and play in the process has had a very drastic result. to the point where i was talking to a democrat where he lost the election in the primary , and most members say that they cannot work anymore with the republicans unless they get taken out of the primary. the same has happened on the republican side. it pushes the republicans more to the right, and democrats to the left, and the opportunity for people to have meaningful discussions, and really come together on agreements to make things happen becomes very difficult. i think the fear that most members of congress have is not the other party, but being taken out in a primary. that is very difficult.

i have watched leadership struggle this year was trying to get something done. it is just very difficult. i don't really know the answer to that. one way would be to fix campaign-finance reform again, but because of what is happening -- i mean, i was being a little facetious when i said it, but really, the only bill that passed last year was the national defense authorization act. early this year, we did get get -- well, did we got the budget passed last year at the end of the year. that was big. at the makeup the spending bill passed this year. we have the farming bill this year. maybe there is caused to be a little more optimistic that it will be a better year.

we already have our budget number to work on is here. the appropriators will be working and i think they want to get back into the game. they have been relevant in the last few years because everyone is just waiting until the end of the year and how long the cr is going to be and that kind of stuff. with the appropriation bills done in getting back closer to order, and we have many embers of congress that do not even know what regular order is. they have never seen a budget , the 1213 appropriation bills passed, and the government funded on -- by september 30 the way it is supposed to be. we need to get back to that, and forget some of the stuff that we fight over that does not really matter much. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, chairman mckeon. i don't know if it is going to be retirement, but we wish you

the best for the future. >> thank you. >> thank you for being here today. we are adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> if you missed any of this, you can watch on our website www.c-span.org. we move on to a press conference with press secretary chuck hagel and army joint chiefs density. chief dempsey. they will grow significantly a sequester level cuts return in 2016. if our reforms are not accepted, or uncertainty levels over budget cuts continue. as i have made clear, the scale continuedne of sequestration level cuts would require greater reductions in

the military's size, reach, and margin of technological superiority. undersecretary chin spending sequestrationer spending levels, we would be gambling that our military would not be able to respond to multiple contingencies at the same time. that is why our recommendations beyond fiscal year 2015 provide a realistic alternative to sequestration level cuts, sustaining readiness and modernization most relevant to strategic priorities. but this can only be achieved by strategic balance and reforms and reductions that the president and i will present to the congress next week. this require congress -- congress -- to partner with the department of defense in making politically difficult choices, which i will address more specifically when i testify before congress. as i waive these recommendations, i have, as i pages of look to the

american history for guidance. in doing so, and admonition by henry simpson stood out. writing after world war ii, roosevelt secretary of war during that time said that americans must act in the world as it is and not in the world as we wish it were. stinson knew that america's security at home dependent on sustaining our commitment abroad and investing in strong national defense. he was a realist. time for reality. this is a budget that recognizes the reality of the magnitude of our fiscal challenges, the dangerous world we live in, and the american military's unique and indispensable role in the security of this country and in today's volatile world. there are difficult decisions ahead. that is the reality we are living with.

but with this reality comes opportunity. ouropportunity to reshape defense enterprise to be better prepared, positioned, and equipped to secure america's interests in the years ahead. all of the dod leaders, these men and women sitting here have everyi confidence that this will be accomplished. inc. you. -- thank you. >> as the secretary has laid out in detail, this budget proposal response, and more important, a realistic way forward. in my view, it represents both sound national security and fiscal responsibility. it provides the tools for today's force to accomplish the missions we have been assigned, rebuilding readiness in areas that were, by necessity, deemphasized in the past decade. forceernizes the joint

for tomorrow, ensuring that we are globally networked and can deliver options for the nations. and it reflects in real terms how we are reducing our cost, the cost of doing business, and working to ensure that the force is in the right balance. in short, this budget helps us to remain in the world's finest military, modern, capable, and ready, even while transitioning to a smaller, more affordable force over time. the chiefs and i will never end our campaign to find every way to become more effective. we will do things smarter and more efficiently, more in line with the sorts of security challenges that we face, and in line with fiscal reality. we will seek innovative approaches not just in technology, but also in how we develop leaders, aggregate our formations, and work with our partners. we will improve how we buy weapons and goods and services, streamline our headquarters, and with the support of our elected leaders, shed excess into structure and weapons systems at

we no longer need and simply can no longer afford. at the same time, this budget recognizes the imperative of getting our personnel costs in balance. otherwise, we will be forced into disproportionate cuts to readiness and modernization. i know this weighs heavily on the minds of our men and women in uniform, and on their families. our force is extraordinarily accepting of change. they are less understanding of piecemeal approaches. they want and deserve predict ability. the chiefs and i also continue to strongly recommend grandfathering any future changes to military retirement, and we will continue to place a premium on efforts that support wounded warriors and those who have mental health issues. it is important to note that the services will be able to reinvest the money saved by slowing compensation growth, and to closing some of the dire nest -- dyer readiness gaps and other needs for the future.

i have said before that we must be clear about what the joint chiefs -- the joint force can achieve, and how quickly, and for how long and at what risk. to be clear, we do assume higher risks in some areas under the fiscal year 15 budget and we will have to manage those risks. however, the sequestration level cuts return in 2016, then the risks grow and the options we can provide the nation dramatically shrink. we are willing to take risks, but none of us are willing to take a gamble. ourhe end of the day, it is soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guard men, america's sons and daughters who will face tomorrows challenges with the strategies and structure and resources we develop today. our most sacred obligation is to make sure they are never sent into a fair fight them a which is to say that they must be the best led, the best trained, and the best equipped force in the world.

thank you. secretary, what would you say to critics that say this budget cannot provide contact with congress, and that allies may be fearful that these proposed cuts and those that could come in 2016 suggest a military in decline? that it is not a desire, but and ambition? lex let me answer your question -- >> let me answer your question this way. theamed in my remarks realities of the kind of world that we live in. whato noted in my remarks we, collectively -- the leadership at the department of defense -- believe is going to be required to deal with these threats and challenges that the real world prevents to america, and our allies and our partners. as i have said, we believe we will present a budget that can

fulfill the commitments that we people,this nation, our to keep them safe and secure. and also, the commitments that we have to our allies and partners around the world. there are differences of opinion on how we do that. at the same time, we owe it to the american people and our those individuals who represent the american people, the risks involved and further cuts to our budget. we have tried to present a budget based on the balance of those realities. we have done it in a collaborative, pragmatic way, that we think we can defend. and i understand there are many audiences to hear. but i believe, as i said in my closing remarks, that this thatry should be assured

we will retain the capability to defend our country and our interests around the world. our allies, as well as our adversaries, will understand that. there is no military in the world that is anywhere near as capable as the american military. , whethertric applied it is the quality of the people, the institution, the technological edge, the resources we apply. i have confidence in this budget and i have confidence that we can defend the interests. question about the 26 billion dollar opportunity fund. could you clarify a little bit? because it implies that this is a done deal, that you are going to get the money automatically. domesticto happen in discretionary spending and in tax revenue increases in order for you to see any of that money?

andell, i think as i said, in your pre-briefing that you we will present the $26 billion in the budget that will be presented to congress next week. omb is working the issue as part of the total $58 billion package on behalf of the entire administration. the dod part of that is $26 billion. reference anyot point about guaranteeing anything. no budget is guaranteed. but this is $26 billion that we collectively believe needs to be put back in, to get us back up , andstandard of readiness buy back much of the operational shrinkage that we have had over the last two years. track'll get us back on a that we have fallen back from over the last two years of these cuts.

