Those kinds of programs are along that same pattern. Governor herbert we could talk all look the about all of the great things happening in the state. The number one focus a governor should have is to grow the economy. It is hard to have anything else happen if you dont have a healthy economy and difficult if it is going in the wrong direction. Utah has a very healthy economy right now but one area we have specialized in is to capitalize on the fact we have the air force base in utah, which has one of the best test and training ranges for air force military in north america. I appreciate the fact in the latest paris air show, the dreamliner and its accelerated takeoff and the airbus 380 and 350 and how theyre able to maneuver at very slow speeds and yet have elevation. It is uncanny how these massive airplanes stay afloat. One of the reasons they can do that is because they have composite material and low weight that allows them to perform in ways they have not been able to do before. Most of that composite material, 50 of those airplanes comes from utah. We specialize in aerospace and part of that economy is composite material. In West Virginia, we have made some major progress as far as a State Government goes. Really addressing what used to be our liabilities. We have been able to bring those up to date and able to improve the bond ratings. We have privatized our workers comp. We have some of the lowest premiums in the country. We have eliminated our business franchise tax, lowered the Corporate Income tax we are competitive. The fact we have not had made any kind of tax increase in West Virginia in over 20 years theres been a great deal of time working on the workforce. I have been able to bring everything from Public Education to our Community Colleges to our for your institutions, it is also thing around the table and trying to figure out how to best train or retrain the workforce to meet the demands of what the businesses are asking for. One of the things we can i am very proud of his proctor and gamble. They are building their second plant in the u. S. Since the 1970s and they chose West Virginia to put that plant. It will be huge and the numbers of it it will be huge. We do help businesses when they come in with certain infrastructure. To give them a specific skills they need for jobs at proctor and gamble or any other company. It is hard to limit it to three things. We all have great ideas. I went to say thank you to governor tom one for hosting us. Always a pleasure to be in West Virginia. And governor governor hickenlooper has been great. And the other governors that have joined us today. In oklahoma, with focus on how can we create the best Business Climate for job creation, growth, and raising the medium household incomes. Second is education and workforce, having a highly skilled educated workforce and getting our fiscal house in order, making sure the state is run appropriately. A week ago, we were named one of the top 10 best managed states in the notion nation. In improving the health of the workforce of the citizens. With jobs and the economy we passed a Major Overhaul on the Workers Compensation system. So far, cost has come down 22 in the first year. It affects the bottom line of the businesses. We reduced taxes a couple times, past major lawsuit reform. We have made ourselves more business friendly. What we have seen is our economy has grown by 8. 3 . Before the Energy Sector took a downturn we had 3. 9 Unemployment Rate nationwide. The Median Household Income has grown twice the national average. We are being able to take care of our families. Second is education. If you dont have a highly skilled, educated workforce, you cannot take needs of the employers. When i was National Chairman governors association, we launched a nationwide initiative and called America Works and anybody watch house of cards . About a year ago, i was watching kevin spacey and he was talking about his new program called America Works and i said while wow, he has been watching the National Governors association. It is about realigning our pipeline of the Education System to match the needs of Current Industries and employers in the state. We are working with k12 to reach down into our students to encourage them to dual track so they can get their education and understand how important it is to continue their education and was to increase their degree completion. To be able to match the needs of employers and our state. We surveyed the employers and we know what they need and we are working with all our school systems. I mentioned about performance fiscally of the state. We launched the performance informed budgeting. Where trying to Fund Programs that are priorities like education, criminal justice, transportation. We are funding things we know will work and have measured outcomes and goals. I ask that our state agencies develop initiatives we had our agencies establish different metrics with the goals and states so when we come back in the budgeting process, we can see if we accomplished what we wanted to and we publish that so the taxpayers can see on the state website where we are delivering those results. One of our goals in education was to increase the number of high school graduates. That our third graders are reading at grade appropriate level, reducing the recidivism rate of people coming back into prison. Those type of issues. And improving the health. Its important you have a healthy workforce. We passed a bill this year that dealt with one of our top problems, which is opiate abuse. Now we require doctors to check painkillers when they write those prescriptions and be able to stop dr. Shopping. We passed a bill that says you cannot smoke at schools. We banned texting while driving. Things that go help improve the health of our state. A couple specific things we have done. We paid off a debt to the federal government, lowered Corporate Income taxes and recommending 2. 8 billion infrastructure for our ports and roads. [laughter] a major project we are working on for jobs is we put more gas we inject back into the ground than anyone else. The state of alaska, the other partners are exxon mobil. It is a 50 billion dollar project. It will bring down the cost of energy and alaska sufficiently. Anymore shorter questions . Yeah. The issue of security cities has become a hot topic. The house passed a bill that limits access to funding for sanctuary cities. Im not sure which of your states have been but if you could give a perspective if you think there should be state limitations on sanctuary cities and that sort of issue. If the state should pass their own limitations instead of waiting for the federal government. Governor herbert we have a city listed as a sanctuary city and i match or who makes those decisions but i label them as a sanctuary city but we as an organization understand how important reform is and passing some immigration laws. You hear a lot of discussion about the border and that is intuitive for a lot of reasons. We also need to have a wide gate that works. I have an opportunity to address this issue with the president and if we dont fix the gate, we have an undue pressure on the fence. We had a lot of immigrants elect to come into the country and work but they would like to go home and be able to come back and forth. The fear of not able to come back causes them to overstay their the set and become undocumented. I believe there should the a rule of law that we need to create the immigration laws and we have somewhat of a stalemate in congress. We have been debating this issue or some time now. It is time for them to come together in a bipartisan way and do something that is a positive thing and we think congress can and should. States have try to do things. In utah, we try to come up with our own state law to address the immigration issue. We were challenged in court and lost where the court said this is a federal issue. Despite the fact we feel the pain and frustration, it is a federal issue. On behalf of the nga he hoped the congress will address this issue, come up with a solution and get something done that shows we are addressing this frustrating issue. Our immigration system is broken. It has been broken for a long time. We are a nation of immigrants who have come here but we are also a nation of law and we need to uphold the law and our nation. We need to have an immigration system that allows people who want to come here and follow the law and be able to do that be able to have a better quality of life and be able to do so in a timely manner because it does take a long time to go through the process to become a citizen of the u. S. One of the things i am worried about is the times the u. S. Has criminal, illegal aliens that come to the u. S. , kill people, and go back home and come back. Is a terrible tragedy for the nation. Congress needs to get serious about taking up Immigration Reform for the nation to allow those who want to come here through the Legal Process to do that but also to develop a system that and force the system of our laws that of someone creates a law, dont let them stay here. In light of the recent events in chattanooga what are your thoughts about Arming National Guard personnel on duty to allow those Service People to protect themselves in the event of something horrific happening . Governor hickenlooper almost every governor has looked at this. Governor tomlin it is my pleasure to welcome you to todays joint session on the Economic Development of Natural Resources committees. Todays session is a great opportunity for us to highlight some exciting initiatives going on in each of our states. To hear about the ongoing work from a few shining stars in the private sector. 