Transcripts For CSPAN House Session 20150202

To encourage them in their official tasks. Be with them and with all who labor here to serve this great nation and its people. Assure them that whatever their responsibilities, you provide the grace to enable them to be faithful to their duties and the wisdom to be conscious of their obligations and fulfill them with integrity. Remind us all of the dignity of work and teach us to use our talents and abilities in ways that are honorable and just and are of benefit to those we serve. May all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. The speaker pro tempore the chair has examined the journal of the last days proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. Pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. The pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentlewoman from North Carolina, ms. Foxx. Ms. Foxx please join in the pledge to our wonderful flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The speaker pro tempore the chair will receive a message. The messenger mr. Speaker, a message from the president of the United States. The secretary mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore mr. Secretary. The secretary im directed by the president of the United States to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing. The speaker pro tempore the chair will entertain requests for oneminute speeches. For what purpose does the the gentlewoman from North Carolina seek recognition. Ms. Foxx mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Ms. Foxx thank you, mr. Speaker. This month marks 25 years since john hood and Mark Rotterman fonded the John Lock Foundation with the help of art pope and the John William Pope foundation. While its beginnings may have been small, the foundation quickly made an impact and today it is the leading voice in North Carolina for free markets limited government and personal responsibility. The Silver Jubilee represents a changing of the guard for the organization. After nearly 20 years at its helm founder john hood is taking a new role as president of the pope foundation. He leaves john Lot Foundation in the very capable hands of corey swanson, who has been a central figure in the growth and influence of the organization over the last 15 years. The future is bright at the foundation, and the people of North Carolina are the beneficiaries and are grateful. With that i yield back, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Kildee its week five for the new congress and it happens to be groundhog day, and my republican colleagues unfortunately, i think are still stuck in the shadow of their extreme agenda. Instead of taking up a jobs bill or a infrastructure bill, or a minimum wage bill to give working families bigger paychecks, they have again decided this week for the 56th time to take up repeal of the Affordable Care act. Never mind that repealing the a. C. A. In this house would take away insurance for millions of individuals or raise insurance premiums on working families or allow Insurance Companies to once again discriminate against those who have preexisting medical conditions. This extreme bill, we know, will never see the light of day or become law, however. Similar bills were dead on arrival the first time that the speaker brought it up, and its not going anywhere this time. But this vote pandering to the most extreme voices of the at the expense of a jobs bill or the first vote on a National Manufacturing plant, or the first vote on a vote to repair our crumbling roads and bridges takes away the time to deal with those important issues and continues this house on a road to another repeal of the a. C. A. Thank you, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise . Seek recognition. Mr. Thompson mr. Speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. Revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Thompson mr. Speaker, human sex trafficking continues to be a major problem plaguing both america and countries around the globe. The department of Homeland Security cumulatively estimates there are approximately 1. 4 million victims of sexual servitude at any one time on an international scale. Furthermore, the f. B. I. Has estimated that over 300,000 American Children are at risk of Sexual Exploitation and trafficking annually. Last week, the house moved forward on several pieces of legislation aimed at preventing and combating this horrific fact. Im proud to have cosponsored and voted in favor of several bills last week which diverted more financial and labor intensive resources to countering these atrocities. Thee clue h. R. 514, and h. R. 469, the strengthening Child Welfare response to trafficking act, among others. Each of these bills passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and will be commonsense steps towards shutting down these operations. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support further action that is will further protect these vulnerable populations. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. Revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to recognize mrs. Angela danisson, a third grade teacher at an Elementary School as Michigan Teacher of the year. On behalf of all residents of northern michigan, i wish to congratulate her on earning this honorable distinction. Loved by her students, fellow teachers, and school administrators, her dedication to teaching children is a credit to her hard work and attention to her students. She decide she wanted to help the next generation while shes still a High School Student herself. Mr. Benishek she turned this dream into a successful lifelong teaching career. On receiving the award she modestly stated the following, educators work so hard and there is a lot of time where you just dont feel worthy because there are a lot of other dedicated people working around you. It mr. Speaker, i submit to you that mrs. Dannisso no. Is certainly a worthy recipient and i applaud her for her hard work and dedication. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . Seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. Revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Today i rise with Great Sadness to express the loss of a true public servant. Long time counsel mayor pro tem vicky chambers received serious injuries when her car was hit headdown on on january 18. Tragically she succumbed to her injuries several days later. Vicky was wellknown for her volunteer activity. She generously cave her time to the betterment association, the Downtown Development authority, hall and banks county restoration, and the historical society. Mr. Collins theyll miss perfect compassion optimism, and smiling face, but her legacy will live on in the northeast georgia town she loved. My wife lisa, whose hometown is lula, and i express our condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues during this very difficult time. It is in tragedies like this we remember Public Servants serve first those around them. And when they are gone, they are missed. Vicky, we will miss you. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chamber lays before the house a message. The clerk to the congress of the United States. After a breakthrough year for america, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. And in 58 months we have created over 11 million jobs. Our Unemployment Rate is now lower than it was before the financial crisis. More of our kids are graduating than ever before. More of our people are insured than ever before. We are free from the grip of foreign oil as we have been in almost 30 years. Thanks to the hard work resilience, and determination of the American People over the last six years, this shadow of crisis has passed. With a growing economy, shrinking deficit, bustling strirks and Booming Energy production, we have emerged from recession to write our own future. Its now up to us to choose what kind of country we want to be over the next 15 years and for decades to come. Will we accept an economy where prosperity belongs to a few and opportunity remains out of reach for far too many . Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort. Over the last six years, we have seen the middle class economics works. We reaffirm to one of our most fundamental values as americans, that this country does best when everyone debts their fair shot, does their fair share, and plays by the same set of rules. The ideas i offer in this budget are designed to bring middle class economics into the 21st century. These proposals are practical not partisan. Theyll help working families feel more secure with paychecks that go further, help American Workers upgrade their skills so that they can compete for higherpaying jobs and help create the conditions our businesses to keep generating good new jobs for workers to fill. The budget will do these things while fulfilling our most basic responsibility to keep americans safe. We will make these investments and end the harmful spending cuts known as sequestration by cutting inefficient spending and closing tax loopholes. We will also put our nation on a more sustainable fiscal path by achieving 1. 8 trillion in deficit reduction primarily for reforms and health programs, our tax code, and immigration. First, middle class economics means helping working families afford the corner stones of Economic Security. Childcare College Health care, at home and retirement. We will help working families tackle the high costs of childcare and make ends meet by tripling the maximum childcare credit for middle class families with young children, increasing it up to 3,000 per child, expending childcare assistance to all eligible lowincome families, with children under four by the end of 10 years, and making preschool available to all 4yearolds. The budget also provides middle class families more flexibility at work by encouraging states to develop paid family leave programs. Today we are the only advanced country on earth that doesnt guarantee paid sick leave or paid Maternity Leave to our workers. 