs. our employment has been coming down after a long time, which it was unacceptably high.

it is still high, but it has been high. we finally have the fundamentals to grow. we just got the numbers yesterday for our exports. it is the highest number in our history for 2011 as well. [applause] we are dependent 7% on foreign oil to produce our energy. -- 70% reliant on foreign oil. but we are on the right track read only wish washington would take a few chapters from our boat. >> the theme is, how can hispanics succeed christopher another is hispanic leadership. i cannot imagine a better condition. >> it takes courage. i was not planning on running for reelection.

i was planning on doing the right thing, which is not easy. >> well done. congratulations. >> one of the things that comes up all the time is, what can we do right now to improve the labour market performance, to improve the prospects for hispanic communities in particular? given your experience when you look at what is going on, what would recommend? >> i think one of the biggest lack of economic growth and job creation. you can basically tell people, yet to go and get a job and hear all the promising industries, but the problems we are not seeing job creation. the average unemployment rate, the average unemployment period now is over two and half years. 44% of our unemployed, the 14 million from an unemployed, have been unemployed for longer than what is traditionally

defined as long-term unemployed. doing? unemployed. [laughter] i think the governor has shown by practical example of what needs to be done. he knows it -- it is really very simple. you have to keep your taxes low, to rid of the excess, unnecessary regulations, and then make sure we're spending within our means. those are very tough issues. a tax increase is definitely not the right policy. our economy cannot take an increase in taxes. it will only hurt our economy. [applause] >> if we got that right, your opening remarks suggest with a mismatch between where people are right now and where the growth is going to be.

how do we bridge that divide? >> i think we need to redirect and make sure we provide a framing and the opportunity. we talked about small businesses. there's so much red tape to try to get access to capital. all of these things are huge business incentives. for the first time in history carnation, our credit rating has been dropped. employers? employers are saying, we're just waiting for different leadership before we start hiring again. so we're going to try to help them do that next election. [laughter] >> the governor mentioned this well, the governor says weary and a knowledge economy. the -- says we are in a knowledge economy. of the jobs, the 200,000 jobs being created, the majority of net new jobs are higher skilled jobs. 20 years ago, a custodian at

your school used to wear a heavy pelt and of something was wrong air-conditioning or the heating system, he would just -- i do not mean to insult them. he would take a tool and not something and it would be ok. nowadays, if you look at a custodian or with a call now stationary engineers, they do not have a built anymore. they have one little gadget, a computer. the air-conditioning of our facilities, the heating, it is all computerized. it speaks to what pablo was talking about, technology. skilled trade is an area where we need workers. you did have information technology knowledge. all of our systems are computer- controlled. you need to know how to use computers. i think one of the first things we need to do is let people know we're in a higher skilled

economy, in the old jobs of the past, even they're being moved in to hire skilled categories. we have to emphasize and persuade our young people to stay in school, get as much education and training as they can to position themselves to get these good paying future jobs, hopefully, that will develop sen. >> i just want to add, i think that is the key. when i look at the gap between the demands and the supply, the differences the technology that she is talking about. we depositions -- we do not have the -- the high unemployment rate we're dealing with, a high percentage are less than high school degree because they do not have the knowledge. we have to redirect our people, our nation's workers into those areas. >> you in many ways are the bright spot of the panel. how do you think about the

growth opportunities, what your products provide in the way of opportunities especially for hispanic communities and the skill sets? >> let me make one broader point and then respond more specifically to your question. all of the points that my fellow panelists are making are absolutely right on. if you look more broadly throughout the hemisphere, you realize the reduction of regulation, reduction of taxes and red tape and so forth, they are so important. when you look at economies like mexico, there is a lot of entrepreneurial spirit. the red tape and a lack of access to capital, the venture capital, is really holding down the economy. argentina is another critic sample of a lot of entrepreneurship, but no access to capital.

what we have here in this country is the foundational element, to your earlier point, we need to continue building upon. in terms of direct things we can do right now, encourage job creation and more entrepreneurs, two things to point out but one, a study came out about a year ago that indicates the job creation in the united states is not just small his description, but job creation by new small-business start-ups. -- is not just small businesses, but job creation by new small business start-ups. the point about information technology and the internet, statistics show even a standard brick and mortar company, everyone who is using the internet is increasing the revenue 2x, employment 2x, so,

again, i think everybody is talking about the same thing. we need to encourage the zero entrepreneurs, encourage the use of technology. -- we need to encourage the entrepreneurs, encourage the use of technology. it would achieve tremendous results but >> in the spirit of using technology, i have been given technology. with a question from twitter the says, what ideas to the panelists have to increase public, private investment and labour training? >> could i answer that? we are incredibly compassionate nation. when we talked about the skills gap, there many attempts by the government and private sector to address increasing skills level of the workforce. the u.s. public taxpayers, you

are already finding a $7 billion -- in washington, it is not such a big number -- [laughter] $7 billion to $9 billion, and i could explain why, but it is not worth it, the government engages in job training. there are over 1300 what is called local one-stop centers dispersed throughout our communities to help people with employment, to get jobs, and to provide training, whatever. these are good people who man is one-stop career centers. there many in puerto rico. we must do more. we must meet -- but the trend in the government needs, relevant. the private sector does a lot of training already. the government does some. it is a good partnership. i would challenge the government run turning centers to provide more relevant training and to listen to the

job creators, the employers within the community as to what types of training programs are best for that community. it does not make sense that a train program to reduce the say 1000 hairdressers for a community that only needs 13. -- it does not make sense for a training program for less a 1000 hairdressers for community that only needs 13. then they can get real jobs when they graduate from these programs. >> this comes up again and again. there was a panel of the large foreign based manufacturers, the mercedes benz, folks were going to invest in siemens. the biggest complaint about building a plant in the u.s. is we did not have the skilled trade. how do we address that? >> i would say it starts k-12.

that is a challenge i am facing now at the state level. if i may say so, we have too many lawyers. really. [applause] we a people trained in the wrong skills. we need more scientists. we need more technical people. we need more engineers. we have a lack of engineers, not just a puerto rico, but across america. that is what we need to do, but we must commence k-12. that is what we're trying to do right now. we call it schools for the 21st century. it involves the use of technology. it entices the students to stay

in school. and also to like math and science. >> i want to add, i think the public/private partnerships are key, contrary to what washington says, the private sector's are creating the jobs. the government does not create jobs. we need input from the private sector. secondly, there is a bias against skilled trade it is an honorable and important profession, so lot of times families will direct their children to college and in of dropping out because they really want to be a welder or electrician or carpenter. we have to encourage a positive attitude about individuals with honorable work. we have to promote that. >> i think we will open up questions to the audience. raise your hand and someone will bring you a microphone. please, identify yourself and ask your question in the form of a question.

>> get morning. manama's elizabeth. first of all, congratulations gov. fortuño. you are my hero. i am from the center of the island where you very well know we have a serious problem with unemployment, and our youth lived on the allen. we have a lot of land not being used. i'd like to see the land used with a partnership with florida that has citrus many times the citrus and florida it is completely lost. we can make a partnership to make sure that part of economic empowerment can be a sister/brother kind of marriage we can have. we have to have the line open between -- and tampa. we would be bringing in thousands of new jobs. the economy in central florida would be in medicine.

puerto rico would be incredible. will you help us to do that? >> i strongly believe in agro- business. we have seen a trend recently from the and regeneration getting into agro-business. and this makes a lot of sense. port facility and the southern part of puerto rico. it makes all the sense in the world that we should be fully connected with florida [applause] . >> question? we're going to give you a microphone. thank you. >> can morning. i want to address something that mr. mendes said.

there is an attitude about skilled labor. you cannot claim a parent for one in their child to go to college, for aspiring for greater things. but there are plenty of kids that are not cut out for school, even at high school level. why not build up technical schools at that level so they can graduate from a trade school with a license so they can work in their area of interest right from the get go, instead of having high school dropouts then try to apply for jobs that may not be trained to do? but my real question was for mr. chavez. would you please address our government recent attempt to sensor the internet considering how important internet is in job creation? thank you >> certainly. i think that as a reference maybe to the stuck online piracy act. it is somewhat controversial. [laughter] look, i agree with all four of

the republican presidential candidates that that particular bill, though well intended, had elizabeth of an overreach. and the problem -- had a little bit of an overreach. and the problem is, the internet is american and some new ways. it was developed here. our businesses are the model for the world. the chinese, iranians, others look at what we're doing c and doing cues from us. the moment we start censoring the internet here, all those people will start doing it, even worse than they are doing it today. with the personal experience with china, i will say that is not the environment you want to operate in. it is not morally or ethically correct. we agree piracy is a big problem, and we're very

committed to finding the right solution. this particular bill was not the right way to go because of the censorship elements. >> i was going to go back to another point. were you going to wrap up? >> no, i was quite ask you to go back to another point. [laughter] >> this group is really non- partisan. talk about job creation, i think it was really disappointing to hear from the white house that the president had decided to veto the keystone pipeline issue. [applause] i used to work with labor organizations. major swap of the labor wanted that project because it would of created hundreds of thousands of jobs. not only jobs, but skilled trades jobs as well.

it was disappointing to see how politics can in and the president align himself -- we're all environmentalist. we all care about the environment. this is such a large project that could of been so much to promote our economy and jobs. it was very disappointing. >> we will take a question here and then wrapped up. >> thank you. as a canadian originally, i think canada is pretty disappointed the president vetoed that as well. this is a comet/question for governor fortuño. we're developing solar power projects on the island a puerto rico. i can tell you in my 2 plus years working on the island of new york administration, the island has done a 180 as far -- working on the island under your administration, the island has done a 180. when i first interactive with the puerto rican electric power authority, they were frankly allergic paying more than a penny more.

