I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. Former special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to appear before two committees of congress. The House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee on wednesday july 17th at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Hell testify in open session about his report into russian interference in the 2016 election. Watch live coverage on cspan3, only at cspan. Org or online with cspan radio app. A discussion on Economic Impact on improving management of the u. S. Mexico border. The Wilson Center in washington, d. C. , is the host of this conversation on strengthening economic competitiveness for both countries. Thanks to the few and the proud who are here. Weve got a few more in the hallway who will come in and join us. Thanks for sticking with us throughout the whole session today. We do have one more really interesting session. For me this is a really important one. Weve spoken for a lot of the day about how it is you can move things back and forth across the border, the most efficiently, effectively, understanding how you do that when you balance with security challenges and migration challenges at the border. Of course thats fundamental importance for border communities and United States and mexico and our economies as a whole. But i dont think thats enough. Thats not enough for a u. S. Border community. Thats not enough for Mexican Border communities to really have the vibrant communities we want, quality of life people in the region aspire to, we need to do more than move widgets across the border. It requires strategies for Economic Development that leverage the unique position of those communities along the border as a way to attract companies to do business in the region. There is a unique Value Proposition there. Theres a combination of the competitive advantages of mexico and the United States side by side that makes working and producing in the border region particularly attractive and interesting. I mean, if we look back over time and go back to, say, the Border Industrial Program of the 1960s, it was the beginning of free trade between our two countries focused on the border region and Mexican Border regions in particular. It was effective in attracting a certain amount of manufacturing investment to that side of the border, mexican side of the border. It was called the twin plant model the idea of the program meaning that there would ab plant on the mexican side of the border and plant on u. S. Side of the border. Mexican side they appeared but oftentimes they didnt have that twin component on the u. S. Side of the border. Thats what i mean. That was a necessary condition for Economic Development but it wasnt sufficient. To get those investments on the u. S. Side of the border, we needed people like these guys here to go out and make the case to companies that this is actually the right place to be doing the business, then we need the set of factors important to land in those regions. Thats some of the things i want to think through and talk to our panelists about. I think theres a ton in that space of what else is needed that we can think about. I mean, Workforce Development is more key than ever. Having the qualified, well trained workforce to operate more sophisticated machines and more sophisticated equipment than ever is one of the things that companies are looking for. Quality of life, like john wagner from cdp was just talking about, is what Everybody Needs in their local community to attract talent to fill those positions so Companies Want to go and do business there. Access to energy, access to infrastructure. The list goes on and on and we can sort of get some prioritization as to which some of the most key elements are from those who live and work in this type of business along the u. S. Mexico border. Im really thrilled to have three great panelists here with me today. Ill go through and do a brief introduction for each of them. You have bios in the packet so you can read more about it. Frederico, Enterprise Development at texas a m university in laredo, texas. Frederico has a number of previous positions in the city government, in the State Government at times as well. He worked as a mexican customs broker for a long time, so a lot of different experiences hell be drawing upon as we have the connection. To his left, john, border alliance, pretty unique in representing and he can tell us more about it, three different states, new mexico, texas and chihuahua, that tristate area across u. S. Mexico border. He was cabinet secretary for new mexico and has a lot of fascinating experience from his time there that we can draw on here as well. Finally, last but certainly not least is mario. Mario is im flipping through and missing my spot here, with the greater brownsville investment corporation. Am i saying that correctly . Incentives corporation. Executive director and ceo of the greater brownsville incentive corporation. He also sits on the board of directors for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus institute and worked in Government Relations and external affairs for toyota previously in san antonio. Mario, thank you so much for joining us. Ill just say one sort of last thing before i jump into this. I have done a bunch of work over the years on Economic Development in the border region, but recently wrote a chapter for a book thats about to be published through the university of Arizona Press and actually interviewed two out of three of these gentlemen as a part of this process. I had a chance to talk to frederico and to john about this topic in detail and will probably try to draw out some of the points we talked about previously there and actually also had the chance to work with university of texas Rio Grande Valley and other stake holders in the greater brownsville area on Economic Development project over the last several years that eda, department of commerce, eda, helped fund. So i think this will be a really good chance for us to dig deep on some of these issues. As were getting started, i just want to give each of you guys a couple minutes to make opening comments about your thoughts about Economic Development in your particular corner of the border and