Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20160718

Of u. S. Worker is 39. The average age of the u. S. Farm operator is 55. There are not young people going into farming and we have to ask why. We need young people to enter into the farming industry. We need farming to be economically viable for young people and to supply restaurants like me the stuff that i need because what happens at my restaurant ultimately filters out to the rest of society. If you look at this chart, im not going to go into all the details of it, but you basically have a very small triangle which represents the family farm and on the other side the large part of the triangle which represents commodity agriculture. You need both. Obviously you cant be the entire world on small family farms, but to me, this chart represents something that is out of balance. We need to figure out a way to raise up family farms. We need to make farming attractive. We need to make it sexy. We need young people to understand this is something they can do as a viable job. We need food transparency. We need, i think the biggest thing we need right now is food democracy and understanding that food is a vehicle for democracy. Its a vehicle for social justice and there are many companies, theres a Company Called hope and way for example that has and a credible job connecting the family farm to urban poor. We need to find more chefs, people in our community who have great ideas, bring them to a table and consider their ideas because its the way we are going to figure it out and solve problems for the next generations. The last thing i want to talk about is what weve done at my restaurant, and i am very focused on job development. We are 700 billiondollar industry and i want our industry to keep growing and Getting Better and we need staff and people. There is a labor shortage in the Restaurant Industry. What i have seen is that in every city i go to there is usually an urban poor neighborhood. Those neighborhoods have anywhere from 15 or 20 or 30 unemployment unemployment in these neighborhoods. Im looking at an industry that is needing labor and i look at the urban community that needs jobs. I want to try to connect them. Ive started this program where we are trying to get young adults right out of high school, kids who cant afford college and want to join the workforce. I want to bring them into our system and teach them how to be productive members of society by teaching them the Restaurant Industry and having them respect and honor what we do. So, if we continue to do that, we will be able to see more restaurants that will be able to purchase more farm product and then we will see more farmers create more farms. I think at the end of the day for me, i dont really see the necessity for more food, i see the necessity for better food. What we are trying to do is create a culture where we understand the necessity of, whether its food waste or all these issues that are sort of hitting home for the Food Industry right now, we want to see Better Things happen, not just more. Thats part of what were doing but the program that we have right now with these kids is in its infancy. Its only a year and a half old but we saw for Young Students go from being unemployable and no one would give them a job to a year and a half later they are all salaried people who work in my restaurant. The next phase of that is opening another restaurant in louisville, kentucky to run it as a Mentorship Program so they can work and become productive members of society. Thats one of the things i want to thank you very much for having me, i hope hope we can see the next generation of chefs and farmers take this to an even bigger level. Thank you very much. Shepley. Mac i think you can see that he is very much a visionary entrepreneur that has a great social conscience and is making a difference in this world. Thank you for sharing your story and your experience with us and your vision for where you want to go. Now it is my great pleasure to introduce our next two speakers. Two people i know very well. Kim reynolds serves as our Lieutenant Governor in the state of iowa first elected in 2010 and reelected in 2014. Fourteen. She works tirelessly to promote them the stem efforts have gone to one of the leaders in the country here in iowa. She cochairs the governor Stem Advisory Council for the state of iowa from the beginning when it was started in 2011. She is also chairing the development and implementation of our statewide energy plan which will continue i was leadership in the Renewable Energy front and position iowa for continued Economic Development success. Economic development and promoting i was trade are key issues for the Lieutenant Governor. Since 2011, she has helped attract more than 12 million to the state. She continues to promote iowa exports and encourage investment in our state. This fall she will lead a trade mission to uruguay and argentina. On the National Front front sheesh serves as the chair of the national Lieutenant Governors association, she is a native of charles iowa where she grew up on a farm, and she is proud of her smalltown roots. She and her husband are the proud parents of three daughters and eight grandchildren. The speaker will follow her is no stranger to iowa or iowa agriculture. Tom bill back is our nations 30th secretary of agriculture. He connects farmers with the supply chain. He also is chair of the president Obama White House role counsel and is engaged with First Lady Michelle Obama lets move initiative. Prior to his role as sec. Of agriculture he served two terms as governor of iowa, served in the iowa senate and was mayor of mount pleasant, iowa. He and his wife have two grown sons and four grandchildren. Governors, please join me and giving a a warm welcome to our next two speakers. Kim will start. Thank you. [applause] thank you and thank you governor branstad. I was telling someone when i walked in the room, you certainly know youre in the midwest and in iowa when you walk into a Conference Room and it smells like bacon. We proudly on that. I had the honor of having secretary bill vilsack serve as my mayor. We have known each other as quite some time. We go back quite a ways. Really, i think its impossible to underestimate the importance of the ag and Food Production across our nation and including iowa. Chef lee just highlighted the Economic Impact that restaurants and culinary artists play in communities all across the nation. I loved your story in your journey and especially that all great food comes from the farm and you cant do your job without small farms. It really is a food tourism that were trying to build across the nation. I appreciate that and the governor indicated right down the street is the des moines Farmers Market. Its a great example of a Farmers Market that has grown since the inception not that long ago. What i thought i would do this mornings build on governor branstads comments on how agriculture, Food Production and the biosciences really shaped the iowa economy and how the focus on education and training needed to grow that Human Capital pipeline to ensure that we have the talent to do what we need to do to feed a growing world population, and really to solve the Public Policy challenges that we face. Now more than ever, its vital that our students and teachers are trained to meet the demands of a fastchanging world, and as we see Technology Continue to improve and our populations grow, we must focus on education and training that really will give us the tools we need to solve the problems and the challenges that we face. We know, and all of you know that highquality Science Technology and math education, or stem, is of vital importance. A major component of honing precision agriculture so we can better utilize the resources like fertilizer and chemicals, stem will help us advance farming and what we have seen in iowa is because of that technology and we are seeing a lot of our young people move back to the farm and the small communities across the state. It helps us develop the hybrids and the yields and especially help us address a very important issue of water quality. I am really proud to say that iowa is a National Leader when it comes to Stem Education and that really is because of the vision and commitment of governor branstad and 47 iowans and members of the Advisory Council. It is a tremendous bipartisan effort. I cant think the legislature enough for their support. They have actually appropriated significant funds every year to allow us to do what weve been able to do by getting programs in the hands of students across the state. We have broken the state into six regions and we have dynamic regional managers that have been champions as well as Advisory Boards in each one of those regions. The educators have embraced the opportunity to participate and utilize the high scale, high quality stem program that we have. Businesses and nonprofit leaders have been instrumental from the very beginning. They sat on the executive board and are on the Advisory Board in the regions across the state. It really has brought business and academia together. We found they were operating in silos and we want business and industry sharing with us what their expectations are and what they want their workforce to look like we have a dynamic executive director that lives and breathes them and he does it 24 7 and doesnt 365 days a year. We are seeing exciting initiatives make a difference but probably the single biggest focus that we have is the high quality Stem Education program. These are programs that have to apply through an rfp process to be selected. Weve had from 9 14 different programs and afterschool programs where teachers and educators across the state can apply to utilize the program, and really the goal of the Advisory Council is and was and continues to be to increase Student Interest and achievement in stem and make sure no matter where they live in the state they have access to these Great Programs, all the while tying it to Economic Development. We had Great Programs happening but it was in pockets. I wanted to make sure kids in southwest iowa had the same opportunity as the kids in the larger districts. Its been fun to see it grow in the enthusiasm, just excitement to participate. Theres a lot of organic growth that has happened with the exposure. We started with 40,000 kids having the opportunity to participate in the program and last school year we were able to reach, that were counting, that we were able to account for, 100,000 students. We are seeing great growth and im really proud of that. We are not point a pointed stop. We will keep expanding across the state. Those Education Programs range from preschool to engineering opportunities in k12. We look to keep