we're talking about hundreds of megawatts would be coming on line in solar and wind and waste energy, landfill gas. the legislation passed and approved had a huge impact on the mind set. i think -- it is heartening to see developers from not just other parts of the u.s., but other parts of the world, coming to the island. if only there were a microcosm of what would happen in the rest of the u.s. recede the opposite trend and there's outsourcing and elsewhere. i think if those trends continue, great for puerto rican and those places that get it, but sad for the rest of the country. >> thank you. when you live on an island, you cannot connect to the national grid. you must act. being 70% dependent on foreign oil makes no sense, period.

looking at what is happening in the strait of hormuz, we are crossing our fingers. in a fiscally responsible way we're looking to promote other sources of energy that will create actually the climate, a business climate in term mentioning. if i may, and other areas like toll roads, airports, schools, there is plenty of capital their that is waiting to be tapped. it makes no sense for us to try to build everything. for all of the engine structure -- the infrastructure needed to run your state or city. i believe we have the most aggressive and public/private partnership in the country. we just closed the largest deal in six years in the country with the toll roads. it is a 40-year concession.

in about two or three months, at the main airport, san with correctional facilities later this year. that applies to the energy production. we're trying to do it in a fiscally responsible way, but in a way creating thousands of jobs. thank you. [applause] >> i have been negotiating with management and bought us some more time. first, and a rapid fire around, if you could do one thing in terms of federal policy to improve the outlook for jobs in hispanic communities, what would it be? >> i would lower taxes. [applause] >> reduce the excess of percolations. since this administration began, the level of what is called significant role makings have increased more than 40%. that is not all rulemaking or regulation, just significant

role makings over $100 billion and up critics shameless self- promotion. look at the regulation button. you'll see a catalog of the cost of regulations in recent history. it is staggering. >> for latinos and other americans, we think expanding trade and having a 20% treat trade agenda that includes free and open internet that is -- trade agenda that includes free and open internet. it would be really, really great for the economy and for latinos and many others. >> i would encourage a balanced budget and try to reduce the deficit. i think that would give employers a sense of confidence and comfort that we just don't have. >> wonderful. we have time for more questions. right here. >> i am from oregon. i came out here to help with

this election. i have children with disabilities that are of puerto rican heritage. one of my biggest peeves is when i was in school, a disabilities as well. they were telling me i should do english only emerson. we spend billions of dollars and cultural education at the expense of cutting speech pathology and special ed out of the budget. with billions of dollars for the state of oregon good to special education, but none went to the kids. if we want a good work force, why would it be okay to fail my children that are legal citizens of this country at the expense of promoting culture for kids that are coming into the country illegally? therefore, leaving them behind

in esl as well. there are some better sitting in the classroom that are getting no services at the expense of others getting help and all subjects. wenchow that needs the dish to help is not receiving it. as funding becomes an issue, i think of leaving a lot of our hispanic community behind whether they are illegal immigrants are that there are american citizens. i would like to see some of these issues being addressed. it is important to me. without the early help, i would not be here today. of a son that is the first latino american and hundreds of years and my family that is ever got a college degree. i am so proud of that. this is not just the first generation minority, and it had many years of failure in this country. my son is the fourth generation a failure in this country, a young person with the disabilities. forou're really advocates the latino community, how are we going to help our latinos

when there's less funding than ever before in education that is going into other areas and not the kids in the schools? >> there is a genuine question of how we set priorities. we have an enormous deficit and debt, and we have needs. >> she brings a valid point. i will tell you how i am doing it. all governors are executives. they have to make choices. it is not always easy to make choices. in education, special education in puerto rico, we have failed for 30 years our children. under both parties, it was wish to litigate against the parents and the children and not grant what should have been done. our team decided to do otherwise. it is a choice. you call -- cut elsewhere and

devote resources to this. at the same time we're cutting our budget by 20%, reducing our payroll, i have added about 1500 additional employees just in special education. there are strict always been following up what they are doing. thee adding resources for first time in 20 years, sporting events are open to special education kids and so on and so forth. it is a matter of choice of where are your priorities. >> i want to emphasize something. cutting the budget by 20%. we're talking about over $700 billion a year. an enormous accomplishment. [applause] i think there's been a biased toward the front because i am blind by the light. let's go back there.

>> this should be our last question. >> my name is bob. my question is for secretary chao. my grandfather came to this country from spain, left the depression as 17 years old to look for new horizons in this country. he built the largest hispanic food company in this nation, and did it without one single entitlement or occupying wall street. [laughter] [applause] he built the business in 1936 in new york. my question is, and i'm concerned about the health of our nation and see ourselves going and a similar way to what is happening in europe. how we build jobs when we have a department of labor that works against businesses, makes it more difficult for us to create jobs and to be successful in this country?

what is your suggestion to our candidates on how to improve our system, how to make it better? >> you get all the easy ones. [laughter] >> i love your story because it is a quintessential american story. senator rubio talked about it, the governor talked about it, the panel has talked about this is the land of opportunity. somehow there are people who believe we cannot get a fair shake in life if we look different or come from a different background read there is nothing further from the truth. i have the story myself. i came as an 8-year-old immigrant. i did not speak english. i learned. i'm very concerned about what is happening not only in the labor department, but the administration. the department of labour represented one ever% of the work force when we were in office. -- the labor department

represented 100% of the work force when we were in office. this seems to only represent 12%. only 7% of the workforce that is unionized in the private sector. the amount of regulation that is coming out of this administration not only in the labor department, is very anti- employer. they believe if you're making money, if you're an employer, you are up to no good. you have exploited their workers. you get up every morning and exploit workers. i think that is so wrong headed. i think we need to let people know about these actions. you have to go on the american action form. the regulations it ever since a workplace in america. big and small. when you go down the list, you'll be amazed at what regulations touch upon your life. you'll find regulations in the

energy department conflict with those from delivered apartment which conflicts with others. if you're a good, honest person tried to raise your family, take care of your children, you cannot meet all these regulations. many times, it is confusing and a conflict with one another. [applause] my last words, the have consequences. i want to point out my former colleagues in the front row, now vice chairman of citibank. [applause] >> with that, final comments from the panelists. >> i just want to echo what everyone has said. i think employers are on the silence just waiting to see what is going to happen. we need to help them and get someone elected that will deal with the issues we have talked about. [applause]

>> i work in an exceptional sector than has are really represents an exceptional country. we of such great opportunities to keep building on this, whether you work on the internet, technology or not, this is a wonderful, wonderful country to really build a future, build opportunities, and it is a great pleasure to be a part of this in delivering that message. thank you. [applause] >> i want to thank all of you for coming. this is an amazing event. i was so sad to have missed it last year. they spent a great deal of time planning for this to empower and let your voices soar during this particular time in our nation's history. you'll hear from wonderful speakers. ed gillespie will talk about "know your power."

there is power in this community, in this room. compliment you all. i say, let's do the right thing for our country. [applause] >> i want to think the organizers of this conference for allowing us to share these things with the panelists and with you. i want to thank you for showing up. most of us are hispanics here. it is a great country. you can achieve what everyone if you work hard. and what the government needs to do is get out of our way to allow us to enjoy freedoms. [applause] allow us to enjoy freedoms and actually the fruits of our labor. i only wish that we will get

back on track as a nation. i am convinced that we will. i want to thank you of again for allowing me to share with you this morning. thank you. >> please join me in thanking the panel. [applause] >> this 45 minute discussion focuses on u.s. immigration policy. we will hear from the former labor secretary of the bush administration. >> no, we are going to kick off the next portion of our important discussion on workforce, dispelling the myths.

on the stage for public policy issues, there is perhaps no other topic that lends itself to more misinterpretation then immigrationwe're going to start debunking the myths about immigrants and the work force. this is a very important panel, and i think it will be history in the making. alex is the dean of the college of law of florida international university. he has served as law clerk to justice samuel alito, jr. as the longest serving u.s. attorney in south florida and as a member of the national labor relations board, he has had the distinct honor of being the first hispanic to serve as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the u.s. department of justice under president george w. bush. thank you for being here. [applause]

next, carlos gutierrez. we're honored to have secretary gutierrez, our conference co- chair, along some governor jim bush -- jebb bush, with us today. he is currently vice chairman of institutional client group at citigroup. before his government service, he was working with tony the tiger as chairman and ceo of the kellogg company. thank you for being here. adam putnam leads a state agency with a mission to promote florida's agricultural sector, foster innovation in energy development, provide a safe and abundant food supply, managed forest resources, and safeguard consumers. previously, he served five terms in congress, representing florida's 12th district in the

u.s. house of representatives. thank you, commissioner putnam, for being here. [applause] last but not least, secretary spellings, margaret spelling's is with us. the eighth secretary of education. she is a strategic adviser to the u.s. chamber of commerce, where she is also president of the u.s. forum for policy innovation. as secretary of education, she has led the implementation of historic no child left behind. of course, our moderator in chief, the extraordinary doctor doug, who is back. the floor is all yours. enjoy the panel. [applause] >> welcome to the panel on immigration in the work force, dispelling the myths. i thought we would begin by letting the panelists open with a few introductory remarks on the topic they think is most pertinent. but to avoid boredom, not just going to go straight down.