more generally about what it means to be doing Economic Development work in a crossborder setting along the u. S. Mexico border. Mario, i know you have a couple of slides just about the brownsville region. Maybe well start with those so we can get that done and jump into the more conversational piece of this program as well. Good afternoon, everybody. What i thought id do, through small set of slides, kind of set up the condition of what were talking about here, and i think that will open up some conversation. So brownsville is at the tip tip of southern texas, way down at the bottom border to matamoros. You can see where it is. We have a port of brownsville. You can see relative to san antonio how far it is. Most people think san antonio is south texas. We still have a fourhour drive left, right . These numbers are not just relevant to brownsville, relevant to a lot of communities in the border region. It is the Largest Community in the Rio Grande Valley, if you were not aware. 31 is below the poverty level. I have another chart that shows what does it look like compared to our neighbors. We just looked at this data, were at 15,000 per capita. If you look at the 2010 census, this is 13,000 per capita. Its literally the poorest community in the country. Median income, 64 make it out of high school and 14 dont make it out of ninth grade. You start looking at the Human Capital, this is the challenge we have in the border region. I started using this particular last number when we saw the commissioner talk about the digital divide. I think somebody in the audience asked whats the connectivity in terms of broadband. 61 of households in brownsville are not connected. You you are going into the Technology Phase and teachers asking students to do research only and homework online, youre leaving a population behind. Its a struggle. Thats the point im trying to make here. Heres the comparison. You can see literally the three poorest in the country, on your texas border. Texas, by 15 . So in terms of problem solving we really need to hit it with a lot of different prongs, a lot of different angles. Education and Workforce Development is literally your top item, based on the condition i just showed you, disconnected condition, poor condition, education attainment. We feel Workforce Development is key, especially when we look at highskill, hightech programs and the lead time to get somebody prepared to assume jobs of tomorrow it usually takes 46 years. We need to start them in the middle school and get them going. We recently launched a Workforce Initiative in brownsville called, we grow our own. Just two weeks ago we were awarded Texas Workforce award for texas so were very proud of the work were doing, and we want to continue to share across the valley as we go. The pathway for technology passed about two sessions ago, senate bill 22, what it does, allows High School Students to graduate with a two year degree or technical degree. I know a lot of you may have children or you, your selves, have gone through a dual credit in high school. Its academia, not technology credits. We need dual Credit Technology to get our students in the hightech space right away, while in high school so when they graduate they have technical degree and high school diploma. There are about 15 schools in this space in dallas and two more south of dallas. They are in brownsville, texas. We are working on creating a manufacturing innovation hub. Its a concept. Based on whats happening with brownsville, spacex and ship building and others coming into the region we feel we need be prepared in a larger way not Just Research and development. In research and development, we hope to do it with a multiuniversity system. University of texas, texas a m and others, which will make it a regional concept. Texas manufacturing and assistance center, if youre not familiar with that, its funded through department of commercial, nift, a grant given to texas, creates nine partnerships in manufacturing assistance. We want too change its scope of work or add its scope of work to include Workforce Development as well. Regional partnerships, we work very hard with the council there and they helped us Work Together, as chris mentioned, the twin plant system and try to sell that system a little more aggressively. Recently in san antonio, in terms of what are we doing in a key innovative ways to incentivize companies, were not incentivizing any companies unless they are providing highpay, hightech jobs at a certain level of pay. We recently closed six fields, that added 165,500 jobs that average 15. 40 an hour, which is a lot in the brownsville area. Which creates a 42 million payroll estimate, which is new ways to incentivize companies to come in. Were trying to meet these targets together and the thought is to share this across the valley and by national perspective. Thats what i have. I thought i would put that together so we can understand whats the condition we have in the border region. Perfect. Thanks very much, mario. Obviously the border is diverse mpblt. A lot of different conditions around different parts of the border. We have several communities represented here. San diego context would be different than brownsville context. Each community has a different set of challenges but different set of assets they bring to the table as well. John, do you want to talk about how it is the border plex works and what it is and anything you want to get us kicked off with . Sure. Thanks, chris, and many many thanks for all of you being here and the Wilson Center hosting this and all my friends and allies in the audience. Thank you. We have a lot of issues to deal with and address. The Borderplex Alliance is very, very unique. To my knowledge, its it is only privately funded organization that represents the three states and two countries. We defined our region as juarez, el paso and my home county. Its a region comprised of 2. 