43 million workers have no paid sick leave, which forces too many parents to make the gut wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home. Its time to change that for many families in todays economy, having both parents in the work force isnt a luxury, its an economic necessity. Second, middle class economics means making sure more americans have the chance to earn the skills and education they need to keep earning higher wages down the road. The budget calls for new investments and innovation that will expand preschool and invest in high quality Early Education for americas youngest learners, provide more help to disadvantaged students, and the schools that serve them. Better prepare and support teachers, and transform our high schools so help all students graduate and prepare for college and career. And a 2 iss century economy that rewards knowledge, by the end of this decade 2 3 of job openings will require some higher education, and no american should be priced out of education they need. Over the course of my administration, we have increased pell grants, and the budgettowns to ensure that they will keep pace with inflation over time. The budget also includes a bold new plan to bring down the cost of Community College tuition for responsible students to zero. 40 of College Students attend Community College, some to learn a particular skill, others as a part of a fouryear degree. It is time for two years of college to become as gree and universal in american as high school is today. It even as we help give our students the chance to succeed, we also must Work Together to give our workers a chance to retool. Last year the congress came together and passed important improvements to the nations job Training System with bipartisan Work Force Innovation and opportunity act. To build on this progress the proposals in this budget support more inperson career counseling for unemployed workers and doubled the number of workers receiving training through the Work Force Development system. My plan would also expand the successful learn as you earn approaches that our european counterparts used successfully by investing in an extension of registered apprenticeships that allow workers to learn new skills while they are earning a paycheck. The budget the budget would ensure that it will lead to highpaying jobs that feature strong employer partnerships including workbased learning and credentials. As we welcome home a new generation of returning heroes, the budget makes sure that they have a chance to live out the American Dream they have defended helped defend and invest in the five pillars i have outlined to support our nations veterans, providing resources and funding they deserve, ensuring highquality and Timely Health care getting veterans their earned benefits quickly and efficiently ending veteran homelessness and helping veterans and their families get good jobs, education and access to affordable housing. Third, middleclass economics means creating the kind of environment that helps businesses start here, stay here and hire here. We want to build on the growth we have seen in the Manufacturing Sector where more than 750,000 new jobs have been created over the last 58 months. To create jobs, continue growth in the industry and strengthen americans leadership in advanced manufacturing technology, the budget funds a National Network of 45 manufacturing institutes, building on the nine already funded through 2015. As part of the manufacturing initiative, the budget also launches a scaleup fund, funded through a Publicprivate Partnership to help ensure that if a technology is invented in the United States, it can be made in the United States. The budget proposes an Investment Fund to help Startup Companies produce the goods they have developed. Taken together, these investments will help ensure that america keeps making things the rest of the world wants to buy and will also help create manufacturing jobs for the future. Our nation thrives when we are leading the world with Cutting Edge Technology and manufacturing, infrastructure clean energy and other growing fields. That is why the budget includes investments in cutting edge, advanced manufacturing research. To make sure we are leading the way in creating technology that supports our Manufacturing Sector, biomedical research. Like our brain initiative, which studies the brain to offer new insight into diseases like alzheimers. And Precision Medicine which can help Better Outcomes and better treat diseases or agriculture research, looking at Climate Resilience and stainability. These investments have the potential to create highwage jobs, improve lives and open the door to new industries, resulting in sustainable economic growth. As our economy continues to grow, our nations businesses and workers also need a stronger infrastructure that works in the new economy. Modern ports, stronger bridges, better roads, faster trains and better broadband. The budget proposes to build a 21st century infrastructure that creates jobs for thousands of construction workers and engineers, connect hardworking americans to their jobs and makes it easier for businesses to transport goods. The budget would do more to repair and modernize our existing bridges while expanding transit systems to link communities and support workers. These proposals will put more money in middleclass pockets, raise wages and bring more highpaying jobs to america. It will close tax loopholes to make sure everyone pays their fair share. The budget closes loopholes that punish businesses investing domestically and reward companies that keep profits abroad and use these moneys to rebuild our infrastructure. It clooses loopholes that penetrate inequality by allowing the top 1 of americans to avoid paying any taxes on their accumulated wealth and uses the money to help more young people go to college. The budget simplifies the system so that a Small Business owner can file based on her actual Bank Statement instead of the number of accountants she cant afford. It is time for tax reform and its core is to help working families afford childcare and college and plan for retirement and above all get a leg up on the new economy. Of course, we cannot separate our work here at home from challenges beyond our shores. By winding down the wars overseas and lowering war spending, we strengthened our economy and shrunk our deficits, but we still face threats to our security that we must address. The budget supports our efforts to degrade and ultimately destroy isil. We are leading over 60 partners in a global effort that will take time and steady resolve. As i made clear in my state of the Union Address, i am calling on the congress to show the world that we are united in this mission by passing a bill to authorize the use of force against isil. The budget supports our efforts to counter russian pressure and aggression actions in concert with our european allies. By funding support for ukraines democracy and efforts to reassure our nato allies. We also must look beyond issues that have consumed us in the past to shape the coming century. This budget provides the resources we need to defend the nation against cyberattacks. No foreign nation, no hacker should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets or invade the privacy of american families. In addition to increasing funding to protect our nation against cyberattacks, i continue to urge the congress to finally pass the legislation we need to meet this evolving threat. The budget invests in our efforts to confront the threat posed by Infectious Diseases like ebola here at home and internationally. It provides resources to support the Global Health security agenda, increasing funds to eradicate polio and other Global Health challenges and creates a new impact fund for targeted global hivaids efforts. In addition, the budget increases funding for domestic preparedness efforts to more effectively respond to potential future outbreaks here at home and dead indicates funding for states to develop and dedicates funding for states to develop h. I. V. Plans for the national h. I. V. Strategy. The bill also the budget also capitalizes the asia pavek where we are making sure that other nations play by the rules in how they trade, resolve disputes and do their part to confront the Biggest Challenges we face. No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than Climate Change. 14 of our planets warmest years have all fallen in the 15 years of this century. Scientists are telling us that our activities are changing climate and if we do not act forcefully we will continue to see rising oceans, longer hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict and hunger around the globe. The pentagon says that Climate Change poses immediate risk to our National Security and, as discussed in the budget, this cost on Climate Change hit the federal governments bottom line directly. As it creates government liabilities. Thats why this budget takes action on climate by supporting the Climate Action plan that i released in 2013 with investments to and accelerate Carbon Pollution reductions to build on the ground partnerships in local communities and help them put in place strategies for greater resilience to Climate Change impacts and to support americas leadership abroad on this important moral and fiscal issue. Beyond these critical investments, the budget also supports my management agenda, which seeks to create a government for the future that is more efficient, effective and supportive support of economic growth. It improves the service we provide to the american public, to bring more value and efficiency to how we use taxpayer dollars, to open Government Data and research to the private sector, to drive innovation and economic growth, to promote smarter Information Technology and to attract and retain the best talent in the federal work force. The budget includes proposals to consolidate and reorganize Government Agencies to make them leaner and more efficient and it increases the use of evidence and evaluation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely on programs that work. The congress can also help grow the economy, reduce deficits and strengthen Social Security by passing comprehensive Immigration Reform. Last year i took a series of executive actions to crack down ilLegal Immigration at the border, prioritize and allow undocumented aliens who pass background checks to stay paying their fair share of taxes staying in the United States without fear of deportation. I also took action to streamline the Legal Immigration system for talented stem students entrepreneurs and business. These actions will raise average wages for all American Workers and reduce the deficit, but this is only the First Step Towards real reform. And as i have said before, the congress should act on the more comprehensive reform that only changes in law can provide. Independent economists say Immigration Reform will grow our economy and shrirning our deficits by almost 1 trillion over 20 years. It is time to fix our broken system and help grow our economy by passing comprehensive Immigration Reform. The budget also builds on the progress weve made ensuring that every american has the piece of mind that comes with Quality Health insurance. The Affordable Care act has helped to provide millions of more americans get covered. It has forced Insurance Companies to play by the rules by prohibiting discrimination for preexisting conditions and eliminating lifetime Insurance Companies capps. It also helped our nation be more on a sustainable fiscal path. It includes additional reforms and cost saving proposals to continuing encouraging high quality and Efficient Health care. This budget shows we can do what we can do if we invest in americas future and commit ourselves to an economy that rewards hard work, generates rising incomes and allows everyone to share in the prosperity of a growing america. It lays out a strategy to strengthen our middle class and help americas hardworking families get ahead in a time of relentless economic and technological change. 