I thank you for the contributions you have given us to help utah become the best it can be. Thank you very much. [applause] their annual winter meeting in washington, d. C. , the National Governors association held a discussion on prison reentry, Workforce Development efforts, and occupational licensing reform. This is our next session will explore for Workforce Solutions. To begin todays discussion, we have the arkansas governor, who was the terror of the ngas education and workforce committee. Is leading a discussion on how states can provide workforce beining, and he will joined by Iowa Governor kim reynolds. She will talk about steps her state is taking to improve the states economy. I also want to take this to talk about the new vice chairman of the nga. We took a unanimous vote yesterday. Governor hutchinson will be the next vice chair of the nga. Congratulations to him. [applause] with that, we turn the floor over to you. thank you,chinson Governor Hogan, for your leadership and also for being a Good Campaign manager for me. Youpreciate the direction are taking the nga. Governors face workforce challenges. The governors across the country continue to find the best solutions. To kick off this session highlighting workforce strategies for governors, im going to feature some of the work that we are doing in arkansas to create Second Chances for formerly incarcerated individuals. I am delighted also to hear from ernor reynolds governor reynolds. Governor, i was told that whenever they left prison after how many years they served, they would be given 100 and a bus ticket. Not a chancehat is of success. Comment publicly and have been reminded of that from time to time, because those that are paying their penalty and present, they here in prison, they hear those comments and the listen tentatively. Those that want a Second Chance are looking for that opportunity. And so as a result of that commitment and the need that we have in our state and across the country, we have reinvigorated enhancedry programs, our training for those that are coming out of prison, and enlisted also the help of the private sector. I called it the restoreth Hope Initiative restore Hope Initiative, where i brought faithbased organizations, private organizations together and said the state cant do it all. We can put some funding for reentry bets, but we need your help to give them a chance and also to reenlist the Employer Community so that they will open up their doors and that just eliminate someone because they checked the box because they have a prior offense. And so, and listing them changed the dynamic, increase the numbers of employers are participated, and also helped them to have Health Coverage as a left present. It relieves a burden on them. I have the habit of going to to thecoffee shop there in little rock area. As i go in there, i met this one lady behind the counter, and she whispered to me and said that she had left prison, that she has a job, she had a big smile partr face, and she is an of the Reentry Program that we started. About once a week ago in there and i check on her, so i have my own reentry check system, but it is exciting to see the progress that people make in life, the commitment and how they seek a Second Chance, the struggles that they go through. One final thing we are doing is that we created a twoyear Scholarship Program for particular fields, high need areas of employment. This is for High School Students primarily that are coming out. In nursing, we are paying full tuition and fees for them to go in and get the skill training up to two years in a twoyear college. Thatd, how about someone has been out of the workforce for years and wants to reenter it . A nontraditional student . And they had not thought of that, but we made that program, a two year Free Tuition Program available for nontraditional students, and guess what . That would apply to someone coming out looking for an opportunity to get the training they need. So we are reaching out to a number of different areas. Now i am pleased to introduce the assistant director of community corrections, kerry williams. Their leadership has been critical to the success of our Reentry Program and arkansas. She sits in the governor occupational licensee board, so she brings unique insight to this issue. Thank you for joining us today to tell us more about what is happening in arkansas. What an honor it is to be here to represent the state of arkansas and the reentry efforts that weve done. What we have learned is that reentry is a process, if not a program that someone starts and finishes while they are incarcerated. It starts at intake and is completed on their successful reentry. We have learned it takes more than one or two silver bullets to attack these issues and address these barriers. There is a multitude of issues that must be identified and connected to a resource while in call serrated and after release. We know that well over 80 of inmates incarcerated have a Substance Use issue. We are addressing those intently. We identify the money taken work with them through the program while they are incarcerated. Some experts say have a Mental Health issue. We have also started tackling that at a higher level. We partnered with Mental Health and intake at intake. They are treated while they are incarcerated. Statean across the to assist rural areas in person. We did a huge push from plymouth through the great and Community Grit and community awareness. Under governor hutchinson, we have passed three pieces of legislation that have allowed inmates to be released and allowed to receive a restricted. Icense or id would connect them to sponsors across the state. We use mentor sponsorships. We have enlisted recovery coaches embedded in some of the eight offices across the state. We also ensure that everyone