5 million residents. You put it in the middle of the United States, it would rank in the top 20 msas in the United States. Geographically located as south as brownsville is, as far west as you can go in texas and still be in texas. Were right in the middle of nafta countries east and west and north and south. Strategically we like to consider ourselves the gateway of trade for the americas. Onefifth of trade tractortrailered curse through our six ports and region. Whats interesting, with all the uncertainty currently existing, in the world today, especially with respect to our bilateral relationship with mexico, make no mistake mexico is a strategic and certainly economic ally of the ups, we know this. Despite our uncertainty, our organization has three functions, serve as the Economic Development for the region. Second, policy advocacy for the region. Third, were now developing a Strategic Plan to primarily focus on workforce and policy advocacy in each of the sectors we try to recruit to our region. Despite the uncertainty were seeing record levels of interests from companies, vetted projects in our region. Were moving up very, very quickly, especially in the manufacturing sector. We in our region are now the fourth largest manufacturing hub in north america. In the last year to 18 months, we surpassed detroit as being the fourth largest manufacturing hub in north america. Some 300,000 high paying jobs are created in our region. As i always say, our region should be a model how you create Economic Opportunity and secure the border and how you conduct bilateral relationships in a respectful and honorable way. The border and conduct bilateral relationships in a respectful honorable way. We certainly are very very proud of those statistics. Just two days ago it was announced el paso has record level low unemployment levels. We are at 3. 6 , prenafta. It was always hovering around the 1214 range. Our sister city in juarez below 3 unemployment. That, of course, is leading to wage gains in a positive note, very measured positive way. So were very very happy with the developments thats occurring along the border. Were hopeful that as we deal not only with workforce issues, not only as we deal with these macro policy issues in washington, we can finally reach a level of certainty thats been mentioned. Its a theme ive heard from many panels today, chris, certainty is very, very important for future development and Economic Opportunity. I use the mantra of saying that uncertainty is the enemy of jobs, Economic Growth and investment. To maximize that potential, we all need to be working less on the macro level but on this panel need to be working very much on the local level to prepare ourselves for the jobs of the future, for a workforce thats trained and trainable. That is now the number one issue for Companies Looking to expand or relocate, do you have a trained or trainable workforce . Happy to say, i think i speak for all my colleagues here, not only does el paso and the borderplex region have that, most if not all the communities along the Southern Region offer that for Economic Development. For companies to expand and relocate and keep our competitive advantage in the region, i always emphasize, yes, we have that trained and trainable workforce and hope we can get into a discussion about some of the artificial limiters and artificial ceilings that exist and why we still have room to grow in our respective communities along the southern border. Once again, thank you for inviting me here. Its an honor. Thank you. Frederico. Thank you, chris. Thank you all for being here, for this opportunity. Just a correction, i worked with the custom brokers. Ive been an advisor but i am not a custom broker. When ive seen what some of them go through because of mexican laws, minuscule error, that they lose their livelihood and sometimes their liberty, i would never want to be a custom broker. I worked with them 16 years in two areas. The last time i was over there four years, i was in charge of training for custom brokers and their personnel. I not only live at the border, i have a very strange story and will do it really short. I will mention it like this. I am a mexican born in canada and now is working in the United States. Up to a year ago, i had a son working in canada, a daughter working in the United States and a daughter working in mexico, so when i go back and forth everyday so i know about the century lines and all of that. Anyway, just a couple of slides so we can get into a conversation, and as you all well know you need to use the microphone. Okay. Okay. As you all well know, the importance of our border ports of entry, this is just what texas represents for world trade. 30. 8 of all trade of the United States, with the world, crosses through laredo, 33. 9 through 42. 9 through the custom district of laredo. Thats the second largest in the country behind los angeles. 10. 7 el paso, 30. 7 houston galveston, 10. 1 in dallasfort worth and 5. 6 port arthur district. These slides, chris will have them, so if anyone wants them we can send them to you. All these, you already know. This one is interesting. The share of trade between mexico and the United States, since 2012 to 2018 has been growing constantly. The share that we have that this last year, was 36. 9 through the city of laredo. I dont know if the mayor is still here. Another 14. 9 through the rest of the ports that are rio, the pass and all the way to brownsville. That gives us 52 of all u. S. Mexico trade to our customs district. This part here, 12. 5 is trade through el paso. 19. 7 is trade through the other ports of entry of arizona, california and mexico and 15. 9 the rest of the ports of entry to the United States. This is u. S. Mexico trade, 1. 