that is what it is about. the mechanics of that will be presented in the budgets and through omb enter the president's larger budget. >> capability question. a lot of your critics will ask why wasn't the f 35 the largest program in the history touched in -- why wasn't the f-35, the largest program in history, touched in this budget ? touched their? >> did you just say i have critics out there? [laughter] look, this was all about trying bothlance capability, today's capability and future capabilities based on emerging threats. you are well aware of what the f-35 brings as a fifth-generation fighter, with capacity, size, and readiness. and withat equation the collaboration of the service chiefs, we managed it. and it wasn't managed exactly

the same by each service, by the way. but this has been a year-long process. secretary, on pay and benefits, you and other secretaries have headed down with slowingore growth and pay and benefits. congress has rejected most of this. what makes you think you will be any luckier this time? with the veteran services administration this morning to lay this out. how tense with that meeting and did you make the sale? x you have to ask them. i was not there to make a sale on -- >> you have to ask them. i was not there to make a sale on that particular meeting. it is the fourth time i have met with all of them. job.sn't a sales it was, first of all, to explain to them how we came at the decisions and choices. and what we used as reference points. them a clear understanding of that. then i wanted to hear from them.

i wanted to get their opinions. and we listen to them not just four times a year, but all the time. these organizations represent active, inactive, -- this is the whole universe of the people who do so much for our country, and have done so much. i wanted to hear from them. wanted to get their feedback on what is possible, not possible. they know this better than almost anyone that there are tough choices out there. them that io assure want their input. i need their input. we all do. the we are going to proceed, as i have used the term a number of times in my speech, on a fair basis, and appropriate basis, a basis that we can sustain. something that the chairman said is really important, and that is, -- and i mentioned this

briefly -- whatever decisions will ultimately be made on pay compensation and retirement, it needs to be done once so that in uniform anden their families, those who have served and those thinking about serving, do not constantly live under this cloud of uncertainty and threat. what will they do to us next year? will they take this back next year? i don't want that and we cannot have that. we will not let that happen. it was a number of things that we talked to them about. question, thetial only thing i can say in answer to past secretaries, this secretaries effort -- the secretary, efforts that have been made before, i said this in a speech and everybody knows this. this is a different time. we have not seen this time in our budget -- the threats in the

world, what is going on in the world. certainly, every year is different, but this is the first time in 13 years we will be presenting a budget to the congress of the united states that is not a war funding budget. you might say, so what. budget, is a defining because it starts to reset, reshape. to marty's comments, rebalance, redefine, our enterprise for the future. what we have is the reality of what we have. it is a different situation. it doesn't mean that we are going to a, which everything that we have proposed and that congress will accept the recommendation. it is a different time. we are required to deal with that different time in a very responsible way.

>> secretary hagel, you mentioned we need to be clear about what is involved in this. in 2016, if sechrist ration continues, the army might go down to 420 -- if sequestration continues, the army might go down to 425,000 soldiers. does that mean there'll be difficulty in a prevailing conflict? thehat the risk is, and chairman noted this in his comments, and i have motivated -- noted it in mind. anytime you bring a force structure down and capability down and resources down, that will add to the risk of the dimension of the missions that you are expected to carry out. you have fewer troops, fewer ships, fewer planes. readiness is not the same standard. risks.se, there will be there are risks across the whole horizon of response abilities. we are talking about. it cannot be any other way if you're going to fulfill the

president defense strategy -- the president's defense strategy and the commitments we have around the world not only for our own security, but to our allies and partners. >> i need to add something to that, though. because there is always this tendency when you look at what is happening to the budget to look at what is happening to each individual service. but don't forget we are a joint force. let me just say, four exam, you mentioned the army's end strength and what effect it youd -- for example, mentioned the army's end strength and what effect it would have on the army. the army provides a lot of logistics enablers, a lot of kinetic control, signals, things that the other services fall in on that the army provides. and by the way, the army falls in on things that the other services provide. this will have an effect on all of the services if we go to all the way to sequestration levels.

thishe human dimension of -- for example, inside a structure of about 420 thousand, about one third of it is consumed by support to other services, the institutional support to itself, whether it is schoolhouses or medical programs , you know, all the things that make a service a service. it really begins to limit in some significant ways that which is available to deploy into combat. i'm telling you 420,000 is too low. >> [inaudible] >> those are all details that will come out as we discussed this budget, i think. >> thanks, everybody. but thank you. -- >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> is this briefing comes to a close, if you missed any of it, you can go to the c-span video library and check www.c-span.org to watch it again anytime. congressmanserving ever, john dingell, announced he is retiring. the 87-year-old michigan democrat was first elected to congress in 1955. today, he told the detroit news "i'm not going to be carried out feet first.

i don't want to have people say that i have been here too long." you can join the conversation on facebook. steve says, thank you, congressman dingell, for your service to our nation. and tim says, an example of why term limits for all elected officials are needed. political office should never be a career. we also have a reaction on twitter for members of congress. have -- betty mccollum says he's one of history's greatest legislators. >> the new www.c-span.org website makes it easier than ever to for you to keep caps on washington, d.c. and share your

twitter, andebook, other social networks. easy search functions let you access our daily coverage of events all stop new tools make it simple to create short video clips and share them with your friends via facebook, twitter, and other social networks. youru can send links to video clips via e-mail. just find the share tools on our video player, or look for the green icon links throughout our site. watch washington on the new www.c-span.org and if you see something of interest, clip it and share it with your friends. >> general electric's ceo jeffrey immelt spoke about education and job training programs of the national governors association meeting here over the weekend in washington. before his remarks, oklahoma governor mary fallin addressed the gathering.

>> good morning. everybody is cheerful today. big crowd today. we would like to welcome you to the national governors association winter meeting. . we are proud to have so many of our governors that have joined us today. thank you for coming, and all our guests who have joined us, thank you for your participation today. i mary fallin, chair of the national governors association. i have decided me our vice chair , governor john hickenlooper from colorado, my good friend. the governor and i have had a great time over the last six months working together, and we want to welcome you to the annual meeting. the first thing on our agenda is

a motion for the adoption of the rules of procedure for this morning. part of the rules require that any governor who wants to submit a new policy or resolution for adoption at this meeting will need both to suspend the rule. if i could have a motion for adoption of procedures of our meeting in a second, i would appreciate it. i hear a second. thank you very much. second. i call for a vote. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed say nay. the rules of procedure are adopted. if you have any other proposals he would like to submit, you need to submit that to the nga staff by 5:00 p.m. tonight. i would like to recognize our white house guests that have joined us from the office of intergovernmental affairs. not sure if they are here yet, but they will be joining us.

