Strada Education Network and its a great honor to be here. I think i have one of the unique opportunities to serve as a political appointee for all the years of president reagan at the department of education and i was very young man at the time but i really was very much a disciple of president reagan and i just love the fact that he was the governor and brought metal of governorship into his role as president and i also had the blessing to be the head of the Transition Team on the way out in 1992 and the Transition Team on the way in in 2000. Before and after president clinton , also a former governor and served and help lead the Transition Team tfor president bush in 2000 fand again, another governor and it was great to see these three education governors really make a difference in their National Leadership as president s of the United States and so really in that vein its an honor to be here today with Governor Hogan and to help facilitate this first conversation with the state of ttasome of our most innovative and prestigious governors and the governor Just Announced , its an honor to be with you today and help walk through conversation on your priorities and the things that are mattering most to you and to marylanders and just to have the benefit of living across the river from you so im able to watch from a close distance your great work but just really an honor to be with you today sir and maybe just my quick intro question, i know weve been obviously in a very unique state for these last six id just d i think love to get your perspective as governor you probably have issued more emergency orders and you would have never liked or thought of but maybe if you could help walk us through if youre thinking about those tough decisions that you had to make affect the lives and livelihood of so many marylanders and really just your calculation of kind of risk versus the reaction and all those important decisions you got to make. Ill, first of all thank you very much for being here for this discussion and thank you for your service and all that you do for education in america. I really enjoyed the discussion with secretary rice and im a big admirer of and i just want to thank the Reagan Institute and foundation for giving me this opportunity to come in and speak with all of you today thank you for tuning in. As you know, our world really changed back nearly 6 months ago. As we were faced with this Global Pandemic. Cethis once in 100 year crisis that has impacted nearly all of us and everything in our lives. I was, i had the opportunity to be leading the nations governors during this crisis as the chairman of the National Governors association. My initial focus for my yearlong chairmanship was to focus on rebuilding americas infrastructure we worked on for perhaps the First Six Months of my term and then all of a sudden the world changed with covid and im very proud of the governors on both sides of the isle for stepping up and deleting in the crisis so when dealing, ive been dealing with my federal governors and the federal government but also had to deal with the crisis right here in my state and ill just say the governors have worked together well in a bipartisanway collaborating on this but youre right. I had to make incredibly difficult decisions that i never imagined making. I believe that we have done over 60 consecutive orders. We had to make decisions extremely quickly because peoples lives were at stake but we also have to balance out our Health Metrics by trying to make sure that we werent hurting those struggling, marilyns families andsmall businesses while we were working to keep people safe and it was a difficult balance every governor had to make. Im pleased to say that were doing pretty well comparatively. Today we had a 2. 9 percent Positivity Rate in maryland which is a record for us over the past six months v. We continue to look good on the health side and we have 100 percent of our economy open. Our Unemployment Rate is 30 percent lower than the rest of the country so we made decisions we neverimagined having to make quite frankly. And it was, ive never been in a situation where our number one job as governor is keeping our citizens safe and this virus kind of hit us from out of the blue. It tested the mettle i think of all the people on the front lines that had to make these difficult decisions and find the right balance while keeping people safe and trying to keep them economically stable. Iq governor again, i think one of the hallmarks of your career is your leadership after this has been in evidence very much especially here of late and i would say one of the other things that i think this thing wishes you in our National Landscape is your leadership in terms of your bipartisan yability to work across the aisle and its one of the things i really enjoyed about the rise meeting these last several years is just the ability to bring together former secretaries of education both parties as well as bipartisan governors and i just love to maybe help get your thoughts on the partisan gridlock and just i think youve been jreally unapologetically on the 10th and the bipartisan from the beginning of your career really maybe help us with your perspective on how you work across the aisle while at the same time really standing by your values and your principles but just especially in this environment that are countries in today, maybe hows your secret sauce and maybe go with this. Iq bill. Like you i heard you mention about the young man and working for ronald reagan. I didnt get the chance to work in the administration but i was a foot soldier and the reagan revolution and when i was just a young guy and was a delegate to the convention in 80 and 84. I was a chairman of youth for reagan and i got the chance to serve on one of the inaugural committees and it was somebody i greatly admired and i talked often about lly worked. He had a positive vision for america but also really believed in bipartisanship and was willing to work across the aisle to come up with solutions three and i remember the great relationship he had with oneill when he was speaker of the house area and they had a really good rapport and they would have meals together. They would share a beer together and talk outtheir differences. It had a lot to do with my whole outlook on politics. Being governor of maryland is the first thing ive ever r been elected to. I didnt spend my career in elected office. I spent most of my career in the private sector as a small businessman but i really believe its critically important that we find a way to lower the temperature, to do something about the divisive and angry politics that we can see back during those years quite as much in the 80s s and i think that i tried my very best. Im in a very blue state. I was elected in 2013 in the bluest state of america and i av have a 70 percent majority of democrats in both houses of my legislature but weve been able to find ways to come able to find ways to come together and to really accomplish on some big issues. Some really true bipartisan Common Sense Solutions to the problems and i think its something