i am going to defer to local politics and let the floridian opened with the remarks. mr. putnam. >> thank you. it is pleasure and honor to be here to talk about one of the most passionate issues. it has generated an awful lot of heat about a whole lot of light. hopefully in separating the myths from the reality, we can build the kind of consensus we need to have. there is always been a lot of talk about a tough immigration policy. what we need is a smart immigration policy. an immigration policy that makes sense in the 21st century. from agriculture's perspective, agriculture in florida is a $100 billion industry, the second biggest industry. even when times are good, when tourism and construction are down, it takes over as number one. because of the dysfunction in the broken approach in washington, individual states have attempted to move forward on that their round, which is an extraordinarily mistake -- it

is an extraordinary mistake. we need one smart national immigration policy, not 50 not so smart immigration policies. it is important the economy. it is board to our security. it is important global competitiveness. we want to continue to be that beacon that south florida has become. in florida, when they talk about going their own way with an immigration policy, it threatens our place in the world. that is not so the arizona has to worry about. they do not have a place in the world, do they? [laughter] florida has a sterling reputation. we are the financial center for latin america. we are a destination for international tourism, investment, travel, and international trade. that is what is at stake and why it is so important that we have this single national smart

policy that brings us into line and allows us to continue to recruit and attract the type of human talent that wants to build their dreams in united states. >> thank you. >> a couple of observations. first, i love this issue. like education, it is very emotional, and everybody has their own personal experience with this issue, like we do with our schools. i first got acquainted with the issue when i was a policy adviser at the white house and doug and i worked together. prior to 9/11, president bush was hard at work going through much more rational, market- based, sensible, comments of solution. what we know for sure is that our current system is a nightmare, a mess. bureaucratic, byzantine, does not make sense, arbitrary. a crazy quilt of policy-making. we went to work on that. obviously, after 9/11, that was

shelved. in the bush administration, we react the issue in january 2004 with a guest-worker program, and carlos led the major effort. the more you know about this issue, the more obvious these solutions are that come. that is why we had folks like senators kennedy, salazar, mccain, president bush, you know, a wide swath of folks that were working on this, seeing the way for this more sensible policy. i think the biggest myth in education is that tons and tons of illegals are in our schools that we are paying the bills for, and they're not able to succeed. so on and so forth. i will tell you that of the five plus million students in this country who have at least one parent who is illegal, 79% of those kids are born in the united states.

they are u.s. citizens like us and obviously have all the rights and responsibilities of u.s. citizenship. so i think, you know, our biggest problem, of course, in education is we are doing a woefully inadequate job of educating kids of all stripes, agreed, and colors in our schools, but these kids in our schools are largely u.s. citizens. the other thing i will say quickly is about a bilingual education and the so-called immersion. it is a quasi quilt of state policy that governs that. likewise, in-state higher education tuition. we will get that more. when i was secretary and i was working on this in the white house, there was one thing i really noticed. it did not occur to me until now. but all of us are from states that have a lot of experience with this. texas and florida.

it is amazing to me how folks in other parts of the country do not understand what immigration really does mean it to them. i used to say, you know, have you been anything today? had you stayed in a hotel? do you live in something that was built? and so on. this idea that it is just an isolated few states really is not the case but i am throw to be here. thank you for having me. >> we appreciate it. mr. gutierrez. >> thank you. i am going to talk a little bit about the impact on the economy. and at a time when we're talking about competitiveness and how do we get more competitive against the rest of the world and china is rising and what are we going to do, one of our biggest advantages lies in the demographics and immigration. every developed country in the world has a demographic problem. japan is a country that is

getting old very quickly. even china is going to good old before it gets rich. russia's population decline last year. it actually declined. and throughout europe -- italy, portugal, you name it, spain -- spain, i remember when they used to have 12 kids. today, the average family is not having enough to replace the people who are passing on. so this is a big problem for their economy. we grow our economy on the base of two things. productivity and the number of people in the work force. if you do not have enough people in the workforce, you have to do a really good job on

productivity to grow gdp. the key thing is to have enough people in the work force that allows you to grow. we have the advantage that people want to come here, that we attract immigrants, that immigrants have built this country. so if we get this right, if we get this immigration policy right -- by the way, i agree with adam putnam, this has to be a national immigration strategy that includes legal, illegal, what about the fact that we do not have enough nurses? the laws in agriculture are crazy. we're forcing people to reintroduce something illegal, to go out of business, or to send your farm to mexico. because that is what our law does to them. it impacts economics. it impacts job creation. immigrants come and they build businesses. as governor romney mentioned, more businesses and the average growth of small businesses in the country but you go to new york and watch the dominican republic community, and the

number of businesses they have. come to miami, and you will realize what hispanic americans have done for this country. so it is an economic imperative. if we get this right, forget china, forget india. we will have an advantage for a century. if we get it wrong, shame on us, because this could be our biggest competitive advantage for the next 100 years. >> thank you. [applause] >> you know, i would echo a lot of what people have already heard. this is a critical issue and an issue that, unfortunately, leadership currently is unwilling to tackle. it is a complex issue, and we need individuals that are willing to use political capital, as president bush was willing to do, to take this on and to find real solutions that

address both the issue of illegal immigration and a pathway to legal immigration. when we talk about immigration, it is very charged emotionally. and for me, it harkens back to president reagan. some of my earliest political memories are of president reagan. i was a little kid and what i remember about him is his positivism. he has this vision of our nation that that was a shining city upon a hill. later on, i went back and looked up what that meant. i found his farewell address, his final words to our nation from the oval office in january as he was about to leave his presidency. and i brought them with me, because i think it set a good tone for this issue. he said, and that is about all i have to say for tonight, except for one thing. the past few days i have been sitting in my window upstairs,

and i thought about the shining city upon the hill, the phrase comes from john winthrop, who wrote it to describe the america that he saw. but he was an early program, and early freedom men. he journeyed here in what today we call a little wooden boat. and like other programs, he was looking for a home that would be free. well, the reality is, today we have people journeying here on a little wooden boats or rafts made of tires tied together, and they're coming here for the exact same reason. because they are looking for a home that will be free. that is an experience that so many of us who grew up here in miami have. that there is a second side that we have to take on when we talk about immigration, and that is what happens when that happens illegally. i was a federal prosecutor in miami for five years. i had some experiences that are horrific. i had the parents of an 8-year-

old boys sitting in my office. the boy had drowned coming from cuba. they were in my office thanking me because at least they were able to stay in this nation, and they wanted to come by to say thank you. because we were able to have a funeral mass for our son. we're not sure that the passage from cuba was worth his life. as a matter of fact, we are really confused right now, but at least we have freedom. i had a case where a woman was raped repeatedly on her way over from haiti, because the smugglers, the boats, the coyotes that brought her over abused her, and she allowed it. because for her, that was the price of passage to our nation. the cost of illegal immigration

is not simply exclusion, but it is said use of those individuals coming to our nation, seeing it as a beacon of freedom. we have to address illegal immigration and give everyone a path to get here legally and in a transparent and fair way. >> thank you very much. [applause] i want to remind those who are not in the hall that you can send in questions over twitter, #hln12. we look forward to that. we will get the audience opportunity for questions as well. i want to echo what secretary gutierrez said, which is if we get this right, we will have an economic advantage for the next century. for too long, immigration policy in the u.s. was viewed not as part of economic policy. it was a tool of family reunification, and every avenue for those seeking asylum and

and safety from persecution. but it is actually at the core of our successes and that the economy. it is one of the great costs of the fact that we have a broken immigration system, that we are not going to prosper to the extent that we could pick up the dream of prosperity in america has been at the root of all immigration, and it is one of the sad ironies that we're undercutting it with a broken immigration system. i want to talk to those on the panel about things that come up often and things that make it hard to get the job done. do we need a temporary worker program, for example? >> from agriculture's perspective, it is central to the temporary guest worker program. you know, we have an issue at both ends of the work force, because it is an economic issue. at the high end of the work force, we continue to be a magnet for people around the world, and they come here to go to our university system, and

they get ph.d.'s and master's and all kinds of skills sets. as soon as they get their diploma, we kicked them out of the country. that is dumb on one side of the workforce a question put on the other side, if we're going to be food secure, independent, and not reliant on other countries for our food, particularly for our produce, things that tend to be harvested by hand, then we need a method for harvesting that through a temporary guest worker program. if, in the absence of that, then you will see $100 billion industry in florida go away. and an even larger industry than that in california go away. and we will be dependent on other countries for that supply of food. so a temporary program is as essential, because that is still labor. contrary to the myth, at the peak of the economic boom, only

about 10% of by estimates, only 10% of those who were in the country illegally were in ag labor. it is to be focused on ag labor, but there are any number of other industries that we need to continue to refresh the work force in. maybe it is hospitality, hotels, restaurants, construction, and landscaping. maybe it is nursing, as the secretary mentioned. there are a number of gaps in our work force in america. those gaps existed when the and a plate -- when the unemployment rate was 4%. in those gaps exist when the unemployment rate was 10%. >> doug, the two blind and react with some of the education implications of this. there is a spectrum. we really all aim to want to work for a market-based approach that is rational and makes sense, based on the needs of the economy and the work force, whether it is nurses or

engineers or folks in agriculture. if we believe that we're in a global knowledge economy, which we do, then, obviously, education is the pathway to the that the very skilled work force. whether it is technically or academically skilled, that is how we are going to bridge this gap that is why 12 states, including texas, california, and new york, as you may have heard -- texas -- have systems that allow their immigrant populations to attend public higher education at in-the state tuition levels. four states have banned its out right. alabama, indiana, georgia, and colorado. and the rest have what i call kind of a don't ask, don't tell policy, which basically leaves it up to institutions to sort of ferret it out or not.

one of the things i have learned from president bush is to always keep your eye on the results. what do we want? we want a human economy. we want to prepare folks to do that work. we want systems the set that up. we're doing anything but that now. it makes all the sense in the world to me that we educate kids to high levels as quickly as possible and in places like texas and florida and others that have large immigrant populations, that you will be smart about how quickly and how effectively you educated those kids. >> you know, we talk about immigration as a whole, and we generalize. but where do you get the immigration from is a big question, and this be a a hispanic group will understand that another advantage that the

u.s. has is a border with latin america. and therefore, and veterans who come to this country to work and to dream and to have a better life and to have the promise of a better future for their kids do not really come to threaten our way of life. you know, this thing about assimilation is crazy. or about coming no, hispanics not assimilating. it is just another one of these, you know, buzzwords. i wish all kids assimilated the same way as cuban-americans do, which is the assimilate, but they keep their language. frankly, we need more than one language in the sense of doing business with the rest of the world. >> that is right. >> thank you. [laughter] so i was surprised a little bit

with the comment today of speaker gingrich of one government language. what that means is that if you're doing the census, you cannot have a questionnaire in spanish. why not? come on, we are an international country. we do business around the world. the chinese pick up a u.s. planning, and they read it. we could pick up a chinese plant in and get busy. so we need more people, you know -- [laughter] [applause] one more thing -- the other thing is, in europe, they're having a hard time with immigration, hard time, because most of their innovation is coming from the middle east. and in some cases, not all cases, but in some cases, they have refused to assimilate. in many cases, they're not going to work, because the people who are going are not of working age.