, from the office of intergovernmental affairs. welcome, good to have you here. we have a very significant number of guests from our international friends that have meeting, at our winter and i like to take a moment to recognize dan. we're joined today by the .overnor he is president of the national conference of governors of mexico. we appreciate you joining us today. he's president of the national governorates -- governors of mexico. also joining us is the mexican ambassador. ambassador, good to have you here.

a representative of mexico's national governors too. we are also joined by our canadian longtime friend. i here today? ambassador, good to see you. he also has a delegation from the canadian-u.s. group. welcome to our canadian partners have joined us here today. we appreciate you coming to mac. -- too. we have some representatives from our brazilian and chinese embassies that have joined us, our friends from brazil and china, please stand up. we appreciate you joining us. getting a lot of great new friendships and partnerships from around the world. of theecame the chair

national governors association last august, i begin working on what is called our chairs initiative. it is a year-long process in which we began to formulate some type of initiative that republican and democrat governors can support what it is important to all of us. i chose my initiative this year, called america works, education and training for tomorrow's jobs. it is something very important for all of our governors. creating opportunities for our fellow citizens, growing a revenue in our state. is about making significant improvements to our education system and workforce training program, and to help better align those programs with the needs of our businesses and labor markets. i believe this issue is critically important to our nation, critically important to our state as well as our nation's economic future. governors are uniquely person thato be a

can help foster, that can help implement stronger connections between the educational leaders and employers, because in the end the governors are the ones responsible for both public education and also economic development. we are the key to that. preparing america's 21st-century workforce, to be competitive is an issue that not only calls for national attention, but it calls for gubernatorial leadership. that is something i'm calling on all of our governors to take charge and work with us on. the initiative raises the awareness about the significant benefits to individuals, businesses, steady economies were in governors act to raise their population's educational attainment level and better align their education systems and training systems with the likely future needs of their economies and employers. it takes good numbers.

i wanted to share with you a statistic that i think is very important and relevant to not only for our states, but for our nation. nearly 50 years ago, my parents were growing up in my small town . 80% of the jobs in our nation's economy required only a high school degree or less. 50 years ago. a high school degree to be able to reach the middle class. today that number has dropped significantly and today that number is 35% of our jobs in america require a high school degree. a huge challenge for a nation, and that is why it demands a gubernatorial leadership. what we know is that of these in that 35% figure of

high school graduates, two thirds of those people who have a high school degree in the workforce will make $25,000 or less. tot is certainly not going get them to the lifestyle we hoped they would have and the lifestyle they could have. or someecondary degree type of relevant work for certificate from a career technology type school is the new minimum to success for our future workforce. one that our employers need, one that our children need, one that are working adults need to be able to meet the demands of tomorrow's jobs. even today's jobs, emerging jobs in our nations economy, and be able to help our citizens gain access to a middle-class life and the american dream. provide ouro

students and citizens of our current workforce with the opportunities to be able to successfully navigate to that post secondary education, we are going to limit our own people possibility to be able to achieve their potential and have a higher standard of living, which is important to all governors. through the america works program and the initiative, we have identified a set of actions that governors can take that will improve their educational attainment levels of their citizens, and help realign their education systems, and also be able to help employers meet their demands for the jobs skills that they need. there are four policy components we have outlined in our america works program to help governors improve and better align their state education training program that will help not only our

employees, help our students, but also provide results for the industry that demand a talented, educated workforce. first of all, it starts at the top. it starts at the top with our governors articulating a vision, articulating a message about why it is important to be able to connect education and the workforce, and to be able to help our educational attainment levels in our individual states meet that minimum for a better educated workforce and skilled workforce. secondly, we have to have good data. we have to know where we're at today and where we need to be going in the future. we have to track our progress, and measure our results. third, we need to build partnerships between the private sector and the public sector, and to be able to get the results we hoped to be able to achieve. we need to look at our

resources in our individual states. to be able to look at the resources, funding, incentives, and to be able to ourort it and line it with overall vision and individual states, integrated vision. we launched this initiative last august. since then there has been great support from both the private sector, our education community itself, and a great understanding as to why this is important to not only our states, but our nation in our international competitiveness. nowhere is this more apparent than when we have had our two nga region summits, and we started out with one in connecticut, governor malloy was gracious enough. he was gracious enough to host us in connecticut.

he has had a great turnout at other states and people who joined us from the governors a difference death members and other public elected officials and service members. in then we had one governor new mexico, governor martinez. we appreciate governor martinez for hosting the summit. your last chance is coming up for the education and training summit in the great state of oklahoma. what a surprise. i'd like to invite all of you to join us. of attendees list that will be joining us there in oklahoma city. you will have a good time. you're going to learn a lot of great information that will be beneficial to your state, go home with a to do list, be able to check it off and go back home and say, i'm focusing on jobs

and education. consider coming personally or send your team members to oklahoma, march 27 and 28th in our state. my priority for this initiative is to be able to provide the governors with examples, best practices and actual, tangible resources to be able to advance these goals. many of you have already identified these goals in your state speeches. to begin that, we want to deliver on that commandment. i'm pleased to be able to share with you today our first report of my initiative called america works. this is titled, the benefit of a more educated workforce to individuals and the economy. now you have this report i your seat. -- at your seat. governors,ff, the

various cabinet positions and states have worked very hard. also find in this report not only the details of different things, but we're pleased to be able to provide you state specific data. we have been working very hard over the last six months to work with an organization that will help you get very specific, about yourn data educational attainment levels, employers, the market you need. it's a one-page profile that provides this breakdown. it compares it with your educational attainment level, with your current population compared to other projections about your workforce, and analytics -- moody's analytics provided this. the educational requirements of your company's and your state.

this is a roadmap for each of our governors to be able to utilize. what we find is that we have a mismatch, not only in our nation, but throughout our individual states between the supply and the talent in our state and what companies demand that they need in the years to come. challenges us to provide our citizens with a path of opportunity to be able to work with our companies, to identify talent that can take those jobs. like many of our governors in this room, i will frequently talk to businesses who tell me, i have job openings but i cannot find the employees to take the jobs, and i can invest more and grow more jobs, but i cannot find the workforce. hand, i have friends and equated and says he will say to me, i cannot find a job -- acquiaintances who will

say to me, i cannot find a job. it is an excellent report, and data we are pleased to share with each of you. we hope you'll take this data back home and that you will your commerce secretaries, superintendents of education, chancellors of higher education. we are pleased to prevent this to you. it's an important discussion of aligning our students' education with the needs of our ever-changing workforce. today to beproud able to entice one of our top ceo's of our nation to join us in helping us lead this discussion with our governors, to hear from someone who is out investing and creating jobs and opportunity and innovation in

our nation. it is jeffrey immelt, ceo of general electric. to us abouto talk the challenges his company faces when they're trying to find employees needed for their continued growth, and to stay competitive not only domestically but internationally. theill also lay out opportunities he sees for the private sector and public sector to work together to achieve greater success for our citizens and companies. jeff is held so many positions, so money global leadership positions. he he joined ge in 1980. are familiarhat with ge know that they have many divisions. that ge has an impending new facility in the state of oklahoma, and energy research center.

we have a lot of oil and gas in oklahoma. we are thrilled. you haven't heard that? frome have a little man oklahoma named harold hamm, talk to you. we're joking. year 2000, jeff was appointed president chief executive officer at ge and has been named as one of the world's has ceo's three times, and served as chief executive officer at ge, named america's most admired company. that was from "fortune" magazine. it's our pleasure today to have jeffrey immelt here from ge. let's give him a warm nga welcome to our conference. [applause] >> thank you.

it's an honor to be here today on behalf of ge. a lot of things i will talk about today are common across the business community. i try not to make this a ge commercial. because the history and the breadth of the company, i've met most of you in this room. you dofor the great work on our behalf in your states, and that's really where the action takes place in our company, is on the ground and the locations we have. what i thought i would do today is put a little bit of the global context in terms of the economy, what's going on. then i thought i would talk to investing,ceo about to give you the context of what and takeking about, governor fallin's challenge on competitiveness and education.