graduates from a Reentry Program that they have a mentor or sponsor. We every entry on the road, a new initiative we just started that takes a small team we have an reentry and go from community to community to educate them on what is going on in our state. The barriers we have faced, and the solutions we have created to overcome them. Governor hutchinson mentioned restore hope. We have been very successful with prisoner reentry and foster care. Thosennecting the dots to two major issues. We have eight reentry facilities which we opened the first one in 2015. It is an 180 day program where we screen individuals about 18 months prior to transfer eligibility. Slowly transition them to 15 hours of programming. Employed,ulltime they get family communication, Substance Abuse, Mental Health. ,hen they complete the program they are to have her liberal. We have a traditional housing application now. It has helped a good push for employment. We have increased efforts. Where inmatesers can apply during incarceration. We have increased our release from 60 days to an imax of seven bes someone to release released be released to a traditional house. Using new medicaid assistant treatment programs in arkansas, which has been very successful to help us attack the opiod addictions. Governor hutchinson also mentioned we have passed legislation to try to deregulate some barriers. That will be an ongoing committee for the next couple of years. As an agency, we have realigned our Risk Assessment so that we apply the resources to highrisk offenders. Thank you for your time and feel free to ask me any questions. Governor hutchinson thank you, carrie. It is the right thing to do at a human level for those genuinely seeking a Second Chance. It is also a practical thing to do, because in every state, we have low unemployment numbers where we are looking to increase those or going into the workforce, and employers need the train workforce trained workforce, even those coming out of incarceration. I am delighted again to be joined by governor reynolds, who has been a National Leader in developing workforce opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals. Where pleased to hear from her today. Governor reynolds, thank you. Governor reynolds thank you for highlighting what you are spear heating in the great state of arkansas. Ofnce recognize the power redemption and believe in Second Chances. That is why its been one of my priorities of my administration to not only focus on eliminating barriers, but to work on rehabilitation. Honestly, it is an overall approach to our Workforce Strategy Initiative and doing everything we can to put talent back to work. I firmly believe prisons should not be one step in a circle that leads back to prison. So we started with present Training Programs like many of the states are doing. In 2015, we implemented statewide Apprenticeship Programs that offer training in all nine of our institutions. We actually have 26 occupations that are a part of the Apprenticeship Program. Were continuing to reevaluate them to make sure we are really aligning with the high demand careers that are available in the state of iowa. 350 registered apprentices taking advantage of the registered Apprenticeship Program. Over 200 apprentices have completed and earned international certification. Logged overnmates 170,000 apprenticeship hours in our correctional facilities across the state. 18 have completed their programs and achieved their status. Iowa is also one of the states that had the opportunity to participate in the Second Chance pell pilot program. I know the administration is looking into expanding that. It i would encourage states to participate in the. In that. 514 inmates that are completing college classes. Inmates currently are enrolled. Here is a great statistic that i love to talk about. The average gpa of those that are participating in the Second Chance pal program is 3. 5. When you compare that to traditional student averages, it is 2. 2. They are taking a serious and they are appreciative of the opportunity to do that. We are expanding those learning opportunities to all nine institutions. We also started a Home Building program and we traveled to south dakota. It is a winwin on many levels. It helps them learn and also upright Apprenticeship Programs to that. Electrician, plumbing, construction across the board. In our first year, working with publicprivate partnerships, they built for homes 4 homes. Especially in some communities impacted by some of the disasters we have experienced in our state. The cost of the homes. This year was 75,000. We hope to get it done 60,000 for a three bedroom home. We think we can do 18 homes next year. Also, we will be bringing another Successful Program to the state of iowa this year. And that is the last mile. Which is an Incredible Program that is helping teach incarcerated individuals how to code and the latest technology available. I did what any other good governor would do. I was welcomed by governor holcombe in indiana. He held a meeting at the womens correction of the city, where the demonstrated last mile that they have incorporated in their. There. Its been in place for 10 years, and they have yet to have one person with any recidivism whatsoever. I am excited to work with my director of corrections and get it implemented in iowa. As i wrap up, one of the things we have just doing less year and will continue to do this year that has been really effective, and that has been the employer reentry roundtables. That we are actually hosting at our correctional facilities across the state. And so, its bringing employers managers and to the facility so they have some idea of the scale that they are learning while their institutionalized they are institutionalized. What a great opportunity it is for them to solve their