20 today to facilitate the session is the alabama governor mr. Bentley, and wyoming governor, mr. Lee. I would like to introduce ms. Gander, who will provide a short report on federal and state activities under the Natural Resources committee. I would like to express a sincere thank you on behalf of nga to the Natural Resource Committee Governors for your tremendous work this year as we end up the policy year. Each committee has executed an act of federal agenda and a detailed legislation summary of each of the committees work is in your binder will take a few minutes and highlight to which is in particular. For the Natural Resources committee we provide matching funds to the states to develop conservation products and Outdoor Recreational facilities and the funds current authorization expires september 30 of this year. Since last year, this committee and Natural Resources committee has been working with key congressional stakeholders and interested parties to help maintain the lw cf. If the program were two laps, to lapse, the state that assisted with report to the fund. Interesting to note with some the last 24 hours, Senate Energy and Natural Resources chair include a bipartisan language in the comprehensive energy bill that was recently introduced that would permanently reauthorize the lwcf it. Is a great signal of where congress is right now on this issue. We look forward to seeing that move forward. We think this issue will Carry Forward into the incoming Natural Resource committees agenda and we look forward to that committee taking the baton and running this issue. On the second issue for the Economic Development and commerce committee, it is all about transportation. This issue is very fluid right now. Governors will continue to discuss this tomorrow in more detail but i wanted to give you the highlights of where we stand as of friday afternoon. They continue to change. Where we stand now is that this morning morning, the senate agreed to move forward with hr 22 or was filed on 22 amendments three amendments. There is an amendment on the reauthorization of the Export Import Bank. There is an amendment offer to repeal aca. The third is a seconddegree amendment that would provide for a 60 day extension of current transit programs. What does this mean . This means the senate is working through procedural timelines right now, we are in a state of hold. The senate will reconvene sunday afternoon to begin their votes on these amendments depending upon how those in amendments end , we see what other activities pop. At present, all amendments have been filled. There may be opportunity for debate on other amendments but as of right now, there are only these three amendments that are currently pending for the senate. I would like to turn over to my colleague, the Division Director for the center of us practices for a short report on what the center is doing on issues under the committees jurisdiction. Sure. Ms. Sevier we are here to help you do your jobs better and helps you hear about what is going on at the state level. Any way we can share with your staff what is going on, that means we are doing our job. Last year for the division that focuses on energy and infrastructure, we engaged in 40 states and projects. We are excited to be able to work with that many states and the able to engage all of you. That means working across a variety of topics. Im going to highlight briefly three new opportunities that are coming your way so you can keep your eyes out. You will be hosting our third annual shell energy forum. States are really grappling with how we take advantage of the development in the area in a way that is responsible. We have had convenings where your faults have come together with states across the country to share ideas and walk away with things they can take back and implement in their states. Keep an eye out for that. We will be doing a secondround of Energy Efficiency retreats going into these days and helping you put together teams from your state. You choose who was around the table to help you work on an issue of your tailoring something you defined as a struggle in that area. Then we are also doing a secondround of retreat on publicprivate partnerships. This is one way states are trying to look at how they can move projects forward in their state. We did select four of the states we will be working with and im happy to say connecticut and arkansas are two of the ones here we are looking forward to working with along with washington and utah. That is a chance to look in detail at what some of the options are they can explore and a strategy they can move forward on. We are excited about those projects and hope all of you will look to us for answers to some of your questions. On behalf of Jennifer Brooks here with the Economic Development division, we engage with your advisors on that topic. Last year, we had an Advisors Institute that included representatives from 32 states so they are coming to our meetings and getting ideas on things they can do. We will continue that engagement and have a focus on workforce development. Were looking forward to working with all of you. Govenor tomblin thank you. Now we will turn to our committee discussion. Tourism is a big business in West Virginia as i know it is in many of your states. We are very probably work were we are doing to increase the number of visitors and Business Investments in our state. While youre here, hopefully you will have a chance to experience what we are calling real West Virginia, which is the theme of our new tourism campaign. West virginia is home to real farm to table dining, real outdoor adventure, real history and a number of other authentic experiences. Tourism brings in more than 5. 1 billion and supports more than 46,000 good paying jobs in West Virginia. Research shows that for every dollar we spend to promote tourism, we see a seven dollar return. With this in mind, we are committed to dramatically increasing the amount we spend on tourism promotion. Weve also worked with have it investors and others to have exciting attractions people want to experience in the mountain state. I am sure a number of you saw coverage on the pga tours greenbrier classic that took place two weeks ago. It showcased out only the amazing resort but also our beautiful state. Next week, governor jindals new Orleans Saints will arrive at the greenbrier for the initial half of their training camp. West virginia is a proud partner of the greenbrier classic and we use it as a tool to recruit as mrs. Recruit businesses. We are taken efforts to support Small Businesses across the state as well. One of the most talked about deals we passed last year played a great part in that was a lot that made easier for our groping growing Craft Beer Industry to thrive. We will have our first craft beer week with events scheduled at several pubs across the state. This legislation not only courage is towards them but supports entrepreneurs. We are also proud of several public and private partnerships that have helped to encourage Economic Development and private investments to enhance both our local communities and tourism industry. These partnerships can take several forms, including significant Infrastructure Improvements and make it easier for people to access businesses and attractions. For example, the West Virginia division of highways worked with our county commission and a local developer to fund a new interstate exchange providing direct access that only to resell stores but two new stateoftheart stadiums. Thanks to our program the developers were able to issue nearly 45 million to support construction of the highway and her change in the roadway to the site as well as other infrastructure. The epic facility itself also was built with financing bonds. You will hear more about this exciting project from bob nettie in a few minutes. I assure you, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Bob has been the chairman on the board of the Pittsburgh Pirates since 2003 and is the driving force behind a number of programs that made pnc park americas best ballpark of 2014. He brings a long history of building a Successful Organization and a longterm commitment to Economic Growth in West Virginia. Before we hear from all of our panelists, i would like to turn it over the governors to give them an opportunity to introduce their guests. Governor mead we have had a wonderful time here. I do wonder about having a beer festival a week from now, it seems like it would have had Good Business with that group had it occurred now. I want to thank you for your leadership on the Economic Development in the commerce committee. I think this may be one of the first times that we combined this committee with the committee i am biased chair with along with Governor Brown of california but it is an appropriate fit because we recognize that the two go together handinhand. In wyoming, we are probably the state with the First National park forest, monument. We are proud of that because we recognize what it means in terms of the opportunities our citizens have in terms of enjoyment and quality of life. We are also proud because it is such an economic driver to have that. We also have about 2. 