on the broad economy, we are in a world that gets better every day. everybody wants it to be magically back to where it was in 2005 or 1997. the u.s. economy gets a little bit better each and every day. is not enough jobs i would say the missing piece in the u.s. is capital investment by small and medium businesses, still lagging behind where you would like to see it at this point in the recovery. stabilized. that is always good for the u.s.. of the biggest companies that does business in china. i would say the chinese economy continues to be strong. we think the new government's r eforms are positive. resource rich countries around the world, these are very

important countries for companies that are multinationals. we think they continue to reinvest back infrastructure and things like that. from a business standpoint, we see slow growth and volatility. you have to keep investing to grow. this is the pattern we could be in for a relatively long period of time. it's not a magic potion that will suddenly make the u.s. go growth,4.5% gdp although that is what we should be pulling for. ge is the biggest infrastructure company in the world, one of the biggest industrial companies in the world. billion industrial company, $400 billion investment, financial service company. we are one of the biggest patent

issuers in the history of the country. we invest six percent of our revenue back into research and development. 65% of our backlog is outside the u.s. that's where the markets are. we have high market shares. you should think about us as someone who is punching around the world. we are the second biggest exporter after boeing. when we locate a facility in your state, it is to serve all the countries around the world. we have a valuable brand, the six most valuable brand in the world. back into r&d, expenditures. we keep investing back into the economy and do that everyday. 135,000 employees in the u.s.. we have more than 200 factories in the u.s., and about 93,000 of our employees are in

manufacturing and engineering. grown about 9% since the financial crisis. we create in ge we create eight in the supply chain. upon small dependent and medium business. we purchase $15 billion a year from companies less than $100 million in revenue. we are dependent on the extended enterprise system in this country. we have strong financial footing with small and medium businesses. tale inind of the terms of the global economy. when you host us in your state and we are lucky enough to invest their, we think they can compete in any corner of the world. we don't think the american workers in the u.s. take second fiddle to anybody. they can compete.

about 50% have got market share of large cap. we will sell more in algeria in the next three years and we will in the u.s. took $40mber we billion of aircraft engine orders in dubai, none from u.s. airlines. the biggest three locomotive deals are coming out of pennsylvania will happen outside .he u.s. this year we will sell more ct scanners in china than the u.s. that's the world we have to compete in. that's the context for the company in terms of where we are. that is the world. a play in every world corner. we think the u.s. continues to get better, but that's the backdrop. you got to make your own approach. that's number one. what we're investing in and how we invest -- from an economic standpoint, that is incredibly important to the governors.

there are three interesting things that are seismic changes. we kind of are living in the age of gas, the plentiful reserves of gas, not just in the u.s. but globally are opening up economic opportunities for my power standpoint and a standpoint of technology that will go in terms of creating new economic opportunities around the world as this plentiful gas plays out. and then transportation. we work with railroad companies, transportation companies on converting to natural gas. we think this is an absolute game changer economically in terms of where the future could be. not just in the u.s. we do a lot of business in

africa. all the technologies that are gassify thesaify -- african continent are being invented in the u.s. today, and it will create jobs and economic growth here. we live in a new energy age, and one that is important to invest in. notion of advanced manufacturing, this gets written about and talked about. we are a big manufacturer. the u.s. has never been competitive as it is today. we can make a refrigerator with two hours of labor. if you can make things with two hours of labor, you can make them anyplace you want to. the new technologies around manufacturing are significant. newman materials, 3-d printing -- i could go down the list. to say from a manufacturing base

, the country has never been more competitive that it is on a relative basis today. the third big theme i would talk about is just in the area of what we call the industrial internet. everybody here has a blackberry or an apple. andybody is on social media facebook. a series of other technologies. that innovation will now be played in the industrial base. if you look at a jet engine, it has 20 sensors . it takes a couple terabytes of data every time it flies. there's going to be as many people who go to work around the industrial internet as are going to work around social media. that will not necessarily take place in california or new york. that will take place in pennsylvania, michigan, lots of places around the industrial belt. really as of jobs will be created around the industrial internet as time goes on.

technology, these are things to invest in. in each one of those we are putting our money where our mouth is. in gas, we have invested in gas research and development centers , new technologies, r&d, c apital, and we plan to lead in that advancement. not just in our balance sheet, but how we make and design technology. have a big research and development facility going into oklahoma city. we opened up of four or five new manufacturing facilities every year. is 500el facility people, because we think that is a size big enough to have scale. cans small enough that they be self-directed, where the employees call the shots. we do four or five of those every year.

we have got 1500 engineers in california who work on the industrial internet. we made big investments in building engineering centers that allow us access to data. the last thing is something we're doing in louisville. we partnered with a company called local motors, which is a start of manufacturing company. comelow entrepreneurs to in and design on our appliances. they can reduce cycle time to make these new kind of maker movement companies. they are all over the place and can be done in any one of the states to help go forward in the future. we have got investment behind the big three initiatives, and we think they will reshape our companies and the economy going forward. the other thing about to talk about is in the area of investment.

we probably make 15 or 20 important new global investments every year. we're working on five right now that will happen in 2014. we will have an aviation will buildant that engines. if you're in the aviation industry, god has been good to you. we have a ten-year backlog. it's a great business to be in. we're going to build an assembly plant. these really create a whole portfolio of companies. a plan tog to have consolidate our activities in energy management, and put them into a state of the art any factoring facility. will be started as a couple hundred units, a couple hundred people, and grow to 500 over time.

we're investing in the best manufacturing lab anyone could build. we want to own that space and invest in a way that can attract other companies to come, and this is huge for us. we're going to do that around a university somewhere. when of the big trends in business today is to unify what is called shared services. r&d, i have toin cut my administrative costs. one of the ways you cut administrative cost is you can locate in your back room in locations. -- co-locate in your back room in locations. we are going to invest using both our capital at our strength to take a big gas project and turning it into fuel, and building a transportation system around it so we can demonstrate what is possible from a standpoint of gasification. just five on the ge hit parade in terms of how we

think about it. we would go to 46 states on each one of these investments -- four to six states on each of these investments. started theson company, we grew up around the 1870's.y we were in upstate new york and now we can go anywhere in the country. we have a whole different world today. each one of these will go to meet withx states and the economic development people first. we love it when we can go to your states and meet with one group who can answer for everybody, who can answer completely on the economics, the regulatory, the speed. when you can deliver on that, that is a massive competitive advantage. we love universities. great, building around

high-class universities because that is our stock in trade. that is how we can reinvest. universities are key. talented and hungry workforce, people that like working for a part ofnd want to be a a facility. when we go, we go for 50 years. orre not going for a year two. the lifecycle of a jet engine is 25 years. you are not going there just to pick up something and leave. and then the economics are important, for sure. as much as the symbol for what the long-term relationship will be like with the state, as much a big assembly plant on jet engines, we might get $15 million from the state. this will be here for 50 years. way to get started and mitigate some of the risks.

those would be my pieces of advice on how we invest. the world is all about competitiveness, number one. number two, we continue to invest and we like working directly with you. peoplea great team of that do this. there's not one thing that happens in the u.s. that i don't personally approved, or anywhere else in the world. speak as a company every time we make an investment. that is a little bit to set the backdrop. to work with 25 other folks on president obama's competitiveness and jobs council. aware ofe more competitiveness and job creation. i learned four things on that counsel in terms of what has to happen to create jobs.

i have seen this time and time again as i have traveled the world. every country and state i have been to -- there's a shortage of jobs every place you go. there's no place that is happy with the amount of jobs they have. without infrastructure, it's hard to build competitiveness. you have got to have roads and ports and airports and broadband and all those things. the importance of small and .edium enterprise a and medium enterprise are important. chance to see how difficult we make their life, and how important it is that they have a way to compete. for every job at ge there is eight in the supply chain. multipliercreate a in your state, that is how the jobs get created.