it fresh and we just implemented what we refer to as the council stem best program and that stands for business engaging students and teachers. That really is creating new school to Business Partnership that, as we talk about industry playing a very Important Role in this, it really it really is engaging students in realworld learning experiences in stem. Two years ago, i also had the opportunity at a National Level to join Dupont Pioneer president in promoting them nationally. It really was an opportunity to talk about all of the opportunities that are available in agriculture. Food processing, biosciences so we can talk about how to engage the youth so they understand the opportunities available and how critical that is to us meeting our obligation of feeding a growing world population, and then then how do we communicate that better . How do we grab them and get them excited about being part of the industry . We have seen results so its all about accountability and measuring to make sure we are doing the right things and we have seen the Stem Initiative and those high quality stem programs are providing results. Students that have participated in the program, we have seen theres scores increase six Percentage Points in math and science. An unexpected increase that we didnt expect was that we saw five percentage point increase in reading so that is compared to their peers that do not have the opportunity to participate and weve measured that through standard test. Providing more equitable access to great Stem Education, opportunity is critical to increasing Student Interest and achievement. Im very pleased to report that the share of minority students participating in the stem program mirrors the share of minority students that are involved in the total enrollment. That has always been one of the number one priorities which is increasing the under representative and underserved in the Stem Initiative. We are working diligently to make that happen. Another metric we have worked hard to fill is that we are in almost every Single School district in the state. We have some exposure in every district and now we are waking on ways to scale that so children have an opportunity in preschool, kindergarten, first, second, third so its not hit and miss. Nationwide state leaders are moving Stem Education to the forefront, and just last month, for example, governor hutchinson announced a new program to increase access and interest in Computer Science and stem careers. He was highlighted in a panel for the great work that he has done. With a focus on aligning the States Education and Career Training system workforce needs, another great example is governor ansley ensley. He established a multi sector Stem Education alliance. Great things are happening in washington. Population growth and rising income in developing nations, pressure of productive agriculture and demand for the quantity and quality of food in that agriculture and Bio Technology industry requires the best problem solvers to help us address those issues. Thats why governor branstad and i are proud that we selected another program, and hopefully you will get a chance to witness that, but its the curriculum for Agriculture Science Education that we refer to as case. Case provides an inquirybased handson problem problem solving approach to helping students understand how agriculture can change the world and the vital role they can play in doing that the case Program Supports case teachers so professional development is a big part of that. That is part of the program, peer mentoring as well as other external support systems. It is also a great example of a public and private partnership providing education that directly aligns the needs of agribusiness and industry. Really it is a Publicprivate Partnership so we have been able to support, with support from the stem counsel as well as the private sector with Companies Like john deere, Dupont Pioneer, carpio, we have teachers that have taught almost 35,000 students this year so we are working to build that out across the state. Ffa, the kids are right over here, in iowa they have added almost 3000 members over the past three years and josh, the executive director of the program, would tell you that he believes the case curriculum has played a role in the growth of the kids participating in ffa. I think theyve added 15 new chapters over the past three years. We have nearly 15000 students participating in ffa, so it is a Great Program and we love seeing the growth in that. With us today, the case students are going to demonstrate the activities in the program with the introduction to agriculture, food and natural resources. The entry level course includes identifying u. S. Commodities and their cost to consumers, determining soil texture and content through a sediment test and examining the spread of nutrients through points and nonpoint sources. Case offers a total of nine forces nationally. It has the progression of complexity including highlevel research, and a lot of kids will tell you it is more rigorous than some of the other classes they are taking in school. The rigor component is exceptional. Its been exciting to see the momentum and the energy and i indicated from the Stem Advisory Council, but just the organic programs that are taking place across the state of i will. You all know this but stem provide students with the knowledge and confidence in problem solving skills in the communication skills they need also. It provides educators with professional Development Including opportunities to work with Business Partners so that what theyre teaching the students is appropriate and meets the real world needs. Also we have an opportunity for teachers to do externships over the summer and thats been successful as well. It helps us meet the needs for the employers for providing the Talent Pipeline that they are needing to grow. Its not just science, technology, engineering and math. Its a way of life and learning and its a road to the future. Please. Please visit with the students and the apprentices and instructors and the Culinary Art Program to see all the great things they are doing. I know they will look forward to meeting with you and showcasing what theyve been working on. With that, thank you for the opportunity for us to talk about the stem activities that are taking place in iowa, and its an honor for me to turn it over to our former governor, secretary bill vilsack. [applause] it is great to be home both in terms of iowa and the governors association. It is good to see a lot of old friends and a lot of new friends in the governors association, and i want to thank governor branstad and mrs. Branstad for the gracious reception at terrorist hill. It was great to get back to the Old Homestead and take a look at it. They have done a great job. I really like the new reflecting pool and i appreciate the work that the Lieutenant Governor is doing in terms of the young people. Im glad she acknowledged are ffa students are here today. They are an Incredible Group of articulate young people who care about agriculture and rural areas and frankly in urban centers as well. I a lot of times you dont think of it as an urban approach but many are located in cities and its in part because we are seeing an expansion of agricultural opportunity all over this country. I want to give you some practical advice today, and i feel a little intimidated to do that in the context of several of the governors who are here. We talked about entrepreneurship you have two of the great entrepreneurship in business sitting at the table. He had a restaurant here in des moines which i frequented when i was in the state senate. There is a tremendous opportunity here in agriculture and in local and regional Food Production. I hope i can make the case that all of the governors here today should be investing in this as part of their strategy to rebuild a rule of economy. When you think about the rule economy, historically, its been an extraction economy. We extract things from the land and process them in another place and sold them here, there here, there and everywhere. We are changing the dynamic in rule america from an extraction economy to a sustainable one. I think its important because it offers hope for young people who want to live, work and raise their family in these communities. Why is that important to the community . One statistic that is important to know and that is that Rural America represents 15 or 16 of americas population but 40 of its military come from those small town. Its an important that we preserve opportunity in those communities because there is a value system thats important to this community. How do we do that . We always support production agriculture. Theyve made a good point about the production of agriculture and spit specifically the ability to export to other countries. I appreciate the work of the governors yesterday in talking about trade and trade agreements. Today i want to announce a new opportunity for all of you to think about. I know some of you have been to cuba. This is an opportunity. I have been there twice in the past couple of months. We are now announcing that we will have a physical presence. We will have a usda official in cuba working with the state department. Its incredibly important in terms of opening up opportunities in trade and agriculture. There is over 1. 