workforce needs. It offers them a chance to talk to other employers who have hired ex offenders, how successful it has been, some of the challenges, rewarding aspects of doing that is all. We bring individuals that have completed the program and now own their own business, or are successfully employed, so they can talk about their stories and the impact on their life. We also have some of the inmates be part at the roundtable as well. As i leave off than are talking to me about how inspired they are, that there is hope and opportunity out there. That has been just a winwin across the board, and especially for employers to see the opportunities that exist. We have had three roundtables and over 250 attendees. We had great participation. We also are putting together a portal of employers willing to hire ex offenders so that we know where to go to help streamline the process. We are putting mobility teams in our prisons that will have drivers license kits that will go to the prisons and help them get drivers licenses before they leave or start to identify the barriers that are keeping them from doing it. I will just wrap up by saying again iowas economy is growing, andave lower unemployment, again this is part of our overall strategy, whether it is the Iowa Workforce initiative, whether it is investing in workplace lane, registered Apprenticeship Programs, or Second Chances, we are really doing everything that we can to not only help all iowans reach their full potential, but continue to provide a pipeline project creators to continue to see the growth we are seeing in our economy. Thank you. Governor hutchinson thats very encouraging and inspiring, governor reynolds. Thank you for sharing that. With that, i will turn the floor over to the other governors for questions for the panelists, or a comment as to what has happened in your state. Think you very much for your leadership in this program. We are looking at Something Like that. We are looking to work with the Apprenticeship Program and the department of labor and also with the community college. As you were talking, i was what was aout resistance with the employer sector . Was there a lot of challenges that you had to overcome . I liked your roundtable experience. I think that would help us in convincing employers to participate in this program, because if they dont, you would not be successful. And the other question i had is, is there any one industrys sector that employees more of more of the Reentry Program, or is it even across the board . Governor reynolds i will talk about the reentry roundtable. Its been an opportunity its been about the reentry roundtable. They need employees so bad, they are willing to have different opportunities to do that. By giving them the opportunity to hear from other employers that have participated in the program, we spent a lot of time with q a and giving them the opportunity to answer. Notave employers that are only hiring them, but providing housing, paying the first months rent, paying so they are really a Key Partnership in all of this. Welding the vocational is one of the biggest areas that we have seen the most success with, and the traits when it comes to test in the traits when rades wheno the t it comes to Apprenticeship Programs. Governor hutchinson let me ask ms. Williams to add a little bit. In arkansas, we have struggled with the questions when we do our reentry on the road initiative. For the majority of them, they want to hire them, its and an hr issue. We know we have tackle the Substance Abuse and Mental Health issues and give a holistic approach to the employers. Its really because of education. Letting them know what their workforce is. Working harder at getting we are working harder to get the apprenticeships coming out and to get them that trade organizations actually recognize them. Thank alli want to three of you. Constructive and refreshing. I believe criminal Justice Reform, including reentry, is the bipartisan or nonpartisan issue of the day. One where we all need to do better and one where there are so many good ideas out there. My question is, particularly on an area that my state needs to work on, which is provocation of parole revocation of parole and probation. Specifically what changes you all may have made as you develop the Reentry Programs. In my state, the incarceration rate increased 40 since 2000 four. Today, we have more people that go into our institutions based on revocation of parole and probation then in any new crime. Specifically inside of the, we know the recovery is hard. It is very difficult be people often need multiple chances of recove. It is very difficult. People often need multiple chances of recovery. Four of the opportunities inside the system to give people a chance to achieve and set of setting them back for a. Of years period of years . Uniquee is a little bit to every state. It is hard to be very clear and it conversation like this. As you pointed out, some of the violations that could lead to revocation are failing a drug court,n a drug treatment they probably are going to give you another chance to do better if you fail the test one time. They will give you consequences, but they will not send you on the first time back to prison. Violation a technical center, not the best word for it, but if they failed to report one time to the probation officer, if they fail to meet it we are not going to revoke their probe. Upgraded consequence, but not full revocation. Governor reynolds. Governor reynolds were working with the department of Public Safety in addition to that is one of the biggest reasons we see the recidivism rates. That is something the communities are doing to support the system in the community so they have access to treatment, they have access to some of the services as all that are a critical component