the importance of regulatory reform. i'm a business guy. most business guys don't like .egulators very much re that's a decision by people. we like high standards. there's no reason it should take seven years to get a transmission permit across state lines, when the touch time is like three months. the sense of accountability and transparency around regulations is something that you see in different countries and states is important. if you are easy to do business with, you will get more jobs. , workingpiece we saw on the president's counsel, the importance of training and education. she's employment site, there are 2000 open jobs in the u.s. -- ge's employment site, there are 2000 open jobs

in the u.s. to echo what governor fallin roundtableusiness would see five things. stem. we have got to get math and science back into our schools. we are being in the 20's in math and science is a tough place to be, and there's not one job in our factories that you could ork at that isn't automated need some basic analytical skills, and we have fallen way behind. our focus on stem is important. that is where the ge foundation spends most of its money. and try toge towns change the curriculum of education and focus on math and science in education.

we believe in high standards. it's a little bit controversial on common core, but we believe in high standards as we look at what we do. i stand with the business roundtable on that activity. community colleges. if i go to a state and a governor can describe how many welders they prepare every year, that's a good thing. that means you can step into a manufacturing base that is incredibly ready and important. from thee retiring, standpoint of the oil and gas industry and other industries. you have a real vacuum. community colleges do that. we partner with local community colleges that are training people during the day. for four hoursol and ge for four hours. sayou as a governor can this is my community college plan, that is huge.

a dream of people that are going to probably find jobs in the 21st century, it will be engineers and welders. engineers are incredibly important trade they create jobs -- important. they create jobs. a good university is incredibly investable. this is where we like investing. when i go back to the things i talked about on the age of gas, advanced manufacturing, probably on each one of those things we will partner with three universities each to have multi-year, multimillion dollar research and development programs that can create their own funding and their own jobs as time goes on. leveraging your universities is important. how do we get veterans back into the workplace? we have made a commitment to hire 1000 veterans every year. we were joined why other

companies -- by other companies. how do you translate veterans, coming back, what they've done in the military to what they can do on a factory floor. of these facilities that "last few years, half of the new employees are veterans coming b ack. as a governor promoting the big company, small-company integration. finding ways and forms that allow big and small companies to train together is really important. in the that skill base small and medium enterprises. that is very important in terms of where and how we invest. if i would give you on education, it is really stem, community colleges for advanced manufacturing. have the universities front and center in terms of how you invest in where you invest.

have a plan for the veterans are coming back to your state. have some governmental institution allow big companies and small companies to integrate in clusters or other activities. you can grow and create jobs, but you have to compete. that is the watch word on the global economy. business and government have to work together. invest roughly $12 billion each year in r&d, we do it around big themes, we do it around different locations. education is extremely important, mainly around math and science. say, thanks for the great work you do.

the states give us a platform in which we can compete. you are the entrepreneurs in government. you can get things done. i hope you utilize that, the chance to try new things, and utilize your state to try new things in health care and engineering and education. know what is investable in your state and make that apparent. what are the big investing themes. that allows us to get plug-in. i may ge guy. in.lugged i'm a ge guy. it's a small businesses that need the most help. as a country, we talk about small business every day, but we make their life to hard. 100 orrnors can embrace 200 medium and small businesses, they give you the data you should need everyday on health care or education or things like

that very that's really important. let me end there. governor fallin, i'm happy to take questions. us compete,elping and we want to make you proud in terms of how we do in your states and what we do in the future. [applause] >> thank you, jeffrey. great comments. my first question was going to be what governors can do to help you address the challenges you laid out. you gave us all the different points we need. i might ask you, what do you think employers would be willing to bring to the table to work jointly with the governors to have you accomplished these challenges. if i just talk specifically about education, there's probably not one company or one big company in the country that money spending it

education. company has its own best idea. we get fragmented too easily. maybe the governors could say, this is the way ge could really help in this state, because we have other companies going in the same direction. a little bit of a focus best tortains to how find education. we spent as a company probably $150 million a year on education. but our focus is on stem. but maybe we could do a better job in your state. ahave traveled the world thousand times over. we do business in 170 countries around the world. there is no country in the world that has the university system the u.s. has.

if you have to say what are two or three of the biggest competitive advantages this country has, the university system has to be at the top of the list. i'm not convinced we do enough to leverage the great universities we have. we are a scale employer. ando to the big 10 schools big engineering schools are kind of what we see everyday. they are awesome in this country. how you build around the schools -- i can give you the stanford example. what stanford is done over the past 30 years is unbelievable, but it's hard to find the next university that can lay claim exactly the way stanford can. >> i know everybody is always asking you for something, but since you indicated you are investing a significant amount

of money annually in education, since you're talking about the need for having some states point out some things you can focus on to achieve better outlts, i want to point what another major corporation has done. i do not think they are competitors of yours. that is exxon. they did not do it all across the country. and picked six states invested significant sums of money in advanced placement courses by actually rewarding both students and teachers for participation in advanced placement courses, particularly in stem. the achievement of those proficiency scores in those tests. in virtually every state -- there was a pretty good cross-section of states -- , we have every state seen marked improvement in both

advanced placement class participation and in this course. it has been particularly good in math. , but mathd science and particular seems to have generated significant higher increase in participation in advanced placement courses and in this course. as you are thinking about where you will invest in the future, is pretty small. i think they give $100 per student per grade per year. if you're sitting there any go from 10,000 kids in advance but it has brought into a point where your pool becomes bigger. investment of 10 million or $12 million and several states can generate the kind of results

that would help our students and our global competitiveness. as you are looking for future opportunities, which are arty going to invest anyway, that works. we do big rants. we sign an agreement on what is going to happen. we have one of these in stanford. 10can do it in seven or towns. had we get a multiplier? how do you take a few of

these and get them to multiply more? the game.in in we needed and wanted to be successful. how do you make one plus one equals three. >> thank you. let me thank you and ge for your investment in kentucky. er restoring job and product. that is exciting to build advanced manufacturing right here. secondly, we like to take you to lunch. [laughter] --you got my interest. all right. let me ask about apprenticeship for grams. bit --tried both quite a travel quite a bit with these

countries. you see a different structure in high school where kids are able a plant, go to and earnedpaid certificates and skills that didn't let them go right into the work force. is set up like that with their educational system. what do you think of that approach for the u.s.? first, i'm going to circle there is cynicism and questions about manufacturing. i would say it is real. used to have 25 jobs in the united states in manufacturing. now it is about 10. can the jobs grow incrementally? can they be more it? it is what every country around

the world wants. --is were middle job middle-class jobs get created. this is where you get the manufacturing. do not give up about it. all the other people talk about it. having thisthat ledger which does this leverage between high schools and community colleges and for the governor to have in mind what the jobs are for your state and i.e. prepare people for those jobs is really important. we talked about new york city. 400 people go to work every monday in the hospital system. why don't you take the senior year of high school and train people to be radiology techs or physicians assistants and start that in school. stage, germany is

the best. ago the president of the non-said they would graduate 5000 welders every year. i've thousand. we needed to do a plan. we put it in this. it is an awesome workforce. this is hard to do. it is an awesome workforce. way i think governors can say what is happening in kentucky. has ad say kentucky manufacturing renaissance. there is a lot of skilled labor that will have to go in there. that ought to be what the community colleges do. >> thank you. we appreciate you being here today. thank you for your public service. it is good for you to help us

try to figure out a way to create jobs. the question differently. att of us came into office the throes of the great recession. i think for a lot of us the progress has been sluggish. we have not seen the economy expands. it has been a tepid recovery. i have heard a lot economist to give us their theories as to why. what has been the cause of the slow recovery? what should we be doing to make sure it accelerates? describe what i see. deepasically have a , these tend to be sharper and are harder to

recover from. you have 2-d lever at the same time. elever atve the same time. this is still anemic i any standard. if you look, consumers are taking on leverage again and investing again. that has happened. bigeople talk about investments. i can say to boeing i'm not going to invest because i'm concerned. we had to keep going. is on the sideline. we saw on the fourth quarter of last year, the first time the net new investment was crawling. solves what we have to for. how do we get capital expenditures? economy is growing numeral three percent a year -- 3% a year.