15 years into this new century and outside of the deparkest age of our weve begun to work in remaking america. Weve laid a new foundation. A Brighter Future of ours to write. This budget will help us begin this new chapter together. Signed, barack obama, the white house, february 2, 2015. The speaker pro tempore referred to the committee on appropriations and ordered printed. Pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until approximately 5 00 p. M. Today. Philip klein is commentary editor for the washington examiner. Good morning. On tue house and reflection on that in repeal. X the first vote in this congress, but the 60th vote since 2011. What can we expect . Guest i think we can expect it to pass. When they say 60 votes on repeal, that is somewhat misleading in that a number of the repeal votes have been to undo certain aspects of the law. There have not been as many that are full repeal. But either way, obviously this is going to be vetoed by president obama if it passes the senate and gets to his desk. You have a lot of new members coming in who have not had a chance to vote against. They will probably move on to more targeted type of legislation. Host the way it has been written not only repealing Affordable Care act that instructing Key Committee to come up with an alternative. Can you explain . Guest i think this is necessary. This new book out overcoming obamacare. Co. In talks about moving things in a more free market direction. The problem up until this point is that there are fundamental differences among republicans on what the alternative would be to obamacare. As a result of that, it has been easier to not release an alternative and unify around repealing obamacare, which everyone agrees on. However, as i argued in my book, i think they are misguided because if obamacare and other Health Care Programs are allowed to go on autopilot, the government would take a larger role in the economy. Eventually, democrats will, when they are in charge again, will have the opportunity to implement an even more topdown Government Run Health Care system. If republicans will prevent that they have to present an alternative and start making the case for it. Also quickly, there is a Supreme Court case coming up that is expected to be side by june that has huge ramifications for obamacare. Depending on how that is decided, there could be a lot of pressure on republicans to have some kind of fix or alternative. This is the decision that could theoretically strip away federal Exchange Subsidies for millions of people. If it is decided that way, and republicans do not have an alternative to present, they will be sort of force potentially into trying to sign on to a socalled fix that would further entrench and sign on to obamacare. That is why i think you see a number of things that are now forcing them to realize that this may be finally the year to present an alternative. Host i want to follow up on the president s comment in a moment. In your book, you talk about key players, including the new chair of the house ways and means committee, paul ryan, what will he and his committee propose . Guest it is unclear. All ryan in the past has signed on to various alternative Health Care Programs. However, that was before obamacare. Obamacare has changed the playing field. Now, republicans have to deal with the question of what to do with people who have some sort of benefit from obamacare regardless of the fact that there were many losers from obamacare. There are also people getting Subsidized Health insurance. What you have among republicans is a divide around several issues. Issues such as candidate now be fully repealed . Does any sort of replacement of obamacare have to account for the beneficiaries, whether it is some sort of transition a relief or is there another way to assess that people to Purchase Health insurance . Another big question is what budget baseline to use. This gets a little wonky, but as you known washington, there is a way that the Congressional Budget Office announces proposals against the baseline of what taxes and spendings would look like if those proposals were not implemented. Now that obamacare is in the books, the questions for republicans who have opposed all the taxes and spending is whether they wipe it all off the books and start from scratch, or if they work against the a slide that assumes the obamacare taxes and spending. If they do that, they can still have some sort of alternative that spends money and raises taxxes. On that point, paul ryan, when i spoke to them a couple of months ago, he said that he thinks that all the spending and taxes should be wiped off the books. If he sticks by that, it could affect what kind of alternative you can produce. Host responding to what the president said in philadelphia last week. [video clip] the bottom line is this, we need to make sure continues to work. We need to protect the progress we are making. I heard the revolt republicans are making their 59th or 60th vote next week to peel be Affordable Care act, i have lost track. Is that reaches my desk, i will happily be to it. Host again, a veto threat by the president. You can hear the frustration in his voice. Guest i think this is part of the strategy for republicans looking towards 2016. Republicans have to say what they are for. I think this is another reason why it is important to advance an alternative. What republicans have to do if you look back to democrats as an example when they took over the house and senate in 2006, and bush still controlled everything, what they did was passing lots of pieces of legislation that were popular. They made the case for them. Bush vetoed them. Then when Hillary Clinton and obama, and all the democrats were on the campaign trail, they were able to say, if you elect a democrat as president we will be old design these pieces of legislation. Republicans need to do that. That is what they are doing with the keystone pipeline. I think that they should do it with a number of other issues. I think they should do it with an obamacare alternative. You have to show people that you are not just in there to oppose obamacare, but actually you have an idea to make the Health Care System better by giving them more choice. Republicans talk about that a lot, but they have not had the debate. People do not think there was a recent poll that said Many Americans think they do not have an alternative idea on we will have live coverage of the House Rules Committee meeting today. You can watch that live on our companion network, cspan3. Harry reid is expected to speak on the floor for the first time in the new congress. He has been out with an eye injury. Expect to see him on the senate floor around 4 00 today. With the fcc focusing on Net Neutrality we spoke with two industry executives at the Electronics Show in las vegas. We believe there needs to be strong and effective rules for Net Neutrality. Those need to include nondiscrimination, subject to regional reasonable network management. They need to be effectively enforceable. The problem we are having with where the Net Neutrality issue has gone there is a lot of consensus but it is focused on the fcc. When we go forward to adopt rules and what jurisdictional theory they should use. Our concern is they are going to undo a potentially regulatory status that has existed for over a decade. Thats tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators. Wisconsin governor and potential republican president ial candidate, scott walker spoke at the American Action form about jobs and the economy. He took the first steps for running for president , forming a committee to raise money for a possible campaign. These comments ran about 45 minutes. Welcome, everyone. Im the president of the American Action forum and im delighted everyone is here for the first of the fred malek lecture cities. We turned five and january and it seemed appropriate to recognize his contributions and so we have named this lecture series after our founding chairman of the board. It convened roughly every two months and is dedicated to effective public policy. Its dedicated to the notion that the facts on the ground is important but let those turn into effective public policy. We are pleased today to open this lecture series and we are delighted to have fred here. [applause] im going to start by taking 30 minutes by explaining what the American Action forum is. I would like to congratulate doug. I founded this with the idea with the policy ideas from the right. I want to say it has far exceeded any expectations i had. It has been a phenomenal success thanks to you and your team. You fought way above your weight and had a powerful influence on policy relation in this country. Im not going to talk too much about scott walkers accomplishments as governor or his biographical background because you have that in your handouts. Let me tell you why i think scott walker is a terrific leader and why im pleased to have him open this series of talks today. About six years ago, i was at a forum and scott walker was a countingcounting executive. I think it was in sun valley. And he was there as a competitor for the nomination for governor of wisconsin. He was county executive of milwaukee county. I asked to get some information about scott walker and somebody gave me some background on him and i learned that as county executive he had been elected twice. Or three times . Twice . One special, two regulars yes. In milwaukee county. Now milwaukee county, being the county executive of milwaukee is a big deal. Its a big county, the city and the whole environs of it. Hed cut taxes, hed improved education. He was elected by a 20point margin in a very, very blue county. And then we looked at the results from the 2008 election. Barack obama won that election. Scott walker won his election by 20 points. I thought this guy must have had some kind of magic. I really hope he gets the nomination and goes to the new stage. If he does itle be a whole different ballgame if he troy tries to could this to this in the whole state. Not only did he get elected, but he did exactly what he said he would do. Now, look, im a businessman. I admire people who are looking you in the eye and say this is what im going do and then they go out and do it to the letter. And they have the ability not only to talk about it but to get it done and to execute on that. He paid a big price on that. He had to run again in 2012. Where he won again. So i guess what impressed me most about this governor is he says what hes going to do. Follows through and gets it done. He has the courage to withstand the pressures that come against him, and as a westpointer and former green beret, i want to use this analogy, i want somebody as my leader in my Political Office as someone that i want in a fox hole in a firefight. I cant think of anybody id rather be in that foxhole with in a firefight or in distress than Governor Scott walker. Scott. Well, thanks, fred and thank you. That is a high compliment coming from somebody from westpoint with your military experience and leadership experience in some ways. Weve been friends for some time. I think i mentioned 10, 12, and 14. I appreciate assistance. Not only for me, susanna martinez, john kasich and leaders at the state level how many of these leaders wouldnt be in their place, myself included without your leadership and we appreciate that. And doug, thank you. Not only your leadership here but in the past when i was involved and still am now involved with the National Governors association. You appear with us and share information with us. We appreciate your leadership here as well. Appreciate the opportunity to share in this in this first of the series of which im sure there will be many other great speakers to come. Today is kind of interesting. I came in late last night. And ive got to tell you, i love before i left particularly at night because now the announcement has been coming from the north and the reagan, its beautiful at night seeing the National Cathedral and coming along the potomac and seeing the Kennedy Center and seeing that, looking down the mall and seeing the lincoln and the washington and the Jefferson Memorial that theres Something Wonderful about coming in to our Nations Capital. Over the years ive never lost that looking at the great monuments and tnkinhiabout the great leaders. But ive got to tell you as much as i love coming here i love coming home even more. Not just because i love wisconsin but because in many ways i think with the respect that many of the people here are trying to change that that for a lot of