of the areas that have seen some great success. That is a continued conversation we are having this year. Governor hogan has given me the hook. You know this could go on. Is a great discussion, governor. We are back on our schedule. We have other governors to present other topics. There are plenty of questions. We can talk about this all afternoon. I want to thank you, governors. Thank you very much, we appreciate it. We will move on now to the chairman of the nga. I was his wing man for a year as vice chair. He is here to talk about governo bullet about toit is really one that has be viewed as Workforce Solution for our state as well. Certainly pleased to share some of the work montana is doing to make Broadband Connectivity to reality for all of our citizens. If you live in one of montanas you likely, certainly have access to reliable and halfbaked broadband. It is about 97 nationally of people in urban areas having access to broadband. We also know that highspeed connectivity give students access to 20 classrooms prepares them to live in a Technology Driven market. It will also Foster Economic Development by support is is is, create jobs. If you live in a Rural Community in montana, geography, low population, all of that discourages investment by many Tell Communications companies. Telecommunications companies. 90 of role montanas have access to broadband and the opportunities that come with. Has9 of rural montana access to broadband in the opportunities that come with it. During my administration, we try , severalteps approaches to bridge that gap between rural and urban communities. In 2015, the state of montana and i, we partnered with a Nonprofit Group called education superhighway to increase access to affordable highspeed broadband in montana schools. If i look back then, in 2015, only about three quarters of our schools could access broadband in accordance with federal Communications Commissions minimum goals. Overthat fiveyear period, 5 of our five throug of ours have broadband. Allowing teachers to b innovated, allowing students to be successful. In that fiveyear time alone, for all of our schools, medium band was increased by nearly five times. We have also been able to drive down the cost. Its a crispy 76 over the same fiveyear time. We know montana students whether they live in Rural Communities, are receiving the best education possible to be successful in a modern economy. A town has a population of 163 people. Participated with a school with about a dozen kids. But that one hour production to Computer Science is designed to show that anybody can learn the basics and encourage students to start looking at careers in high demand fields. That would not have been possible certainly. That smalls from Farming Community likely would not have had the same access to Computer Science course work as their more urban counterparts. Broadband in our schools is critical to ensure equity of opportunity for all students. We look at the federal investment, its interesting to hear the speaker say about a 4 trillion infrastructure deficit. Some would say it would be about 61 billion to get rural connectivity. We still cant wait for the federal government to take the steps. We also have been looking at ways to establish connectivity between, beyond the classroom in small towns. Earlier this your, i test my Lieutenant Governor to visit montana towns to find tangible ways to expand Economic Opportunities in rural and tribal communities. We heard from those Community Leaders and stakeholders about the opportunities, challenges, privatelic or partnerships could assist. One of the consistent things we heard was like a reliable broadband. Holding communities back from reaching their full potential. Ae of those communities is town called troy, about 1000 people in northwest montana. It is indeed a Small Community with so much to offer located on the banks of a river, scenic mountains, attracting visitors and residents alike for the abundance of recreational opportunities. But businesses are discouraged from establishing themselves enjoy. Growth of any existing business is limited. New technology is confined. To address that, we partnered with local stakeholders and the Telecommunications Association brought in consulting to develop a connectivity roadmap outlining the steps to make highspeed quality broadband a reality for troy. Greeting that matt took about 12 stakeholdersg with to stage planning workshops. The result was really a framework that laid out the challenges and approaches to address them, and most importantly steps to move forward. There is 51 different federal broadband loan and Grant Programs. Communities need help navigating those complex processes. As troy will sward now with its own project, we anticipate that roadmap is going to guide be a guide for other communities and help connect the nearly 40 still without reliable connectivity. We know that already in five years, efforts to expand have meant a meaningful difference for montana students. Future progress will bring Economic Opportunity to those communities and make sure they have the resources to thrive. This is an area where governors can make a difference and find solutions, especially if we look for ways to engage in partnerships and is governors continue to work together. The fall as these and innovative ideas the policies and innovative ideas we put in place to enhance broadband in rural and urban areas communities have an impact on every person that we serve. Thanks for allowing me to share a little bit of montanas success and challenges. With all of you. I would like to turn it over to the governor of colorado. Colorado is a very diverse state geographically. From a demographic perspective, cities, colorado springs,enver, aurora, rural areas including difficult geographic terrains, mountains, high