you have to have new company formation. it will have to start building factories and things like that. mediumhe small and businesses that have not really come back cap from an excess -- from an investment standpoint. you have a super tough.. i would have 200 small and medium business. all thebe with them time. what is this lease this? that is the power not back in this. thank you for being here. jeff was the first ceo to show up their 21 years. the state is still talking about it. thanks for joining us. >> you have to get out more.

there. i want to go back to the education link. at that we all share this. this is a place that seems to me we can really partner. i know my challenge in vermont. while i have the best graduation rate in the country, where i am losing the battle is moving kids beyond high school. first-generation low income kids. at jobs in our future and we do not do a better job there, getting them in the tech programs, getting them excited about manufacturing and so they is there a machines, way that we could partner?

there are internships. you got a job. it will be nine bucks an hour. is there a partnership there that we could really focus on? it would be first-generation kids who we we know we need to succeed. >> getting the kids in inner city schools to get them to study math and science. so mccain, what there and

aviation plant -- so people can come and walk there and aviation plant and say this is neat. re-re retooling and launching our programs. these were extremely and officials in the 50's and 60's. the third thing is that governors can link up the demand. let's look at rutland. moreant to be training than 30 or 40 or 50 people that we might higher each year. the only way to do that, you've got to get small business in the same camp. one of the things you can do is say here are 500 people in vermont but we're only going to take 50. any to find other people.

>> i appreciate your comments about how it needs to get into the preschool and grade schools and what not. if we can get enough high school graduates getting the trained. pressing on middle school in preschool issues. if we can keep those kids moving forward, than we can prid provie you much more of what you need. my question is around the labor cost. larger organizations continue to say they develop relatively small. one is the level of investment per job and technical robotics. the second is, yet kind of use

the last decade to clear some of the larger obligations off of the balance sheet, moving the pension systems. the smaller businesses are a little behind in that regard. the wage rates are pretty low. they are worried about things that you cleared out. it is amazing. ngu go to a ge or boei facility and you go to your suppliers and you see they need to invest. if they do they can be much more competitive. are there some ways to use advanced manufacturing leaders to assist these? whichstunning to us as to ones are going to be successful and which ones are not. the ones that are not being successful are the ones that are paying the lowest wage rate. us i cannot find a

people to work 10 bucks an hour. how do we get the competitive wage rates up while keeping the cost structure competitive for the smaller and medium-sized businesses? i would urge all the theseors to, there is all entrepreneurial manufacturing businesses coming up. the one we have done is local motors. this is based only an entrepreneur who fundamentally goes in and says here how i can do a dishwasher in six months. he crowd sources the manufacturer. i would get something like that in all of your state eared that way you get this entrepreneurial spirit that opens up the door.

into thegoing to get health care debate in this town. i'm going to stay a little while in may. work.a total cost of the extent to which you think it entrepreneurial activity going on, for us there is 15 towns that are the preponderance of ge retirees and employees in the united states. the cost per employee is like 50%. we are pretty typical. if governors can now look at but as a local challenge, helpsays to make that it them make the right trade-offs. to the extent they can look at

health care and education as being things they can help them with. then that allows for more value of the employee. that is what it is all about. >> you are stirring up a lot of questions now. i have about four people wanting to ask questions at about two minutes left. of wisconsin.r >> just a quick request. we talked about worker training. we put a lot in our technical colleges. you said something in particular. mention the high school welders. we put 100 million in the budget down the to drive waiting lists. one of our challenges in areas like that is there's not enough young people going into the areas during it is not just the s.t.e.m. one of the challenges in wisconsin, highly skilled employees of ge health care look

at our kids wanting to go to a four-year college or university. one of the challenges we need to is to help us spread the message that is just as important and we should be just as proud of our sons and daughters that choose to be high skilled welders as those who choose to be attorneys and doctors. we need leaders and parents. a lot of your professionals of wisconsin can help us do that. in 25 the first time years, the most popular on campus program at ge is the manufacturing leadership program. we had 20 years word was not very sexy. it has now become the most popular thing. inhink we're seeing a change community colleges and schools as well. >> thank you for being here and

sharing your thoughts with us. thank you for being a great corporate citizen and the state of connecticut. i do not realize we were running out of time. i was actually going to ask you to comment on the environment, climate change, and what you guys are doing to prepare and what you are doing to make money. we as a company starting in 2005 basically have run the company through our greenhouse gas emissions. we have invested in clean energy. we have been an investor and super efficient jet engines, gas turbines, wind energy. our view is always one of a allen's economy that basically one thatgoing to be will drive economics.

the new jet engines that we are volleying for our 25% more fuel efficient. at the same time, wind turbines a decade ago was 25 something kilowatt ours. the most recent ones have gone on at five cents a kilowatt hour. we think it will drive solutions across a broad range of different industries. with that asmpany a principal. we're going to have our own assumption that says we're going to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions. we're going to innovate around it. it creates more jobs. it is an interesting world we live in. age, imerican mile learnt energy policy going to year. now they have 50 gigawatts of solar. coal.re importing sometimest sideways

based on how the policy an you can get sideways sometimes based on how the policy and the technology meet. >> one last question. >> thank you. thank you for your presence in puerto rico. my father used to work at ge in the very poor side of puerto rico. what level of engagement does ge expect from a public university? >> i think it is the differentiator. i think today is, again, i am in a different case. when we do a facility, we are thinking about 40 or 50 years. we are not thinking about six. it is the nature of the products we make.

if you're making an investment for a long time, the schools are number one, two, and three. quality universities. it is just the way life is. we've got a big huge presence in wisconsin. we have been there since 1915. it is the nature of human beings. they like a place, they want to stay. knowing how good the schools are is critical and having a belief that they can scale. we know oklahoma and oklahoma state are awesome schools when it comes to investing in where the future is going to be. i think it is a dominant number one. i think it is a dominant number

one for someone in our shoes. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] this morning a number of the nation's governors went to the white house to hear vice president biden and president obama. this is about 15 minutes. >> thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thanks for making the cabinet stand up for me. [laughter] i appreciate it. it's great to see you all. and i don't know about you all, i had a great time last night and got a chance to actually do

what we should be doing more of -- talking without thinking about politics and figuring how we can solve problems. you've observed by now the reason the president and i like doing this every year is it's nice dealing with people who know they got to get a job done, and they get a job done. and i've gotten a chance to work directly with an awful lot of you in the days of the recovery act and even when we were working on the gun violence, rebuilding from that super storm sandy, which hit my state as well, and tornadoes and floods in a number of your states. but it never ceases to amaze me how you all mobilize. you just mobilize. when crises hit your states, you mobilize and you rebuild. and you rebuild your infrastructure not to the standards that existed before, but to 21st century standards. you balance your budgets, you save neighborhoods, and you