older than working age. so they have the problem. japan has never had immigration. so where are they going to get it from? neither has in china. we have immigration from latin america. and last month's -- and latins fit in here as good or better than anyone else. language, faith, western values, family. i mean, it is what this country is. latins are what this country is. so that is another advantage. we have a border with latin america. i will tell you, given latin- american growth and given the population growth in mexico, there is going to come a time, maybe not in five years, but in 30 years, 40 years, where mexico will say, sorry, but we do not have any more people to send, because our population is not growing fast enough and we

needed them to stay here. so, again, it is just another reason for acting now, because the future is so clear. you do not have to be soothsayer to see it coming. >> we're going to open it up to questions from the audience. before we do, given that we have an enormous range of problems in our immigration system -- if you could do one thing, what is the one thing you would work on tomorrow to improve the look for u.s. immigration? >> the one thing that would do is try to foster a rational conversation about this issue, what it means to everyone, what it means to our economy and our country. >> that is what i am supposed to be doing. >> i know, well, that is. but i think it would be useful for the president of the united states -- god willing it will be ours, to have an education effort around this thing. because we're talking past each

other. and we get down into defense and all this other stuff, and it is this a red herring nonsense to honestly, in many, many cases. >> totally. and immigration has been a political football. and the democrats have used it very cleverly, you know. every time there is an election coming, harry reid introduces a bill which he knows will never pass. but when it does not pass, he blames it on the republicans. you know? and the hispanic community who were promised are just being used, and they understand it. they realize that they're being taken for a ride, because there were promised a lot. president has been in power for three years. first two years he had both houses, nothing happened. he could have made it happen. nothing happened. i am concerned about some of these approaches. speaker gingrich says, well, comprehensive does not work, so

therefore, piecemeal. the problem with the political football is precisely because we hand people piecemeal bills so the play with them. immigrants have this great excitement about something, and suddenly they realize nothing, not even the vote is in place. that is the trap of piecemeal. i happen to think governor romney, what he was talking about, you know, immigration -- the whole thing, the 4.5 million people waiting to get in. what is our national immigration strategy? what is our policy is part of our competitiveness approach? within that, we are eventually going to get it to, would you do it $12 million for defense, 3 million born here? that is part of the big strategy. the problem is we start there, and we start with the most difficult part. very often we start with the was difficult part because

we're just playing with it, using it for political tactics. that is what one of the many things is that bothers me. in the meantime, hispanics keep waiting for something. they keep the promise, but it is all about tactics. just keep your eye on the next time it comes up, and i am sure it will come up over the next 12 months. [applause] >> in east -- i think that is absolutely right. i would put a deadline on conference of the immigration solutions. i keep hearing, you know, bills introduced, and they go nowhere. as the secretary said, they're not meant to go anywhere. they are meant to wile up the emotions. but we need a solution. several individuals here on the panel were involved in finding a solution several years ago under president bush, and we need somebody who's gone to say, we have to enact coverage of

the immigration solutions. part of that means figuring out what we do with all the individuals that are already in our nation. we needed them here. they provide construction jobs. they provide agricultural jobs. we need to figure out a way to address that. we need to figure out a way to then have the pathway to further future legal immigration. if we do not take it all at once, we're not going to solve it. you cannot solve part of it without solving the other part. you cannot address immigration without answering, what you do the individuals that are already in the united states? so let's just get it done, and let's get it done quickly. >> mr. commissioner. >> it requires leadership, and that begins at the top. we just have not had that since president bush. somebody who is really willing to have the national conversation about what this

means to the future of our country. in the most members of congress understand it. they find reasons not to understand it. but, intuitively, they get it. they know that it is broken. it only takes a passing glance at the patchwork of who was in and who is out, who is in the express late and who was not, to see that it is desperately in need of modernization. what we need first is that national leader who will have that, who will facilitate that national conversation on the importance of this. if you deal with getting the legal path right and the temporary piece right in the visa program right and modernize the antiquated system that, as messed up as it was when they're trying to bring the chinese in to build the railroad across the country -- i mean, it is really that messed up. if you get that part right to the part that is already here takes care of itself. it really begins to take care of itself as you fix the early

pieces of security in the legal pieces. you're now creating a natural magnet to get your status where it should be. but everybody who is interested in killing it in its infancy start with the hardest part. >> we are going to go to the audience. if you have a question, we will get you a microphone. identify yourself and ask your question in the form of a question. right here. >> linda vasquez. you have been talking about, -- comprehensive immigration law, which i presume you're talking about federal level enforcement or programs. what about the states? arizona has stepped out. south carolina is dealing with their own laws. to the states have a right to

control their own destiny with immigration? to preclude the federal government from either doing nothing at all or stepping in and doing too much? >> georgia, alabama, arizona, i believe, are sort of the headline states who have stepped out there with their own state approaches. florida last year, thank goodness, did not do it, because it would have been devastating to our state, our reputation, to our economy. this year, and to the constitution, there is a really narrow bandwidth of options for states to deal with immigration. about talking international discussions that flows across national borders. so out of frustration that

congress is not doing anything and that they really only are allowed to do some things, they're focusing on the enforcement part and it has had devastating consequences for their economy. georgia has a labor report out, and so does alabama, that has been very harmful to their economy. because in it swinging wildly out of frustration that washington has not done something, they have passed bills that are causing their businesses and their economies great harm. they have seen an evacuation of workers. they have experimented with every pilot project imaginable that has ever been floated for ways to replace jobs that immigrant labor does. they tried prisoners, welfare recipients, all these things, and they lasted until lunchtime. [laughter]

from florida's perspective, we watched very closely the alabama and georgia model, and it has given us a real world, a real time example of what happens when you get these state-based policies wrong, and it reinforces the importance of getting it right, getting a smart, and doing it at a national level, instead of having it 50 different rabbits running 50 different directions. >> the gentleman here. >> i am from minneapolis. a year ago, at the launch of the hln, we heard from lieutenant governor maldonado. and he said it passionately, and i think we have to hear this again. he said that the latinos in california, which are a great percentage of all latinos in

this country, do not want amnesty. and i think we have to listen to that. another thing that i do not think we do that well is latinos do not talk about border security but i am an american. i am an american-hispanic. i want a strong border. and do nothing we do enough -- are we doing a good enough job about the community talking about immigration reform, instead of listening to these politicians are not talking about it at all? >> i think you're absolutely right. you bring up a very good point. i do not know what amnesty is, because any time that someone has proposed a solution, that does not sound like amnesty to me. that sounds pretty punishing. someone calls it amnesty. so, you know, amnesty has become the one word that could kill an idea.

oh, that is amnesty, you know? which is very dangerous, because it really confuses people, and people do not then it know how they should feel about a certain issue. at one time, there were calling the fence a wall. when i get asked for records, how do you feel about the wall? they kind of put me on the spot. how you feel about border security? well, i think every country in the world has the right and obligation to secure their border. you know, it is not against immigrants. just secure your border. you do not have to be apologetic about it. and i said that. but it is not a wall, and it is not a wall because all the way across. it is a fence. does it make sense on a functional basis? probably a little bit. but the reality is that 40% to

50% of the illegals come in -- that come in, come in in airports. so the airplane just goes right over the wall. [laughter] [applause] so, i worry, like you. terms like border security have to be understood. some people say that. i believe in my heart that governor romney says it because he believes it. but some people say it as a way of saying -- border security. let us forget about everything else, it is border security. you have to watch it. that is another one of those buzzwords. immigration is absolutely full of buzzwords, and people are tremendously confused. but, most people in the country, and governor romney said so, are pro-immigration. because most people in this country are immigrants. so i hope people are seeing what you are seeing, this play

with words. >> and if i could add briefly to the border security is not simply about immigration. border security is about stopping threats coming into our nation. border security is about stopping illegal drugs. border security is about stopping the other items that can threaten our nation, whether they be biologicals or other items. so border security has multiple purposes. and i think it is dangerous to say it is only for stopping immigration. >> good one. >> question here. >> i am from texas. i used to be totally against the dream act. but the more i thought about it in the more i got to and the dreamers, a kind of started changing my mind. can somebody explain what the jury back really is?

we also talk about these kids. they are in their 30's. they came here back when they were minors. longer we wait for a solution for these kids that came here as minors, or becoming adults. the truth is, can somebody really explain to whoever is listening to this panel, so they can understand why it is important that this is not only for kids, but for people, because we're dealing with people who came here as the children? they did not ask to come, but they're here, and this is their country. >> and on twitter, there is a question about the dream act. what do you think about it, and how would you change it to make it more successful? >> basically what the dream act says is that kids who were brought here at a younger age,

to be determined what that is, but they're not u.s.-born, foreign-born, an illegal. that has grown up here, gone through schooling here. like you, i have met some of the dreamers. valedictorians other high school and so forth. came here when there were three years old and so on. without a route for those individuals to continue their post secondary education lawfully, at any price, in this country and chart a path forward is, in my view, humane and smart. say, you know, you have no opportunity here currently in our military or higher education, you know, you're out of luck. so this act would aim to regularize and legalize, whatever word you want to use, those individuals who can go on a path away either to military service or to post secondary education. i want to remind you, and this goes back to the myth, this is

not a huge number of individuals. i think it's overstated. the vast, vast majority of kids in our schools who are limited- english speakers are u.s. citizens, and we owe them an education. >> we have time for one -- >> the point about the age struck some people as odd. that is why some people in congress -- i think it was up to 30 or 35, which the questioner mentioned. the dream act, by the way, was used exactly for political purposes. it was a bill that if you looked through all the facts, some things were just very difficult to accept. but if you did not accept it, boy, you're not accepting the dream act. you are against young student immigrants. it did not matter that that

clause 35 was the craziest thing in the world. they were setting you up. they're sitting republicans up. and that happens all the time. >> same thing. the dream that has been the most politically manipulated tool in this whole debate. in a very cynical way, particularly, on the left. i think what you see some consensus for is this military service, such as the starting point, and the rest of it being a topic for the broader discussion about immigration. >> thank you. last question. >> vice chairman of the school board in in ociella county. it takes so long for people to get here legally. being puerto rican, it is not essential to my community, but i wanted to learn about it. i started looking at it. there is ice, border patrol,

department of state, the department of justice. maybe there is too much government. do you think there should be 90 agencies to regulate immigration? do you think that is contributing to the broken immigration system? >> how many votes for the status quo here? >> i was the federal prosecutor, and when there were immigration issues, i had to get out the directory and start figuring out which agency does this and which agency does that. when even the folks on the inside have trouble figuring out the system, that really speaks to it is a very, very broken system, and it is time to change it. >> just to add to that, when we were looking at ag jobs, and you went to the process that you had to do to get a permit for a temporary agricultural worker. it is this agency and that

agency and the labor department, and they could take 20 days -- so it took about four months, by which time the harvest would be rotten. so, again no, you're forcing, by making laws that cannot be implemented, you're forcing people to break the law. or go out of business. >> on that note, our time has expired. i want you to join me in thanking the panel. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> more from the hispanic leadership network.