plains. As we know when the 21st century, broadband is absolutely Critical Infrastructure that everyone needs. It is not just about the consumer experience, which it is. Whether it is netflix, amazon, or hulu. Attractsy, that millennials to live in the area, but its more than that, too. Its about better education for young people. It gives businesses the ability to compete in a global economy. Opportunities for people who can have location independent employment living in some of those beautiful areas. The able to telecommute. Jobs, it alsoend means it can be has College Educated folks working in a call center virtually living in a community that has lower cost of living and Higher Quality of life. Highspeed connectivity is also a lifeline for first responders, really critical for Peoples Health as well. In colorado, 86 of rural households have access to broadband. Our goal is to increase it to 92 by 2020 by men this year. By 2024 in just four years. We have a state broadband employment for in our department of Regulatory Affairs that is committed over 19 has committed over 19 million for broadband infrastructure. The department of local affairs is spending 5 million a year for the middle aisle infrastructure to help get access to some of our more remote communities. Office, before i took the legislature enacted regulations preventing existing internet providers from easily capturing grants from new operators. We want to draw new market entrants. Signed legislation that allows broadband providers to tap into electrical easements that already exist so we can Start Building and remove barriers to build broadband without having to deal with a myriad of Property Ownership issues that can prevent the construction of new infrastructure. So we engage with our private sector partners, we have a lot of towns a couple times with a couple times with municipal broadband. When you take the problem holistically, its important to know we have to get there, the economic benefits of getting there our great as well as helping me the overall goals of rural economic success. When we launched our blueprint for rural economic prosperity, the expansion of highspeed connectivity to Rural Communities was really front and center, critical for Small Businesses and mainstream retailers just as it is for people who might telecommute from home or need access to lifesaving medical services from home. We look forward to engaging with other governors as we optimize the strategy to expand connectivity across the state. Thank you. Questions, comments, . Questions, comments . Im intrigued by your discussion of troy and the fact that you got connectivity into schools and youre looking for ways to expand the. Expand that. There was an article in the New York Times today that talks about exactly the same thing, Cottonwood Falls is dead center in kansas. The School District has connectivity, but the community does not. It is actually losing businesses and. And certain businesses are refusing to move in because they dont have his access. You figured out some way to fund it for the school. Do you have a plan for funding to expand outside the schools . The challenge, and it is a real challenge for smaller towns, too. On the one hand, it may not look like it is Cost Effective to be laying the fiber along the way. Having we had full that went up there and spent several weeks engaging the stakeholders. Really put together that plan of how they can get there. We are doing it again with them tribal nations where connectivity doesnt exist. It is bringing all the stakeholders together in and showing i dont necessarily have a pot of money to give to a Community Like troy. What i can do is try to marshal the resources and recognize the myriad of programs that you can also get from federal loan and Grant Programs that exist. Comments . Uestions, what you are doing in your state . First of all, congratulations on all the great work you are doing. I would say it is part of the question to governor kelly, having the same issue, once you have all the schools connected, you have to get it out to every tractor, rancher on a horse, everybody monitoring any kind of one of the 2000 when towers we have in our state. Some of that may have to go wireless. We are trying to explore a number of different things, whether it is tv white spaces, whether it is other forms of extended wireless. That is one of the things we are trying to do because it is just not costeffective to string the fiber all that extra distance. You guys are doing some great work. Keep it up. When youre 60 do well, we can use that as examples to help push so forward. Will climb the ladder when we are pushing each other. One thing i would say, when we get all the schools connected, we get a gigabyte to every school in north dakota, through a combination of private sector plus a cooperative of all of the Rural Telephone cooperatives. And so that has created a thing called the dakota carrier network. They have laid the backbone and were able to get everywhere. Situation into the with the cyber issue. We did push through last year, which we think may be the first cyber curriculum for every great level every grade level. What does a second grader know to be safe when they are connected doing their work at that school, what is a fourth grader have to know, so we created a curriculum and belted in. And built it in. We are teaching cybersecurity skills that every grade level other way through. We also added a cybersecurity course for people to be able to take in high school in addition to the Computer Science, because it is a growing field. There are hundreds of thousands of cyber jobs available. Its got to both protect students in a longterm workforce component. We would be happy to share some of the work we did relative to building their curriculum and