we desperately needed in America Today i know most people are somewhat frustrated by the kind of divisiveness and gridlock in washington and i just had a zoom meeting like this earlier today with omno labels and Problem Solvers Caucus and a Bicameral Group of senators and congressmen on both sides of the aisle talking about trying to reach a compromise solution on the next stimulus bill. And i really think we need to see more of that. More of that bipartisanship. I mentioned earlier the governors did Work Together in a bipartisan way and im hopeful that the godless of what happens in this upcoming election that were going to see in 40days or so , that maybe we can find a way to back to a more civil dialogue and where we can maybe accomplish some solutions demonizing the other side. Back and forth, and i really think thats one of the things that work a lot better decades ago in washington that it is today. Governor, id like to maybe focus a little bit on Still Standing and maybe you can explain this a little bit too our audience today but i know you had a, as we just talked about a very busy 5 years on the Governors Mansion and you plan to write a book even before covid19 hit. And you had a few pandemic chapters addressing the early days of covid and the response of your state Emergency Declaration and acquisition of the test eakits you secured from south korea but can you tell us a little bit about the earlier response and whats happened since andalso just a little bit about the book. I had worked on this book for a while and its just not a heavy political read but i wanted to share some of the experiences and challenges exive been through and talk a little bit about some of the things i was just talking with you about about where to do something about the divide in America Today and how we can find ways to move forward and but i talk about a number of challenges. The book is called Still Standing providing cancer , riots, a Global Pandemic and the toxic politics that divide america. Its a long title but i have most of this written last year and it was supposed to come out right at the beginning of the pandemic and i got the publisher to put on hold because we were too focused but you can only delay for several months and i added a few chapters at the end about our collective response to the coronavirus and added that into the title but it talks about my general philosophy and how weve been able to get things done and probably in one of the most hostile and difficult environments as a republican who not only i was the second republican in 50 years to be elected in my state but because of the bipartisan compliments and getting things done together with my democratic friends across the aisle, in 2018 when it was the biggest blue wave and a huge blue year in the blue wave and a blue state, i was overwhelmingly reelected and i became the secondrepublican in the history of our state to ever be reelected to office. And i think its because people regardless of their party affiliation, republicans and democrats and independents you want to see pragmatic , bipartisan compromise and effective leadership and they want to get things done. W thats what they like to see in washington i think. They like to see people Work Together better and get things done together. But the pandemic, i talk about the response. Early on. Leading the nations governors, we had a all of the governors across america were in washington in early february. At the very beginning of this when we had just had cases breaking out in the state of washington and then just a month or so after that it was spread to every state in america and weve been dealing with the crisis ever since but again, working together with our, with the administration and with congress, getting care zach funding,getting support and working together with all the governors , the response has been has been perfect but i think in a terrible crisis we really have stepped up and going to take all of us continuing to Work Together. To try to defeat this hidden enemy. Its impacting our economy, its impacting ourschools. And its just about every other aspect of our lives and weve made progress but its by no means behind usyet. Maybe on the other national crisis, that facing us right now with the racial unrest and beats social justice issues that are facing us, i just remember thebrandnew governor , we when we confronted the social unrest after the deathof freddie gray. And today is really now a National Challenge that we are looking to address. I just love to and again, but the previous conversation was Condoleezza Rice and her respect was wonderful and very helpful. Were looking out of the as a country i just love your observations and respective on you into. When you were first elected but also now obviously with the National Conversation and challenges that we arefacing. Sure, i had the pleasure of having another conversation with secretary rice. We did rinothing for the Hoover Foundation and the secretary rice and i did one of these things together and she has obviously tremendous insight and really wise input and advice on this particular issue but youre right, i saw some of this and dealt with some of these issues much earlier than maybe somewhere the folks in the rest of the country have area especially now with a nttragic murder of george floyd and its elevated these issues and center and its something that we are all addressing and dealing with but i had, i with much of this. Five and half years ago. Just after, ive only been governor for 89 days. When after the tragic death offreddie gray , our largest city was on fire. And just in the first few hours, we had 400 some homes and businesses destroyed and hundred 27 police and firefighters injured and the city police force was overwhelmed and crying out for help. I declared a state of emergency. And i sent him an additional thousand Police Officers and 4000 members of the National Guard to try to help the citizens of baltimore safe. Stop the violence. To stop the destruction of property and 50, to protect people protesters on those that were inflicting all of this violence had also been entire operation Baltimore City from our state capital indianapolis and i spent a solid week walking the streets. Trying to lower the temperature, meeting with the leaders, owing, walking through that it freddie grays neighborhood, meeting with naacp faithbased leaders and i think its really important for us to strike that balance of addressing some of the systemic problems and listening to the concerns of people. But also, not allowing our cities to be and protecting the right to protest. While not letting violence letake over our cities for months on end and i have several chapters in my book about that. I joked that when i went to a new Governors School when i wasfirst elected they didnt say anything about what you do. Its Something Like this breaks out in your city and after dealing with baltimore i do teach a course at the National Governors association and have advised other governors new incoming governors about how to deal with a crisislike this. And i think looking at whats happening now, a