folks here in our Nations Capital in washington it is kind of a a dump. I like to call it 68 square miles surrounded by reality. And in many ways theres a big difference between washington and the rest of the country. And so today part of what i want to talk about that is that contrast not just between wisconsin and washington but the rest of america. What ive seen here in the last few years under this administration its a top down government knows best. Its a tired policy that will not work in the future. What i see in the states and from the people outside of washington is theyre ready for something new, something fresh Something Dynamic that instead of the top down government knows best we he want something that is built up from big bold ideas not only from states but prosecutorial discretion communities across the country. Of its what we talked about our american revival. Our next step in making the case that we to transform america need to really transform power power from our Nations Capital here in washington. Back in states and the cities of this country where the people, where the hard working people of this country can actually hold their government accountable at the state and local level much more so than the can in washington. I think people want it a more efficient, a more Accountable Government and they will get that from the states and ultimately to the people. And so in wisconsin were a great example. We took on the big special interests. You think about it, four years ago about this point, you saw many of the leaders of the aflcio, the n. E. A. Came to our state to try to intimidate us to do what they wanted wanted to have done here in washington, not what the people in wisconsin have elected us to do and we won. Part of the reason why we were the upset was the number one target in america in terms of the reelect from many of the same organizations was because they were upset because we took the government away from the special interest here in washington and elsewhere around the country and we put that power firmly in the hands of the Hardworking Taxpayers. And i believe even in wisconsin who hasnt gone republican in more than 30 years since 1984 thats a state that we won not once, not twice but three times in the last four years. In a state where we face tremendous challenges an money run against us but face some of those same challenges this last fall in the reelection for governor and we were able to win not only on elections but on policy. I assume were going to take some questions as part of doug and fred joining me here on the panel. Well talk in greater detail about some of these, but weve seen tremendous turnaround when it comes to the economy, our financial situation, in terms of the stability and health care and other areas as well. But i want to tell you two quick stories about two areas that i think reflect the difference between washington and not only wisconsin but the states. One involved a young woman named megan. Now megan more than four years ago actually at the beginning of 2010, so about five years ago now, Megan Sampson was a brandnew teacher in the Public School system. In milwaukee. She was one of those Great Teachers that we would want in any School District across the country certainly in our state but she was in milwaukee like my urban School Systems across america. Has been continuously challenged. So megan found out early on in 2010 that she was named the outstanding teacher of the year in the state of wisconsin for english teachers. So she was one of those top teachers. Really distinguished daughter out there. She found out about that, not long after that she found out that shed been laid off. Shes been laid off. This is because under my predecessor even with democrats in charge of wisconsin, theyve cut money on schools but they got no tools to react to that. What do they do in milwaukee like many other School Districts across the state arguably around the country when they were faced with touch economic choices how did they do that . Theyed a muensterredthey administered them under the old Union Contract that said the last hired is the first out. And so Megan Sampson the outstanding teacher of the year for the state of wisconsin was one of the first to be laid off because she was one of the last to be hired in that School District. Our reforms that came about that got the nations attention of the protest that came because of that early stages. Our reform changed that broken system. Today its not just about balancing budget, it empowers schools to hire and fire based on merit and pay based on performance and put the brightest and best in their classrooms and have an impact on that. Weve seen great success. For the last four years graduations rates have been up the people we elect at the local level are now the people in charge. To me thats a prime example of where you take the power away from the Big Government special interest in this case those driven be many here in washington and you put it in the hand of the Hardworking Taxpayers and the people they elect at the local level. You can actually hold them accountable to be more efficient and responsive to the needs and expectations of the hard working taxpayer. The other story is about a woman named elizabeth. About this time about three or four years ago, we were looking at making a change in wisconsin. Most across the country, even today do not require recipients for things like food stamps to be signed up for employability. I decided looking at this and talking with poem across the state we wanted to make that a priority. We believed there were Jobs Available and even more over the last few years and if we were going to provide assistance, particularly to adults without children, even though we will help you when times are tough, our expectation is this safety net that you bounce out of, not a hammock that you stay in. We proposed requirements that we now enacted on that would require food stamp recipients in our state, particularly for adults without children to be enrolled in part of the employability training. We started with a pilot and expanded across the rest of the state. But early on when i wanted to make this proposal as you might imagine i gave an address in front of the join session of the legislature. You asked people to sit up in the balcony and introducing people to the ideas that you have. I heard from the folks that work in health and Human Services of the state about this woman elizabeth. Elizabeth to her credit before requirement for public assistance, elizabeth on her own had been in tough times. She knew she didnt want to be that way forever. So she voluntarily participated in one of our employability programs early on before we made it a requirement. And her story is such a great story because she not only completed that, she did so well that they plugged her in to the local Technical College where she got trained as a certified nursing assistant. I thought in my address to talk about this and other policy initiatives i thought who better than to put elizabeth up right down from where my wife sat and introduce her as a part of my speech but i couldnt do it. I couldnt do it. Elizabeth was working that day as a certified nursing i siftant and she liked her job so much she was going back to school as a registered nurse. We look at reforms like those that we propose and say people like the governor are trying to make it harder to get government assistance. No, im not. Im trying to make it easier to get a job and elizabeths story is one we are trying to empower to. We need to empower state and low cal powers to put Innovative Solutions that help people meet their potential. Growing up as a kid, i grew up in a small town where my dad was a pastor and my mom woked part time as a secretary and helped raise my brother and i. I learned early the value of hard work. I was a dishwasher at the country side restaurant, i worked flipping hamburgers in high school to save for college. I learned the value of hard work. One of the things that is missing today is not like what i experienced is that early on in my life we realize that you if you work hard and play by the rules in america that the opportunity should be open to all of us but the outcome should still be up to each of us individually. There are some who believe those rules dont apply anymore. That just having hard work and determination arent enough because the odds are stacked against them. Much of that is because things that we see driven here in washington, the powers here in washington have taken away from some of those incentives and wed be better suited if we put that power and that structure in many cases transfer the power back to the states and back to local governments where the people in those communities, the people in those states can ultimately hold their government accountable. There are plenty of other examples and again in discussions we can talk about that in greater detail. But im reminded by one of my favorite sayings from president reagan. There are many great statements that are often quoted but one of mine is that one of president reagans initial inaugural address he said that we should all remember that the federal government did not create the is states, the states created the federal government. Now more than ever that is important. I look and many ways i think the president we currently have in the white house almost has a completely opposite view. When i heard the state of the Union Address, he sounded like a president who wanted to grow the economy in washington. The rest of us wasnt want to grow the economy in cities and towns throughout the nation. Think of the disconnect. Of six of the 10 richest counties in america according to Median Income are right here in the washington, d. C. Market. Six of the top 10. To me that suggests theres a disconnect between those who want to grow government in washington and those who want to grow in cities and towns and villages all across the great country. Thats where our american revival talked about transferring the power out from washington out to the states ought out to the individuals where they can hold their government accountable in a way that i think sets the standard for the future. I will end with the last summary and then i think we will move the podium and bring some chairs up. Years ago i had a chance in september 2011 not long before i was first in office and some the big changes that we proposed an made in wisconsin. I had a chance to go to a conference in philadelphia. That might not sound like a big deal. But to me it was because as a kid you loved history. I loved reading about our founders. I will a little geeky. I almost thought of the founders like superheros, bugger than life. I loved reading about them. The first time i came to the Nations Capital was because the americanamerican legion had a program called boys state. The only thing i have in common with bill clinton. He with went in 1963, i went in 1965. You can see a little bit of those differences are there. That was a huge difference that was a huge impact but i never made it to philadelphia in the fall of 2011 i was going to participate with other governors the a conference and because i loved history and still do today so much i got up early and went over with the park rangers to see the liberty bell and to go into Independence Hall. Mind you, for someone who thought of the founders of the country as bigger than lie going to Independence Hall is like going totaling ofgoing to the league of nations. Its like super heroes. This is where they were at. I got up early in the