secretary gary locke embraced the list.old us he would be taking it to president obama and vice president joe biden. this is an opportunity. we started this process three years ago. at the time we started this, michigan was in a one-state recession. we really felt that it was not about michigan, but it was about leadership coming together in the early months of a new presidentialçó administration ia way to be helpful. that is what we have done. we have an opportunity to go back to artourÑi speakers, moderator's, and participantsçó. we are unveiling the findingsñrs we speak. secretary gary locke is taking them to go administration. in the early months of 2010, we will figure out where we go from here. host: what does the secretary tell you about the administration's efforts going forward? guest: he said that the list was very aligned with president obama's priorities. health care is certainly front and center these days, and manufacturing is very important. we're all very pleased that this administration is embracing the not

club will take your questions about the economy and her meeting tuesday with commerce secretary gary locke. north dakota senator will discuss his amendment to the health care bill regarding the importation of prescription drugs from canada and europe. we will also talk about the economy with an author of the book "nickel and dime. d" >> american icons -- three original documentaries from c- span available on dvd. a journey through the homes of three branches of american government. see the detail of the supreme court through the eyes of the justices. go beyond the velvet ropes of public torras into releasing spaces of the white house, america's most famous home and explore the history and architecture of the capital, one of america's most symbolic structures. american icons -- at 3-disk dvd set. it is $24.95. order online at c- span.org/store. >> now a pentagon briefing with the former commander of nato in southern afghanistan. he was asked about strategy, the government strategy -- corruption and others. this is less than an hour. >> it is a pleasure to be here live. i have done this twic

i think to sort of con textualize the meeting, gary locke and president obama took important steps, moretimulus appointing secretary locke, rick wade on his staff, dr. robert groves who for a short period of time have stepped things up, but nonetheless, there are a lot more things that have to be done for us to say that we're confident that this plan can address the historic undercount in this nation. the final thing i want to emphasize to everyone because we have talked about a number of things and a number of areas of concern, and that is to emphasize that we are committed and many ofÑi us are already working doing outreach in local communities with few, if any, resources because this is important. we are working in communities. the urban league, the naacp, national action, the national coalition just to name a few, we are working in local communities on outreach, on motivation, on awareness, on information, on organizing. we are committed to making sure and we're going to do our part. we want to make sure that census and commerce understand how they can do their job better, do their j

export front is another example of where you know, a lot of times just showing up making sure that -- gary lock or our trade representative, what is that guy's name? ron kirk. i'm messing with you, ron. is he here? you can tell them i said that. but making sure that, they are actively pursuing business opportunities overseas and we're not making it tougher. let me give you one specific example that could have job implics. we still have a lot of trade restrictions on high-tech exports. and that -- that are actually carries -- carryovers from the cold war. and now, part of the problem is we haven't gotten the kind of intellectual property enforcement in other countries that we need and so understandably, businesses are wary about sending their products overseas, just to be duplicated and -- and then shipped back to us, with -- with using lower wage labor. and in some cases, it really has to do with -- with a failure to update and review what restrictions still make sense and what restrictions don't. now china and korea and a whole bunch of asian nations would love to -- to import some high value

on the export front is another example of where a lot of times just showing up, making sure that gary lock or our trade representative, what's that guy's name, ron kirk -- i'm messing with you, ron. is he here? [laughter] you can tell him i said that. but making sure that they are actively pursuing business opportunities overseas and we are not making it tougher. let me give you one specific example that could have some significant job implications. we still have a lot of trade restrictions on high-tech exports that are actually carryovers from the cold war. now, part of the problem is we haven't gotten the kind of intellectual property enforcement in other countries that we need, so understandably, businesses are wary about sending their products overseas just to be duplicated and then shipped back to us with using the lower wage labor. but in some cases, it really has to do a failure to update and review what restrictions still make sense, and what restrictions don't. now, china, korea, a whole bunch of asian nations would love to import some high value added high-tech stuff that could c

in august, the vice-president asked commerce secretary gary locke and me to make sure that federal contractsere heading to small businesses, especially those owned by women, minorities, and veterans. and since then, we have worked together, and our teams have created about 300 our reach events called matchmaking events. our goal is to put the right procurement officer together with the right small business. some people say that is like speed-dating. we prefer to think we are creating long-term relationships, maybe like matched.com. so far we are exceeding our goals in the recovery act. we are exceeding those goals. we have about $5 billion in recovery act dollars in the hands of small businesses, and we are exceeding some of our sub goals also, such as those with service disabled veterans. we are also very focused on the women and minority-owned firms getting access to federal contracts, because these two sectors are some of the fastest growing sectors and all small business. so we have capital, contracts. the third c is counseling. many of you do not know about the extent of our counseling