8 billion Market Opportunity in cuba. We use to control that market. Now today, we lose opportunity to the eu and latin american competitors. There is no reason why if we can get the embargo lifted and get people down there that we can expand trade opportunities in cuba. We are are focused on production agriculture, trade as well, but we have to complement that. We complement that with conservation and new ecosystem markets as we all deal with the issues of climate. There are opportunities to invest in conservation and regulated industry to meet the regulated needs. We are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in ecosystem markets. I would be happy to talk with any governor interested in that opportunity. Biobased technology is something we understand in iowa whether its fuel or inner g production. We are extending that far beyond fuel and energy to biochemicals and biomaterials. It is now a 364 billion industry 4 billiondollar industry in america that employs 4 Million People and we are just Getting Started transitioning from a predominantly fossil fuel based economy to one that is balanced with a plantbased based economy. Tremendous opportunities for your rural area. Then the local food system. Just one statistic, the lieutenant mentioned schools. We have done about 20 million of grant across 295 schools in the state. We have asked them to work with us, do you know whats being grown and raised around your school . Are you purchasing cant it from local farmers . Does it create the opportunity in terms of smaller operators question we want those people, we want those Small Farmers to stay in business. If you are able to negotiate with your local school, you are able to set the price. You can negotiate it. Today, over 790 million is being purchased by local schools by locally produced schools within 150 miles. It is a 3 billion opportunity. Every governor should should be thinking about working with their department of education and their Economic Development teams to figure out how you can get your school in your states to think about what is being grown and raised in the area and how can we help our local producers and what can we do to help them sell to us enough quantity and quality to feed our children, something thats locally and regionally raised to keep it in the local School District and economy. Thats a tremendous opportunity. Thats just one opportunity. Selling two restaurants, when i started this job in 2009 it was roughly a 5 billion industry. Today we are at 12 billion at 12 billion in its projected at 2019 to go to up to 20 billion. There are chefs who want that product. There are School Districts purchasing it. There are Farmers Markets, we are investing in our Farmers Market program. We have invested 16 million at usda in promoting Farmers Markets. We have seen that 93 increase in its now 8400 Farmers Markets. Heres hundred Farmers Markets. Heres what you need to know. 6400 of those Farmers Markets can take the electronic benefit card providing double buck opportunities. We have foundations that are saying if you buy 10 worth of fruit and vegetable at the market we will let you buy another 10 on us. Its a tremendous opportunity and we are seeing amazing expansion. Farmers market are funded and provided by local food hubs. we are helping those smaller farmers get credit. We develop a new michael of program. Over 20,000 microloans, a 50,000 loan up to seven years. You delete all the experience to get a larger fsa loan. Its a sevenyear loan, low Interest Rate and it gets people started. We are extending the growing season. Not evidence the benefits of for changes climate. In iowa we have winter. I know you so they winter in colorado and thats fine. We dont about what we dont have any scheme to speak of, much of an industry there. But we can extend the growing season. We do it through tunnel houses. The ability to create a temporary greenhouse. We have invested over 15,000 of those tunnel houses extending the growing season. Weve already invested 25 million of usda resources in local food promotion. Weve done about 350 project. These are opportunities for your agricultural sectors or commissioners to apply for, to be engaged in, to reach out. We look at Risk Management tools. Around is it for specialty crop producer not like a corn or being producer in iowa. Mother nature comes in, ma doesnt provide you the kind of summer would have been today, you get wiped out by a hailstorm for whatever. You can get Crop Insurance. Until recently you didnt have that opportunity. Now you do. We have a whole policy available for the small producers to get the same kind of protection. We are looking of the extraordinary number of ways for providing assistance and help. Weve got the Value Added Producer Grant Program that is funneled through your secretary of agriculture. Almost 6000 projects funded in the program. Of our business and Industry Loan Program for largescale processing. The are a multitude of benefits associate with the department of agriculture you might not have thought about an osha looking at developing a more sustainable economy in your rural areas. We are seeing a rapid expansion in this antisemitic interest in this area. I am just going to finish by saying were also not just limiting that opportunity to local and regional, were looking for ways immunogenics based expand the value added proposition as well. Suite individually series of agreements all across the world with countries like japan and the eu, canada. Were negotiating with mexico can we take things we can sell our organically produced items all over the world and expand the brand, the u. S. Branch. Agriculture is want of a great selling points of the United States. As ive traveled the country in the world, what i know is people think of american agriculture and they think of quality. They think of affordability, they think of food safety. These are incredibly important marketing opportunities we have, whether it is local or whether its international. I look forward to any questions you all might have but i would strongly encourage all of you to become better fit with the usda program. Ive often said that if i knew when i was governor what i know now about the United States department of agriculture i might have been a pretty decent governor, i dont know but i was a wouldve been a lot better governor. Im trying to mentor my former governor, mike are the governor about those programs as well. I know some of you taken full advantage. I think mcauliffe will tell the i need a driver drivers l, ive been to virginia so much. I go to colorado because my grandson is there. Lots of great opportunities. I look forward to visiting with all of you. I enjoyed my visit to puerto rico recently. We are working very hard with all of you. [applause] thank you. I want to thank secretary vilsack and Lieutenant Governor reynolds for sharing with us the exciting work that theyre doing, and now were going to open it for questions. I want to ask the first question of chef lee. I find it exciting, the vision you have in what you been able to do as a food article nor. And i guess i would like to share with us what can we as governance do in terms of policies that encourage and support this interaction between the small producer and the restaurants, and also Workforce Development is one of the key things we did with. This whole thing about finding people and interested otherwise wouldve been unemployable that now can get a start in the world of work through this. So if you would share your thoughts on how we as governors can facilitate and encourage what people like you are doing. Thank you. Thats great to hear. I think the most pressing thing for us is to get small family farms access to different retail outlets, whether its schools come whether its a Farmers Market. Presents, i dont know. Whatever they can sell the food prisons. I know a lot of farmers in kentucky and one of the things that i hear from the a lot is we are farmers and we want to continue to be farmers. We are not sales people. We are not marketers. When we have to spend half a to add a Farmers Market selling our products, thats half a day we are not on the farm producing products. Theres a small level, although different people for working cuba. Farmers are not marketers. They are not salespeople. They are not business people. The more that we can allow them to concentrate on what they do best and as legislators completed degree programs or create connectors to the rest of society, and as you talked about, farmers who live in Rural Communities dont necessary understand or know the urban areas where generally we are consuming this. They are not experts in what urban communities need or want necessarily. So there has to be some way to bridge those two together and that comes fromcompass many people in all sides. Go ahead. Two things. One comin come here in a state t has the first state Food Policy Council establishment has gone to look at these issues of chef is right. There is a need for a link and so we just graded a program called food link which is the operative thinking areas around the country and it is essentially designed to try to figure out how to link the producers with those who want to consume, those who want to purchase to develop that supply chain in every part of the country. We are working with 18 foundations. We received a little over 2 million to fund this program for the next couple of years. You may want to go on our website and take a look at food link to determine whether the courcourt there is in your statr in your region. The second thing i would say it is on our website we have a Farmers Market, sort of a directory. It links and identifies what everything a Farmers Market is that we are aware of that use it usda to figure out ways which you can use your web presence to basically promote that directory. Thanks. The one last thing is trust. I think one of the things that has been key in this past generation is weve built up an incredible amount of trust between farmers, not every restaurant but chef like myself, and the community. So the consumer comes up to a restaurant id like to show them the evidence or the receipts. They trust me to do the right thing. With the Restaurant Industry being so popular, theres a lot of bikini this is, people come in and try to take advantage of the booming business. One of the things that is important the position of going for is looking at things like Food Labeling of looking at things like food sourcing and transparency of food systems so we continue to retain the trust of the consumer. The worst Case Scenario is in this booming economy, you lose the trust of the consumer and they no longer trust the restauranteur, the farmer, whats coming out of these forms. I think whatever we can do to regain that trust is going to be key. Very good. Governor mcauliffe . Thank you. A very informative panel come onto thank you to present to us, mr. Psychology thank you specifically, youve been to virginia law. Governor haslam and agenda on a conference. I want to congratulate you and just give for all the great work youre doing. Also want to thank in virginia with the work with first lady to go to mcauliffe last year because working with you to a half million more children in virginia have access to a breakfast. It is truly extraordinary what you under team have been able to do with a somewhat to thank you and party with the usda. Im proud to say bridges the, and it went exporter to cuba. So what im telling for is the other side to get the cuban cigars and rama, excuse me your i dont want to affect puerto rican rum. My question is with all these reprogrammed we have not going and the states are failing themselves with the new federal budgets coming up and the discussions about where do we go. Where d. C. Agriculture funding Going Forward . These programs, can we continue them in the new current climate the watauga and our their new programs we could avail ourselves of . A great question and a good is his many of these programs the Farmers Market promotion program, a local regional promotion program, those are all programs within the farm bill. So essentially funding has been provided through 2018. We are operating at usda on operating budget that is less than when i became secretary. Thats an unfortunate circumstance and i think one of the things i am hopeful is governors will be engaged in all of this so they can encourage their members of congress to better support the department of agriculture entrance of its operations. Its been tough over seven and a half years operating with less money at the program money is still there and we are finding creative ways to leverage those resources. In this space, we invested nearly a billion dollars in the local regional food system, about 40,000 investment. You can find all of this information in your state with these investments have taken place on our website. And easytouse tool to find all these programs are working in your state and to get Success Stories you can use to encourage others in your state to operate usda. Gov. Theres also a terrific opportunity for new farmers want to get into this. We have a new urban farming toolkit and a new beginning farmer toolkit that will lend people the ability to get what programs to access. So good this is over the next couple of years these resources are going to be available. Heres the challenge. When they begin to discuss the next farm bill it will be absolutely essential we dont begin that conversation the same way we again this fall bill coore sage which was to save 23. 