17 million a minute. Through all of these. Maybe this is interesting for some. Crime rates at our ports of entry, United States, 394. This is fbi information out of every 100,000. Texas, 439, and down here you have laredo, 322. You have el paso 379 and san diego 367. At our border communities, we have the lowest crime rates in many parts. Dont get me talking about other cities like the one were in right now. This is information just for you. If you want information, you can go to our website. And we have for each of the four border states, we have all of the ports of entry. This is the information for the state, and then we have imports and exports for each and every one of the cities for your respective states. This information is here. You can download it and its constantly uploaded with recent data. Here are the commodities that cross through the bridge, through your ports of entry. Thats those are the slides i wanted to share. Maybe we can go into it. Great. Why dont i keep going with you for just a second, federico. When we talked during the process of creating the book chapter i was mentioning, you talked to me about how it was that the city of vallejos came together basically to build the world trade bridge. Laredo is, as you mentioned, the major really, the number one hub of u. S. Mexico trade. How is it the city developed that skillset . Obviously, someone like you in your own career sort of represented somebody teaching customs brokers how to do their job. Theres a lot of skill, actually, it takes for a logistics cluster that can be worldclass. How is it the city works to build a world trade bridge and develop that skillset in such a specialization facilitating trade . It has to do a lot with the origin. Because of its geographical location, before nafta was very important crossing point for trade, nafta just blew up everything exponentially. We also have customs trade and Logistics Community that are very, very proactive. Back in the 80s, before a lot of the things we take for granted now in technology, mexican custom brokers, who just returned after studying at m. I. T. , a couple of them, started working on ways of using computers to facilitate transmission of data. Were talking about floppy disks. Then they went over with the mexican set, mexican customs and they developed this system where everything was starting to go through computers. Even though at the beginning, it was once a week when they took the disc to the bridge and then just downloaded everything, then it was everyday and eventually they got to develop it as a Pilot Project for all of mexico. That with the fact a quarter of all mexican customs brokers have [ speaking spanish ] another quarter the rest of the ports of entry of mexico also have offices there. Thats something we can talk about later, the Economic Impact of that. The thing is because of these individuals who live and whose parents and grandparents live because of trade, they went full ahead on doing this. The thing that really changed everything was that they got together after a mayor, who horacio garcia, who was 90 twice mayor the beginning of the 90s and end of the 90s. The city was just chaotic with long lines of trailers that went through the middle of the city, in front of schools. There were so many accidents, i used to go to a school that had a cross this was in the 60s, right, but anyway, it was awful then, back the late 80s, early 90s it was incredible. So he came together with the customs brokers and transportation guys, and they put their money where their mouth was, and they started financing the construction of the bridge because the Mexican Federal government didnt do it. They do keep the revenue of the tolls, and not as the case in laredo, the laredo, texas, budget depends a lot on that. There was the political will and Economic Vision that they had to do something to get that traffic out of the city and make it faster. Thanks, frederico. One lesson there is the coming together of the private sector with the Public Sector to get things done. Sometimes getting things done even when the federal government isnt working well. We hear again and again across the border, we local communities working to get things done and move out International Trade and really help out government when theyre experiencing challenges and facilitating that trade. Thats an important lesson. Jon, again, three different states that you represent. Some things we hear across the u. S. Mexico border, sometimes a local community on the u. S. Side of the border is competing with another local community on the u. S. Side of the border for investments, for traffic across bridges, things like that. How is it that an organization like yours is able to overcome some of those challenges . You represent three different groups of people that have elected officials with different sets of consistencies yet somehow youre able to get everyone to see the value of cooperation over the possibility of competition. How does that develop . How do you talk to people so they see that value of cooperation . Thats a great question, chris. Certainly, a very relevant, germane question. Ive had the unique opportunity to see it not only serving as a Public Servant in new mexico, as cabinet secretary, where there is some competition. Of course, youre always trying to create jobs. Thats what the taxpayers of new mexico expected me to do and the governor. By the same token we know that the region we inhabit all rely on one another. The bottom line is that we indeed are a bicultural community that shares this same border, the same culture and, yes, we share the same economy. That last point is absolutely critical in overcoming some of the objections that maybe some more parochial political leaders might have about the region. To take a step back, when i did serve as cabinet secretary in new mexico, in 2011, it was interesting to say that the state of New Hampshire did more trade with mexico than new mexico did, as stunning as that might sound. We had to engage in a regional, certainly when we were talking about workforce, when we were trying to draw businesses to the area, to the new mexico side of the border, we simply had to say and share resources, have universities that are almost about 40 miles apart. University of el paso and mexico state. We had to tell employers it was okay that it was okay to hire graduates from youtip, for example. Now that im in the area, we brag about the universities in the area. We have more University Students in the region combined than any Big Ten Community the United States has combined. Were graduating more engineers in our region than any Big Ten Community which has a huge universities in the United States. So these are the types of things that we all brag about, that we all have to talk about. And the message has gotten out to political leaders. Certainly the Business Community grets it. Im happy to say were all working on a Strategic Plan right now that will focus on Work Force Development primarily, pulling the resources together, and the last thing i want to say about the