bring back jobs to your communities. and the other thing i pick up -- and i may be wrong. i'm always labeled as the white house optimist, like i'm the kid who fell off the turnip truck yesterday, but i am the youngest here -- and new. but it always amazes me your sense of optimism. you're the one group of folks you go to with all the problems you have that you're optimistic. you're optimistic about it being able to be done, getting things done. that is not always the mood up in the place where i spent a large portion of my career. and last night i got to speak to a bunch of you, particularly about the job skills initiative the president asked me to lead, and i had a chance to speak with some of you specifically, and i'm going to ask to -- i'm going to get a chance to see more of you this afternoon. but this is more than just -- at least from the president's perspective and mine -- more than just a job skills initiative. it's about literally opening the aperture to the middle class. the middle class has actually shrunk. and we always have these debates with our economists -- is the

middle class $49,820 or $52,000? the middle class to me, and i think to most of you, it's really a state of mind. it's about being able to own your home and not have to rent it. it's about being able to send your kid to a park where you know you can send them out, and they'll come home safely. it's about being able to send them to school, that if they do well in the school, they're going to be able to get to something beyond high school if they want to do that. and you're going to be able to pay for it. and in the meantime, you may be able to take care of your mom and dad who are in tough shape and hope that your kids never have to take care of you. that's the middle class. and before the great recession, it was already beginning to shrink. so together, we got to open -- mary, you and i have talked about this -- about opening the aperture here for access to the middle class. but we'll be speaking a lot more about that in the next several months. a couple of you invited me to come out your way, including some of my republican friends. and i'm going to be working with all of you. but today i just want to say thank you. thank you for what you always do.

you come to town, you come to town with answers. you come to town with suggestions. you come to town to get things done. and believe me, we need that and the american people are looking for it. and i want to welcome you back to the white house and introduce you now to my friend, your president, barack obama. >> thank you, everybody. thank you. please, have a seat. thank you. i give. -- thank you. thank you so much. welcome to the white house. i know that you've already been doing a lot of work, and i'm glad to be able to come here and engage in a dialogue with all of you. i want to thank mary and john for their leadership at the nga. i want to thank my outstanding vice president, joe biden, who is very excited i think about the jobs initiative, and is going to be -- the job training initiative, and i think is going

to be doing a great job on that. michelle and i had a wonderful time hosting you guys last night, and i hope all the spouses enjoyed it. and i know alex enjoyed it. one good thing about living here is that you can make all the noise you want and nobody is going to complain. [laughter] and i enjoyed watching some of you with your eyes on higher office size up the drapes and each other. we don't have a lot of time today, so i want to be very brief, go straight to q&a and discussion. we're at a moment when our economy is growing. our businesses have now created over 8.5 million new jobs over the past four years. but as i've said several times, the trends that have battered the middle class for a couple of decades now are still there and still have to be addressed.

those at the top are doing very well. ordinary families still feeling squeezed. too many americans are working harder than ever and just barely getting by. and reversing those trends are going to require us to work together around what i'm calling an opportunity agenda based on four things. number one, more good jobs that pay good wages. number two, training more americans to be able to take the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs that are created. number three, guaranteeing access to a world-class education for every american child all across our 50 states and our territories. and making sure that hard work pays off, with wages that you can live on, savings that you can retire on, health insurance that you can count on. and all of this is going to take some action. so far, just in the past few weeks, i've acted to lift the

wages of workers who work for federal contractors to pay their -- make sure their employees are getting paid at least $10.10 an hour. we've ordered an across-the-board reform of our job training programs, much of it aligned with some of the work that mary has done during her tenure as head of the nga. we directed our treasury to create a new way for americans to start saving for retirement. we've been able to rally america's business leaders to help more of the long-term unemployed find work, and to help us make sure that all of our kids have access to high-speed internet and high-tech learning tools in the classroom. the point is this has to be a year of action. and i'm eager to work with congress wherever i can. my hope is, is that despite this being an election year, that there will be occasions where both parties determine that it makes sense to actually get some things done in this town.

but wherever i can work on my own to expand opportunity for more americans, i'm going to do that. and i am absolutely convinced that the time is right to partner with the states and governors all across the country on these agendas, because i know that you guys are doing some terrific work in your own states. there may not be much of an appetite in congress for doing big jobs bills, but we can still grow selectusa. secretary pritzker's team has put together a terrific formula where we're attracting investors from all around the world to see america as an outstanding place to invest. and i mentioned this at the state of the union -- for the first time last year, what we're seeing is, is that world investors now see america as the number-one place to do business rather than china. and it's a sign of a lot of things converging, both on the

energy front, worker productivity, our innovation, our research, ease of doing business, and a lot of that work is as a consequence of steps we've taken not just at the federal level, but also at the state level. so we've got to take advantage of that. secretary pritzker has been helping a belgian company create jobs in stillwater, oklahoma, helping an austrian company create jobs in cartersville, georgia. so we can do more of this, and we really want to engage with you over the next several months to find ways that we can help market america and your states to businesses all around the world and bring jobs back. since i called on congress to raise the minimum wage last year, six states have gone ahead and done it on their own. last month, i asked more business leaders to raise their workers' wages. last week, gap said it would lift wages for about 65,000 of its employees. several of you are trying to boost wages for your workers.

i'm going to do everything i can to support those efforts. while congress decides what it's going to do on making high-quality pre-k available to more kids, there is bipartisan work being done among the folks in this room. you've got governors like robert bentley and jack markell, susana martinez, deval patrick -- all expanding funding or dedicating funds to make that happen in their states. and we want to partner with you. this year, i'll pull together a coalition of philanthropists, elected officials, and business leaders, all of whom are excited and interested in working with you to help more kids access the high-quality pre-k that they need. and while congress talks about repealing the affordable care act or doing this or doing that to it, places like california and kentucky are going gangbusters and enrolling more americans in quality, affordable health care plans. you've got republican governors

here -- i won't name them in front of the press, because i don't want to get you all in trouble -- who have chosen to cover more people through new options under medicaid. and as a result, millions of people are going to get help. states that don't expand medicaid are going to be leaving up to 5.4 million americans uninsured. and that doesn't have to happen. work with us to get this done. we can provide a lot of flexibility. folks like mike beebe in arkansas have done some terrific work designing programs that are right for their states but also provide access to care for people who need it. and i think kathleen sebelius, a former governor herself, has shown herself willing to work with all of you to try to find ways to get that done. on the west coast, you've got governors brown, inslee, kitzhaber who are working together to combat the effects of climate change on their states.

we've set up a task force of governors and mayors and tribal leaders to help communities prepare for what we anticipate are going to be intensifying impacts of climate change. and we're setting up climate hubs in seven states across the country to help farmers and ranchers adapt their operations to a changing environment. in the budget that i'll send to congress next week, i'm going to propose fundamentally reforming the way federal governments fund wildfire suppression and prevention to make it more stable and secure, and this is an idea that's supported by both democrats and republicans. and finally, i want to thank those of you who have worked with michelle and jill biden on their joining forces initiative to support our military families. at your meeting here two years ago, they asked for your help to make it easier for service members and their spouses to carry licenses for professions like teaching or nursing from state to state, rather than have to get a new one every time they were reassigned. at the time, only 12 states had acted to make this easier for spouses. only nine had acted to make it

easier for service members. today, 42 states have passed legislation to help spouses; 45 states have made it easier for service members. we've got a few states remaining. let's get it done for everybody, because it's the right thing to do for those men and women who are working every day to make sure we stay free and secure. the point is, even when there is little appetite in congress to move on some of these priorities, at the state level you guys are governed by practical considerations. you want to do right by your people and you see how good policy impacts your citizens, and you see how bad policy impacts your citizens, and that means that there's less room for posturing and politics, and more room for getting stuff done. we want to work with you. and i'm committed to making sure that every single member of my cabinet, every single person in

the white house, every single member of my team will be responsive to you. we won't agree on every single issue every single time, but i guarantee you that we will work as hard as we can to make sure that you succeed, because when you succeed, the people in your states succeed and america succeeds, and that's our goal. so thank you very much, and i look forward to having a great discussion. thank you, everybody. thank you. that from earlier. following the meeting, several governors spoke with reporters in the white house driveway. >> good.

