governor dannel malloy took office as the 88th governor of connecticut 2011. prior to that, he worked as a prosecutor in brooklyn, new york, serving four years as assistant district attorney. in 1995 governor malloy served as mayor of stamford, connecticut. welcome to you both. before i recognize each of you to provide your testimony, let me once again briefly explain our lighting system. you will each have five minutes to present your testimony. if you go over, i will not be gaveling you down. if i start to get nervous up here you'll hear a gentle tapping. when you begin the light in front of you will turn green. when one minute is left the light will turn yellow. when your time is expired, the light will turn red. after everyone has testified, we here, members, will each have five minutes to have -- to ask questions and have them answered from the panel. so at this time we will start with governor snyder. governor, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's an honor to be here. thank you for the invitation and i want to thank representative walberg

he was joined by connecticut's democratic governor dannel malloy. this is 2 1/2 hours. >>> a quorum being present, the committee will be in order. good morning. i'd like to thank governors snyder and malloy for pa participating in today's hearing. we appreciate having you here with us. and i just talked to both of you before the hearing and thank you, i want to thank you again. it's always very special for us when we have leaders here who can bring their experiences to us. a year ago the committee met to examine the state of the workforce. it was our first hearing of the 112th congress and reflected our commitment to make job creation in america competitiveness top priorities. much has happened since we met in january 2011. unemployment was 9.1%. nearly 14 million workers were unemployed. now 1 million fewer workers are unemployed. the number of long-term unemployed, out of work 27 weeks or more, has declined from 6.2 million to 5.6 million. these facts may demonstrate modest progress, but far too many americans continue to face significant hardship

joining us now dannel malloy of connecticut. nice to be here. >> what do you make of this controversy? the hhs decision and whether or not it's a good one. >> i've been watching this discussion this morning. i don't know whether you know this, but 28 states have the same rule. and i know you've been saying go to pennsylvania. the problem for governor romney, if he goes to pennsylvania to talk about this, he's going to have to explain why he had the same requirement in massachusetts. so, you know, more than half of the american population lives in states that currently require that. >> we keep having democrats that are actually coming out and just making the situation so much more for mitt romney. so much more difficult for mitt romney. >> well, listen, you can't have your cake and eat it too. >> so you're saying -- >> massachusetts -- >> when mitt romney was governor, they had the same requirement? >> yeah, and actually it's required by -- well, we'll use the term romney care. >> is it really? >> yeah. >> which may be why mitt r