9 million acres of wilderness, which is roughly the size of connecticut. On top of that, the state itself has been working to have an endowed fund of 200 million to work on conservation efforts within the state. We do this for a couple of reasons. One is we recognize the economic benefit. We recognize the quality of life it brings to our citizens. We do it because it is the right thing to do and we recognize we cannot take for granted what our states have. I am more familiar with the west but i know in the west, one of the treasures we all appreciate is the opportunity to not only on the recreation the Great Outdoors provides, but the hunting and fishing opportunities and what a great way to show off our state. I would say it is the states that have provided tremendous leadership in this area. In the 20th century states developed a north american system of Wildlife Conservation and it is the most successful in the world. At the turnofthecentury there were 500,000 dear in the country. Now, there are 20 million. 100,000 elk has become one million. There were 300 bison now 530,000. These Success Stories occurred before the endangered species act. I think that shows the states collectively come our commitment to wildlife, recreation, open space means to our citizens and the Economic Opportunity it provides to all of us. The states have an Important Role in continuing this because the opportunities and for quality of life. David became ceo of the Rocky Mountains foundation in 2007. Since 2007, the foundation has opened and improved secure Public Access to el capitan across the country. Just on a personal note, when i go to some of your banquets in wyoming, they are some of the largest i have the occasion to attend and always a great time. Although my wife questions the number of lottery tickets i buy that i never went win. We want to turn it over to governor bentley. Thank you. It is always good to be with both of you. In alabama, we are continuing to develop Innovative Strategies with a focus on preserving our states Natural Resources. We are also preserving our recreational opportunities and the historic landmarks we have in our state. We are attracting new residents and businesses and strengthening alabamas economy. Tourism is a key component of alabamas overall economy. In 2014, over 24 Million People visited the state of alabama and they spent 11. 7 billion will visiting our state. The beautiful beaches of the alabama gulf coast account for about 40 of the tourism that occurs in our great state. It is so important that we preserve and restore and expand our park, damaged by hurricane ivan in 2004 and the deep Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. We want to present two years ago to expand and renovate the Gulf State Park. You will hear more of that in a few minutes. Speaking of the state parks, alabama has 22 of the most diverse state parks. Our state parks feature fishing and hiking and mountain climbing and so much more that visitors can enjoy. We have a significant historical presence that many current visitors come to experience. We hosted more than 150,000 visitors to selma this year for the 50th anniversary of the selma to montgomery Voting Rights march. Just two weeks ago, a small town in southwest alabama drew thousands of people for one particular person who wrote go set a watchman. Harper lee is the most famous person that lives in alabama and people consistently come because she wrote a bestseller to kill a mockingbird. Alabama draws thousands of visitors annually to that small town. I special guest today is cooper, the executive director of alabamas gulf state project and my former chief Legal Advisor. Today, cooper will address how alabamas Natural Resources recovered following the 2010 d perez and oil spill and the future of the Gulf State Park. This project will be a critical step to continue to draw visitors to the alabama gulf coast. Before i conclude, let me say thank you to governor tomblin and governor mead. Ive enjoyed serving with you and i hope you and all of the governors enjoy these goodie thats i have let for you which talks about sweet home alabama. Thank you. Govenor tomblin thank you. We will turn it over to our panelist bob. Mr. Nutting to early as. List West Virginia is a beautiful place. I am a number of the fourth generation of a family run Newspaper Publishing company. We are headquartered here in West Virginia with newspapers magazines, and 13 states. I have an appreciation for what so many of you do as leaders and ceos of your states. It was fascinating to hear the earlier session talking about delivering results because i live in a world where we have to build a culture around Customer Service every day. Nobody has to go to a baseball game. No one has to buy a newspaper and putting the Customer First is a pretty revolutionary idea for State Government and i think West Virginia certainly has taken that seriously. What a great message for all of us. It is an honor to be here with really smart presenters and im not sure exactly how you got me on the list but i sheeted. One of the things i will but to talk about is my role at the newspaper. I Service Chairman of the board for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a very important asset for our family to take care of and steward. I want to do talk a little bit about the partnership that was forged with the city of pittsburgh and state of pennsylvania as we rebuild a Community Around a ballpark. Even 30 years ago, pittsburgh small sure had stadiums built in the 70s, surrounded by parking lots. There was a dilapidated warehouse, a bar, some old road houses. Really not a lot of activity. We have beautiful, iconic views of the bridges and pittsburgh but looking across from downtown , there was not much reason to go across the river other than to attend a game and certainly was not the Community Asset or longterm Funding Source the community needed. Today, it is a completely different environment. It has become a real entertainment destination but only for pittsburghers for people throughout the region and now in addition to the park, we have six new Office Buildings 750,000 square feet of his construction feet of new construction in the last year. We have four new hotels with about 700 rooms. An 8000 seat amphitheater with 200 events a year. We have three more restaurants scheduled to open this fall. We have an improved and expanded science center. I am currently cochairing the 45 Million Capital Campaign for the renovation and i will bring pledge cards of any of you will but to participate because we are only about halfway there and looking for support. Significant green space built into the environment to make sure we are celebrating the region as well. A river walk that brings thousands of people every day. Really that is just the beginning of the story. You also developments all over but this is one that really has worked to drive energy and life into the north shore and drive revenue streams. Baseball teams fundamentally our businesses so we are focused on the revenue. In the final year of the stadium , that facility generated about 9. 8 million of tax revenue. Last year, that number tripled and in the last three years, the park in heinz field combined had a direct impact of over 100 million in taxes and fees surcharges. That really provide an economic government does impact our community incredibly effectively. Pittsburgh is not unique in that at all. If you go to baltimore, a third of all the fans that go to camden yards come from outside maryland. It is about not just a ballpark but renovating a downtown. In denver, the field became anchor, along with the pubs. It really transformed that section of the city. The housing base has tripled in the past eight or 10 years since that field has been built. San diego, a more remarkable story because the petco park project really went into a blight and now it is home to high rise condos, trendy restaurants, luxury hotels. A fun destination to visit. I am a big fan of baseball and i think none of those projects could have happened or what have the impact without the catalyst and volume driven through baseball. Just at and see park, we put 2. 4 Million People through the turnstiles and twice that many people touching the north shore. The impact is not limited to major cities. There is a limited number of major league franchises but there are 173 minor league franchises that hit smaller communities throughout the region. One of our important minorleague affiliates is in charleston, West Virginia, the charleston power. We are thrilled to be there and came in just after that field was renovated six years ago. It has been a home run for us, literally. This spring, we opened up in morgantown a really dynamic and Creative Partnership with the state, the ballclub to build a worldclass facility for the university so they now for the first time really have a tremendous recruiting tool and baseball facility. They played through the spring and we have a short season team. We located in morgantown and we are becoming an anchor of a pretty remarkable retail development. The interesting thing is it is not just about the baseball but what has happened because of the energy change, the broad support. You have a development anchored with a Minor League Team that has five new hotels, 500 hotel rooms. 