issue, chris, is that the work force issue is very, very critical. So is local infrastructure. David who works from el paso, works at the free trade zone and is in the audience is in emblem attic of a lot of how we have to cooperate when it comes to transportation. Every state has to Work Together with, for example, the transportation infrastructure in our region, or things will come glie grinding to a halt. Over 2 billion worth of investment on the u. S. Side is occurring in new mexico and texas. Making sure we have this competitive flow of trade while at the same time securing the border, frankly, and the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. All these things and others are contributed to overcoming the objections. And im happy to say that we are working very, very well together, especially in the private sector, the government sector in talking about how we move our entire region forward because in the bottom line is that this is not a zero sum game. How we say that job creators ought to be a job created in the u. S. , and vice versa. Thats the way we approach it. Thank you. Thats interesting. When we did the study, we started by looking at what trade was moving through the region and started seeing where are there opportunities to subtract suppliers, different pieces of industry that might fit into the supply chain moving through the greater brownsville area. Can you talk a little bit about what industries do you target and talk about the conversations when you talk to potential investors . What are the things theyre asking you . What are the things that youre pointing to them that really resonate the most as you try to land the company in those industrys . Right. Thats complicated, the question. And i think different communities across the border deal with it differently in the brownsville to loreto probably region. I think years ago, especially in the times of the heavy makila involvement or movement until today we didnt have a true assessment or inventory of whats the percent of types of industries in this. Are they tech . Are they automotive . Are they medical . Are they Energy Related . I think new that we have some manufacturing associations working together and sharing data on both sides of the border, us and Economic Development can better assess what kind of package from incentives package can be put together to entice a company, lets say, an automotive company. We can now say we can mitigate your logistics costs because we have this within a 50 mile radius. Were able to now have a more detailed discussion on how we can mitigate the profitability when the Companies Wont bring them in. Before we were saying it was pie in the sky. We want more jobs but not know how to attract these companies. I think were Getting Better at that as we share data across the border and across towns. I tell you as u. S. Mca nafta 2 is coming around, theres a lot of hesitation of investment from different companies, different countries, different regions. So a lot of that hesitation is still out today. The worlds of originen is an issue. Hopefully it works on our behalf, and for the betterment of the region. The tariffs, steel tariffs and the like are also conversations when they come see us, how is that going to work . Right. The unique condition we have in brownsville is we have a port, brownsville, msa that can probably mitigate a lot of that tax, and tariffs through opportunity zones and the like. But i tell you that recently in the last two months, it was and the gentleman here brought it up earlier, is the first question they asked was security. Some people around the world and around the other parts of the country think its a war zone down in the border region. Its not. Brownsville, for example, is the number two safest city. El paso, callen, theyre all in lists depending on what kind of websites you look at. Theyre essentially very safe communities. Thats something we never had to entertain before as an Economic Development organization but we do today to show them hey, this is very safe, and then the Work Force Development component is important. I did a lot of work with toyota. My charge was help us find a profitability window sooner based on Work Force Development strategies. The thinking is that if you have a strong work force that is hightech, can build a quality product, then if youre cfo and your manufacturers target so much production a day, month, year, then they should be able to make profit this much a year before they can project, i can make my money back, my investment back in ten years. But when you have a weak work force that cant problem solve and im supposed to be making 1,000 trucks a day but im 30 out of profitability, those are the conversations we can have with data with companies coming into our region and say we know what to do. We have the Human Capital come to us. We are ready for business, the border is. Another point i like to make is that although we see a lot of investment in ports of the entry that we just saw, in my opinion, it benefits a lot of the interior United States and not the border region. It created a pass through region. Its a lot of produce coming through the port of entry but not in that border region on both sides. Its really important for us to Work Together to understand these numbers better so we can help i guess reflect this kind of investment in our communities. Yeah. Fred ree koe, that was one of the things we talked about as well. That was something loreto did. Thats why i started with what did they do right and made all these important investments to attract trade through the community and the community kind of lives on that trade but maybe missed an opportunity to attract manufacturers and some of the others. Can you talk about that side of the equation and how it is that communities what it is you see that was missing that didnt have lo rreto develop in the sa way as other countries on the border. In mexico there are around 220 who have their license to work at the Head Quarters. Another 200 plus operate. You have around 450 mexican custom brokers all of whom or the 99 of whom have operations on the u. S. Side from brownsville through san diego, and that means that those 4 450 have their Head Quarters on the border cities all the way. That is in my now, i tried to do it. We talked a bit some time ago. Could that be considered a Foreign Direct Investment from mexicans in the United States because theyre creating jobs. Theyre paying taxes. Theyre building warehouses, and they have from custom brokers businesses to transportations to boutiques and restaurants. Theyve diversified. And what could have been done on the respect of manufacturing . A lot. The thing is that i, and i mentioned it before and i think and some people dont like it that we take for granted that trade is always going to cross through loreto. Weve never thought about a second location for the city. 90 plus percent of the work force is services. That is something that we missed. 