a discussion on tomorrow's presidential primary. we will hear from ed gillespie. >> aide to of a hat to a woman who has been teaching me to speak spanish. [applause] just to take a brief moment to look back at all that you have accomplished. one year ago, hln was inaugurated. one year later, we have twice as many participants. we have co-sponsored a presidential debate. it is due to individuals, to leaders like yourselves. people who are stepping forward to fill an appetite, a void within your community for the hispanic community. it truly has been an honor to participate in this project.

i have the incredible honor of introducing our next speaker who will be here to give remarks and into your questions. ed gillespie is one of our top strategists. his record of success at business, politics, makes him one of the best and brightest in the field today. he served as a counselor to president bush where he helped manage the -- managed a series of historic events, including the surge of troops in iraq, the response to the financial crisis, and the peaceful transition of presidential power. he also served as a chairman in the republican national committee. today, he is the founder of ed gillespie strategies. with that, please give a warm

welcome to our next speaker, ed gillespie. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. it is great to be with you. i want to thank the hispanic leadership network to give me this opportunity to speak here today about the role and influence that hispanics will play in this critical election. i'm mostly want to thank them for putting four hours between my remarks and senator rubio's speech this morning. you know there is a saying that he did not want to be the coach that allows their pride. you want to be the coach that follows the -- you do not want to be the coach that follows bear bryant. you want to be the coach that follows the coach that follows bear bryant.

we have launched the future majority budget. it is a long-term effort for conservatives to elect more people to office and increase our majority. i think many of you can help here today. i want to share what our goals are. it is a three-pronged effort. it includes increasing the board votes with women, young voters, -- increasing our votes from women, young voters, and those of hispanic descent. we seek to recruit 100 hispanics to run in this election cycle for state, house, and senate seat. we focus our resources on flipping legislative chambers from democratic control to republican control or keeping republican control. in this instance, we are going to be active in every state, helping to elect hispanics. presently, republicans hold 3978

of these seven dozen 328 state legislature seats -- 7328 state legislature seats. only about 45 of those legislators are hispanic. we have some real stars. we sell one this morning in senator rubio. -- we saw one this morning in senator rubio. we need to build on the success of these elected leaders of hispanic descent by electing more of them. this is because voters tend to relate to candidates they can identify with. more latino elected officials will help us convey a message of economic growth and opportunity to the fastest-growing segment of our population. that will help increase support

for conservative solutions. i say that as an irish catholic who has seen my fair share of irish catholic politicians. obviously, anglo candidates need to communicate with hispanic voters too. hispanic candidates can help us grow our majority. state legislators of the pipeline for future governors and members of congress. marco rubio is a former florida house speaker marco rubio. i think everybody in this room understands why this effort is so important. we note that this is the fastest-growing segment. -- we know that this is the fastest-growing segment. i want to highlight a few key points. in 2000, george the of the bush got 55 percent of the white vote in this country -- george w. bush that 55% of the white vote

in this country. we remember it well. eight years later, john mccain 55% of the white vote -- got 55% of the white vote and lost to barack obama. much of that was due to the fact that the hispanic vote declined from 44% at that george bush got to 31% that -- for senator mccain. here is the point we need to think about. in 2020, only two presidential election cycles away, not far, if the republican nominee for president gets the same percentage of the white, african-american, hispanic, asian american boat that john mccain got, the democrats will

be elected to the white house by 14 percentage point. according to the 2010 census, 50.5 million people are of latino origin. in 2012, one in every 10 votes was cast by a latino voter. if that projection is accurate, that will represent an astounding 26% increase in one presidential cycle. it is not surprising when you consider it over the past decade the voting hispanics increased 75%. just like every other demographic, they are not voting at the full strength of their population. white voters account for 73% of the voting age population and cast 70% of the vote.

asian americans 3% of the population, 3% of the vote. hispanics are 16% of the population, they account for 9% of eligible voters. they were only 7.5% of the boat. without a single new person coming -- of the vote. without a single new person coming, the amount of hispanic vote is going to increase. every month, 50,000 americans of hispanic descent become eligible to vote. by 2020, this segment will be a decisive swing vote available to conservative candidates for an insurmountable obstacle to success for those who believe in greater economic growth, more

freedom, and more individual liberty. public polling shows us there is room for tremendous growth amongst latino voters. --panic puzzle at toad's hispanic's attitudes towards government is consistent with republican views. there were results of a new survey on hispanic voters here in florida. six out of 10 believe the country is on the wrong track, believe that president obama has not delivered on his promise. by more than two to one they believe the situation for hispanics in the u.s. is worse under president obama. two-thirds believe the economy is the most important issue. 86% are concerned about the federal government's level of spending and debt. the majority believe president obama is a weaker leader than

they expected him to be. in a critical swing state of florida, there is an opening for hispanic voters as well as in those critical states of new mexico, colorado, nevada, and arizona. hispanic voters will play a pivotal role in the outcome of the allegro college. on fundament -- of the electoral college. on fundamental issues, allowing small businesses to grow, fostering family, individual responsibility, home ownership, the equality of opportunity, protecting the sanctity of life, reforming education, most americans of hispanic descent are allied with the -- blend it with the republican party. -- aligned with the republican party. in 2012 that message could not be more important.

this election is a referendum on president obama and his handling of the economy. hispanic share the same anxieties as the population does. that is very important. 2012 as the most important election of our lifetimes. i said that in 2004. i meant it then. at that time, bill yet to respond to terrorism would have made as weaker as a nation -- failure to respond to terrorism would have made us weaker as a nation. now we face another threat in question federal debt, excessive spending and stifling regulation. government intervention threatens to leave the future generations a very different country than we had into it up and tell them. a lot of people who voted for barack obama -- that we had up until now. a lot of people who voted for

barack obama -- this administration and those who support this agenda want to move us away from our free enterprise system where individuals are free to rise and fall according to their own talents to a more centralized economy would decisions are replaced by hundreds of decisions made by appointed political appointees in washington. decisions about everything from what lightbulbs weakened by to what cars we can drive to what food to begin the -- light bulbs we can apply to what cars we can drive to what food we can eat. it has given way to the realities that it is adding to our nation's debt, every day, people are losing the insurance they had. just as the health care bill is

driving up the cost of health bill, it is also driving up the cost of energy. the regulation on banks is making it harder for businesses to get capital. many hispanics are small business owners. they feel the credit crunch. i spoke with a small bank owner in tennessee who told me that for the first time he employs more compliance officers then the loan officers. all of that reflects a view from washington and his administration that we will be better off if experts in the capitol, a policy mavens, staffers on the house ways and means and senate finance committee, could have even more power to even out the cycles of boom and bust in our economy and to spread the wealth a little. most americans, including americans of hispanic descent,

know that the ups and downs that come with a market-driven economy can be frightening, but also understand that dynamic characteristic is essential to the growth that creates the well. liberals only want to redistribute it. we understand the private sector investment is better than public-sector stimulus, that punishing success only results in less success. like most americans, americans of hispanic descent understand that prosperity results from an economy based on creating wealth. if you care about lifting millions of people out of poverty, you should support a system of democratic capitalism over a government managed economy. they believed that america is more a force for problems than a force for good. they believe america is exceptional only in the way that the brits believed in british

exceptional some. -- exceptionalism. the united states of america is not just another country. in a world where america at this week, it is a world that is less stable and more dangerous to us. on the issue of life, marriage, latinos are right of center. a culture that fails to protect families of the fundamental building blocks of societies. the marriage between one man and woman is the foundation of help the families. the principals most latinos embraced by the principles that have made our country great, made america the last best hope of man on earth. the genius of our founders seen in the declaration of independence resulted in a beacon of liberty and

opportunity that has drawn a freedom loving people to our shores for more than two centuries. in the 1840's and 1850's, during the irish potato famine, what the average called -- irish called the great hunger, millions fled for the united states have been little idea of what to expect -- having little idea of what to expect. in the ships, the irish government posted posters. they read, in the united states, well is not idolize. there is no degradation connected with labor. he may expect to raise himself in the world by his labor. i sometimes find osama wondering if the irish government -- i sometimes find myself wondering if the irish

government officials had a better grasp on america than u.s. government official today. decades after it had subsided, a boy's father was able to scrape together enough money to bring the boy and his mother to a america. sean patrick gillespie became john. he became known as gatt. he served his adopted country as an infantryman in world war ii earning a purple heart and a silver star. he worked as a janitor. with his wife, he bought a growth restored. he eventually saved enough -- he bought his own bar. [laughter] [applause]

jack and his wife made their six children their first generation to ever attend college. i am one of those children, the son of an irish immigrant who came here legally, work hard, and made a better life than he ever dreamed possible, and helped make the world a better, safer place. he died a great american. i am cut to be the son of that immigrant. -- proud to be the son of that immigrant. [applause] we do not want america to become more like places that people have left to come here to get away from. the economies took by too much government intervention. -- economies choked by too much government intervention.

we want to welcome the people who want to come here to work hard and become great americans. that is what makes america so great. i want to thank everybody, all of those involved in the hispanic leadership network for the work you do to convey conservative principles, especially to those voters who are so receptive to hearing that message. i want to thank all of you for being here today to support this effort. god bless you. god bless america. thank you for letting me be here with you today. [applause] let's thank you. -- >> thank you. we have time for some questions or advice or suggestions. i would welcome those. we have a microphone moving around. >> do you know how laws have

changed to register voters? you have to register your organization for you to have permission to register voters? >> i am not familiar. >> it makes it more difficult. >> i believe, there are a lot of efforts going on, to not only identify latino voters who share our bellies and would vote for conservative candidates, we also need to register those of voters. i feel those who have a liberal perspective have done a much better job of identifying potential voters than we have. i am not familiar with the florida state law. whatever the law is, i do think that those of us have to do a better job of registering hispanics who share our point of view.