2 billion. It started with we have to save money. The problem with that is we cant address all of the needs out there in Rural America. And you wil have to scrimp and e and be very creative. It seems to me the best way to start a conversation is a what is the need out there in Rural America . How much is going to cost to meemeet that need and lets fige out if we can find resources to meet that need. If you start with we got to save money, then what that does is it gets commodity producers indeed Crop Insurance against local and regional food servicers against the department of Economic Development i would love to have. Against our ability to maintain our force which are important to governor hickenlooper. It gets those interests against one another. I think we can do a better job supporting Rural America. I will tell you im proud of the fact weve seen a reduction in poverty in Rural America, fastest rate in the last 25 years is less couple of years and weve seen unemployment come down and things are beginning to turn around but weve got to continue with. Weve got to continue to make these investments. My thanks to the panel. Thank you for this discussion. My question for secretary vilsack is really does. We talked about growing economies by growing food. I know many farmers, people involved in agriculture are concerned about the imports better coming from Foreign Countries in and competing with american grown foodstuff and Agricultural Products that are the very economy. They have complaints and concerns about the importing of products from other countries, nafta, the trade agreements we have. So give me your perspective with International Trade being what it is. What is the future for agriculture when we are importing more products from other countries. The good news in trade in agriculture is that for the last 50 years we have had a trade surplus in agriculture which means we sell and a lot more to the rest of the world that we buy from the rest of the world. I think thats going to continue. Why . I think governor branstad mentioned the efficiency of american agriculture. Just put a finer point on that. Year i was born today we have seen 170 increase in Food Production in this country. On 26 less land with 20 million fewer farmers. Its a tremendous story. It has put stress and strain on Rural Communities because we didnt figure out what were going to do with those 20 Million People who were fail who were farming. We are created new opportunities for those people to get back in farming. Im not challenge the imports in the sense we have a trade surplus. We have invested in the world. With the safest food, the most affordable food and we have a supply chain that is very consistent and is very stable. I will do theres an emerging Market Opportunity for us in asia. Thats why were having this conversation about trade. Hereheres a statistic you neeo know and tell folks not to be overly concerned about imports. Today asia is home to 525 middleclass consumers. The people who want to buy american products. Would love to be able to buy. 525 million. In the next 50 years that number will go to 3. 2 billion. Thats 10 times the populace of the United States. Why wouldnt we want to did business with those people . Why wouldnt we want the opportunity to sell this incredible product that we have . Youll continue to grow more of it and will continue to have opportunities what were doing now is were essentially broadening the opportunity whether you want to be big, small, medium size, you multiple opportunities and markets. If youre going to trade come if youre going to say to the rest of the world wrapped of a sciencebased system, we have done a rulesbased system we cant be making political decisions about whether something comes in or doesnt coming, that everybody is playing on a level playing field, youve got to play by those rules which means if somebody can make the case to bring something in to provide choice for our consumers, to provide competition, less cost, this amazing array of the we have in this country is a result of our ability to trade with the rest of the world. I cant help but say this and is not germane to question bush will important for comes to say this and to recognize it. Every single one of us thats not a farmer is not a farmer because we have delegated the responsibility of feeding our family to a relatively small number of americans. And it is such a good job of it come we never even had to think twice about maybe ive got to grow food for my own family. That has created incredible capacity within this economy and it also results in having us go into the Grocery Store with an amazing choice. We walked out and we spent roughly 10 of our paycheck on food. That compares to 25 in most developed nations. And 50 most developing nations which we can do all these consumer goods that are being purchased. I understand the concern and agricultural space we are a winner in trade big time. Governor hickenlooper has a question. First before ask chef a question they want, i teased secretary vilsack in 2000 he briefly ran for president and i believe i was the only mayor of a major American City who publicly endorsed him. You are really the only mayor of any city. [laughter] president obamas putting his choicchoice to put you at a department of agriculture was inspired i think it done as much for agriculture in this country in the last eight years as anybody in my lifetime. Very grateful. Thats not just for the farmers of colorado but for everywhere. My question want to come back to chef lee, one of my favorite people go about is Temple Grandin, professor at Colorado State university. At some point you guys were together. Shes talked a lot about how you slaughter animals in the importance of that in terms of the quality of the neat and all different types but he could take a minute or two and comment on that. I get into it about six, seven years ago and i actually as part of an education, i went, fatty Food Processor in kentucky and to let me work on the weekends. So i literally just went and spent the whole day with them slaughtering pigs. And learned an incredible amount about the. Its the one thing i always like to have his catchphrase, farm to table. Its a very cute phrase but we never say farms a slaughterhouse to table which is really what it is, how the process works. We can turn a blind eye because it is an uncomfortable thought to think about. But when mr. To think about the death of an animal is so incredibly important to the overall product that we are getting and got really into what Temple Grandin was doing. I mean, this is for a much bigger discussion but the idea we have to care about, you can spend a year raising a beautiful cow and ruin it in the last 15 minutes of the process. But improper slaughtering practices. These are things that the general public was never aware of these things come a generation ago. It just was not on the top of peoples minds. I think one of the things with the popular of the food movement, with the food journalism and tv that you are seeing all of these issues and people, the consumer are wanting transparency. Theyre wanting information come wanting access. Its, most slaughterhouse is, you cannot get access to it. Its very, very behind closed doors business and i think thats on one place and one opportunity where we can say listen, lets open up, shall transparency, she was going on behind the scenes because in my experience is a slaughterhouse is that i slaughterhouse is that ive been to that of give me access to its and approval process thats efficient, humane and a stock because my single it was im going to see a horror show and exact opposite. And more transparent i think we have in those things, the more we gain trust with consumer. At the end of the day to meet its my brand and what id as the biggest thing is trust, that Consumers Trust what i do. We fulfill that promise. Spent i guess were ready to wrap it up. I think this is fascinating and when you are mentioning going to slaughter houses, we had an issue with lean, finely textured beef. Iso of the Governors Committee governor of kansas, a governor of texas joined us and we went through the bpi operation and resolve really what a great operation it was. Actually in nebraska, and south us in nebraska, and we saw how they were using, and this was misrepresented unfortunately but how they were using just a puff of ammonia to kill bacteria and have a very safe, relatively lowcost, quality lean beef product. And we spent a lot of time because a lot of misinformation got out through the internet on that just to try to get the facts to people. One of the things we did was actually go and go to the Processing Plant and see it firsthand. So i think your remarks about that are very important. I think the more open and transparent we can be, i have a dear friend, who used to have a Processing Plant here and he was immigrant from, well, he was polish and spoke, he was a personal friend of john paul ii, the pope, india the most Diverse Workforce here in his plant in des moines, slaughtering soused and worse, not your Traditional Market hearts. But what impressed me about him was he knew literally on a first name basis everybody that work in the plant and really cared about them. And thats which will import. I think we need to show that. I think farmers, those of us that grew up on a farm understand