get it approved and moving it forward. , if you ask,so say ,et me have a map of my state who has Broadband Access and who doesnt, its not an easy thing to get. Its all private entities. Sharing that information makes it that much more difficult. We have another take an undertaking and getting broadband mapping. Well talk about getting these big Infrastructure Projects and proposals through our legislature. I have never included broadband as part of the definition of that infrastructure. Because there is such unmet water, so wen schools, bridges. Its not only that economic driver, but this infrastructure. Local communities, like troy, or the one you referenced, can also look to some pot of money at the state level as well to facilitate that. Other thoughts, questions . Governor bullock, we have started to include in our infrastructure plan, we have got a new tenure prompt tenure comprehensive plan before the legislature right now. Part of that plan includes digging and laying the fiber. That will get us the last mile down the road. We have made an investment. He state level if you Leverage Private sector funding, you can really start to make a difference. I asked the legislature for 20 million which allows me to point 3to get five million. With 6. 3 million we were able to implement 17 projects in the state of iowa. With usda that funding that came in. We qualify for four projects. And so with relatively small investments, we have been able to really scale some of these rural areas and provide them the connectivity that they need. We are not going to grow rural iowa without connectivity. It impacts everything will think that we did. Im back this year asking for another 15 million to continue to leverage not only private sector, but take advantage of the federal funding that is there. They are coming out with more opportunities for states to take advantage of the. We had a number of cabinet folks at the breakfast this morning, and one said there may be additional opportunities for federal dollars to either match or either complement. S you wereogan, a talking about ideas of what the federal government can do, those investments in rural infrastructure, if we are going to ever be that country where everybody has an opportunity to succeed educationally and economically, we cant leave a Rural Community behind. That is an area where the federal government can help fill some of the gaps. Thank you very much. Great discussion. We are going to move on to our final closing. In cleanup, we have the chair of the Economic Development , leading ammittee discussion with governor kelly on removing occupational licensing barriers to employment. I want to say while you will hear governor kelly and i talking about occupational licensing, i will hope what you are really hearing is how to grow prosperity in your individual state. Because that is what this reform really does do. An arizona, we have worked harder to make our city land of opportunity for all. We have been fighting for occupational licensing reform for years area in 2015, we eliminated occupational licensing requirements for citrus, fruit, and vegetable packers. For yoga instructors at the request for younger instructors, and Redding School instructors. In 2017, we weighed licensing fees for people earning less than 200 of the federal Poverty Level and we were proud that last year arizona led the nation in lifting people out of poverty, and we believe that place had a place in that good result. Several years ago, we wanted to expand this even further. Arizona began recognizing licenses that were out of state for military spouses. So the thought was, why not extend the same freedom to everyone . Today we are proud to say arizonas leading the way is the first state in the nation the Great Universal recognition of occupational licenses from other states. So the idea is straightforward we believe that you dont lose your skills just because you backup a uhaul and move from one state to our state. We are happy that you did. We want to welcome you. We want you to be able to get to work and earn a living. This is about working men and women of america. Who are looking for their shot at the american dream. We want to make sure there is not sickle in their way to pursue it. Health professionals, dental professionals, contractors, and more. Over 600 arizonans have received licenses over this new law in just a few months. Just one example is after we theed the law and i lake before it went into effect, i was back here in bc visiting, in arizona and came up to me the airport and introduced himself. He was thrilled about the love that did not think it would support the license he had. I asked him what his license was written he said it was a certified public accountant. While we did pass it more for the trades and those steps of things, but you see in other states, the law does cover certified public accountants. He wantedin arizona, to move their fulltime, get his license that shes going to get his license and get to work. We are proud of this process. We think there is real opportunity in this front. We are not going to slow down. This year we have a bill in the legislature that will require regulatory boards and commissions to have ordinary people. Ordinary people in that industry, not cronies that are there to stifle competition, to make sure that it is those citizens that reflect the majority of the membership of the boards. The goal is to give unbiased public members more influence on these boards decisions. There is a bill that will stop the boards from collecting additional fees once they hit a certain threshold of cash reserves. Boardsme of the stockpiling millions in cash while still collecting fees on hardworking arizonans, we want that to end. And we are going to wave occupational licensing fees for military heroes and