the adjustment capital in jefferson city is just over 30 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the governor of missouri , eric greitens. [applause] gov. greitens: thank you. thank you all. thank you. [applause] thank youens: lieutenant governor person, speaker richardson, and members of the missouri house, president richard, and members of the missouri senate, chief justice fisher and justices of the supreme court thomas state officials, members of the cabinet, our first lady and my wife. [applause] we have many honored guests here tonight. one who is particularly special to me, my kindergarten teacher here tonight. [applause] gov. greitens: thank you. i was in mrs. richardsons kindergarten class and it was at my school that i first heard the story of a boy from the town of diamond, missouri. agoas born over 100 years and was born a slave. when he was a baby, he and his mother were kidnapped. , but by saw her again god's grace, he found a loving home and a new family that raised him as their own. towne time, no school in would admit a black student. so his parents taught him how to read and write. there was aolder, school that opened its doors to him. he worked hard and did well. so well that he was admitted to an agricultural college. this was a tough time for american farmers. their land was losing its richness and no one could figure out a fix. the young man from diamond invented new ways to grow crops. he traveled the country visiting farms, helping rural communities grow strong and feed more people. the manreports, he is who saved american agriculture. when george washington carver was born, he was considered by many to be property on a plantation. .e became an american hero a friend of presidents. [applause] gov. greitens: he was a counselor from everyone from the secretary of agriculture to gandhi. his face was on a postage stamp in his name on a navy submarine. he was and remains one of us. a missourian. and his story is our story. [applause] gov. greitens: george washington carver passed away 75 years ago this month. as we begin our work in this time and place, we should celebrate his life. we should remember where he started and how far he went. because we missourian snow that the --know that the contra thatnce -- contributions can in most -- counted most. i was sent here and i believe that many of you were sent here not to work for the connected or comfortable, but for those who have been forgotten. they are strong and proud and while they might not have paul or power or privilege, they have enormous potential. to those missourians, i have a simple message. we have been and we will fight for you every single day. [applause] gov. greitens: we promised we would fight for your jobs and we are. the most important thing we can do for missouri families is make it easier for those without jobs to find them. and make sure that those who have jobs keep them. over the past year, we have devoted the energy and attention of our office to putting missourians back to work. here are the results. today, missouri has the lowest unemployment rate it has had in 17 years. [applause] since last march, we have outpaced the nation in job growth and in the past year, insouri moved up nine spots the ranking of the best states in the country to do business. there are more manufacturing jobs in our state and there were one year ago. we are putting a steel mill in and competing for other steel mills in other places around the state. [applause] gov. greitens: we are bringing good, quality jobs back to missouri. yearve not fixed in one what was broken over the course of many decades. many missourians still struggle. we have a lot of work to do. but tonight, we can say there are more jobs in missouri than ever before. people are going back to work and we are moving missouri in a new and better direction. [applause] gov. greitens: some of the people who need us most, who are counting on us, are the children in the missouri foster care system. all 13,000 of them. we live in a compassionate state and there are thousands of loving families in missouri who have opened their homes and hearts to foster children. in fact, some foster and adoptive families are with us in the balconies this evening. please join me in recognizing them. [applause] , if greitens: one year ago a child in foster care needed a copy of their own birth certificate to apply for a drivers license or get a job, they had to pay for it out of there are pockets. today, we can proudly say that they can get that birth certificate without having to give the government their money. a year ago, a child entering our foster care system might not have known their rights. this is an issue that many of you have cared about for a long time and have worked on for a long time. i was proud to join you to sign into law a foster care bill of rights. [applause] last month,s: missouri officially joined the national electronic interstate compact enterprise to make adoption easier across state lines. i want to give a special thank you for her hard work on this issue, to the first lady of the state of the -- state of missouri and my wife, sheila great. sheila greiten. [applause] gov. greitens: our team has been working with members of this 20 legislative initiatives to help children in need. willof these initiatives help perform and improve missouri's adoption system so we can get children into safe, stable, loving homes faster. another would help children get access to bank accounts so they can save their money. 