morning. Went into Independence Hall. Looked around in awe. And in a room not much bigger than the one were in now. Looked at the chairs, desk, and the room and it dawned on me these were ordinary people ordinary people who did something quite extraordinary. They didnt just risk their political careers. They didnt just risk their business ventures. These were ordinary people who risked their lives for the freedoms we hold dear today. Moments like that really put in place for me why americas so exceptional. Why this is arguably the greatest country in the history of the world. It is because of people like those who sat in that room. Ordinary people who did those extraordinary things and realized that in moments of crisis, crisis in our nations history not just then but throughout time up until now what has made this country so exceptional has been in those times where economic orifice cal or military or spiritual what has made America Great there have been men and women of courage who are willing to stand up and think more about the future of their children and their grandchildren than they thought of their own political futures. To me this is one of those times where we can stand up and say the way to move to this country is not to go back in time. Those were pretty good ideas back then. I think theyre planned for a road map Going Forward than if we go back to those founding principles that say the power is best vested not in the federal government but in the states and more uponly in the hands of the people, that is a road map for us Going Forward whether it is on healthcare or education or transportation or some area, the best way we mob move this cupry is by transferring tampa bay country is by transferring pouty fresh washington out to the hard working people of this country. With that, i think we will move forward and mix adjustments and take make adjustments and take some questions. Thank you. [applause] now a coin toss who gets the first question. You are smarter than me so you ask the first question. Already i want to pick up on what you said about economic success. When you were elected governor wisconsin was ranked as the 41st best state to do business in. Its now 17. How . Well, a combination of things. I think theres really two categories in government being that the state, local and federal but most decisions are in the state and local level but a couple of things. Two parallel silos. One of the guest things the government can do it get out of the way. We lowered property taxes. My budget comes out neck week and they will be even lower than when you started. Those things have an impact. Putting money back in the hands of the people as consumers and Small Businesses as employ ares by also reining in spending. We reigned in on out of control lawsuits but in many areas its about getting government out of the way stopping the barriers, make making it easier for folks to start from the ground up to do it quickly and effectively. The other thing is theres an appropriate role for to become a better partner. We have done more to work with career and technical education. Im really good at reigning and spending i spent more in our Technical Colleges and some of our apprenticeship and colleges because i heard from colleges and manufacturing and i. T. There was a tremendous need not just to fill spots that were open but if we could show that we could fill spots consistently they would actually add more work. Weve seen great progress and im glad to say just this past week unemployment numbers one down last week. We look back five years ago and the Unemployment Rate was 9. 2 . The other interesting thing is you know the federal government updates from the previous month. In november, we had 18,000 private sector jobs created. The best month we had in the private sector in 25 years and the best yearoveryear numbers we had through november of 2013 to november of 2014 suns the 2014 since the late 1990s. And it is working. Theres more to be done. And if the government would free up even more sources. I think we could really build off of that. Basically a lot of those jobs you took from my home state of illinois. Southeastern wisconsin, kenosha county, halfway between chicago and milwaukee has had about i believe in the lat cup of years there was a story in one of our business jumps ha showed in a 2. 5 year period almost 4,000 new jobs. Many were organic but many were coming north. Bruce rauner will put a little stop to that because im hoping that he will to a good job as the governor of illinois. Clearly one of the areas where you could see the push of businesses not just because of the tax and Business Climate but just because of stability. Already you took a hybrid approach to obama care in your state and could you explain why you did this and how it is working . Yeah, this is a good example of my overall government if you give people power at the state and local level, we have democracy i think that people thought for many years throughout our history and were showing it more in our state level now. I didnt accept the false choices that washington chooses to give you either not taking the expansion of medicaid which we dont or putting your tax buzzes at risk. My predecessor expanded the eligibility for medicaid healthcare for those in need to twice the rate of possiblerty. Said medicaid isnt just for people in poverty but people at twice the level of poverty in the state, particularly those adults without children. And then as unfortunately is often done with policies like this he didnt put enough money into it. So there was a waiting list literally for People Living in poverty who were on a waiting list to get assistance and access to this. Because of the Supreme Court the other part i like but the part of the ruling on the Affordable Care act the state can control their destinies when it comes to medicaid. We were actually in a great position because what it allowed us to do is to say we restored medicaid to what it was intended to be, that is providing access for People Living in poverty and for all those living above that we transition into the marketplace. That means theres no waiting list in our state. And the Kaiser Family foundation, which doesnt have an angle said we did not take the Medicaid Expansion that has no insurance gaps so we tried to find common sense conservative reforms that could work. And thats a good example. Put more power in the state and more states would be able to do that. How is it negotiating that with c. M. S. As a republican governor . You are one of the few who actually did go in and offer an alternative. Im not a lawyer and all due respect to the lawyers in the room, i dont typically kay kaw for lawyers much typically care for lawyers much. Told them that we could do it. What they were trying to do is try to force the states to do that. Just on principle, i asked fellow governors this, why is putting more people on medicaid a good thing . I want to help legislative people out of that. Not because we want to push them out into the streets but because we want to empower people to control her own lives and decemberdestinies and this empowered us to do this. But in the case of the federal government, h. H. S. When we first announced this i think within minutes if i remember right literally came out and said you cant do this. I think it was a story in a publication on the hill and we pushed back and had our attorneys point out that yes, we could do that. And one 15 minutes to a half hour they changed the story because they realized legally we could. It wasnt because of a whole lot of assistance to provide flexibility. Back to something you mention which is the importance of education and training initiatives in wisconsin and the food stamps to educational training work place training. Where else would you like to do wed like to go the whole spectrum. We would like to go for trainability. You dont want to penalize those without kids. The other thing i just introduced in my budget next tuesday is adding to that not just for food stamps where meet federal approval and long what we can do is the drug testing. To me as i traveled my state and i hear increasingly when i tell the story around the country, i hear employers Small Business owner who is say we have jobs. My state alone yesterday they were more than 70,000 jobs on our voluntary website that were open on in the state of wisconsin. Its great if you put money in the Technical Colleges. We need two things. We need people who know how to work. And im not talk about a skilled trade im talking about people who know how to show up every day for work five days a week. As a kid i worked in the country side restaurant flipping burgers in the town. Many of us learn that way. Unfortunately not everybody has those basic employability skills. But the other part is in transportation. Employers will say give me somebody who can get up to work, pass a drug test. We want those reforms. This is a classic example where the federal government, h. S. S. Tend to push back on the states and say you cant do that. We need to open that up for innovation across measure. America. My partner here doug and the parties in a different kind of area, you command the National Guard. You have the same security concerns and same fears im sure in your state and off as all of us do. I wonder if you might want to comment on how you do you feel about the threat posed by isis and other enemies abroad and how that impacts your state and what any thoughts you have on i . Thats a great question. The interesting thing you have as a governor not only do i and other governors as commanders in chief of our National Guard at the state level which is a distinct honor and privilege but the head of the National Guard is actually my chief Homeland Security officer. In a fairly frequent basis give me an other governors things to do on a frequent basis, Security Threats assessments. We go to get classified information about threats not only in our state but typically with our region across the country. Without violating the terms of those specifically, i have to tell you for my children and others like them i see in an ongoing basis legitimate concerns about the National Security state by state and its one of the reasons why i said repeatedly one of the most important things we need out o our leaders is leadership. A Firm Leadership that shows our allies were willing to stand with them and shows our adversaries that we take their threats seriously. Its not a matter of if, its not another attempted threat its a matter of when. I want to make sure we take that threat to them and not wait for us. If i was in that position to the demand that i do everything in my power to make sure families in this country going to sleep safe at night knowing that theyre safe at night. Thats a question of priority. You balance the budget. Came in, deposited twice into your Rainyday Fund for wisconsin. Where do you see your budget . And where do you see the misplacement . Routinely in government here theres this false choice between either you have to raise taxes or you to dramatically cut service. Youre talking about being a businessman. Young or ole, businessman, businesswoman, where in business can you find someone successful that says times are tough, im either going to double the price or im going to cut the quality in half . Nobody does that, right . In the world outside of government nobody does that. They figure out a way to balance cost and quality so they find a way to be more efficient to deliver a high quality product at a reasonable cost out there. Yet in government that is the false choice we are given. We said we will not take that false choice. We enacted big reforms and peeled back collective bargaining and empowered not only the State Government but all of the local governments. I knew if we were freed of the Big Government Union Contracts not only get more in pension and healthcare contributions, do things like bid out the health insurance, which School Districts did. Stop overtime abuse. Empower innovation at the local level. We took a 3. 