their spouses. Over other ngang meetings has been able to bring so many great ideas for states over the years. I believe this is a competitive advantage for arizona in terms of population growth. I would like to see every other state of light it, because i think it will help the prosperity of our nation and to get to work without obstacles in their way. This is something i think you will find broad, bipartisan support for. That is what we found in arizona. I want to thank you and turn it over to governor kelly from kansas to tell us what is going on in the heartland. If i could, i would just walk out of the room right now and fly back home and talk to my legislature about passing the exact same love, because i am concerned about losing kansans to arizona. I think it is a very smart thing to do. In some way to me, it is actually personal, because i grew up in a military family, and it would have been impossible for my mother to have a career, as we moved every year and a half to three years. So just from that vantage point, i think this is important. That is one of the things that , isre looking at in kansas ways to essentially emulate what you have done in arizona. We have taken sort of baby steps at this point. We have entered into a nurse licensing compact with other states, so that at least full the nursingin field can move to kansas and continue to practice. Here we are looking more at the reentry issues, and we have worked with our licensing boards to prevent them from considering any offenses that occurred five years before the application goes in. We have also had them remove freezing like moral turpitude and good character, because that allows way too much subjectivity to occur when those license applications are being considered. Another way we are approaching is our department of revenue was taking multiple units down to our corrections facilities and working to get some of those folks their commercial drivers licenses so that when they are released from ablen, they will be to do that. We have a tremendous shortage in cdls. We have a lot of highways and persecution centers in kansas. Distribution centers in kansas. We are continuing to look across the board. You say it is bipartisan, im not sure though that i can get sweeping as your bill through the legislature, but i am going to continue to chip away at this, because we like every other state really have severe workforce shortages in just about every area. I will say that i think it was you who talked about the welding in the prison we do have a number of programs now that where our inmates go to a workplace and are participating a lot in welding. Some is other kind of manufacturing. We are getting those folks into apprenticeships, getting them licensed and trained, and then we are actually finding that they are staying and being employed. And we are working very hard to expand that kind of programming within our corrections system. Our new secretary of corrections from idaho is working very closely with our withnity colleges and our employers in the area, so we expect that to expand. It was he who talked about you who talked about getting businesses. We have approached a number of businesses on this issue of reentry. They have been very open on it. They are so short staffed right now. I think if the Employment Situation was different we might not get that kind of response, but they are very, very engaged with this. We are working together with koch industries. They have a real serious interest in criminal Justice Reform overall, but specifically in this kind of thing, because getting people licensed, getting them certified really will prevent a lot of recidivism. Thank you very much, governor kelly. Congratulations on the success you are having. Thanks for the kind words. And also reaching out to find all the different available partners for this. Much like criminal Justice Reform, this is a fairness issue. That is how we positioned it. When you hear the testimony of some of the people who are living in your state and cant access work or have these obstacles in front of them that cost thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours, when they have the skill right now and they have been certified somewhere else and are in Good Standing, if we can help with any of that, we are happy to. I would like to see this expanded everywhere across the country. Any questions or comments . Or states that are doing other things . Governor herbert of utah. I appreciate the leadership you demonstrate on this and the issues you brought to the forefront. A few years ago, we did what you are doing, allowing military spouses to come. Particularly those who are reciprocityhave in other states. The question i have for you is, do you have any concern, whatever the threshold is in arizona, you have said here is the threshold for qualification to do whatever dental assistant, welder, teacher are you concerned that you are not going to make that threshold when you have reciprocity . Is that a concern for you that you may not get the same kind of quality . That is a good question. It was certainly something that was on our mind. ,henever you expand something that can be an unintended consequence. But with the diligence in looking at the other states, the requirements that were out there, the fact that there is a check and a balance, meaning you dont have your license automatically transferred, you have to check in and register, then you are checked to make certain you are in Good Standing in the state from which you came from. Been working with our industry leaders, they were also because they are having a tough time filling these jobs and positions. They need to hire people. It was really some of the folks who sit on these boards that might operate the training schools that would benefit from someone having to