20 legislative initiatives will make a meaningful difference in the lives of the children in the state of missouri. , before i you know joined the military, i worked with children in some of the world most difficult places. i walked -- i worked with children who had lost their homes, kids went lost limbs to landmines, and children who went lost their parents to violence. children toone to often leads people to look at them as only damaged children. people see their problems and their pain but miss the courage. they see the scars, they do not see the strength. every child in the missouri foster care system has seen more than their fair share of hardship. we need to see in them there god-given gifts and we need to do everything in our power to help fulfill them. [laughter] [applause] tonight, i want to ask the members of this body to do something straightforward. put politics on hold. set any differences you might have with one another or with me to the side. these are our children. these are kids. there are 13,000 of them. we must love them and care for them as if they were our own because in law and spirit they are. so tonight let's join together and pledge to get this work done for the kids who need us most. [applause] gov. greitens: one of the most important things we can do for those kids and their families and families throughout missouri is to continue to bring more good jobs back to our state. for missouri to prosper, we need to get government off our backs. when we came into office, we looked at the burden of regulation and red tape on our farms, as this is, homes, communities -- businesses, homes and communities. we have so many regulatory requirements on the books. they add up to more than 7 million words in total. since 2002, regulatory requirements in our state grew at a faster rate than the regulations imposed on us by bureaucrats in washington dc. in missouri, the regulations forced some small businesses to install and pay for the landline phone, even if they did not want it or use it. government requires you to do trading online. you have to go to a meeting set up with the government to do it. regulations like these waste money and time and are outdated and irrelevant. they have been building up for too long. money.egulations cost us they raise the prices of the things we buy, they slow down our mills and farms and factories and shops. they make government more bloated and hermanson -- burnham burdensome. -- burden some. we're taking 33,000 regulatory requirements off of the books. [applause] gov. greitens: missouri has become a leader. in fact, other states have modeled their regulatory reforms on what we are doing to increase liberty and prosperity to the state of missouri. my team and i will continue to eliminate regulations that are unnecessary by executive action, to when we need legislation roll back regulations, we will work with you. but we need to do more. some of these we have talked about before. making sure we have the right laws on the books. making strategic investments in education and infrastructure and workforce development. one of the best investments we is also onemissouri of the most straightforward. cut taxes and put money back into the pockets of the people of missouri. [applause] gov. greitens: last year we faced a choice. cut spending or raise taxes. proud to say that we cut spending and also did not raise taxes on the citizens of missouri one nickel. [applause] gov. greitens: early next week, my team and i will lay out details, a thoughtful and thorough plan to cut taxes on the hardest working families in our state. [applause] it is the boldest state tax reform in america and with your help we will lower taxes for working families and make it easier for businesses to come to missouri and create jobs. and we will do it in a way that is fiscally sound, maintain the state aaa credit rating. in 2018 emma i want this body to cut taxes for the people of missouri and to cut taxes for businesses and create jobs. let's get it done together. [applause] today, i am proud to tell you that we continue to shrink the size of government. in fact, today the government in missouri is the smallest it has been in two decades. [applause] time,reitens: at the same we have been improving top government resources for our citizens. we brought in a team of outsiders. the most effective government at the lowest possible cost. the department of natural resources, we can -- we discovered a backlog. thousands of permit applications that had been submitted by businesses. it was decades-old and in the last year we have sliced it and half. [applause] gov. greitens: they found a permit that a company applied for in 1997. i am happy to report to you that it has been approved. [applause] that,reitens: not only they got all this done while cutting the departments size and spending less money, and they still managed to make sure that missourians have the safest drinking water they have had an almost 20 years. [applause] gov. greitens: this type of change is happening across governments. the government we need. it saved taxpayers almost $40,000 a year in maintenance, money the government was paying for airplanes that nobody was using. we found 30 cars the government did not need. that is going to save missourians over half $1 million because we got rid of them. the government goes through 1000 pages of paper for it -- each year. shelvesks sat on unopened and collecting dust. the budgetputting online and saving thousands on printing costs. [applause] gov. greitens: we have paid twontion to dollars and cents because we remember that every dollar the government spends was earned by a hard-working missourians. this is the people's money. [laughter] gov. greitens: for us to save dollars, we need to reform state workforce laws that are decades-old. today, government cannot move people where they will help the most, cannot reward people for good work and cannot get rid of poor performers. we need your help to build common sense government. speaking of common sense, our task force did a full audit of the boards and commissions in missouri's government. they were in bad shape. for example, missouri has six child abuse neglect review boards. these boards do important work to protect children. four of the six of them were not able to hear cases because they do not have enough members to meet. we fixed this. now they are able to get to work to protect our children. to serve citizens well, government needs to do fewer things and do them better. people have complained that missouri government is chock-full of redundant and wasteful boards and commissions. sort task force -- so our task