farmers really care about what they are doing and building the relationship between the farmers, the slaughter houses, the Farmers Markets and the chefs so that we can really show, we are so blessed as such a vilsack said, to live in america where we have this saved, quality, reliable and relatively lowcost supply of food and we want to be able to share that with the world as well, as with the american consumers. So i think the next step here is its time to eat, right . So i want you to join me in witnessing the future of food by talking to the students in hearing about the recent innovative work. Governors are encouraged to ask questions throughout the agriculture demonstrations that we are going to witness. I encourage each governor to take a few minutes to visit with students and the apprenticeships that are involved in the chef program and learn about their great work. We are so proud and so excited about it. I recently visited eastern and Eastern Iowa Community College Culinary chef program, and just to see the enthusiasm of those young people and the great work that they are doing, just excites me. We asked members of the audience what the governors go first, but they we want the audience to also join us and get an opportunity to meet the students and hear about what theyre doing and also sample the great food that has been made. So with that let me interrupt and say that will have a governors only beating. We will start at about 10 minutes so you take an opportunity to see the students here and their demonstration. Weve got former governor and past chairman of the nga speaking to us also. Mamac mcwherter, former chief of staff of president clinton. So weve got some special guests and to remind everybody can be back at 1 00 we will have a great bunch of them from former speaker of the house net you posted. Weve got important things to do and so dont waste your time. Are we back. Okay. [applause] [inaudible conversations] more down from the recent nga conference. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi discusses the importance of investments in education, Information Technology, infrastructure and energy research. She commented on the lack of funding to address the growing opioid epidemic. [inaudible conversations] i think we are ready to begin. Take your seats. Welcome back, governors and staff people. We are honored to have your back for our last session here, our last plenary session. Weve had a great day. Yesterday was great, the presentations were wonderful and i will continue this afternoon. We are honored to have you all there and back again and again as always we thank governor branstad for his hospitality in the beautiful state of iowa, for the nga staffer helping to organize and coordinate this, for the governors, your busy schedules to be here. Thank you very much for taking time. Yesterday with the distinct privilege of having opportunity to from senator grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and iowa senior senator. Today with a great opportunity to from another distinguished congressman, congressional leader, democrat leader nancy pelosi. We are honored to have her here with us, and for the formal introduction of a turn the tide over to the vice chair of the National Governors Association Governor Terry Mcauliffe. Thank you all for being with us this afternoon. I am honored to introduce our next guest. She has been a friend of mine going back almost four decades. She is a mother, a grandmother and has been a great leader for our country for so many years and a to advocate for working families in our nation. For 29 years she is represented the 12th district of california. Just let the democrats in the house for more than 12 years serving as the House Democratic whip, speaker and the as house leader. Addition of Public Service and on behalf of the government its my honor to introduce nancy pelosi the leader of the house democrats. [applause] good afternoon everyone, its lovely lovely to be here in the heartland of america. What a beautiful place to be in iowa. Is this the end of the president ial or the beginning of the next president ial. I dont know, governor branstad, what do you say . I coming here from omaha it was so beautiful, sadly beautiful to see signs of reverence and the flag flying at half staff along the way and coming by the Iowa Veterans cemetery and i feel grateful for how fortunate we are for those who served to make us the land of the free. Thank you for your hospitality and your leadership. Thank you for your introduction, i accept your compliments and your words, they were complements to me on behalf of all of our colleagues in congress with the courage to go forth on this legislation and of course the great leadership of president barack obama. I can congratulate you for your new leadership stepping into the chairmanship. Again, thank you for your tremendous leadership. I remember when you came in to my office and talked about how we could Work Together, federal and state, state and federal, bipartisan and nine partisan cooperation. I. I think all of you for the leadership on the legislation for education on fast track. Those were two things mentioned that our law. Thank you for making all of that happen. I also think the staff for the hospitality extended to be here. We may not agree on everything but i think we agree on this one thing. The leadership of americas governors are one of the greatest resources of americas democracy. Do you not agree . [applause] i feel very honored to be invited to be here and be introduced by great governor. We go back a long way. He was a teenager when we were all working for a long time in politics but im so proud of his leadership in the state of virginia, creating jobs and improving education, and in so many ways, making a big difference. Thank you Terry Mcauliffe for being such a great leader. We may not agree on every topic but we are united in a common purpose to finding a solution and improving lives. We know if strong federal and state partnership is essential to finding solutions to the challenges facing our nation today. We are more successful we draw on the best actresses that flow from states. The great laboratories of our democracy, thats an applause line to. [applause] as we just does state and federal relationships i want to acknowledge the subjects at your meeting. Thank you governor branstad for your focus on food and agriculture and biofuels. That is a priority iowa has taken the lead on. I am reminded that we Gave National honor mr. Borland and that was one of the days we recognized the contributions of the state feeding the world. We discussed our support for the Renewable Energy standard. Your understanding relationship with food, at agriculture and biofuel. I hope to read whatever is allowed to read to have the benefit of your thinking. Sec. Bill vilsack was another great leader in iowa. I know you talked about opioids and i want to say this, i think all of you for your leadership on this subject. Just to put what happened into perspective, this is a good bill. It was bipartisan, it has good policy in it. We really need the money right now. In fact weve needed it for a while. We did the budget agreement last year when we do our appropriating for the following year and we said there are priorities that are established, a cap that is placed there but at that time, we didnt realize we needed 1. 1 billion per opioids, 1. 9 billion for zika virus or hundreds of millions of dollars for flint michigan. In the course of time when these unusual emergencies occur, they are emergency spending. Its over four months in the president asked for the zika money and a long time since he asked for the opioid money. Our disappointment, almost to the point of not voting for the bill is the interesting policy, its good, good, its bipartisan, but it doesnt have the money and its mind to take months to get the money and why should that be. Then we get the money will be in a budget that is about education and all the priorities that are necessities that are investments that actually grow our country, create create jobs and reduce the deficit. We have to compete for the money and i dont think we should. Hopefully we can always in so at some point, much sooner than the appropriations process, we can have this emergency funding. Even if we have to pay for it not as emergency, that we would appropriate it immediately even if we have to fight over where the money comes from but not to kick the can down the road. Congress refused to provide the robust relief. Do you know of a governor in puerto rico for the zika funding , its long overdue. How can it be. Your continued leadership of all of you and to fight zika and opioid will make the critical difference when Congress Returns funding is very long overdue. Your agenda here is an agenda of the future and i salute you for that. Much of the future will depend on our ability to take action today to ensure that our nation leads and innovation in the century. We must ensure american workers, products and ideas remain number one in the global economy. The me just tell you about the innovation agenda we put together 11 years ago, we started at 11 years ago and presented it ten years ago. We passed and innovation agenda. Every aspect of an economy in the society to say, give us your priorities, how to keep america number one. From that we passed groundbreaking act that created an initiative to power highrisk, high reward and research and technological development. We invested in stem. We are making College Affordable for all students. We expanded broadband and strengthened agriculture and commerce and we modified Small Business investment and initiatives. I tell you that because it made a tremendous difference but its ten years have gone by in the world has changed. We must take inventory of what is needed for innovators to thrive. The progress of cloud computing, data storage and more broadband technology, smartphone, medicine over the past decade have put new possibilities within our grasp. We must see the full potential of innovation and technology for all of americas family. The spring we initiated innovation 2. 