delay weeks or months to go into the workforce. So its been a good experience so far, and we think its going to be a positive. I am fascinated with it and want to look into it more. It reminds me of becoming a free agent. The power to the worker, to have more options. I think that is a benefit to those in the labor force. I think in this booming economy, i hear from every governor that we all have issues finding employees, whether it is at the entry level or at the highest level. It is a way for us, we found that many of these boards and commissions were standing in front of us and blocking us as an obstacle. This is Something Like i said, we have bipartisan support on, we were able to leapfrog over that and expand our workforce. We have reciprocity in colorado. We are working on opening it up more. Thanks for your leadership in arizona on this. Its a Great National model we can learn from. How do you get people that are not in the game to apply and want to be on those boards . If you are trying to find disinterested laypeople, its a lot easier said than done. How do you go out and get people because you dont want people with a bias against or for. You wanted disinterested person. How do you get people to step up to those boards that are less glamorous . Good question. I think in my last state of the states, 4 state of the they have been bullies in that. We have government funding lobbyists actually sitting on these boards, and we had the executive authority and the Governors Office determinate those lobbyists that didnt know why the taxpayers should pay for lobbyists that want to block folks or protect industries from a fair and level playing field, so yes, we want to be active in recruitment. I know you have friends that dont want to come work at the Governors Office, or people you know that want to participate as andtizen in Good Government will be just fair arbitrators on these boards to level the playing field. Im just talking about the amount of constituents that contact, want to get involved, but are outside of the industry, are not part of the crony people that block positive reforms in the decision good decisions. I would say has all friends, even. High school friends, even. Im just living on people. Once they do it, they are quite engaged. I dont know if any of you have had real successes. I tried to the less legislative session. There are lot of the boards that at the end of the day, i dont know that we should be regulated. To the thought we were going get rid of a whole bunch of boards. I think by the end of it, i got rid of 4 boards. It is a challenge legislatively, as well. There is a thought we have to continue to regulate these even if the level of regulation is has been,ture on this we want to make sure we are measuring twice, cutting once. What is the purpose, what is the reason, how does it protect, protectafety health or safety . We want to see this reform and the best way to do it is to have unbiased citizens that sit and participate. Any other questions, comments . Have a question. A question. So was occupational reform only for u. S. License occupations . Not foreign license occupations . It would be a United States license. I would want to check the fine print, but i believe like any reciprocity between other territories would be accepted, but i would want to double check. Governor, so we did a bill we foreign Work Experience for cosmetology hours. When we have an immigrant that did Work Experience in mexico or china, wherever it is, that can count towards the requirement. Its not exactly what you said but if they have real Work Experience, it can count towards your hours so they can center trade soon so they can start their trade sooner. To want to thank governor kelly and i will turn it back to Governor Hogan and point out that we are under budget and ahead of schedule. I want to thank everybody for helping us get back on schedule. All the governors in the low presenters. It was a great discussion. For the governors, our next governors only meeting, a very , this is our last public plenary session. I want to take this opportunity to thank the 44 governors and their spouses and their staff, other state officials, all of the folks that came out, from the presenters to everybody whats under the conference, its been a terrific couple of days. We want to thank everyone for participating. With that, i will officially end the two thousand 20 winter meeting of the National Governors association. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer follow campaign 2022 nevada this weekend. Saturday night live at 11 00 p. M. Eastern, joe biden, pete buttigieg, senator amy klobuchar, tom steyer, tom steyer, and senator Elizabeth Warren speak before clark county democrats. On sunday, live at 5 00 p. M. Eastern, joe biden, pete buttigieg, in the global sure, and tom steyer speak at a forum on infrastructure. One coverage on cspan, demand on cspan. Org, and listen on the go on the free cspan radio app. Announcer come on cspan, the u. S. House debating removing the deadline for the equal rights amendment. Coveragempaign 2020 continues, with senator Elizabeth Warren campaigning in arlington, virginia. Congress approved the urs amendment to the constitution in 1972. Eera would guarantee full rights for all american citizens, regardless of gender and without legal distinctions in matters of divorce, employment, property and other matters. Thursday, the house passed a resolution to remove the deadline for ratification of the equal rights amendment. We measure now goes to the senate. Speaker the speaker pro tempore the recognized. S mr. Nadler madam speaker, this is long overdue resolution to ensure the equal rights amendment can finally become the 28th amendment to the United States constitution. This year we will celebrate the 00th anniversary of women