1988 in loreto we had an event and we were trying to attract businesses from all around to invest. And most of them went to ranosa or el paso or tijuana. And everyone was fine with that because trade was still number one. That was prenafta. So we could have done a lot. I still think that that enormous volume of trade of commodities of products that go back and forth maybe some of it could be assembled and added value on plants on either loreto, but thats something thats maybe. Thats one of the things we hear all the time, how it is that how can communities add more value in the supply chains that theyre a part of. And i think related to that is what is the unique Value Proposition of being a community along the border as youre going out and trying to attract business. John, maybe you can come in and talk a bit about how you frame that Value Proposition of working along the border, of investing along the border. I think if i remember correctly you talked about some investments coming in that required a bilingual work force, for example. Or, you know, actually moving back to creation where you do have some level of joint manufacturing happening on both sides of the borders. Spillover effects from the manufacturing side of things. Talk to us about how you approach that and the special Value Proposition of the border community. There are countless advantages to being along the southern border with mexico. And i think all of our communities and especially in our region, we have one of the youngest demographics of any msa statistical area on both sides of the border. We have that trained and trainable young dynamic work force. We talk about that. We have stroo teejic advantages we offer for foreign direct invi investors. About 15 years ago china, i certainly saw it in my prior life, make no mistake, china is a trade foe. They are going through a very difficult time right now in terms of their work force and how really in my humble opinion theyre becoming less and less competitive. The trend was the reshoring of american jobs. The question is when youre looking at fdi, especially from asia, i think our communities and especially the border plex region has a very, very compelling story to tell when it comes to the reshoring of these jobs from asia. And make no mistake that trend, i think, will continue. Why . Because in china you have rising wages. You have very expensive utility costs there. You have a very unpredictable political system, and finally, you see a situation where transportation costs are rising. But most of all, the quality of the chinese products do not compare to the quality of the products being made in north america both in mexico and the United States. And for those reasons i think youre going to see that trend continue. And weve got a wonderful story to tell because we should be the place of choice for the reshoring of these jobs and make no mistake hundreds of thousands of these jobs are coming and coming soon. Tariffs or no tariffs against the chinese. And we need in our region to be able to tell that story and make sure that we are in the forefront of telling that story not only in the border plex region but in our sister communities up and down the border. Were happy to do that. Last thing ill say about it is that in order to stay competitive, weve got to make sure were staying ahead of infrastructure once again. Youve heard that a lot as a theme. If the federal government isnt going to take the lead, the states and the local communities need to. Just like again the state of texas is doing and the local leaders in el paso to make sure our road system, everything from roads and water, and i have to compliment our water authority, the Public Service board. What they have done in el paso is incredible by making sure theres a sustainable and very viable amount of water with conservation to last for several more decades, and what theyre doing there is incredible. There is that perception, at least in el paso that we dont have enough water. Yes, we do. We can tell all that story and do it in a forceful, compelling way, then we win the projects more often than not and were defeating places like phoenix and other spots and other communities. I love beating phoenix. I love beating communities it might be splak cialt lake. Its friendly competition. It always comes down to the same communities vying for the fdi projects y projects, it seems, at least its been in my experience. Weve had some good fortune in being competitive. Last thing is proof in the pudding. We are finalists in our region for very, very large and significant projects. Because weve been able to proffer all of these advantages and were competing with cities inland in the United States. Very happy to report. We may not win any of them but good willing, one, maybe all of them. Time for a couple questions before we finish up here. Does anyone have any they want to throw up there . Let me get you a microphone. Identify yourself and ask your question. Thats okay. Wait for the microphone. Okay. You preempted me on the water. I didnt know if there were any specific things you wanted to mention about how this works. I mean, you know you have enough water and theyre doing something innovative, i assume . Yeah. The water in the tristate area is very, very its interesting. Its a little bit complex legally as a recovering lawyer, i wont try to explain it, but its made complex by interstate water compact, and ill leave it there. We have to first of all, comply with not only the International Compacts that we have with mexico but weve also got to compete with interstate water compacts. That being said, what the board has done is not only buy additional water rights but emphasized its the Worlds Largest inland desal nating plant they have. We have almost countless amounts of brackish water in the area and in the region. So one end its technology. And foresight, and making sure that we have enough water rights in the region. And the second is a very aggressive Water Conservation effort throughout all three states, really. And so the combination of which has been a very powerful story to tell, and luckily were in a situation that were in right now because of that. Thank you. You want to jump in . Can i add to that . That point. Its not just about acquiring water. Its how can communities smartly use the water . Especially from an Economic Development perspective. When i was at toyota we used 1. 