0 convening dozens of sessions all over the country to solicit in virginia, i could go around and as we did in 2015, experts, apt academics, etc. Today i want to give you an introduction of what we heard and confirmed to invite our viewers. I want to invite your views on how we can Work Together at the local, state and federal level to keep america number one. Its all predicated on the idea that everything starts in the classroom. Innovation begins in the classroom. Education is the greatest investment of families our nation can make and its children. Thank you governors for your leadership helping Congress Passed the every student succeed act. Its very important. As we talk about investing in education, remember this. This is a fact. You might think some of this is opinion, this is a fact. Nothing brings more money to the treasury, to reduce the deficit more than educating the american people. Early childhood, k12, higher education, postgrad, lifetime learning for our workers. Its why all of that is so important and again we must make college more affordable by reducing the burden of debt and strengthening our promise for worldclass education for our veterans. The prospects of big data and Information Technology have put us all on the doorstep of tremendous advantage. All of this has begun in the classroom but for everyone to participate in it they must be educated to it in the classroom. Big data, Information Technology is a selection to every challenge that we all face. National security, homeland security, clean energy, transportation, agriculture and food, smart cities and housing, education and diversity. That is essential to our success and indeed the success of every person and every family in our country to participate in that success. Were also very proud of president obamas Computer Science for Everyone Initiative proposing 4 million for states to increase access to k12 computer services. We must again, i keep making this point, we must be inclusive and be sure that every community and every child has access to highspeed always on broadband in the Digital Access necessary to participate. We have an opportunity in our country, some of it springs from an education gap that will never be solved until we had dress the education gap and we have to reduce that in order to not only have people reach their aspirations but to have america the number one. We might keep a strong focus on security and privacy. Two of my credentials im im also the person on the Intelligence Committee in our country. I am very concerned about the Cyber Security issue. I think you governor mccullough for putting this issue front center. Are we ready for that . We must give priority and serious investment to research and partnerships to build americas infrastructure. Building the infrastructure, its never been a partisan issue it doesnt have to be a partisan issue. You know better than anybody, the deficit deficit that is there and the trillions of dollars, the opportunity that is there to build infrastructure and create mobility and move people to and from home for time makes a difference in agriculture products it will create jobs from day one because of the instruction that is necessary. We must have a tax credit for cleaner more Efficient Energy technology. We must establish innovation hubs. This is really important and i want to hear your views when we have a chance to chat. In every region of the country, it has to be a decision made to have them in every region of the country. Lastly we must confirm the obstacles facing americans who want to take a chance on the idea but they are curtailed by lack of funding or whatever it is and theres a path for us to take them out of the valley and have them skip over. Working together we can make sure america remains the global superpower of innovation and entrepreneurship. We have a proud heritage as americans and i mentioned some of it earlier today, our sense of community and obligation to our troops. I always think of the vision of our founders that we are very blessed with the sacrifice of our troops that were grateful for forever and the aspirations of our children. We have a proud heritage that was always focused boldly on the future. In that proud tradition they challenged us to go to the moon more than 50 years ago. I know you know about that, maybe you were born but for sure youve read about it. He said this at the time, the vows of this nation can only be fulfilled if we in this nation are first. Therefore we intend to be first. In short he said our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security are obligations to ourselves and it requires all of us to make this effort. I say from the declaration of our founders to the humanities first up on the moon to the present day america has showed the world what it means to innovate. I think you all for your leadership in this regard and i thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you this afternoon. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you leader pelosi. I think we have time for couple questions. I know theyve indicated they have a first question. Thank you, we are honored to have you here. We appreciate the ability to meet with you. We have been working very well as a bipartisan organization. We think we are a good example of bipartisan leadership. You mention the every student succeed act in the fast acting we have a long history. We go back to president bill Clintons Administration and it helped us. My question is what you see in the next congress . What are areas of bipartisan concern that we can get involved with and help you in the congress to get some things done in this next congress . In terms of what are the possibilities of working together in the next congress, i always always come back to infrastructure because no matter what we have done and weve done some good things, we need to do more. A lot of it is predicated on the fact that science and technology are moving so quickly. I said before, it has never been a partisan issue. We are trying to think in a way of nonpartisanship. What we would like to do is actually have nonpartisanship in the suggestions that come in. Thats how we used to do it. We would say if you want to compete, that was, if you want to have your initiative included in legislation, if you want to show the nonpartisan aspect in your community, what the engineering and technological support is for it and whether its impacted regionally. Not just i want mine for my county but what is the impact regionally. This is a nonpartisan and it crosses counties, state, city, whatever. I think that is an endless opportunity. Related to that is a tax reform because as you know we want to reform the tax bill. We want to simplify it and make it fair and make it do the job it sets out to do. And there are certain aspects of it like build america bonds which are very helpful in our Building Infrastructure and but also i know a subject thats important to you is how bonds are treated. Infrastructure and tax reform, we can do them piecemeal, we can do one but if we could do them comprehensively i think we would get a nonpartisan way, which i think we should be able to do. Again, talking about what we could do i hope it wont take until the next congress but we have the legislation which you all come to see me and there is a bill that would say where you purchase something is where its delivered is where you pay the tax. The republican chairman, we all support his initiative and weve been trying to get it, the chairman of the committee had a different bill. That would be the Judiciary Committee. We continue to fight but our support for that is totally nonpartisan. We rejoice in the fact that we can do that. How are some of the things we do affecting what happens to you in terms of Building Infrastructure, how do you pay for it and by the way how to our decisions at the tax code level affect your ability to collect taxes from Internet Sales and the rest . I think there are plenty of opportunities and you may have some suggestions, especially since now we know we have to do things in a way, were going to keep the air clean and recognize the connection between agriculture and energy and the rest. We have tremendous opportunities and i just come back to what i said earlier. Information technology, big data , just subject every challenge that we face into what that speed and all the rest and make a tremendous difference. I think that will probably melt away some of the partisanship because what were talking about is not partisan. None of this has any ideological bench. We all want to take advantage of what science and technology can offer to help solve our problems. If you have any suggestions or priorities, you brought your priorities before education and transportation and you got those done. Thank you governor. said. First of all want to thank you for the role you played in honoring, that was one of the highlights for me to be there when that statue was unveiled in statuary hall. Also your support for Renewable Energy which is very near and dear to my heart and we appreciate that. To some degree we have our ready touched on this but tax reform is an important issue that obviously affects us because, you talk about this a little bit about state and local bonds, we are concerned that the congress, and doing comprehensive reform recognize governors and states in terms of controlling our own Tax Authority and not being preempted. I would just ask to see what you can do to make sure that we do see comprehensive tax reform and that we do it in such a way that doesnt curtail the ability to meet our obligations. One of the things that is out there is to have a limit on what you can a deduct. It has an impact on the state and local part of it. Well continue to Work Together because its one of those things about the tax code, there is probably nothing that arouses more comment than when we go to do that. It has an impact as we know. I want to congratulate you because we were able to do that statute by an act of legislature of iowa because thats a decision of the state as to who statute will be in statuary hall id like to take a little credit for when we gave the goldmedal, its beautiful. What a great man. Last night we had an event at the World Food Prize call. If you get a chance before you leave des moines, they converted the Old Main Library here in des moines into the World Food Prize hall. I think they spent over 30 million to restore and renovate it. Anyway, its one its one of the wonderful things thats going on in des moines and that along with the papa johns sculpture garden, we hope you get a chance to see those before you leave town. Thank you, i hope to and if not ill be back. Let me let me just say, thank you iowa, thank you all because what he did was to feed the hungry of the world. Thank you, its great to see you again. Its fun to be with you and i just want to say that. You touched on a number of subjects, not the least of which is the opioid situation and i know you understand that money is necessary today, not tomorrow, in fact were way behind where we needed to be in the fight of this opioid abuse, a person is dying every 20 minutes in the United States as a result of overdosing on opioids. The problem is getting bigger as set and all is being introduced on a broader and broader basis and used as a substitute for opioids. Anything you can do to further