300,000 square feet every tell development, hundred thousand square feet distribution center. It is an area that really just four years ago a really remarkable success story. Governor, thank you again because at not have happened without your support and impact but i believe from my perspective, these are important and Good Investments to make because they pay back over and over for those communities. Frankly, unlike any other sport, i think baseball really takes his role as a social institution to heart. We play a lot of games so we have a big impact on the community. 162 games, 81 home games. It gives us a chance to connect to the community. We have been very active with our charities outreach program. We donate 2. 5 million a year. We have America League field for handicap accessible play, one in florida, four in the pittsburgh region. We can really have an impact and lastly, it is a family game. One of the last where is still affordable enough, particularly in a ballpark like we build in morgantown where people can come out and enjoy time together. I wanted to touch on one other area. That is the Public Access and green space and land driving the tourism in our state. The beautiful settings, the iconic views, and the clean water, clean air, and forests are a reason people come to West Virginia and a reason people want to live and work and play here in West Virginia and these partnerships, which are funded by things like the Water Conservation fund critical in West Virginia. We have an Outdoor Heritage conservation fund. Article internal funding inside of the state. Critical internal funding inside of the state. It is a huge impact. To recognize i believe in conservation, green space, the importance of preserving those views. As a businessperson, i also respect and appreciate and understand how much of an economic driver these conservation easements can be if we provide Public Access once those lands are preserved. Those are so important and to recognize these projects are incredibly difficult. The canyon took eight years. It took a consistent pressure of time and patience and work from the nature conservatives, the d. C. And are the dcnr. Your leadership dropping those kinds of programs to completion and the patience to be able to work beyond the administration and preserve a space that will be an asset for our state for future generations really is important. While the payback may be less obvious than 2. 4 million tickets sold, at a ballpark, i really believe it is no less important and i want you to know it certainly is no less appreciated by someone like me. My family has been here in West Virginia since the 1840s. Our Publishing Company since september 1890. We are committed to making this a better state and doing that for all of the people and so, if there is a common theme come it is again to be grateful for your leadership as you are driving forward and improving the quality of life and our communities and providing those recreational opportunities which makes an enormous impact and i really appreciate you having me here to share my perspective and it certainly reaffirms to me what you all as the leaders in your states are doing to advance and make it a great place for us all to live. Thank you. Govenor tomblin thank you bob. We appreciate what you and your family have done for the state. Next, we will go to david allen. Mr. Allen thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and i especially thank governor mead for the invitation. Quickly around the table, we have relationships here. Wyoming is historically our number one fundraising state every year. Governor hickenlooper Govenor Tomblin is about to come become our newest elks state. Something we have done in nine Eastern States so far with kentucky being the largest. Kentucky is the number nine alex state in the country and it is very elk state in the country. We appreciate your support there. Arkansas has a very special elk herd and we appreciate that. Colorado is home to the largest elk herd in the world and we certainly appreciate that. Probably the most progressive department of wildlife as well in terms of promotion so we appreciate working with them. Missouri, our newest elk herd. They are doing very well and the numbers are growing so we appreciate that. Oregon is home to one of our largest memberships. We do appreciate that. Oregon is a tremendous country the largest land project we completed was in the Central Oregon area. Montana is our home, the number two elk state in the country and number two in membership but certainly number one and our heart because that is where we are from. I grew up in the decoders. I covered both your bases and you both have elk herds as well. Thank you for that. The subject before us today i will primarily address the world of the American Sportsman including the hunting, fishing shooting sports, contrasting with professional sports allstar our facilities and venues sports. Our facilities include 500 million acres of public land and millions more of private land, which are home to a vast array of outdoor recreation. Consider the u. S. Has the most susceptible wildlife system in the history of the world. It is very easy to back up and a easy statement to live with. It is absolutely true. This is a result of the past 110 years of efforts of the American Sportsman and women and a company of our 50 state taste statebased wildlife agencies. The state have it right when they when it comes to wildlife. There are recreational assets in all 50 states. The agencies provide the management and enforcement of all of our outdoor activities. The most unique element is the significant portion of the funding and revenue stems from a user pay system. As revenue is generated by sports men and women from activities like hunting fishing, boating tags, the Sport Fish Restoration fund. One of the most significant contributors is the lwcf. We have seen some considerable movement in senator michalskis committee that is very encouraging that we will get lw cf reauthorized. Whether or not it will happen before the september 30 deadline will be seen. To demonstrate the economic significance, consider the following partial data relative to our activities in 50 states. There are over 40 million fishing licenses sold annually in the u. S. The hunting and shooting sports alone represent over 2 million jobs. Anglers in the u. S. Spend an excess of 48 billion each year. Americans in total fish a combined 557 million days each year. One example of the trickledown anglers in the u. S. Spent in excess each year of 290 million on ice. There are over 14 million hunters, 20 million target shooters and 19 million archery shooters in the u. S. Today. Hunters alone spend over 21 million 21 billion annually. Hunters alone spend over 600 million on their hunting dogs each year. Sportsmen provide an excess of 3 billion annually for state and wall but conservation funding. This comes primarily through the licensing and tax system. All of the activities represented require a vast and healthy landscape of public and private land. We cannot do it without the land. Combine the hunting, fishing and shooting sports in each state with these other outdoor activities, which also takes place primarily on public land. Camping and backpacking photography, birdwatching, mountain biking, snowmobiling, skiing, horseback riding, and many more. One begins to see the depth and significance of the outdoors especially our outdoor resources of land, water, and wildlife. Most importantly, these resources are renewable and will contribute to state economies as long as man recognizes our role as the stewards of the land, wildlife, and water. It is our responsibility. The American Public and private land represents one of the most viable assets we have in all of the states and each state has its own unique outdoor assets, contributing to their economy. We have the american sportsmen and women primarily to thank for much of the success. It is critical that we continue to utilize the north american model of conservation and that we do not fall prey to the lock it up and look at it preservation model. Nature does not manage itself as long as man is here. Man has a significant stewardship responsibility. The cornerstone of the north american model of conservation is the statebased wildlife and Land Management system. The conservation and management of our Natural Resources they regulate and enforce management laws, they provide access opportunities through fees and revenues provided by sportsmen and women each year. I will close my remarks by outlining some challenges i believe we face today. First and foremost most all of our states face fiscal challenges for managing wildlife in the outdoor and Natural Resources and their agencies, we are well aware of that and concerned about it. We have a lack of Adequate Funding for our public Land Management. We need more access to public lands and a cooperative plan between public and private landowners for more and better access. We need more statebased input into federal and public Land Management. The new farm bill provides for some of that. I believe governor bullock is involved in a project right now that i am involved aware of. It does have provisions that allow for this and we would like to become more aggressive partners with a lot of states in pursuing these opportunities. We need more commonsense Environmental Policies unless policies with extreme agendas. We need more commitment from congress to fund fully, not just reauthorize it. We needed fully funded. We need more coordinated efforts between all 50 states in