6 billion budget deficit and turned it into a surplus and balanced the budget each of the years i have been in office, and we will do it again this time around and the budget tuesday will finish off what balanced budget that is financially sound as well. And along the way our Rainy Day Fund is 165 times bigger than when we took office. The pension and retirement system the only one fully funded in the country, and we made the tough decisions and our state is that much better off because of it. In washington, a matter of setting priorities. Part is for me whether it is the local government, fire and police or here in the federal government has got to be protection. Safety and security of the american citizens and of those freedom loving people around the world who love the values. You can be responsible in doing that and make responsible reasonable expectations of how to streamline the way that we provide that security through the department of defense and other mechanisms out of this. That has to be at the top of the list. And that for a good part goes back to the theme of what i mentioned. To me to tackle the challenges take money otherwise spent here or dictated here and send it back to the states and local governments where it is much more accountable to the regular taxpayer. Give examples. Medicaid is an issue we talked about many times before. Paul ryan talked about it in block grants. Give it back to the states. What we do in wisconsin is different than new york or california or texas or even illinois. Why not empower innovators at the local and state level to do the things that are in the best interests of their taxpayers and in the best interests of the people they are there to serve instead of the one size fits all mentality. We have something you talked about for years, we are talking about maintenance of effort. Why is it that a state or local leader cant make an innovation without federal regulation kicking in that says you cant do that unless you kick certain people off of your program. We were lucky because of the Supreme Court. I said i would rather keep the money at the state and local money. Transportation, instead of sending a dollar washington where they skim off costs and send it back to me, why not keep it local. Say when it comes to education instead of sending that money here, why not keep that dollar back in the local community so that the local school board can put that money in the classroom. So many examples out there that would help us not only balance the budget in the end, it would avoid the false choice of between balancing the budget and giving up services. Do it more effectively and more efficiently and ultimately in a way that is more accountable at the local and state level. How much time do we have left . I have two questions and i want to make sure i get to one. You get a minute each. We have about two minutes left. Here is my question really kind of off the policy area but i think it is important to me and i think it might be important to others. Four years ago you have two boys in Public High School in milwaukee. Yes. You live in a house in milwaukee. Danette is living in that house, and in the State Capitol where you are you were being invaded by the colleagues of the teachers and others who are responsible for your kids in school and thousands of others and it was on the national news. And six weeks before that you were a county executive and nobody in the country knew anything about you. All of a sudden there it is. You are in there in your office and people are coming in in droves and protests. Your kids are in Public School. How did you cope with that . How was that . How did you maintain your resolve . Family and faith played a big part in it. My faith had a big impact in terms of feeling called to run for governor and for the right reasons. You mentioned my boys, part of the reason why we got in the race early on, knowing it would be difficult, never dreaming it would be that difficult after the election, but just knowing the election itself would be difficult is because we were worried back then. We had a 3. 6 billion budget deficit, record job loss, double digit tax increases. We could see our state was headed in the wrong direction. We were worried that our sons were going to grow up in a state that wasnt as great as the one we grew up in. This is why we got in the race. As a family we thought about it and prayed about it. Our faith and family and our circle of friends helped keep us focused, and in the height of this when we had the Death Threats not just against me but the threats against my family, when we had the protests not just at the capitol or the governors residence but our home outside of milwaukee, our family home, we were able to sustain that because we knew we were doing the right thing. I kept saying over and over again we need to think more about the next generation than we do about the next election. Because of that, we not only won that battle, i think arguably the people of my state, a blue state, purple at best, ultimately saw not once but twice in times of crisis what people want more than anything is leadership. We followed through on the leadership but it wasnt easy and it is part of the reason why we have been able to take on additional reforms because we have been tested and we are able to handle them. You get the final question. No, it is your turn. All yours. We covered almost everything except energy. And we have got some wonderful wonderful environmental pluses in the state. Beautiful lakes in madison and the forests you have and the great lakes. And yet you have policies coming out of washington that might be productive use of energy and resources. Just interested to hear your thoughts on the environment and energy and how you are handling some of these things coming out of washington . Both on energy and resource interesting, we have, as you alluded to, the only state in the union surrounded by two great lakes and the greatest river in the country. Filled with 15,000 inland lakes. 5,000 more than minnesota, by the way, and all of ours have fish in them. A great place to be in and tremendous Natural Resources from one end of the state to other. Demographically and geographically very much a microcosm of america and we found a way to be environmentally and economically sustainable. I often said the best way to be green is to make green or save green. If i can help find a way for people and employers to make money or to save money while being environmentally sound, that is the best way to be green is make sustainable, economically and environmentally. Wisconsin has been a leader in many ways in that regard, but we are also very much challenged. Challenged by what is being proposed here in washington just like many other states across the country, particularly in the industrial midwest because of the ideas and rules proposed out of the federal government stand to see massive job loss and significant rate increases for our hard working people. And so, this is one where one of my problems with this administration, amongst others is they seem to think it is an either or proposition. Either be environmentally sound or economically sound. I think it is one of those false choices. You can do both. That means having an all of the above energy policy. It means embracing the resources we have not only here in america, but here in north america. Our allies are ready and willing, whether with the keystone or looking with industrial stand like in our state and the wide open shale deposits we have. I think it is also a National Security issue when you look at prominence of people like putin in russia and others out there part of his strength in the world is because of his resource asset and what he is doing with that. If we were more aggressive in providing our own means and finding ways to export to other places around the world, we would diminish the impact of other parts that are a direct Security Threat to our nation and our interests. I think we need to say we want all of the above both for a stronger economy as well as for a strong sense of safety. I want to take this opportunity to thank fred for his leadership at the American Action forum, and i hope you will join me in thanking the governor for an outstanding kickoff to the lecture series named after fred. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] with the fcc focusing on Net Neutrality, we spoke with two industry executives at the Electronics Show in las vegas. We believe at the end of the day, the internet strong, unenforceable, effective rules to protect Net Neutrality to protect programmers and developers on the web. They need to be effectively enforceable. The problem we have now is where the Net Neutrality issue has gone. It has not locusts on the substance, and i think theres a lot of consensus focused on the fcc has Legal Authority and what jurisdictional theory they should use. Our concern is they are going to undo potentially a regulatory status that has been in place for over a decade. Thats tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan2. The Political Landscape has changed with the 114th congress. Not only are there 43 new republicans and 15 new democrat in the house and 108 women in congress, including the first africanamerican republican in the house and the first woman veteran in the senate. Keep track of the congress using the congressional chronicle. It has Voting Results and statistics about each session of congress. A live look at the u. S. Capital where both the house and senate are in session today. Earlier the president must federal budget request a nearly 4 trillion proposal. He can read it online at he spent. Org. Here is the president announcing his budget to the Homeland Security department. This is about 15 minutes. [applause] thank you. Please have a seat. Good morning everybody. It is good to be here at the department of Homeland Security. Let me thank jeh johnson not only for the outstanding job he is doing as secretary of dhs but [inaudible] give him a round of applause. [applause] this is a great way to start the week because i get to do something i dont get to do often, which is to say thank you. Nobody works harder to keep america safe than the people gathered here today. You dont get a lot of attention for it. Thats the nature of the job. But i know how vital you are and i want to make sure more americans know how vital you are. Because against just about every threat we face from terrorist networks to microscopic viruses to Cyber Attacks to weather disasters, you guys are there. You protect us from threats at home and abroad by air and land and sea. You safeguard our ports, you patrol our borders, you inspect our chemical plants, screen travelers for ebola, shield our computer networks, help hunt down criminals from around the world. You have a busy agenda, a full plate. Here at home, you are ready to respond to any emergency at a moments notice. It is simply extraordinary how much the department of Homeland Security does every single day to keep our nation, our people safe. It is a critical job and you get it done without a lot of fanfare. I want to make sure you have what you need to keep getting the job done. Every american has an interest in making sure the department of Homeland Security has what it needs to achieve its mission because we are relying on that Mission Every single day. Today, im sending congress a budget that will make sure youve got what you need to achieve your mission. It gives you the resources you need to carry out your mission in a way that is mark, strategic , and makes the most of every dollar. Its also a broader blueprint for american success in this new global economy. After a breakthrough year for america, at a time when our economy is growing and our businesses are creating jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s and wages are starting to rise again, weve got some fundamental choices to make about the kind of country we want to be. Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well or will we build an economy where everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead . That was the focus of my state of the Union Address when i called for middle class economics. The fact that this country does best when everybody gets a fair shot and is doing their fair share. And everybody plays i the same set of rules. The Budget Congress now has in its hands is built on those values. It helps working family paychecks go further by treating things like paid sick leave and childcare as the economic priorities that they are. It gives americans of every age the chance to upgrade their to make two years of Community College free for responsible students. It lets us keep building the worlds most attractive economy for highways jobs with new investments and resources and infrastructure and manufacturing. As well as expanded access to faster internet, and new markets for goods made in america. Its also a budget the recognize that our economy flourishes when america is safe and secure. So it invests in our i. T. Networks. To protect them from malicious actors. It supports our troops and strengthens our border security. And it gives us the resources to confront global challenges from isil to russian aggression. Now, since i took office we have cut our deficits by about twothirds. Im going to repeat that, as i always do when i mentioned this fact because the public often times if you ask them think that the deficit has shot up. Since i took office we have cut our deficits by about twothirds. Thats the fastest period of sustained deficit reduction cents after the demobilization at the end of world war ii. So we can afford to make these investments while remaining fiscally responsible. And, in fact, we cannot afford we would be making a critical error if we avoided making these investments. We cant afford not to. When the economy is doing well we are making investments when we were growing. Thats part of what keeps deficits and low because the economy is doing well. Weve got to be smart about how we pay for our priorities, and thats what my budget does. At the end of 2013 i find that you i signed a bipartisan budget that helps us in some of the arbitrary cuts known in washington speak as sequestration. And folks here at dhs know a little too much about sequestration. Because many of you had to do with those cuts and the uncertainty around them. It made it a lot harder for you to do your job. The 2013 agreements will reverse some of those cuts, help boost our economic growth, part of the reason why we grew faster last you was we were no longer being burdened by mindless acrosstheboard cuts. We are being more strategic about how we handled our federal budget. And now we need to take the next step. So my budget will end sequestration and full of reverse the cuts to the priorities in 2016. And it will match the investments that were made domestically dollar for dollar with increases in our defense funding. Just last week top military officials told congress that if congress does nothing to stop sequestration that could be stress consequences for our National Security. At a time when our military is stretched on a whole range of issues. Thats why i want to work with congress to replace mindless austerity with Smart Investments to strengthen america, and we can do so in a way that is fiscally responsible. Im not going to accept a budget that locks in sequestration Going Forward. It would be bad for our security, and bad for our growth. I will not accept a budget that severs the vital links link between our National Security and our Economic Security. There are some on capitol hill they would say, well, we would be willing to increase defense spending but we are not going to increase investments in infrastructure, for example. Or basic research. Well, those two things go hand in hand. If we dont have a vital infrastructure, if we dont have broadband lines across the country come if we dont have a smart grid, all that makes us more vulnerable. America cant afford being shortsighted, and im not going to lie. The budget i send to Congress Today is fully paid for through a combination of smart spending cuts and tax reforms. Let me give you an example. Right now our tax code is full of loopholes for special interests like the trust Fund Loophole that allows the wealthiest americans to avoid paying taxes on their unearned income. I think we should fix that and use the savings to cut taxes for middleclass families. That would be good for our economy. Disagreed with my approach, and ive said this before. If they have other ideas for how we can keep america safe, grow our economy, while helping middleclass families feel some sense of Economic Security, i welcome their ideas. But their numbers have to add up. And what we cant do is play politics with folks Economic Security our with our National Security. You better than anybody know what the stakes are. The work you do hangs in the balance. Just a few weeks from now funding for Homeland Security will run out. Thats not because of any this department did. Its because the republicans in congress who funded everything in government through september, except for this department. And they are now threatening to let Homeland Security funding expired because of their disagreement with my actions to make our immigration system smarter, fairer, and safe. Now, its be clear. I think we can have a reasonable debate about immigration. Im confident that what we are doing is the right thing, and the lawful thing to understand they may have some disagreements with me on that, although i should note that a large majority, a large percentage of republicans agree that we need comprehensive Immigration Reform, and we are prepared to act in the senate, and should act in the house. But if they dont agree with me, thats fine, ma thats how our democracy works. You may have noticed they usually dont agree with me. But dont jeopardize our National Security over this disagreement. As one republican put it, if you let your funding run out, its not the end of the world. Thats what they said. Well, i guess literally thats true, it may not be the end of the world, but until they passed a funding bill, it is the end of the paycheck for tens of thousands of frontline workers who will continue to get, to have to work without getting paid, over 40,000 Border Patrol and customs agents, over 50,000 airport screeners, over 13,000 immigration officers, over 40,000 men and women in the coast guard. These americans are just working to keep us safe. They have to take care of their own families. The notion that they would get caught up in a disagreement around policy that has nothing to do with them makes no sense. And if republicans let Homeland Security funding expire, its the end to any new initiatives in the event that a new threat emerges. The end of grants, two states and cities that approved local Law Enforcement and keep our communities safe. The men and women of americas Homeland Security apparatus did important work to protect us and republicans and democrats in congress should not be playing politics with that. We need to fund the department pure and simple. Weve got to put politics aside pass a budget that funds our National Study parties at home and abroad and gives middleclass families the security they need to get ahead in the new economy. This is one of our most basic and most important responsibilities as a government. So i am calling on congress to get this done. Everyday we count on people like you to keep america secure, you are counting on us as well to uphold our end of the bargain. You are counting on us to make sure youve got the resources to your job safely and efficiently. And that you are able to look after your families while youre out there working really hard to keep us safe. We ask a lot of you. The least we can do is have your backs its im going to keep on doing it for as long as have the honor of serving as your president. I have your back and im going to keep on fighting to make sure that you get the resources you deserve. Im going to keep fighting to make sure that every american has the chance not just to share in americas success but to contribute to americas success. Thats what this budget is about. It reflects our values, making sure that were making investments we need to keep america safe, to keep america growing, to make sure that everybody is participating know matter what they look like where they come from, no matter how they started in life. Theyve got a chance to get hit in this great country of ours. Thats what i believe, thats what you believe. Lets get it done. Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of america. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] president obamas Budget Proposal totals nearly four dollars trillion. You can read the entire proposal at cspan. Org. To let us know what you think come to our Facebook Page facebook. Com cspan, where we can hear your thoughts or you can tweet us. Here is what some of you have been writing. We welcome your thoughts and reactions from throughout the day. Thom tillis, newly elected North Carolina republican senator, spoke today about his goals, his congressional agenda for the first term, and what he has learned from working in State Government. His comments are about 45 minutes. Good morning, everyone. I guess it is afternoon now. Welcome to the Bipartisan Policy Center. I am the Senior Vice President here at the center and it is my pleasure to welcome you all here this afternoon to kick off our new agenda setters series. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Bipartisan Policy Center, we were established in 2007 by four former majority leaders of the United States senate, senator bob role the late howard baker senator tom daschle and senator george mitchell. On a personal note i had the pleasure and honor of working with all of those men in my career in the United States senate as a staffer. We are launching this series today at the beginning of the 114th congress. Our goal is to explore timely compelling, and impactful issues in policymaking and politics throughout 2015. Each event will highlight policymakers in decision it in decisionmaking roles including today those who may have only recently been placed in that role, thinking and innovative manner about how to challenge the country and solve those issues. We are pleased to have senator thom tillis with us for this inaugural event. You have his bio, alexa in november he is the junior senator from North Carolina. He is being joined by my boss the president of the bipartisan center, so please join me in welcoming him to the in this discussion. Jason . Thank you very much, build. Welcome, all, to the beginning of our Agenda Setting series. Could not be happier to start the series with you, senator. I am confident that you will be one of the most influential new members of the class of 2014. I think we have the opportunity today to talk a little bit about your policy and some of the ideas and commitments that you bring to this work. There has been a lot of discussion about the opportunities and challenges of opportunity in this country. I think there is no one i am aware of has been elected this last cycle really embodies the possibility of this country more than you. I am sure that most people know this, but the senator graduated from high school and immediately went to work in a warehouse as a records clerk to begin to earn the resources to get a College Education and put himself through college. While he was doing that he worked at a number of esteemed institutions. He was his own executive at Price Waterhouse cooper and ibm. It was a spirit of hard work creating opportunity in this country, something to even speak about interior and not just an experience. The his Public Service career started out in a similar path at the pta. Eight years ago. [laughter] flex then he joined the North Carolina board of commissioners. 2000 six, house of representatives and the state of North Carolina was chosen by his colleagues to be the speaker of the house and serve there from 2011 to 2014. So there is a passion and ambition for Public Service that i think the country greatly needs. We welcome you, sir. I want to spend about 20 minutes asking some questions and then we will turn it over to the audience and i think i would like to get started with an issue that you spoke about quite a bit in your campaign, which is what you hoped to get into. That there is an obstruction in washington that is getting in the way of a lot of public interests. You were a management consultant, how would you turn this place around . I guess the thing i can look act two is the thing i have done as speaker of the house when i came in as a freshman. Iran against the twoterm republican incumbent in 2006 who was the award get her of all of the conservative organizations in the state. The fact of the matter is that he was not very effective, which is why i decided to run against him. It was not the people that got the ribbons, it was the people that got the results. I spent a lot of time in my freshman year it is nice being a relevant, great being a freshman, you can really spend time just finding your way around. That is what i am doing now. Trying to build relationships that i think will be helpful on both sides of the aisle. I mentioned to you before we started that i have spent most of my time reaching out to members of the Democratic Caucus , meeting with them oneonone. I have met with seven or eight now to speak with them. I did the Necessary Research to know where they are on policy issues and i had a great breakfast with one of the members earlier this week. I said i have read their background and history and was convinced that we would be disagreeing on 80 of the issues but that there were some things that i thought we could provide a basis for working together. We started having those kinds of conversations so that we could build those relationships and recognize upfront not mincing words when you have different objectives. I think that that is what i am trying to do now. I am trying to get back and forth to the capital without getting lost. I am doing that a lot better now, just understanding the process. Also finding ways to of my leadership, who is absolutely committed to regular order in getting the senate functioning again. If anyone doubts it, take a look at the number of votes we have had over the last month. Even among members of the minority they have had several opportunities to get out and vote. Even if they are going to be defeated they have the opportunity to put them for it. I just want to be a part of the group that is coming in that is really getting the senate to move again and getting it to function. Things will never go as quickly as i would like to go or as quickly as they did in the house. But i think we can make great progress and a lot of that is on a bipartisan basis. You made a number of points but during the one issue of the keystone pipeline, no matter what anybody thinks of the importance of that issue, you had an opportunity to participate in three times as many role call vote ss, and tell me what that means of the chemistry of the place, you are on the floor, voting, and there were harsh exchanges, but how important was that to start to build this camaraderie. I think it is enormously important. Because if you think about it and you are in the minority, if you know that you are going to have an opportunity to have things heard then you will be more likely to check your partisan tendencies into the interest of moving these things further along. So i think that the sense that im getting from the members that i met with on the other side of the aisle is they are optimistic about getting work done and they will have a meaningful role with, senator franken and senator white house and campen and i think they believe they can get more done under leader mcconnell than under senator reid over the last couple of years and i believe that to be true. And i think that serves as a basis for us moving along. There are a lot of things that we can do here if you want to make bipartisan, but you can maybe get things done. Not as much as i want to get done, but we can make progress. And touch on the issues where there is potential to build momentum, both with your colleagues across the caucus and also with the administration. I think if you go down my bias is toward Regulatory Reform. We talk about tax reform and other things we want to do but if we go back and examine some of the problems that we have with Regulatory Overreach and really expose some of these areas, whether it is epa or labor or any number of areas in a very focused way, then you can sit down and say these regulations may have made sense in a vacuum but they do not make sense in the context of how they work with businesses these days. So lets clarify regulations that we know will help businesses expand. And if we can do that and start having a more positive effect on sustainability, it makes other things that we are going to do that will have bases in our ideology, well have better chances of going there like tax reform. And if you look at sequestration, i think most people realize it was probably a bad idea. And we have to remember, we thought it wasnt going to happen. It was described designed to be a bad idea. And now it has become commonplace. I have not looked at the president s budget. I dont necessarily know if his path forward is the path forward that well embrace. But i think there are a number of people on the other side of the aisle that think we have to do a better job of budgeting and sequestration is something we get rid of and get to the task of responsible budgeting. So lets talk about committees. You are on agriculture, Armed Services. You are a aa member. One is a Strong Defense and strong commitment to National Security and another is to budget. And how do you see that playing out through Armed Services . I think it may make for an interesting mix in terms of the strategy Going Forward. I think youll see people at the extremes of the ideological spectrum be opposed to things that senator wright or center right may be on the extremes of either one of our caucuses so we have to get into the middle. We have to be realistic about numbers and that we dont have a veto override. If we have a supermajority, we would do things differently. At the end of the day, we have to look at what it takes to send things to the president s desk that can with stand a veto and also things that the American People want to see. Were looking to get 60plus votes and to do that were going to have to be very patient in our approach. And i think that we have so much pent up demand on the part of the people that voted for us excited people at home that are calling me about a thousand times a week already to try to figure out how to prioritize but we are worried more about Foreign Policy issues and worried about nuclear iran and all of those things moving at the same time and i dont yet know how they fit together and create coalitions or significant differences between the two conferences. So a tough issue on defense budget. North carolina, a very significant presence for the military and i believe there is a hearing tomorrow at Armed Services, looking at military pay and pensions. It has been said by some that our military has become a pension benefit Health Care Company that occasionally fights a war and the Current Trends are such that well have to address those personnel issues which obviously people feel very passionate about based on the great appreciation for our veterans and folks in active service. Do you see room on that . How do you see engaging that . I think you have to go back to the bigger issue of overall spending. And we had a panel of generals and one admiral last week and we were talking about sequestration and the need to repeal it. And i said i believe that we need to do that. Because in my day job as a partner of Price Waterhouse and i would never go into an organization and implement anything remotely close to sequestration to dim spending. So it was a devastating impact on our Armed Services. I said lets sequestration from the fundamental policy. Do you believe our Armed Services are operating at 100 efficiency and the answer is no. So the question becomes how do we reach a point where some of the things that we are talking about that some things are better and higher use of funds. We have to be more systematic of whether it is spending to its best and highest use. Understanding it is political decisions that are being made but i dont think that is a question being asked, whether it is acquisition or procurement form. Those are things we need to look at to create the curency to address pension issues where we see them or any other issues of government. I dont think weve done that. Weve been operating on 12month cycles for budgeting. I think we have to be sophisticated and more longterm thinking. The Bipartisan Policy Center agrees with that view. I didnt read the background either so im glad to hear that. On ag and judiciary. Do you have some ideas you hope to get into this year. I believe im the first senator from North Carolina to be on the Ag Commission since a while. And we hope to conduct research and get more productivity out of the agriculture center. And i hate to sound like a broken record but Regulatory Reform is first and foremost one of the things we need to deal with. If you go out and talk to these formers farmers they will give you a litany of nonsensical regulations that do not provide the value commensurate to the cost of the farmers and on trade. We have to get trade right and expand opportunities for agriculture and exports and because our farmers are trying to do it and some are makingheadway. People dont realize how strong it has become as an exporter of sweet potatoes. They didnt even eat them until 10 years ago. There is a 20 increase. Europe is opening up as a market. We need to figure out how to help them provide access to more markets and how to we and how do we eliminate the regulations that literally make no sense . Its not just environmental regulations, it is workplace regulations. Immigration policy sometimes comes into the mix. There are a number of areas we need to shortlist