>> thank you, there's of all. -- first of all. you are speaking to the choir. everyone knows where you are coming from. we understand it well. how do we get that message to other communities? once you leave miami? -- conservatives are having trouble explaining why they are conservative. how do we get that message to the anglo community said they realize the reality of the senses? >> i think there is a growing awareness. i sense it. i can feel it in meetings i attended. a woman is here, she is active on our effort. other efforts to try to elect officials and spread that word.

that is part of the point to have an elected of latinos who share our view. i am a big believer in concentric circles. it starts here at meetings like this where there is a little preaching to the choir. i think it helps to talk about how we talk about these issues in a way that does resonate. we have been doing -- i would encourage everyone to look at research. we have an ongoing hispanic voter project. one person is here from the board. he did the most recent survey. we have a steady stream of data regarding hispanic voters. we do focus groups. we tried to discern how best we talk about these issues. one of the things we learned, in the latino community, there is a greater sensitivity. recently or a little for the back their family has a history

of countries where inflation and wrecked currencies were the result of extended debt. it is one of the things we learned. it is a project. we have to push it out. it starts in meetings like this one here today. >> we were told when they were pushing for the affordable health-care at that we had to, as a nation, come together and the 30 million uninsured of which part of that was the illegal immigration -- illegal immigrants of this country. how do you think that this obamacare is going to impact our future if its days?

-- it stays, if it is not repeal? i know senator coleman made a remark the other day that said he did not believe obamacare could be repealed. do you believe that is true? how is it important to get every part of it repealed? >> i am not familiar with what he said. he is a friend. i have great respect for him. i believe obamacare can be repealed and it must be. the fact is that the democrats were able to pass it with a simple majority. it was not a 60-vote rule. by my reckoning, that means there does not need to be a 60- vote margin to repeal it. we can do it under the same

rules they enacted it. i believe we will have 51 republican senators in the senate to do that. [applause] i believe every one of them will vote to do so. it is imperative. there is a dangerous precedent here. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

>> retire the colors. ♪

♪ ♪

♪ [applause] >> please remain standing for our invokeation led by major vince cummings. >> thank you, general. good morning. general petraeus. thank you for coming. would you all please join with me as we now go to our lord in prepare to open up the -- prayer to open up the national security symposium. shall we pray? oh, mighty god, we are here.

and as we gather as a family, a fraternity of citizen warriors, our body stands united in serving the beloved nation which you have bestowed upon us, the united states of america. as reservists and citizen warriors, we serve authority three times removed, country, community, family, but most of all, we serve you collectively pursuing the highest ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. blessed creator, pour out your holy unction on this gathering. we new the selfless relationships that bind us together and most importantly, allow us to hear and disstern wisdom from our distinguished keynote speakers here today. we finally ask your inner

session on comforting our colleagues that have lost loved ones that have served our great country and strengthened those citizen warriors and never allow us to forget those sacrifices an finally motivate all of us to continuously grow as we strive to be the lead hears the you decyrus to be as servants of our great republic. we now uplift these rekuwait cities to you for it is in your holy name we pray, amen. >> please be seated.

>> welcome to washington, d.c.. for the next three days, you're in for an exciting national security symposium and reserve officer association convention. so fasten your seat belts, and please direct your attention to the monitors on the side. >> we have the fewer make the world -- a new beginning. >> i do not fear what is ahead.

our heart is larger. our challenges are great, but our will is greater. >> there is no way we can go forward except together. it does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to -- to believe in ourselves and our capacity to perform great deeds. >> it will not be buzz of what we have. it will be because -- because of what we have. it will be because of what we are.

♪ ♪

♪ [applause] >> does that get your heart pumping? as a reminder, please silence your cell phones and any other electronic devices you might have. also because we're a forward-looking electronically capable organization, for those of you who are tweeting this conference, please use the hash tag r.o.a. to kick things off, i would like to introduce to you, our national president, air force reserve colonel, walker williams. [applause] >> thank you, general davis,

and good morning again. throughout this national security symposium, r.o.a.'s convention body will also convene. 90 years ago on october 2, 1922, general riley led r.o.a.'s first gathering where our founding fathers established this great organization. it is now my privilege and honor to preside over our 86th national convention. now is our first item of business. we welcome another inductee. a great citizen patriot who has contributed to the advancement of our r.o.a. programs and its objectives. it is an exceptional honor for me to introduce our first speaker and induct this year's newest addition to the minute men hall of fame. our speaker has been referred to as the premier military man

of our age. he has distinguished himself with his leadership, valor, creativity and diplomacy. in the area of scholarship, his masters and doctorate degrees from the woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs and the arms center reflect the marvelous intelligence and insight he brings to bear on any issue. his integrity is unimpeachable. through his over 37 years of military service, remarkably, director petraeus has held six general officer commands, five as combat commands. he did this in bosnia, he did it with the 101st air assault division in iraq. he served as commander of the multinational force iraq leading the surge. he served as commander and

finally as a duo headed commander of the international security assistant commander of u.s. forces afghanistan. our guest speaker's name is often mentioned in the same sentence with most of our revered leaders of the past. generals washington, grant, macarthur anodizen hour. for -- anodizen hour. most recently, president obama has called upon him to serve as a director of the central intelligence agency. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to induct a long time supporter of r.o.a. and the reserve forces and into the minute men hall of fame, please join me in welcoming director david petraeus. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. >> well, thanks very, very much. good morning to you all. thanks for a warm welcome. it is great to be with you all this morning. it is great to be part of your 2012 national security symposium, the 86th, i note, and it is great to be with so many with whom i've been privileged to serve in the past decade in particular. just out of curiosity, in fact, how many here have been deployed since 9/11 if i could just see a show of hands.

how many have been deployed more than once since 9/11? how many more than twice? since 9/11? do any have three years or more in deployment just out of curiosity. right here? where is my guys back there? how many coins have you got with you today, fellows? if you have three or more years deployed come on up here and we'll see how quickly my guys can respond and we'll do a quick photo. come on up here. [applause]

>> well done. [applause] >> those are the individuals and the others in here and so many more that you have led and represented and served with who have truly made that video a true video and brought to life that statement that when the nation needed you, you responded to the call. colonel williams, thanks very much for the kind introduction. overly kind. i must say the response to such words make me wish my dear departed parents were here to enjoy them.

i'm truly humbled by the award i'll receive today but i do want to thank colonel williams and general davis and i want to salute them and all of your leadership for years of military service. these two alone account for well over a half century in uniform for our country and i want to salute as well their tremendous leadership of the reserve officers association. indeed, i salute not only them but the rest of the leadership of r.o.a. for recognizing citizens and soldiers who advance the cause of our nation's security and who very much embody the qualities of service in leadership exeveryonified by one of the association's key founders. it is a pleasure to see in the audience so many with whom i served on the battlefield over the past decade. it is an honor to be with this unique group.

members of rotc, over there, host: you're getting credit for this for a class. they, who'll, of course, lead the nextgen ration of reservists. i thank association for taking on an issue in my household, particularly ensuring that a number of programs for our military families are well supported. as some of you may know, my wife holly is the director of the consumer frnl protection bureau helping to lead the fight against financial ripoffs that target our troops and their families. [applause] i will note that that was an applause line. to her that is. but as all of you know, bullets and i.e.d.'s make no distinctions between the reserve and active components of our military and neither to

predatory lenders. holly and i are very pleased that you are pushing this issue. speaking of reservists upfront, i wanted to share with you a story from a recent declassified operation that took place the the pacific ocean area. it has been unreported until today. during this particular operation, one of our best reserve units was deployed to perform a sensitive mission on a desert island where they had to hire some local inhabitants of scouts and translators. it turned out thufere the locals were cannibals. his r.o.a. membership was current. no small point for the front row here. he made a point of speaking to

them. you're part of our team now, he told the cannibals. he said we will allow you to eat any of our rations but please don't eat any of our troopers. the cannibals promised not to eat any of the unit soldiers and they then shook hands with the commander and went to work. everything was going smoothly until about four weeks later when the commander called the can balance together for a meeting. you're all working hard, he said, and i'm very pleased with your performance. however, one of our sergeants has disappeared. do you know what happened to him? they all shook their heads and professed to have no idea of the missing sergeant's wroobts. after the commander left, the leader turned to them and asked sternly which one of you idiots ate the sergeant. one of them meekly put his hand

in the air and said i did. you fool, the head cannibal shouted. for four weeks, we have been eating lieutenants, captains and even majors and no one noted anything. [laughter] and then you had to go and eat a sergeant. [laughter] now when i was in uniform, i used to note that i didn't say anything about eating generals. i'm sure their absence would have been noticed instantly by their aide only. [laughter] well, thanks for laughing. you know the deal. when you reach my nation is life, you're only as good it is a material they give you. well, it is, again, an enormous honor to receive the minute men hall of fame award. in truth, i've received a few awards in recent years, but it is certainly rare to be inducted into a hall of fame.