i am from oklahoma, and i am the national chair of the governor's association. ofm joined by the governor colorado, and our fellow governors joining us. we appreciate the president, the vice president, and his administration for meeting with our governors. we think it is important to have a line of communication and collaboration between our states and the administration and the federal government itself. we believe the governors can provide great ideas to solutions facing our nation, especially at a time when we see in action in washington, and governors have to balance their budget, have to come up with solutions to problems. our people expect them to take action on issues that are important not only to businesses, but to their everyday lives, so we had a

productive conversation with the president, talked about numerous economy, workbs, force, our national governors association initiative which is called america works, education and training for tomorrow's jobs, how we help employers find a skill sets to fill the jobs that are important to america so we can continue to grow our jobs, our economy, and our states. we also talked about the importance of our role as commanders in chief of the national guard, how concerned we are about some of the reposed cuts coming out of the pentagon and how we feel that could ies to ber abilit able to revive the force we need within the national guard, especially during times of disasters, which is the time we had more tornadoes in oklahoma and john hickenlooper has had wildfires and flooding in colorado.

governors have experienced a lot of national disasters. our men and women are being called up to serve at a time of war, too. protecting the strength and the court and the capability and having the right type of equipment for the national guard is important. we talked about drought and water concerns, especially in our western states and how important that is to us all. we talked about transportation funding. as we know the federal highway transportation bill reauthorization needs to be done by the end of this fiscal year. we are concerned about the national transportation fund running out of money and the trust fund itself, and so we had a great discussion about how important it is for governors to have certainty with their infrastructure, how important if your structure is to commerce and trade and the traveling and safety of our public.

andalked about health care our governors have worked very hard with a committee, bipartisan committee, to offer the president and the administration some concrete ideas on medicaid reform, being able to look at cost containment of a growing sector of our state budgets, and that is medicaid, but also being able to provide access and affordable care within our state. that is a brief overview for me, and i know the other governors have a lot of things to say. >> i cannot help but notice it is brisk out here. in colorado we refer to this as spring skiing weather. i want to make sure i get that plug in. i thought we had a great four days. we are ready to go back to our states, but we saw and openness from not just the president, cabinet, and the willingness to can work to how we

directly work together, and if we are going to build a big interceptor project in colorado, oklahoma, how can we get that going, how can we compress that to one year, and make sure that the public gets a chance to review it and environmental concerns are addressed. how do we get all that done consecutively instead of doing it in parallel. that kind of reaching out is going to pay big dividends. there are a lot of places where we are all -- we disagree on things, and governors have worked on a number of different projects, and we do it. i think having the cabinet looking at and reaching out with authority will allow us to do stuff that we have not done before. all the other things that the governor talked about was a breath of fresh air.

we are delighted to hear. i want to recognize governor great who has done a job leading this organization and making all that happened. questions? anybody else? >> governors? >> were there areas of sharp disagreement, would you say? >> what the governors try to do is find areas of agreement. we know there is going to be different ideas, principles, that the political parties stand for, and on those areas of disagreement we agree to disagree. on the areas we can come together to work to move this nation forward, to find solutions to problems, to share our best criticism -- and there are a lot of great ideas from republican and socratic governors -- -- and democratic governors -- we take those ideas back to our states. governor hickenlooper and i

energy issues. there may be a difference of agreement on some on which forms of energy, but we all agree that having a stable, reliable source of energy is important for economic development, for the traveling public, and governor hickenlooper and i worked on that, talked about natural gas, and we have been talking to the president and his administration about cost savings from compressed natural gas vehicles. that is one example of how we work together. there are discrete on some issues. disagreement,me but for every place there is disagreement, there are 10 places where we say we can work on that. i recognize that is not news, but that is a change in direction am at a very positive trend, not just for states, but for our country. >> [indiscernible] how did the president respond

-- >> governor you have been such a great leader on the national guard. why do you start. >> the president put it out there is going to have to be significant cuts in the budget. obviously, he is getting a lot of information from the pentagon. of theommanders in chief national guard in our state, working with our adjutant generals believe that the buildup that occurred after 9/11 was primarily in the regular army. and that is why we think the reduction should the primarily in the regular army. the national guard has not only a state mission, but also been deployed again and again in iraq and afghanistan, and they have done a phenomenal job. are verythat they important to the national defense of this country, as well

as to helping us in times of emergency in our individual states. i had a really good conversation after the meeting with vice president biden, and he is going to follow up with me, and he wants get more of that details from timothy or my accident general. i, along with the governor from maryland, are cochairs of the governors' council. we will meet this afternoon with leaders from the pentagon and homeland security to talk about these issues. we were disappointed the last meeting we had in milwaukee, the leadership of the pentagon was not in attendance, and we did not feel we had received the kind of consultant of process that was envisioned. i am hopeful this afternoon's meeting will be much different, and i have been assured that will be the case. >> [indiscernible] >> i want to give governor o'malley --

thank you. i do not have much to add come except to point out the reason for these cuts is because of the sequester, and that is the situation in which we find ourselves. our guard does important work, and we would hope that congress would be mindful of that when they have to make cuts. the fact of the matter is president obama has reduced spending growth to its lowest since of any president dwight eisenhower. the fact of the matter is he has cut the annual deficit down to half of what it was when he came into office. to have to manage these sequester cuts on the backs of our national guard will be a challenge, and i look forward to the meeting is afternoon with the owner -- with the governor and the leadership of the department of defense. >> did anybody suggest a revenue source to replace the shortfall in the gas tax?

about president did talk corporate income tax. he talked about the possibility of some loopholes. he did not give specifics on that at all. makel be up to congress to those decisions. anybody else want to add anything to that? ashe looked at tax reform one possible place, but even with that, he was clear that with more fuel-efficient vehicles, we will have less money for our roads and vehicles, even if we get a one-time bonus from corporate tax reform, we are going to have to address that shortage ongoing in different ways as well. >> i want to add a piece to the conversation about -- i'm from have to-- we governors get things done. it is not like congress. we have to make decisions, make things happen. the fact is what we are looking short term, the

transportation shortfall is we are actually signing contracts, rebuilding roads and bridges. we have contractors millions of jobs that should be out and place, building roads and bridges, starting in may and june, for which we governors are going, wait a minute, we might be out of loot here because the transportation fund is dead, flat broke, in september. how are we going to pay our contracts for the federal money we have been promised/ we do not sit around and do partisan bickering. we are united in saying, listen, congress, did as one together. you will kill millions of jobs, you will make it impossible for us to rebuild crumbling roads and bridges if we do not get this short-term problem fixed. >> did the issue of the keystone pipeline,, and to the present give an indication of when he will make a decision? in oklahoma the keystone

pipeline was connected from oklahoma down to the gulf coast because it was in the united states. i asked the president when we could anticipate a decision on askedystone pipeline, and him to use his executive order power to do that. of months.a couple we hope that we will know one way or the other what the answer will be. i am a exporter of the keystone pipeline. of oil andabundance gas in the united states, and in canada, that is important for building our national economy and reducing our for the peasants on oil. anybody else want to say anything? i want to comment on the keystone pipeline, because i asked about that as well. the president talked about using takeen and his phone to ex