board anded by commissioned by commission, we recommended the elimination of several regulations. i urge this body to pass that bill. [applause] gov. greitens: that is how we make government smaller and better. we must also make sure that our public service serves in the public's interest. we need to shut the revolving door between legislature and we need to pass term limits for every statewide office holder. [applause] gov. greitens: in my first action as governor, i signed an executive order banning lobbyists. thank you to speaker rations and -- richardson who also took action this year. [applause] gov. greitens: last year the bill fell in the senate. this year both bodies need to get together and pass the ban on gifts from lobbyists and legislature. in the meantime i have a simple request. i call on every member of the legislature to join me in a pledge not to accept any gifts from lobbyists. [applause] gov. greitens: we promised the people of missouri that we would support our law enforcement officers and first responders, and that is what we have done. tonight an officer who stepped into the cold to keep missouri safe. one police officer told our team there when he leaves for the that hee cannot be sure can be home safe. this is what our law enforcement families experience every day. year, some of them gave their lives in the line of duty. others were wounded. last month, i visited the bedside of officer ryan o'connor. after a criminal had shot him in the back of the head. the day we went to visit him, he was lying in the hospital bed a few feet away. son told me that like his grandfather and father, he wanted to be a police officer. [applause] gov. greitens: aidan, we want you and young people across the state of missouri to know that serving your community as a police officer is a proud and noble profession, and that we are proud of you. we are proud of you. [applause] gov. greitens: last year, working together with this body, we passed and signed into law blue alert legislation to help bring to justice and strengthen penalties for anyone who attacks or injures a law enforcement officer. this year we need to pass legislation that protects the health, safety and well-being of our firefighters, police officers, and first responders. [applause] gov. greitens: some of these issues we talked about before. one issue i want to raise tonight is the harassment of police officers. missouri, people can file liens against an officer's house. they can do this in secret and it can affect the credit of the police officers and their families, costing them thousands of dollars. it is harassment. on behalf of law enforcement officers throughout our state, i ask this body to pass a clean version of legislation that protects them from this type of harassment. [applause] gov. greitens: tonight, i want to let the police officers of the state know, your governor, and thelow citizens vast majority of your elective representatives, we have your back. [applause] gov. greitens: we are working to build the finest national guard in the country. i am proud to say that we were able to add 800 national guard jobs this past year. we want missouri to be the best state in the country for veterans and military families. we have members of the armed forces who get orders to come to missouri, to serve in places like for leonard wood cared today -- leonard wood. today, missouri might not recognize -- that means if your spouse has a career in dentistry and your family is moved, they may not be able to work in missouri. then needs to change. we need to grant full reciprocity of licenses to military members, veterans, and their spouses. [applause] gov. greitens: there is more. right now in missouri, small business owner who declares that he or she wants to hire veterans can be sued. if you say you prefer to hire veterans, you could face a lawsuit. and that is wrong. this legislature needs to pass the bill allowing employers to establish a veterans hiring preference. most states in the country have done this and it is time for missouri to do the same. [applause] honorreitens: i had the of visiting with the men and women of missouri's national guard when they were serving overseas. the men and women from the first battalion of 138th infantry regiment are home now, and i want all of you who are here today to say to them, welcome home, we are proud of you. [applause] gov. greitens: we are proud of you guys. we promised the people of missouri to fight for you. we have and we will. we promised we would do different. we have and we will. we promised the people of missouri that we would fight for the least among us, the forgotten. we have and we will. tonight, we can look back with pride and look forward with confidence. we have come far in one year. but we have a long way to go. the state of our state today reflects what the state of our people has always been. missouri is strong and she is getting stronger. thank you, god bless you, and god bless the people of missouri. [applause] books with the escort committee prepare to escort the governor from the chamber? committeed the escort prepared to escort the governor of the chamber? [applause] ♪ >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, watch c-span's interview with paul ryan. and it is a challenge extremely hard to pass big things like this. what i regret the most is the fact we have yet to reach bipartisan consensus on entitlement reform when all of us know this is necessary. of -- tax taxiway out your way out of the problems. >> alan gomez on congress in the trump administration's approach to protect daca recipients. also justice action network executive director joins us to talk about prison and reform. and a policy reporter for education week discusses failing infrastructure in the u.s. schools. be sure to join us for c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern friday morning. >> the u.s. house debated the reauthorization of section 702. he gives the government authority to conduct surveillance on foreigners outside of the u.s. the house voted 256 to 174 to approve the