recruiting and retaining hunting and fishing amongst our youth. There is a council today that i am a part of and a number of the ngos, most all of the agencies are part of the canceled to advance hunting and shooting sports. We need all of the efforts we can get today. Finally, local and regional management of wildlife and public lands is more critical today than ever. It is the citizens within a given locale region that understand what is best for protecting and managing the Natural Resources in their backyards. A onesizefitsall policy does not work in most cases today. We need to get our Natural Resource management back to the basics. We need to let them thrive for their respective local economies. This is one of the best ways to sustain many small communities and rural areas. And put in vernacular of nowadays, roll life matters rural life matters. This country cannot lose and should not lose. A better quadrant of between state and federal policies for Land Management is a must, or our National Forest will deteriorate. These are not the venue for the American Outdoor recreation industry. That is the end of my comments. I appreciate the time to be here. Thank you. Thank you david. Next we will call on cooper. Cooper i thank you for your leadership on these committees and a special thanks to governor bentley. I want to talk about think green. It has worked its way into our vocabulary. Probably 35 years ago. It conjures up different images to different people. Perhaps a beautiful outdoor scene like we find ourselves surrounded with today. Outside anyway. Or perhaps it is political ideologies or political initiatives, environmentally focused initiatives such as recycling. Regardless of your political persuasion, there is something u. S. Successful governors have figured out, that we often dont talk about enough. What think green it really means that we can all agree on. Thinking green in a way that matters to everyone. That is the perspective i would like to share with you today. When you think about green projects, environmental projects must so many are dismissive of them as fluff. 95 of environmental projects are actually Construction Projects. The vast majority of those Construction Projects are Economic Development projects. I wanted to share with you one example of how an environmental project and Economic Development project has been created to resolve the vision of our governor in dealing with the catastrophe that faced our state. In our experience, it stems from the deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. In 2010 the deepwater horizon went down and oil began to gosh 3. 1 Million Barrels of oil spilled into the gulf of mexico. 68,000 square miles of ocean were covered with oil. That is the size of oklahoma. What we begin to realize is what was clearly an environmental disaster was also an economic disaster. What i heard more times than not, as i worked with governor bentley and the people on the alabama gulf coast, they talked about their experiences, we did not realize how much a Clean Environment affected our businesses. The businesses along the gulf didnt really go anywhere. There were still restaurants shops am a souvenir places. People quit coming because of the damage to the environment. After the cleanup was undertaken we began the work to restore. As we restore the Natural Resources, the work began early on thanks to cooperation with bp , and we negotiated 1 billion in early restoration funds through the National Resource Damage Assessment process that came about through the Oil Pollution act after the exxon valdez. Bp understood if they were too early find the restoration of Natural Resources they could protect themselves from extended liability. The state trustees realized if we could put that money to work we could also mitigate not only the damages, but the Economic Impacts as well. Of the billion dollars that was secured from bp, our state received 100 million. Of the 100 million we received we decided with the agreement of the other trust these trustees, we are going to enhance our golf state park. It is a located along the alabama coast. Diverse types from the white sand beaches to the coastal woodlands, the wetlands. The Natural Resources that were there were just waiting to be enhanced. As the governor said, we lost a lot that had existed there on the beach since 1970s. It was lost due to hurricane ivan. Why in the world are you using funds as a result of an oil spill to rebuild a launch, a conference center, and other enhancements to the Gulf State Park . The reason is, the regulations and Oil Protection act, provide that it is not just the loss of the resources but the loss of the use of them. People need to have access to them. Historically under the Oil Pollution act, we have seen history of building boardwalks and roads and sidewalks and boat ramps so people could get to the Natural Resources. Our project is no different. Our project gives the people of alabama, the people of the nation the ability to access the Natural Resources we have, and not just for a minute, an hour but to stay overnight to feel one with the environment as they spend time on vacation within the Natural Resources. Our project consists of five elements. , enhancing the visitor experience, building an additional 10 miles of walking birding, riding bikes or running. This is in addition to the 13 miles that exists. The other, comfort stations along these walkways, areas to pause and take a break, to observe the birds and Natural Environment being restored. The second element, restore the dunes. That is clearly a Natural Resource that needs to be restored. They are a living organism. What we have now is a berm. We built a berm to protect the highway along the beach from constant hurricanes. Burns dont survive naturally. Dunes regenerate naturally. We are going to restore 50 acres of dunes in the park. Were going to build an environmental and information center. This is an Interpretive Center for people to come and serve as a gateway to the parts of people can learn about these Natural Resources. If we are going to preserve them for or lifetimes we have to educate people, especially children of their origins. That ties into the fourth element. Creating a research and education center. This will have labs, dorm space for k12 students to come throughout the school year to learn about the Natural Resources, to learn about our environment. Space for them to get handson to perhaps help us remove some of the species that have invaded the Gulf State Park and replace them with indigenous species. Finally, to rebuild the laws. And create meeting space. The plan is to build a 350 room launch that is within the footprint of the lodge that has existed from the 1970s and to create meeting space of people who come can have the opportunity to get together and meet, to create an opportunity for the community to have space there as well. This construction project is going to cost more than the 85 million we have secured. It will probably cost an extra 50 million. We have plans to raise that money through some financing through the state, which is pending before legislature now. This 135 million, that is Construction Costs. The Economic Impact of those Construction Cost is close to 300 million for our state. Over 160 million in contribution to our Gross Domestic Product for our state 97 million in earnings. That is just the construction. Once it is built, we will see Economic Impacts substantially more. The potential annual impact of just the lodge and meeting space in addition to the park will be 68. 2 million each year for gulf shores where the gulf is located in baldwin county. The park project itself directly and indirectly or the construction and additional jobs that will be created as the park is enhanced will support over 616 new jobs. And 16. 4 million in annual payroll. The annual offsite visitor spending as a result of additional guest at the launch, 14. 2 million by the year 2020 and 19. 6 million in Economic Impact from that point forward. You see, in thinking green there is an additional green element to consider. Not just the Natural Resources but also the Economic Development. I would just leave you with that thought him a something you already know. As we share it, to think green differently. Thank you. Thank you cooper for that. I think all of our panelists. I would like to welcome our newest member of this Committee Kate brown, welcome to the Economic Development and Natural Resources committee. We are glad to have you with us. Now we would like to open up the meeting to any discussion, any questions from the governors, comments . Thank you for the great presentations. We appreciate you being here very much. This is a question for you david. I appreciate your presentation. One of the challenges that we face is, we recognize the hunters and those who fish, they pay a lot of the bills in terms of wildlife. There is great many beneficiaries from that, people who are photographers, people who want to hike. We are looking at the state model of how we can monetize some of that. How do we do that . We recognize too often it is put on sportsmen shoulders to finance it. In recent years we have gone beyond that and it into the general fund to help fund our game and fish department. That is questioned one as you look at states. How do we make sure we continue this great model of conservation and make sure we continue the job . The second question is, we have programs in