noting, of course, the fine line between fame and infamy. i'm glad i have avoided achieving the latter. i would quickly add, however, that i owe this honor to the men and women in uniform with whom i was privileged to serve along with the c.i.a. officers and diplomat who is served shoulder to shoulder with our troopers in helping to safeguard our nation, particularly of course over the course of the last decade. thanks to the exceptional skill and selfless valor of those who answer our country's call, active duty and reserve components, union formed and civilian, we achieved hard-fought progress in iraq. we arrested and reversed the taliban's momentum in many areas of afghanistan and achieved successes in other fronts in the war against al qaeda and its affiliates. none of this was easy.

we often used to say, in fact, that it is all hard, all the time. but it was done. and it is again, on behalf of those with whom i've been privileged to serve since 9/11 that i accept this award today. as i thought about my remarks today, i thought i might share some of the especially memorable moments from my career over the past decade in particular in which i had the honor of soldiering alongside reserve officers and those they have left. for our reserve components have played an absolutely essential role in iraq and continue to do so in afghanistan and, in fact, in many other locations in my old areas of responsibility and elsewhere around the world. indeed, in those countries, without our citizen soldiers, our armed forces simply could not fully carry out america's

global commitments to keep our nation secure. four years ago, almost to the day, that was on january 18, i had the great privilege on the 100th anniversary of the u.s. army reserves to reenliss 100 reservists. i was the commander in iraq at the time and it was a true honor to use that occasion to thank all of our great citizen soldiers for their considerable contributions, particularly as we were still engaged in the so-called surge there in iraq. i was joined for the occasion by the commander of the army reserve, the great lieutenant general jack stollingts, a minute men hall of famer himself who observed that those fine men and women were part of the most professional, most competent, best trained, most dedicated reserve force we have ever had. close quote. i certainly agreed with his assessment then and i still do

very much today. indeed, the success of the surge in iraq was due in no small part to the impressive skill and character of our reserve components whose personnel played a critical role at a critical moment the the campaign. -- in the campaign. many in this room today and thousands more in your organization were part of that critical endeavor. indeed, not just part of it but leaders in it. as was noted during the introduction, during my final years in uniform, i had the privilege of holding six straight general officer commands, five of which were in combat. and repeatedly saw reservists in all branches of the military bring warrior and civilian skills to the fight. that combination has, of course, been particularly effective and important in the complex environments we have been facing in the past decade. as all here know, in addition

to the traditional demands of the battlefield, iraq and afghanistan, often required our troopers to be more than just warriors. to be diplomats. builders. trainers. advisors. service providers. economic developers and mediators to name just a few of their roles. citizen soldiers have performed these diverse tasks in particularly impressive fashion and in so doing, they have demonstrated the unique edge, the unique quality that reservists bring to every military endeavor. indeed, far from playing a supporting role to active component elements, our reserve components have been intel really a in the exintegral in the completion of each of our mission. in 2004, it was clear that we needed to inform and train the new iraqi army and iraqi police

forces and do so quickly. no small task in light of the challenges in iraq at that time or the fact that those elements had been established less than a year earlier. as some of you may recall, i had only been home a brief period of time after commanding the 101st airborne division in the first year in iraq when i was asked to return and lead the effort to train and equip the iraqi security forces. this was a particularly daunting task. one described as attempting to build the world's largest aircraft while in right inings while it is being designed and while it is being shot at. and we also had to develop our own organization, which we named the multinational security transition command iraq or menstiki for short.

there was no headquarters identified to serve as the foundation for this effort. we turned to the 98 ths division institutional training and its more than 3,000 reservists based in the northeastern united states. as we worked to establish it in the fall of 2004, we were augmented by somewhere close to 1,000 members of the 98 to staff various headquarters and to advise and mentor the units of three iraqi combat division and a number of other elements. one of the advantages of having 8th do the work is that -- 98th do the work is that previously it had been staffed by various personnel with different rotation policies. we didn't have continues knewity to put it mildly. -- continuity to put it mildly. building an army from scratch

meant coaching them on how the conduct actual operations. the reservists see skill made a considerable difference. now for many of our reservists, it was the first time they had been about vated. for most, their first over-- activated. for most, their first overseas assignment. they rose to the challenge of working with soldiers from different cultures, different religious sects and varying degrees of literacy. they adapted quickly to the job on which subsequent reserve division and active reserve components would build. they can be justly proud of their accomplishments as can those who followed them. just out of curiously rity, are there any from the 98th or the follow on units who helped with

the mission in iraq? thanks to you for what what you did in a very nonstandard challenging environment and mission and for what was accomplished. in another case, early last year in afghanistan, corporal eric dehart, a reservist from wisconsin, and an engineer by trade came up with a truly life saving solution to reduce the ability of the taliban to place explosives in the drainage cull vurts. he came one a cone that would allow water and debris to pass but not i.e.d.'s. cement his own time cutting and welding to build the prototype. it was an immediate success. units of the 101st airborne division quickly adopted the

device place manage home run than 30 through kandahar province alone as soon as it was available. it has spread to other units throughout afghanistan and they are, to this day, building similar devices in a variety of shapes. corporal dehart has returned home to his wife and daughter, but he can be very proud that he made a lasting difference and prevented untold numbers of deaths and injuries through his initiatives and expertise. in truth, the selfless hero inall of us. each reservist makes a difference. collectively they are doing hard work that our nation requires as your video made clear. we owe them and their families at home and their communities our deepest gratitude. another reservist i remember particularly well was master

sergeant juan eata milligan. a mother of three, in the u.s. army reserves, she had served our nation for nearly 20 years in a variety of roles in transportation and personnel units. she was gravely wounded in her second deployment to iraq in 2004 when an improvised explosive device blasted into hurry humvee. seeing the bomb, a split second before it went off, she jumped across the vehicle to try to pull her gunner down and inside. he was ok. however, she sustained severe injuries including shrapnel throughout her body, the loss of part of her right arm and a femur broken in three places. her subsequent recovery was

truly inspragsal. she endured countless surgeries, four hours of therapy a day. she was finally able to stand for the first time the thanksgiving the year after being wounded. despite all of her challenges, despite the injuries and pain, she was described by one who knew her at walter reed as the most upbeat person i know. master sergeant milligan defines the selfless dedication of our citizen soldiers. a mother twice answered the call to military duty leaving behind family, friends and community. in truth, she is not just a member of what tom brokaw has termed the new greatest generation, she exeveryonifies it and she is a leader -- eck

everyonifies it and she is a leader in it. her service, especially the character of her service, has been truly inspirational. our reserve components have in short clearly distinguished themselves in a variety of combat and support roles in the decade since 9/11. some 385,000 of our reserve components served in iraq or afghanistan during that time and over 30,000 continue to serve on deployment in those theaters, contributing their valuable skills, experience and expertise. indeed, since 199 0rks reserve come opponent members from various branches of the military have mobilized and deployed in support of every military operation including not just combat operations but peace keeping and humanitarian missions as well. in fact, reserve component

elements continue to serve in more than 70 countries demonstrating that our citizen soldiers are not only a strategic reserve, but a key component of our operational forces. in fact, some military roles central to our nation's defense are conducted solely by reserve units. tasks such as weather reconnaissance, biological detection companies, civil affairs commands and railway units are means of knowledge them and there are many others. we have all heard about the military realignments underway and i'm confident that our reserve components will be dualy recognized for the high value they bring to the overall force structure. indeed, there has never been a greater need for the skills they uniquely provide. as the u.s. marine corps commandant recently stated for example, in some ways, a

reserve bat alian is even more effective than a regular noting that reservists bring a breadth and depth of skill sets beyond fighting that can be leveraged in the endeavors in which we are courntly engaged. these capabilities include first hand experience in law enforcement, various trades, medicare, agriculture, community leadership, business skills, all of which can at time bs more effective than traditional weaponry. security cooperations task are also often ideally suited for reserve units and we should note those increasingly important tasks are of a broad scope that allow much of the training to be conducted prior to mobilization short tng activation time and length tng

time a unit can be deployed. they clearly reflect hugely important roles for our reserve components in the years ahead. well, before i conclude, i want to thank you again for honoring me with this award. and to note again, that i accept it only as in as much as i'm able to do so on behalf of the soldiers and civilians i was privileged to lead over the past decade and whose hard work and selfless dedication have served our nation so well. this award testifies to their sacrifices, to your sacrifices and to those of their families and loved ones. it is, in truth, their award far more than it is mine. i would add naurt in receiving

this honor, i feel very privileged to join the company of those who have received it before, including, for example, admiral may, general stoltz and general pace. beyond that, though, and of the most importance, i salute all the members of our organization and all of those that you and your fellow members lead in serving causes larger than self, individual who is have taken their place in a long line of patriots that extends back to those who founded our great republic. president george washington, the epitome of a citizen soldier once captured eloquently the feeling of those that serve our nation. i was, he reflected, summoned by my country, whose voice, i can never hear but with venneration and love. and so it has been my great privilege this morning to accept the honor of being

inducted into the minute men hall of fame on behalf of all of those who likewise have been summoned by our country, whose voice we can never hear but with venneration and love as well. thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. i just want to say to general petraeus, director petraeus, that this sounds like a cliche, sir, but it is honestly not. we are so honored that you would take the time to be here today and thank you so much for your remarks. we wish you the best, sir. >> thank you all very much. [applause]

>> there is more to come. we have fantastic speakers to come yet. before we get down to business, i would like to take a moment to recognize a few people in the audience and in the interest of time, i'm going to not ask you to stand, but we do want to recognize you. seated upfront here is r.o.a.'s past national president in their red coats, most of them. in addition to our past -- [applause] ok. in addition to our past presidents, i would like to thank executive committee for their hard work and dedication in support of our association.