3 million gallons of water a day. A company is not going to come into your region if they dont have water for their manufacturing process and often its large amounts. How municipalities use their water not only for their population but also they reuse water, whatever, so they can accommodate the needs of industry for Economic Development. Great. Thank you. Another question here. Maybe we can actually if you guys dont mind, collect a couple questions. It will be the final round of answers here. Sure. Go ahead. Hi. I was wondering youve been talking about investment, and also the Strategic Plan. I was wondering is there anything about entrepreneur ship and small and medium scale and maybe having them from both the sides Work Together as small and medium services, i mean businesses or entrepreneurial. Ive heard congressmen and senators say its a crisis on the border. They paint a broad brush across that, and i know when they call, we explain it but how many people dont call and make their decision based on the news, and what can we do to counter that . Great. Lets finish it off. Jared, did you want to jump in with one last question . I wanted to ask mario, and all three of you, looking understanding the challenges that we have of our youth on the border communities, we have the bicultural environment. How far back do you identify back to tap into the young men and boys and girls. At what level should we be working onto prepare them for what 25 years from now mc may look like . They did that study in san antonio. I set it up for you, buddy. Thank you. Ill give you five bucks later, jerry. Ill use the football analogy. If you have a professional quarterback and you look at the recruiting for professional quarterbacks, they probably recruited out of a lot of tier one and tier two schools. Those schools recruited a lot of smaller schools and they also recruit, and then they recruit at high schools and the high schools prepare their other smaller teams. All that to get one quarterback. Right . We did the math on what does it take to get one technician to fix robots. 200,000 middle school touches of people to get one technician when you start doing the math right. We took it down to middle school. If we think that from an Economic Development per spect i and capitalizing on Human Capital, you need to invest in legislation in your communities to create programs at the middle school to prepare them for technology in high school and get them into the job career phase after high school, because typically in hightech environments about 5 to 10 require a fouryear degree. If everybody wants to get a fouryear degree, thats fine, but theyre not going to get hired by industries. 80 require certification or a high school diploma. 20 require a twoyear degree. The middle school is the sweet spot. Great. Lightning round. Let me try to answer all three questions. Innovation, number one, fortunately we have incubators and tech hubs that are around and in areas. Were working hard to develop a seamless pipeline. Especially in technology and really giving entrepreneurs in the hightech space every tool they can have. El paso is becoming a really, really hip place for young hispani hispanics. The Downtown Revitalization is attracting people to eat and have a good time and concerts. Were starting to attract this young, entrepreneurial talent, especially in the hightech sector. One example we got a Silicon Valley company to move to el paso. They only expected to hire 40. Theyre going to move their denver operation to el paso because theyve had success. And the retention rates have been off the charts. Were going to push that advantage. Second, crime. Yes, thank you. Thats right. Thats the artificial limiter to optimizing economic potential in our region. I probably speak for everybody here. You have to get past the misperception about our region being dangerous and lawless frontier. Its perpetuated both in pop culture and now in politics. Thats an additional thing we have to overcome in order to optimize job growth in the area. But once we can show the data, el paso, second safest city over 500,000 in the United States. That chart, second safest over 500,000. Number one by a fraction of a point in san diego. Not really theyre not really on the border close, but its a sister city on the border. Finally work force, yes, we need to continue to emphasize the Work Force Development. Not only in the innovation and tech sector but lets not forget about the basic sector that has sustained our area at least in many parts of the border. Thats the warehousing, transportation, logistics, and manufacturing sector. Because those sectors are continuing to grow. They will continue to grow at least in our region. And we need to make sure that we have trades people that we have electricians, and other folks like that, high paying jobs, truck drivers, welders, and so we cant forget about that as far as our Work Force Development needs. I would also quick first of all, Strategic Plan, you mentioned, i think thats something that has to be done not only in loreto. We worked on a long term vision plan to 2040 like eight or nine years ago and then in 2015 we did an update. Loreto did a comprehensive plan and now both plans consider a longterm vision. The developing infrastructure, developing work force. So that is something that we should probably also and all along the border