wyoming. For the continuity, and for us to look back to hundred years and say this is continuing on you have to engage the next generation. You have to engage the young people. I dont have any data on this but anecdotally we worry about young peoples ending more time inside and less time in joining the Great Outdoors. What advice would you have to stimulate that interest . It is important to parents, but we spend time they spend time on cell phones entertainment that is not as viable as taking a look outside and saying this does seeing the vistas. Dave allen i will do the second one first. We wrestled with trying to crack the code with the kids today and the youth. That age group, 1220 years old if you well if you will, their whole world is here. I have two teenaged sons, and that is where they are at. One of the things that we have learned is we have to make it more relevant in their terms which some of it has to go there as a delivery system. One of the and cringing things today is a lot of the young kids are into their own little mini adventures, if you will. Driven by this. So they can share with their friends and do what they do when they are doing all of that. [laughter] so we are trying to very hard figure out how do we do that, we spent a fair amount of money and failed. We are actually starting to retain kids to do it for us. This old white guy here is not going to do it for them. It just isnt working and i am not relevant to what they are thinking. That is the past now. We are involved with the council to advance hunting and shooting sports. That has nearly every state represented through their state agencies. We are moving rapidly towards creating a campaign, which would be very similar to the boating fishing, take me boating type of campaign that has been running for some time now, Public Service announcements. We are trying to find out what is that relevant message that is going to resonate with the kids . And get them out into the outdoors . I dont have the answer to that i can be totally honest. We have to, one of the things that is driving now that is interesting is the locavore movement, some of the urban areas. Some of the younger twentysomethings, even thirtysomethings want to know where their food comes from. They want to eat meat that they know where it comes from. They wanted to be organic. The governor is shaking her head. You can relate. In montana and my warming and my wyoming, in the urban areas it is happening more and more. To provide their own food. Interestingly enough, one of the most high profile individuals is mark zuckerberg, the founder of facebook who does that. When he started talking about it got a great amount of attention. Those kinds of things are happening. How do we embrace that and capture that . How do we make it more relevant in areas where it should be . I live in montana. I can go in through a lot of schools in billings, west high, the largest high school in the state, and you wouldnt talk about hunting and fishing. That shouldnt be in montana but it is a reality today. We have to get around those issues if we are going to maintain not only this cold cure, but what we have for resources. Im kind of getting off on a tangent to your question by it is all really did it has to go in the back that we address to you. Your other question about state model, and state budgets are being stretched and stretched and there is more and more demand on the state agencies for the work today, the nonconsumptive species and whatnot. It is a real issue for a couple of reasons. You have your key customers, the hunter and fisherman. They are scared they are going to lose their relevance and seat at the table. You have the birdwatcher the wildlife photographer, they are out there using as much of the resources as anybody else, and they are not contributing to the management and enforcement. We have to figure out how they do contribute and we have to not resist if hunters and fishermen we have to not be afraid to let them have a seat at the table. I believe the real seat at the table is the election every year. That is your seat and your voice as a citizen. But we have to let them participate without feeling like were giving up what we have the sportsmen. That is the dilemma. Im sitting on a counsel for montanas fish and wildlife going through the same exercise. We have only met twice. We are going to meet again the end of august. What did we do, how do we trust that how do we address that . Anyway that is going to contribute to contribute to the state budget to provide resources and help manage for them . It is going to take some willingness to give on both sides of that table for it to happen. What you guys did in wyoming a couple of years ago when you were faced with that budget issue, i believe the general fund started to cover the retirement and benefits for your game and fish employees, is something that we have been talking about with montanas group. That is one significant game. I know it was several Million Dollars that was gained. How do we get all of these other users of the resource into the pool of contribution, it is the 64,000 question. Do we expand Pittman Robertson to include more equipment that is being used for wildlife and outdoor resources . It is plausible, but where does that line get drawn . Which products is it etc. Were going to have to be bold and be willing to take some steps because i know a lot of the states, especially the western states that we work with most are really stretched. Oregon was facing significant fiscal challenges. They are all in the same boat. I do not have the answer, the silver bullet. I know the answer is going to include we have to all come to the table and be able to solve the problem, and not play defense quite as much. Thank you. Governor bullock. Governor bullock one of the things we have to do is educate about the Economic Impact of these opportunities read i look at the state of one Million People, i had 11 million visitors. If i just go down to the hunting and fishing, we can quantify 250,000 residents that spend 970 million in the state. We certainly struggle with it. As david knows fish and wildlife issues are the most controversial things we deal with every single session. By the same token, there are times where there are licensing fees that are inadequate, and others are inadequate to be able to sell that it is actually our tourism recreation and bring in 403 million of revenues each year to the state. The only way we continue to do that on the angling and hunting side is that there are times that it cant all be put on the sportsmen and womens backs. David allen i relate most to montana because i live there. It is the best argan in town as a resident. The resident hunting license i can get, and all the things i can do with it, we should be paying more as residents for the privileges that we have an hunting and fishing. That again is it going to generate the answer. It is going to help but it is not going to generate it. We have nonresident fees as high as they dare go. It is a dilemma. It has to be addressed. We are running rapidly into a brick wall with just about all the western states i know of. Further questions . If not i will think our panelists again for being here. Did you have something . Im not a lot to ask a question. I was going to add a common on the Youth Engagement. Its brick pirates have been very active in studying Youth Engagement radar parallels with Youth Engagement and outdoor activities. Boy scouts have dropped to 8 participation over the last 20 years. West virginia with the summit center, it is pretty remarkable. It brings in nontraditional fun activities. The kids want to engage in as opposed to always doing it the same way. Baseball, one is is affinity how early was your First Experience at a ballgame and did you actively participate or play . You have a parallel with how early did your dad take you fishing . It has to be as big an indicator and how you encourage and commit that kind of history and family. The first a dad took me fishing i try to fish every day since then. We cant all do that, but how do we make it fun make it engaging, and capture kids earlier because we are not going to compete with a mobile devices. It has killed all of us to not have the machine out in front of us for the last hour. Having that opportunity because there is no substitute for the resilience kids learn from being outside. We try to build baseball fields preserving the rivers, adding that resource available to bring people in but encouraging early activity, and did you actively engage turns the switch on for kids and baseball as a lifetime. It did for me with the love of the outdoors and love of fishing. To follow up to that, several states now, wyoming has colorado just approved it. Montana we went through it this last session. A mentor license, a license for kids before they have had hunter education, where they are required to be with their parent or guardian. They are allowed to go out and hunt certain things. To your point, of getting them cooked and getting them engaged at a younger age it has proven to be very successful in many states. The other thing that is encouraging is the statistics for the growth of females participating in hunting and fishing. Believe it or not, especially archery is significant. What has been helpful about that, if mom is engaged everybody is engaged. That is a strong plus for us. We are seeing a lot of growth in that area. We hope to sustain it. Governor bentley . Let me say, as far as closing, i would like to say thank you for coopers shadegg. The tragedy in alabama, and the entire gulf coast, this committee deals with economic and commerce. We have a combination meeting today dealing with tourism. Out of tragedy we are developing something that is very important. I think that no one wants tragedy, no one wants disasters to get their stay. When disasters do hit their state you need to look for a way to make lemonade out of lemons and that is what we have done. Primarily in alabama i want to thank cooper, who was my Legal Advisor originally. Now he is with the university of alabama systems. They continue to let him work with me. We are going to bring back that 32 miles of the widest w hitest send in the world. I have refused to do that. What we are doing is rebuilding the Convention Center and we will have conventions and alabama for alabama people. We have made lemonade out of lemons and i want to thank cooper for his hard work. The university of alabama has allowed him to do that and helped me. Governor. There is a back alabama. And there is one from wyoming. Ours does not have sand in it. [laughter] further questions or comments . Do any of the governors have anything to say before the committee . I declare the committee adjourned. Thank you for being here. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] the National Governors Association Meeting in West Virginia got underway earlier today and continues this weekend. A few governors were asked about the house legislation passed lester day yesterday that would cut off funding for cities that do not use federal funding. The issue of sanctuary citys has become a hot topic. Im not sure which of your states have them. If you could give a perspective, if you think there should be state limitations on sanctuary cities and that sort of issue. State limitations from the federal government . No. If the state should pass their own legislation. A number of states have. I dont know if i will speak for you guys. We have a city that has been listed as a sanctuary city. I dont know who makes those decisions. Labeling them sanctuary city. We certainly as an organization, the National Governors understand how important Immigration Reform is an passing immigration laws. You hear a lot of discussion about the border, secure the borders. That is intuitive for a lot of reasons. We ought to have a secure border. I call that the tall fence. We need to have a gate that works. I know i have had an opportunity to address this with the president. If we dont fix the gate we have undo pressure on the sixth. On the fence. We have immigrants that want to come into the country and work in a legal status way but then would like to go home. The fear of not being able to come back causes them to overstay and become undocumented and illegal. I believe that there ought to be a rule of law that we need to create immigration laws, and we have somewhat of a stalemate in congress. We have been debating this for how long . The last we had meaningful discussion was in reagans day. If that has been a long time. It is time to come together in a bipartisan way and do something. Do something that is a positive thing. We think congress should and onto. Absence of that must have tried to do things. In utah we try to come up with our own state law to address the immigration issue. We are challenged in court and lost. The court said this is a federal issue. Despite the fact that we feel the pain and the frustration, it is a federal issue. On behalf of the nga we are hoping the congress will address this issue, come up with a solution, but get something done that shows in a positive way we are addressing this frustrating issue. Our immigration system is broken. Congress will not address it. We believe Congress Needs to address our immigration system. We are a nation of immigrants who have come here. We also are a nation of laws. We need to uphold our laws. We need to have an immigration system allows people who want to come here and follow the law and be able to do that, to have a better quality of life, to do so in a timely manner. It does take a long time to go through the process to become a citizen of the United States. One of the things im worried about is the times that the United States has criminal distinction criminal illegal aliens that come into the United States, kill people, and then goes back home and comes back like we saw in california. It is a terrible tragedy. Congress needs to get serious about taking Immigration Reform for our nation, to allow those who come here to our Legal Process to be able to do that, but also needs to develop a system that enforces a system of laws if someone creates a crime. They are not allowed to stay in the United States. The National Governors association continues this weekend. The governors talk about drug addiction, in particular opiates and prescription painkillers. In the afternoon, tom perez speaks to governors about how job Training Programs grow the economy. Another secretary, head of the department of health and Human Services speaks to the governors about health care and how to improve care and decrease costs. The nga meeting closes out with comments by the incoming chairman of the Association Governor Jerry Herbert of utah. It is almost as if they were matter and antimatter. Freedom breeds inequality. Always to the right. Robert gordon and Morgan Neville talk about their documentary best of enemies. There is not someone that is very unlike today. There is someone saying the numbers are dwindling, talk about hot topics, salacious topic number two. Whereas then, i dont think that was the norm in tv at the time. I dont think these guys needed that. Howard smith was the moderator, who i think was really embarrassed by this. He was moderating but he disappears for sometimes five or more minutes at a time. Today you what you have a moderator not jumping in every 30 seconds. Everybody at abc just stood back and let the fire burned. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan q a. The sin that has a rare sunday session this weekend considering amendments to the highway bill that legislation that such policy for road, bridges and mass transit. Italy provides money for projects for three years. On sunday, senators consider him an amendment that would restart the operations of the Export Import Bank and another that would repair repeal the Affordable Care act. The highway bill was one issue transportation secretary anthony fox spoke about this morning at a breakfast meeting with reporters. He opened the discussion talking about interest rotation department. Thank you for coming. Our guest today is anthony foxx. His last meeting with our group was last year. He earned his bachelors ed davis in college. After laws all he spent a month in new orleans playing trumpet. He worked at a law firm clerks for a title Appeals Court judge and serve in the department of justice and on the staff of the house judiciary committee. He returned to charlotte to work at a law firm. He was reelected in 2007. He was like to the citys mayor in 2009, the youngest person to hold that job, and confirmed as the 17th transportation secretary in june of 2013. So much for biography. Now on to the process portion of our program. We are on the record. Our guest may commit news. You are listening to the following ground rules. The case as is always the case and emotional moment. Lets try again. The following ground rules are important. As is always the case of these gatherings, no live blogging or tweeting. No filing of any kind while the breakfast is underway to give us time to listen to what our guests says. The embargo comes off at 10 00. To help you curve that urge our photographer is here. He will we will email several pictures of the session to all reporters before the breakfast ends. If you would like to ask a question do the traditional thing and send me a subtle nonthreatening signal. We are going to start off the offering our guest opportunity to make some opening comments. Then we will move to questions. Thank you for doing this. Secretary foxx thank you all for being here. I have been in government for a a while. I have spoken in a lot of chicken dinners and breakfast is. Well free to go ahead any. Youre not going to be offending me. The first bit of business i want to take care of has to do with an investigation that the department is opening on the allegations of price gouging following the tragic accident of amtrak train 188 in the philadelphia area. We have sent letters to for airlines, delta, american, southwest, and jetblue. To begin the process of uncovering whether in fact the airlines drove up prices in direct response to this incident, and created a challenge for consumers who were trying to move in that area at that time. This is the opening of the investigation. It doesnt mean we have closed. We are beginning the work today. So there is other news in transportation. I have spent a good bit of my time as secretary traveling the country, going to more than 100 communities and 42 states. Urging the country to not only avoid highway shutdowns but to raise our ambitions for transportation investment and what we need in the 21st century. It has been a flurry of activity on the senate this week. I will just say at the outset, the encouraging thing is that we have folks on both sides of the aisle who i think are earnestly trying to do what they feel they can