number of mayors and governors in America Today should probably take a look at and read some of the things weve been through because i think they could learn some lessons. Im very proud because of the way we handle that situation in 2015 , this, in this current environment we have thousands of people protesting peacefully in baltimore but almost no violence, no destruction and no damage and im proud of citizens of baltimore and our police force and the way the Community Came together area. Governor, maybe here in our next couple of minutes id love to have it to education and to just hear your budget and priorities and the state collaboration on things that youve been working on with the equity issues. The school construction, school safety, getting back to school and getting schools reopened but just id love to hear your thoughts on your education priorities. From day one, since i became governor, education has been my absolute top priority because i happen to believe very passionately that every single child in our state and every child in america deserves access to a worldclass education. Regardless of what ganeighborhood or zip code a happen to grow up in. And we worked very hard to improve persistently failing schools and to be innovative on education and to try to make sure that every one of our kids in our state are i put record pofunding six years in a row, six budgets in a row into a k12 education and higher education. And we have continued, we invested more money than our Democratic Legislature called for an expanding formulas because we thought it was important to make a difference we also have been pushing for accountability. With our local School Boards and School Systems to make sure that theyre working to fix some of the underlying problems that in spite of investment of money have caused them to not be as successful as wed like that we have some of the best and most highly funded schools in america. Weve invested 40 billion in k12 education and 75 percent of our entire Capital Budget went to education. I pushed through last just last year 2. 2 billion investment in school bi construction which is the largest in state history. And we have casinos in maryland and i pushed for and enacted a. The voters to vote for a casino lockbox which took all of the revenues from the casinos and put it into directly into education area which h has made a tremendous chdifference as well but we havent solved all the problems. Been working on trying to prepare our kids for the next generation, for preparing them for the jobs of today and really working with our, going into our most troubled this advantage neighborhoods and trying to improve those schools but im proud of the success weve made and i appreciate all the work that, i appreciate this rise. This opportunity today to hear from other leaders about all the things going and i thank you for the work youve done bill. I think we can still another minute or two here, maybe just one last question. Just really as we look forward down here, your final address to the people of maryland and reflecting on your service asgovernor , what would you hope to be said in your legacy of what you would like to accomplish and look back on your years of service and i will put you on the spot and ask you if youre going to be running for fopresident in 2024 but you got a lot of work to do in the next years but id love to wrap up here to really help. And you bill. I am really focused on this job as governor of maryland. Its been an incredible honor to have chosen to serve the people of my state and im proud of some of the things weve accomplished. I really hope that maybe my legacy when i leave as governor, id be very happy if people would just say that we left the state a better place than we found it. That we worked in a bipartisan way across the aisle to come up with solutions to some of the problems and that we made improvements in the daily lives of the people of our state. And you know, we started out talking about the Reagan Institute andfoundation. I learned a heckuva lot from ronald reagan. I know he cared passionately about education and about working across the aisle and i just would like people to say that we made a difference and that we have improved the lives of our children and worked hard to improve education and the state is better off. Id be happy with that. Thank you so much again for your leadership and really the impact that youve made towards both the state and our country and i really look forward to hopefully getting to do Something Like this in person with you in the nottoodistant future. Just like you are taking the time to be at this important event today and again for all you do. Thank you for the opportunity, ive enjoyed it. Night on the communicators, tech freedom founder baron soak up in free press coceo Jessica Gonzales on issues that may play a role in campaign 2020. What demonstration is trying to do is narrow the protections for content moderation so that websites would no longer be protected if they tried to remove content but was false or perhaps racist. Im no fan of big tech platforms and how they abuse their workers and how they have abuse the privacy rights of their users. But frankly, going after section 230 is not the right approach to the very real problems that were seeing with online platforms. Karen socha and Jessica Gonzales tonight at eastern connecticut indicators read on cspan2. Tonight here. Pharmaceutical executives testify on drug pricing. The House Oversight and Reform Committee wanted to know howprescription drug prices are set and why prices are higher in the us and other countries. Tonight, part one youll hear from the head of Bristolmyers Squibb and other Drug Companies tomorrow part two, more pharmaceutical executives including the ceo of us marta. Tonight at 8 30 eastern and tomorrow night user here on cspan2. Youre watching cspan2. Created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service brought to you today by yourtelevision provider. The senate about to gavel in. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell expected to ask for unanimous consent that the chamber stand in recess for the next two weeks as a precaution after republican senators mike lee, thom tillis and ron johnson tested positive for covid19 in recent days. They approved all legislative business would be pushed to the week of october 19 with only pro forma sessions scheduled between now and then you live now to the senate floor. The site will come to order. The chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. Let us pray. Mighty god, you are our dwelling place and underneath are your everlasting arms. May our president and first lady feel your healing touch. My our senators who are dealing with the personal Health Challenge of covid19 also experience your divine healing and comfort. Lord, we trust in your support. For you continue to be the source of our hope and peace. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable roger f. Wicker, a senator from the state of mississippi, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed chuck grassley, president pro tempore