that. I agree, this is an emergency as epic as a great forest fire or a great damage to infrastructure that may be caused by some other means. Anything you can do, we would would greatly appreciate it. I know you get it. We just need your help in your pushing and youre right, dont stop. You can watch all of this online on cspan. Org. We are we are going live to hear from tom cotton and a discussion looking at the upcoming 2016 senate races. This is being held on the first day of the gop convention. That coverage is live on cspan. This coverage coverage on cspan2 is hosted by the atlantic. The youngest person in the senate, a rising star, he has a law degree from harvard. He became a household name when he led the opposition to the Obama Administration nuclear deal with iran he sits on the Senate Intelligence arm service and Banking Committee and his vice chair, meaning its his job to keep republicans in control of the senate. He is here to take talk about politics and policy. Steve clemons, senator the, the floor is yours. [applause] thank you for joining us. Its good to be with all of you. I want to say special hello to our audience on cspan that is checking in with us live today. I was just trying to warm up with the senator and i noticed the coolest part of his profile is that he grew up on his familys cattle farm in arkansas. I did what anyone wooden i asked where they milk cows or beef cows. He said beef. I said did you have any of them as pets . And he said they end up dying so we can eat them so know. I just wanted to show how definitive you were about these matters. Theres a friendly side of your pet heritage. You are vice chair of the National Committee which means you are responsible in a way for what comes next in terms of the republican footprint in the senate. What do you consider to be a success . What would you get fired for, what would be an outstanding job . When you come out with the election, how many seats do you think you will have one that will beat expectations . The baseline is that we want to hoard hold the majority of the senate because i think america will be safer with a republican president and congress. We need to have or lose no fewer than three or four depending on who wins the presidency, but i feel very good about our position. We knew this would be a tough public and race. We have 24 senators running for reelection and the democrats have about ten. Most of those are taking place in purple or blue states but we have a lot of great senators who are very good politicians and their good fits for their state. I am confident they will win. We have a lot of good candidates running in other states as well. He is running to take harry reids place in nevada. We know be a tough cycle and the races will be close but i feel good about candidates we have running. Right now you feel good about that. If you come in at 49 or 50 will not feel like it was a mandate carried by the other side or similar structural circumstances . I would be disappointed because we would not have the majority with 49 or fewer. Maybe 50 if Hillary Clinton were to win the white house but i would be disappointed because that would mean some of the people ive gotten to know who i think are very patriotic capable senators would probably lost the race as well. Im pretty confident that will be the case, we will hold our own. When the questions i want to ask is how many gop islands are there that you need to unite . When you go around the country and you have the responsibility of tying the parties together to succeed in different places like New Hampshire and ohio, the issue ranges and enormously. You said this in your own support of donald trump, but how big is that bandwidth . How wide is that band that you have to have to bring people along what are the issues that matter most as you talk to the American Public . We certainly have a very diverse country. We have 325,000,025,000,000 americans in arkansas is very different from main. We work closely together on a range of issues but that doesnt mean we see eye to eye but she is one of my closest friend in the senate. A good fit for her state and i am for mine. In the end, i think you share basic concerns. Most people are not rich, havent seen a pay raise in the last eight years and theyve seen the cost of living going coop. Workingclass families are struggling to make and meet and pay for their healthcare. Theyre worried about the chaos we see on the street around the country today whether its protests or the threat of islamic terrorism in the shootings weve seen in San Bernardino and orlando for the awful attack we saw last week in turkey. Have a very diverse country with very Diverse People but i think at route we have the same concerns everywhere we go. You read the ideas festival when they helped organize, another person there was caitlyn jenner. Caitlin came out and said trump is the person she wants and he would be great for the Transgender Community in america does that bandwidth work for you . I think we want to appeal to every american in all 50 states. Its clear that we dont always appeal to every american but we want to be a party of all americans. The democrats have been a party that is a very eclectic and Diverse Group of voters. Some of them dont always share the same common themes but they find a way to get in election after election. We want to appeal to americans as americans. Their man or woman, black or white, hispanic or africanamerican, we want to appeal to everyone. I just heard in the Washington Post that the public and platform a provision was taken out or stripped down about the ability of the United States to sell ukraine weapons in part to defend themselves against russian aggression. The fact that this was taken out of the gop platform is one that i would find to be somewhat at odds for a lot of people were worried about the National Security of the country. How do you swear that and have that conversation in a smart way with your caucus . If i could imagine if that happened in the democrats, and caucus coming democrats oppose the policy on that front was to mark. It would be interesting because i can imagine you raising red flags. Do you have concerns about your party. I havent reviewed all 40,000 birds of the platform and how will be it will be adopted this week so i dont know specifically what it says but i think long ago we shouldve provided ukraine with support. Early last year most members of the Senate Armed Services committee called for that and many members of that early on. President obama continued to resist it. It comes a platform on Foreign Policy and National Security, i think the very specific detail is not called for because the world is so dynamic and we dont know what it will look like january 20 as compared to the summer 2016. I think on Foreign Policy in particular they should announce the basic principles we have is a party, how we handle a particular situation with the new president or congress is practical judgment. I hope ukraine doesnt need new defensive weapons in january because i hope russia withdrawals their support and they have sovereign territory again. To worry a lot about National Security . When i travel around the world and you travel i think its hard not to feel the worry that other leaders have about american withdrawal. Theres a lot of worries when it comes to our National Security. The most urgent is the threat of terror attacks including mass terror attacks. We had nearly 50 americans killed in orlando and 84 people were killed in france last week and lowered nose with the Islamic State or al qaeda would do if they could get their hands on deadly weapons. Looking around the world, russia , china, north korea, i worry about american credibility. Its hard to regain once its lost. Deterrence is your ability to protect your interest. The point of having a credible deterrent is not to have to use force. One of the reason we have the Strongest Military is so we dont have to use it to begin with. Our adversaries know not to challenge it. Unfortunately weve seen an erosion in our capabilities because the military has seen 1 trillion of budget cuts. Were doing doing everything we can keep our soldiers trained in the equipped. Weve seen a loss of the credibility of our threat in the famous red line in syria where barack obama drew a red line and then didnt enforce it. The one thing they all have in common is United States and specifically the credibility. It struck me when you go outside the middle east how many leaders will specifically cite the redline as a a concern of theirs what it means for u. S. Security. If that redline had been triggered and we had taken action but it had potentially lead to escalation with russia and the loss of control of chemical weapons with those have been tolerable costs to have had versus taking action on the redline . I take the premise of the question, the United States was not willing to defend our interests there and defend our allies. The deal we cut was a massive loss of credibility and it did not deter syria from continuing to use chemical weapons against their own people and the opposition forces. I think theres Practical Implications in syria in addition to what ive talked about around the world. And you were a soldier went over, youre an attorney and im sure youre in touch with many the people you fought with. Im interested in soldiers that have returned home. Having many of them have come back then run into an economy that has been tough for them to find jobs. I know a lot of relatives i have in oklahoma, texas and kansas have been frustrated that theyve gone to sacrifice for the country theres no job when they come home. Have your colleagues and associates felt that . Have you felt the deal was broken by america somewhere. I have friends who struggled to find work or found work that suited their skill set. People i fought with and trained with and so forth, i think thats partly the result of a lot of businesses not appreciating the skill sets and attributes you gain in the military. We were infantrymen, dont get to knock out thinkers very often in the civilian world but you learn intangible skills like leadership and mission focus and discipline and teamwork and so forth. Take walmart who does a great job of hiring veterans in my state. They can train anyone to operate a supply chain. They can keep people to run their supply system. They cant teach what we learned in combat. It needs to be more companies in the world to appreciate not the tangible skills that a soldier can bring. Some are transferable like the pilots and medics but some are intangible. Thats the first thing. The second thing is just in general the military is dispassionately represented like states like arkansas and missouri and oklahoma and other states and