do. We are still in the process of drilling into this 1000 page legislation. It continues to change. We expect perhaps there will be some changes introduced today as result of input that folks have received. I dont have any hard and fast position on this bill at this time because it is still very fluid. I do want to point out a couple of things. As the Agency Responsible for transportation safety, that is of utmost concern to us. As introduced last tuesday, they were portions of the bill we found to be highly objectionable. I understand there has been work to try to soften some of those provisions. We will just have to see what the senate comes up with. That is an area where our department is fiercely committed to raising the standards for the american people, not lowering them. With that, im one to stop and maybe have some opportunity for back and forth. On one to do one or two. Then we will go to the ap to start. Heather from politico, richard from reuters. Jeff from bloomberg. Let me do one in the air and one on the ground. Me ask about gun firings let me ask about gun firing drones. Can we know about the homemade drone that fired a handgun four times will being operated, and are those the things that will be covered in the standards you will have in september . Secretary foxx first of all, this is a matter under review. I dont have anything to report to you about that investigation area more broadly, we recognize that the state integration of these Unmanned Aircraft has to be done as quickly as possible. Our small rule resulted in more than 3000 comments. We are sifting through them and trying to push that rule out as quickly as possible. I also think there is consumer side issues over the availability of drones and the use of drones. We are scouring our authorities to see what if anything we can do as an agency on this question. We will have more to say about that as there are future meet future weeks and months. I think hopefully we will meet that deadline close to it. In terms of getting the rule to omb and soon thereafter having the rule out there as final. Here is the last one from me. A lot of talk this week about car hacking as a result of wired s a magazine report on that it. You can get control of steering and brakes support. I want to know your view of the legislation by the senators and what the department is doing on that subject. Secretary foxx look, this is a place where the government and the private sector have to be working closely together. We have urged the audio industry to develop a roundtable of sorts to focus in on issues like Cyber Security when it comes to these technologies. A lot of the technologies are proprietary in some respect. They are common issue the industry has to deal with. We found in other industries these collaborations are useful. We have offered to extend resources of our department to help that. We feel like this is an area where the government and the private industry are going to have to step up in a big way. We cant do it by ourselves. Moderator in the meantime, how concerned should they be about hacking . Secretary foxx it is an issue. I think as we look forward into the future of transportation, we will also see even more of a push towards technology which with connected vehicles. The time to get on this is right now. As i say, we will collision is hard as we can within government. As industry developed this technology there is going to be no substitute for publicprivate collaboration to ensure the security of our vehicles is airtight. Reporter i have two questions. One was i was hoping you could elaborate more on the price gouging investigation you have open. You said how Many Airlines . What is your best evidence of this . Is it the northwest corridor . And then a highway bill questions. I know you are still drilling down on that bill but republicans have made a lot of tweaks to it. I am wondering if you actually got a bill like this, do you think it is how would you feel about it . Would you think it is an advancement or not . Secretary foxx on the investigation, it is still very early. We Just Launched it today. There are four airlines that we are looking at. I have identified them. Those airlines have allegedly raised fees beyond what you would ordinarily expects in the northeast corridor at a time when the amtrak line was shut down. And our investigation, our inquiry is focused on getting to the bottom of whether there were unfair practices involved in setting prices at that time. On the highway side i think it is fair to say that as introduced on tuesday, a very mixed bag. I want to give credit to folks on both sides who have been trying to figure this out. This is not easy. If it was easy we would not have had 34 sessions or a decade since the last six your transportation bill. But, i think some of the glaring problems with it had to do with the safety provisions, and i know they are working to try to, date accommodate the concerns there. We will have to see how far they are able to get on that. I do think that this country is hungry for robust transportation , and the problems of congestion that have gotten worse over the last several years. The potholes, the bridges that need to be repaired. I could go on and on about the problems. One of the questions, does this bill help us solve those problems in a substantial way . We will continue reviewing as this and continues the fluid work they are doing on this legislation. Once they have settled down i think you will find this settling into a position on it. Reporter one more on the investigation. Can you say anything about what clues, what hands about the airlines actions raised the suspicions to start the investigation . What sparked the investigation . Secretary foxx there were a flurry of concerns raised in the wake of the accident in philadelphia. We had been asked to consider an investigation by senator murphy from connecticut. We are doing our Due Diligence through the investigation to determine whether in fact there were unfair practices involved. Reporter how soon might we see a schedule of flights to cuba . [laughter] secretary foxx that is actually that involves the state department and the commerce department. You are aware that secretary kerry is planning to visit cuba and august in august. As we move forward you will see those flights resuming at some point in the near future. I dont have a date today. Reporter a quick question. It strikes me it was the legal if they rose there price of their was a sudden demand. Is what you are concerned about is them colluding in an illegal way . Is the doj get involved . Secretary foxx the department of justice focuses on criminal inquiries. What we are doing has bears no relationship that what the department of justice is doing. We are looking at this from a consumer standpoint. Yes, in fact, there is natural shifts in pricing depending on what demand is. The question really is, was this beyond the pale . We will find that out in the course of this investigation. Moderator heather from politico. Ok. Go ahead. Reporter [inaudible] folks talked about the excitement over the Obama Administration. Texas had an opinion there was no role for government. They didnt get any big money out of stimulus. 67 years later, it is moving forward with the private sector rail. Most of the places where the federal government has had highspeed rail has rejected the money or come into slow downs. How big of a priority is that for the Obama Administration . Is the regret and the way they handle it Going Forward . Im trying to get a sense of where you see the nations highspeed rail . Secretary foxx you pick any big project that has been done in this country, and there was opposition to it at the beginning. I dont care what you are talking about. The new york subway system, the brooklyn bridge. The golden gate bridge. Any big project in this country there have been choruses against those projects initially. I dont think highspeed rail is different in that respect. We were seeing highspeed rail gaining traction. The california project broke down in january. Even florida, the state rejected the highspeed rail money in the recovery days, they are working on a highspeed rail project connecting orlando and miami. And the work that is being done in texas to do highspeed between houston and dallas how it is done is less important than that it is done. I think you are seeing folks realizing the president was right, we need to connect our major city fares, give people a different choice to get from a to b, and you are starting to see it happen. Reporter has the administration been Counseling Centers over the last week to vote against the mcconnell boxer plan . What happens if we get to a decent rate and there is no tax reform deal . Secretary foxx the short answer is no. We are not in a position to be for or against the whole bill. There is certainly portions of that we find traveling. We have been communicating those concerns. Because the bill is in such a fluid state, there hasnt been a settling down of a position because it continues to be a moving target. What happens if we get to december 18 and there is no bailout for the trust fund . This is a perpetual question we have been asking ourselves with the last 33 extensions. At some point in the music does have to stop and we need to get on with building the country. I think the good news is you see people struggling in earnest how to get there
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