do, collaborating and not so much competing with one another. The thing about the perception you mentioned, we need to provide hard, cold facts to those who are who need them. Its going to be practically impossible to fight media, pop culture and politicians who have an agenda, but beneed to have that information out there on the forefront. And finally regarding the work force, we need to prepare our students to adapt, to be flexible, to be lifelong learners. And that is something that we should also probably do, because things are changing so fast that if we dont prepare students to be have the availability and the vision of work, theyre not going to do it. And finally for the future, id like to give a shoutout to jerry and ibc and everyone. We need that type of engagement and a commitment to the north American Free trade agreement or ucmca or development of the border. And theyve done it i want to second that. My friend jerry, i see jerry on the road trips. And his friend. Thank you for what you do. I hope youve enjoyed this panel, and all the panels throughout the day as much as i have. This has been a fantastic day, and i really appreciate the contributions youve all made to the conversation. And our understanding of the border region. Its obviously something we need to get out there a little bit more in washington. But were going to keep doing the work from here from the Wilson Center and engage you in that work. Its an important thing for us. And i want to thank our sponsors one more time. For helping make the day possible, thank you, and handing things over to close it out for the day. Thanks. We want to say thank you again to duncan wood, chris, and the team here at the Wilson Center mexico institute. Its a pleasure to always partner with you for our sixth annual conference. I also want to thank the bta Board Members for all of their support and their leadership. A very productive program, obviously today. Thanks to all of you. And as you already mentioned our sponsors, ibc, ill third to say how great your leadership is and how much we appreciate consolati consolation. Were at a critical juncture. Weve been talking about it all day. We obviously all are seeking the modernization of our trilateral trade agreement. We will remain focussed. We will remain engaged and hopefully get this agreement done this year. So just yesterday the bta board, we were on capitol hill. We were sharing this message, sharing much of the message that weve talked about today. So we feel like they with gaining traction, and we will get there. The bta members and i do look forward to continuing to build on the success of nafta for the past 25 years, not anything negative. And ratifying the u. S. Mca. So thank you for your leadership. Thanks for your support. Lets continue to fight the good fight and win together. Tonighten o, a look back at the world war ii d day invasion. Youll hear from a historian about his book the first wave, the d dar warriors who led the way to victory in world war ii. Heres a portion of what youll see tonight at 8 00 eastern. This one committee here bedford, virginia, they sacrificed more than anywhere else in america on dday, 1944. 19 guys from this community of 3,000 in 1944 died in the first wave on omaha beach. Per capita, they gave any more than any other community on d day, thats why the memorial is here. Thats interesting, ive always heard that bedford gave any more than any other american town. You said allied community. Yes. Thats what the memorial proclaims. Thats true. Yeah. Actually, on dday company a from the 116 infantry regimen, guys joined the National Guard in the 1930s. They were weekend warriors. They never envisioned in 1937, that by 1944 they would be in the very first wave in the most critical assault in u. S. History. So out of company a, there were 180 guys that landed on omaha beach. 102 of them were killed in about a half hour. Of the 102, 19 were killed from bedford, virginia. There were 34 guys still in company a on d day from this community who fought on june 6th, 1944. Your book focuses on personal stories of the first wave of soldiers, airmen, and marines. You write early on, it was 12 15 a. M. June 6th, 1944. The most important day of the 20th century. The First Americans arrived in france. Why do you think dday was the most important day of the 20th century . Because it led to a europe you see today. It led to the restoration of civilization. The human rights and peace in western europe. It was the foundation of the relationship between the u. S. And europe. Its been the most important relationship in modern world history. And it led to the freedom of millions and millions of europeans in western europe. 19 million civilians died in europe in world war ii when americans and british and french and canadians landed on dday, it gave countless millions hope that bar barrism and the rule of naziism that that terrible genocide and oppression would finally end. You can watch the entire conversation with the story and alex kershaw starting around at 8 00 eastern. They look at the invasions impact and the aftermath on frons. The dday invasion tonight here on cspan3. This Holiday Weekend on American History tv, saturday at 10 00 p. M. On real america, the 1970 film honor america day, the celebration at the National Mall featuring bob hope and billy graham. She has never hidden her faults. We dont sweep our sins under the rug. If poverty exists, if racial tension exists, if riots occur, the whole world knows about it. Instead of an iron curtain, we have a picture window. And sunday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts, craig hall portrays an officer and discusses the soviet unions role in world war ii. One month before dday we had been occupying 65 maybe of the best german troops fighting us. If we hadnt done that, if they hadnt failed, if wed failed at other places, all of those troops could well have been on the normandy beaches and it could have been a different outcome. So the story that has to be told is that thats a significant contribution to winning the war. Watch on American History tv on cspan3. There has been a discussion about an appearance before congress. Any testimony would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in a