in many of those states the economy has not been doing as well as we might like. Most are concerned about the wellbeing of their family and putting food on the table and when you see an economy in which the bottom a percentage of households, you go from the poor to the middle class havent seen a pay increase or experience growth, its hard to get jobs and they are just disproportionately supplying new recruits for military. When you see donald trump speaking at that community, i think i understand i have many second cousins and they support donald trump and the other three are saying we dont get each other but a lot has to do with this inability to get jobs. What is that like in the Republican Caucus . How deep is that, you said you support donald trump in your nominee will be nominated this week, or all the Republican Leaders jumping on in that message . From the veteran issue donald trump has been a very strong advocate for veterans. He laid out policy reform in his speech. Some of it builds upon about what we did in congress a few years ago. This is also about getting the economy moving together so everyone can find a job. No one will agree all the time. I have lots of disagreements with my colleagues and i have some with donald trump as well but i think america will be more prosperous with a republican president and congress. Our agenda is better than their agenda. Have you hung out with donald trump much . Not oneonone. Hes been with washington and met with senators in congress. Does he say tom cotton National Security guy, i need to sit down with you. Do you think he will think differently when he reads what you have to say . Most recently when he was in washington and visiting senators i suggested back in march that our military needs an increase in the budget. I will have to start early next year. You can debate about how much, in the middle of the fiscal year can only assume so much new money to get it properly program for the year but we need an emergency military bulk up. Then we have to build upon that in the next budgets get back to Something Like we wouldve been if we hadnt seen these drastic cuts. I think he supports increasing our defense budget, not so we can fight and win the war that we might be facing but so that we can stop it from happening in the first place as we did with cold war. What is your advice on iran. We are one year into the iran deal and some say its a mixed record. On one hand you have centrifuges taken apart and some measurable points of success. Donald trump said he wouldnt rip up the deal. He would keep the deal. Ted cruz said he would rip it up. What would you advise when he comes in if he were to win office . What should he stake out with the iran arrangement. Iran is not following the deal. I would suggest walking away from it. This is an instance where you dont know what the war will look like in six months. This a few months ago germany outlined how they have been cheating on the deal. Maybe they will continue to cheat and it will convince others that we do need to walk away from it. It does not serve u. S. Interest in the longterm. Not just the Nuclear Aspects of it but also in their aggression around the region. Iraq, syria, lebanon, yemen and their support for terrorist. The president suggest that the nuclear deal allowed the United States to confront iranian aggression. Its done the opposite of so many people predicted. It has empowered them to be more aggressive, daring the president to take a chance of confronting them and then walk away because they know the United States wants it more than they do and therefore they can continue their reign of terror and aggression around the region. They can even cheat in the u. S. Will not call them on it. You said we need a separate trade deal with britain right after the bricks it out. Are you more tilting toward the uk away from europe . How do you look at that relationship . Think its natural the u. S. And the United Kingdom will have a special relationship as we have for so long. Why not with france . They arent our big brothers. We are part of the british tradition with canada and new zealand and australia. As much as we may be aligned with Continental Mission and theyre part of nato we give them security guarantees and vice versa, its natural that we have a closer relationship with Great Britain. Was deeply regrettable the way president obama and some of the european leaders were trying to intimidate that a vote to leave the eu would be bad for Great Britain and implying that there would be punitive consequences as well. Barack obama said the uk would have to go to the back of the queue. Leaders in brussels and other capitals said there would be serious consequences and punitive action taken against the uk. I would say since the campaign ended the interests of the players usually prevail and its clearly in the interest of the uk in the eu to have a trading relationship just like it is for the United States in the uk as well. I think the bill we introduced would simply preserve the status quo so nothing changes when they have their separation and then we can start a new round of negotiations with the uk. When you look at your party and i think youre part of the strategic helm to run things and think about what you need to organize in the future. What you think the blind spots of the Republican Party are right now . I think right now we havent had an agenda that is focused on the concerns of workingclass americans. I think that something donald trump has identified. Were you shocked at how well he did . No not really. Our voters, clearly for a long time, like most voters have wanted less immigrants. Immigrants are by and large good people. We are all in one way or another children of immigrants but our policy should be focused on a single objective. What is in the best interest of the american people. That is true whether you took the oath of citizenship last week or whether your parents came over on the mayflower. So many times in 2006 and 2007 and 2013, a bill like the gang of eight that would increase immigration at a time a time when people are struggling to get jobs and wages almost got through Congress Almost only to be stopped by popular uprising. I think we interpreted the signals wrongly that the voters were sending to the Party Leaders in washington. Thats the same way european leaders have been interpreting the signals incorrectly. Donald tapped into a sentiment that washington was not working for them. The economy is moving too slowly and its adult track economy and theres a lot of policies that were going to serve the best interest of the american people. Whether its increasing levels of immigration or having more regulations on Small Businesses, its not working. Let me put you on the spot. A lot of people think in 2020 or 2024 you might be a candidate or you might have a big party and a Big Convention in an unannounced city. Im really interested, one of the big issues we see in this where thats happening right now is racial tension. Black lives matter, Police Killing in one way or another, weve now had ambushes and assassinations of Police Officers. As you look forward at the party and you look forward in your own personal career, what you have to get right to begin dealing with that racial issue . What is the party and what does tom cotten need to move the needle on with regard to race . We need to make it clear that any attack on Police Officers is abhorrent. Its attack on the rule of law itself. We as people and civilians who live under the protection of Police Officers and as political leaders we admire and respect the Police Officers who go and put their lives on the line. There are wives and children in dallas were not to have their husband and their dad to come home. In some ways its harder than what soldiers have to face. When we went overseas, my family was worried about me. I got back in the new things would be fine. When your Police Officer, every single day is like that. You leave and you dont know what the next stop will hold and your loved ones dont know if youll walk through the door or for Police Officer in a dress uniform is going to knock on the door. We must make it clear we support the police and will give them the benefit of the doubt we will stand up for them. Anytime theres a use of force by Police Officer to include a shooting, there is investigations, facts are discovered, i think it important for political leaders that we not jump to conclusions and do nothing but ban the racial tension until we know the facts and know what happened. We just saw today the fourth acquittal of baltimore officers by a city that was torn apart by violence just last year. They have seen a 65 increase in its murder rate over the last year. That is particularly fitting black communities. I think its important that political leaders show their support for lawenforcement and do everything they can not to bring about four racial tension but find the facts, support lawenforcement and if they acted outside the law, hold them accountable. Is there something we should do, another indicated he has been stopped many times. What do we need to do to rebuild trust within, over racial divides of the country . Frankly i think a lot of political leaders need to stop fanning the flames of racial division. It doesnt mean that police are racist or that the officer did anything wrong. You dont know that until theres an investigation. When they going to street or call the police racist without actual basis, only to have them exonerated later when a judge or jury finds that the shooting was justified does nothing to promote racial harmony in our country. How are 2020 and 2024 looking for you . Its a long way off. Thank you. Im adam from Washington Free speak. As we were speaking here, the Associated Press just broke, they maintained a secret document about the aranda deal that shows restrictions will be lifted in less than ten years. I was curious of your reaction. The un has condemned this action and i would like to know your thought about that. I cant comment on a breaking report but it would not be surprising to me to see those restrictions in the nuclear deal lifted within ten years or iran violate them in the meantime. Remember we did a similar deal with north korea and they detonated a Nuclear Device only 12 years later. Initial reports from the administration were actually misleading this is not what you were told. Im truly sorry if i misled them about their ran deal. Im sorry. What we are talking about early and this is what chancellor merkel were discussing in part a couple weeks ago when they said they were violating the nuclear deal. A ran has plenty of missiles that can reach their adversaries in sunni countries or israel. Theres only one reason for them to be testing