we thank all of our department presidents, the national council members who are here in attendance. we also have mrs. kathy lieu, the president of the r.o.a. league tabbed past presidents and current r.o.a. leadership. we appreciate our reserves chief serving today and some of them are with us. i would like to thank our industry stars, partners and exhibitors and other distinguished guests who are here this morning. finally, i would like to ask all of our future leaders participating in our junior officer professional develop seminar to please stand and been recognized. would you all stand, please? [applause] thank you so much for being here today. almost three months ago, r.o.a.

had the foresight to hire an ino vator, businessman and marine as our executive director. major drew davis has a long history with the united states marine corps serving for 38 years in positions from infantry lieutenant to major general. he was a director of marine corps public affairs at the pentagon from 2001 to 2003. there he led the development of the embedding program for frontline journalists, afghanistan and iraq conflicts. i know you remember when that started. afterward davis commanded forces in europe and africa from 2005 to 2007. and then marine corps mobilization command until his retirement in 2008. general davis also has eight years previous experience as executive director and president of the american press institute, also a

membership-based institute. please join me in welcoming our exciting new executive director, major general drew davis. [applause] >> thank you for the introduction. first, all of these sessions from this point forward, we would like to have as an interaction with all of you, and on your seats, you see cards that we invite you to fill out with your questions for each of the speaks. -- speakers. we will have our staff collect those cards, and as the speaker has done with prepared marks, we'll deliver your questions on your behalf to each speaker, the first of whom is the administrator of nasa. the honorable charles bolden who told me to be very brief, but i'm not going to be.

he said all he wanted in his introduction was that he was married to jackie and had three grandchildren. he's a graduate of the united states naval academy, commission of sebt lieutenant in marine corps, completed his flight training and became a naval aviator. three more than 100 combat in additions in north vietnam and cambodia. he received the flying cross. he became a test pilot until his selection as an astronaut candidate in 1980. becoming an astronauts, he traveled to or bit four times before the space shuttle 1986-1994. commanding two of the missions. the flights included deployment of the hubble space telescope.

he came back down to earth and returned to the marine corps in 1997. and served as commanding general of the third marine aircraft wing from 2000-2002, retiring from the marine corps in 2003. he was inducted into the u.s. astronaut hall of fame in 2006. just by way of giving a measure of this great american patriot, marine, astronaut, and now nasa administrator, then u.s. representative, now florida senator, bill nelson was aboard the 1986 shuttle flight. he is now chairman of the senate subcommittee on space and he said, i trusted charlie with my life and would do so again.

miles o'brien, a former cnn space correspondent wrote, bolden happens to be a great guy who doesn't just have the right stuff, he knows his stuff. so it is my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, the honorable charles "charlie" panther bolden. [applause] >> thank you all very much. thank you very much. thank you so much. it is an honor for me to be here. i can't enough. i'll join general petraeus and say sbrurkses like that, my mother and father are looking down on us today and i can tell you they are gloating, especially my mother who does believe that and probably helped you writ somehow. that is always great. i would like to recognize an

old schoolmate. george bowman. george is another south carolinaian who has done incredibly well. i want to thank my host this morning and i want to acknowledge the presence of mrs. davis, margaret davis because of all the special work that she does with the marine corps scholarship foundation and other programs that take care of our military kids and families. so margaret, thanks so much for coming out. [applause] i do have to say it is an honor for me to share the podium this morning with such distinguished company as general petraeus and mr. o'hanlon and i feel somewhat out of place but hopefully by the time i finish making my remarks, you'll understand that it is appropriate that i be here because people don't think of national security when you hear the term nasa. but hopefully, in my brief

remarks, i'll have an opportunity to help you understand the critical role that we do play. when i embarked on my military career, and i hate to say it, nearly 50 years ago, that sounds like a long time. but it is not, it really isn't, not in today's life. that is just a brief period of time. but as you a young kid, a snotty-nosed kid fresh out of high school in south carolina, i had no idea where my path would lead me. in fact, if i were to grade myself on achievement of goals established by myself for me, when i graduated from hoorblings i tell the kids all the time, i would get an f because i have done nothing that i planned to do when i graduated high school other than go to the naval academy. that is something i dedicated myself to from seventh grade on. i struggled to get there but i finally got there.

as i left high school, south carolina there were two things i knew i would not do. i would not fly airplanes because that was inherently dangerous and under no circumstances because the marine corps' purpose is to produce career officers, under no circumstances would i become a marine because every marine i knew was stupid and that was what i thought at the time. [laughter] so i was going to go through the naval academy, serve my mandatory five years n the navy, get out, go to school and get a masters in electrical engineering and make money. never got there. i would have to give myself an f in getting to the goals that i set for myself. i did go to naval academy, though, because i wanted to follow in the footsteps of my father and uncles. when who had served with disninks world war ii when they had to fight for the right to defend this nation.

my son followed me into the marine corps. he is an f-18 back seert and a spanish foreign area officer and doing all kinds of great things. my military career opened vistas that i never could have dreamed possible when i was a student in segregated south carolina trying to live up to the ideals of my parents to get a good education and achieve my dreams. like me, many of the astronauts come from the military. while we are civil space agency, nasa, d.o.d. and the national security an share many of the same systems. we have similar facility needs and similar workforce needs. we have many differences too, but the key to coop vegas to work together to over-- cooperation is to work together

to overcome challenges. if you go through the ranks of our nasa employees, many of them are your fellow reservists and many of them have had to leave the workforce for periods of time up to a year to go serve in iraq, afghanistan and other place around the country and i'm always proud to talk about one of my favorite crew members twice, dr. kathy sullivan, u.s. naval reserve retired who was a naval oceanographer, meteorologist, first american woman to walk in space, on and on and on and on. so the reserve organization in our military is truly the backbone of everything that we do. nasa has also utilized air force unique launch support. such as the cassini mission that required the presence over the air force four. the development and use of the

expendable launch vehicle, the e.e.l.v. fleet is helping to sustain necessary to make is that your d.o.d. has access to space that it needs. at the same time we are enencouraging and enfa sylvia -- and facilitating the use for national providers. the relationships between langley research center and langley air force base, drind flight search center and edwards air force base, the kennedy air force center are all very strong with nasa and d.o.d. organizations sharing facilities, operation support contracts and flight operation mission support. goddard center not very far from here has a global network of satellite communications. it shares resources with d.o.d.

in far-reaching places like ascension island, antarctica and guam. models and instruments in cooperation with the air force and others. we recognize that space weather information is vital to the military commanders and space scientists for planning an anomaly resolution. finally the deep space network has a down link site at the national training center at fort irwin, california. as most of you know, we recently retired our flag ship program, the space shuttle after 30 spectacular years of flight and 135 missions. that's more flights by far than any other human spaceflight program. through its timpes and tragedies it gave our nation many firsts. the first fission was in june,

1982 -- first mission was in june, 1982 and the last, december, 1992. nasa is proud to have provided space access to about 270 secondary d.o.d. payloads, most on the shuttle mid deck or cargo bay. it launched communication satellites that helped make the whole world more secure and establish a deep space communications network. satisfying the increased reliance on today's high bandwidth systems continues to be a d.o.d. priority and these same systems fulfill a critical need of communications role in the international space station program. future investment in communications is a priority for both d.o.d. and nasa. the technology advances promised by optical and laser communications systems show great potential. nasa and d.o.d. are collaborating to field new

capabilities as quickly as possible to meet the needs of both agencies. with respect to the shuttle, it was time for us to get out of the business of owning the infrastructure to meet -- to reach low earth orbit when industry was rapidly developing the capabilities to do just that. as we hand excess off to industry, nasa can focus on the big picture horizon and do things no one else can do now. we're turning to the development of the transportation systems and spacecraft necessary for crew to explore beyond the earth orbit. we are also pursuing the development of technology such as in space propulsion, space-based assembly. closed loop life support and many others that will be closer to getting humans to a -- an asteroid and mars.

now it is true that we are dependent on the russians to get our crews to the international space station but we are making steady frog getting crews and cargo to space so that we only have to rely on this foreign outsourcing for as short a period of time as possible. we always knew there would be a gap in our spaceflight capability. in a few months however, space x and or bit sp bital sciences will launch their dragon and spirit cap sewells respectively. something that is being done on a commercial basis for the very first time. this follows the successful launch, orbit and in about the recovery of the space exdragon capsule at the end of 2010. i've seen blue origin in

washington. their launch, the new sher herd vehicle that will fly speerments into suborbital space. supporting medium class mission capabilities with orbital. boeing will will be processing the what was formerly our facilities at kept. i've seen lockheed martin's work. yes, it all feels very real to me and more commercial companies developing viable options to orbit makes us more secure as a nation. even if we celebrate the industry's creation of this job creating secondor of the

economy, we're focusing on the systems. american launch capability is going to be better than ever. we're upgrading kennedy space center in florida so it can accommodate a wider range of users and we can win back some of the business we have lost overseas. kennedy is going to launch the system to carry humans to deep space. at the space center in mississippi, we're test firing components to robert now to give us a leg up on testing and making the most of the workforce and infrastructure we already pess to bring this massive -- possess to bring this massive project to reality in coming decade. so that other users besides nasa will benefit and the cost will be far less for all. president obama has given us a mission with a capital m to

focus again on the big picture of exploration and the crucial research and development that will be required for us to move beyond the earth orbit. he charged us with carrying out the missions that only nasa can do which will take us farther than we have ever been. ultimately a human mission to mars. ever since we got our road map forward, we have been moving toward the missions of tomorrow and the capabilities we will need to visit new places, launch cutting edge science missions and help develop the nextgen ration of aviation systems from which we will all benefit. the president is asking us to harntheas american spirit of innovation. the drive to solve problems and create capabilities is so embedded in our story and has led us to the moon to, great observatories and to humans living and workings in space probably indefinitely. probably indefinitely. we strive