[ applause ] it is now my honor to >> it is now my zing honor to present to you the governor of the state of vermont, the honorable peter e. shumlin. >> thank you. thank you. >> thank you, thank you. thank you so much. thank you. thank you so much. mr. president, mr. president protem, mr. speaker, mr. chief justice, senator leahy, general heston, members of the general assembly, distinguished guests, and fellow vermont ans. thank you all so much. i'm also really excited to welcome today the person who has stood by me every single day of my governorship, been extraordinarily patient, loving supportive, my love, your first lady, katie. [ applause ] >> i am as honored and humbled to stand before you today as i was giving my first inaugural address in 2011. that day i spoke with affection about our last governor from putney, george akin. three quarters of a century ago he stood before this body, and he reflected on the challenges and progress of his day. he said during these four years, vermont in common with the rest of the nation has experienced changes and put into practice new functions of government that were either unforeseen or in the visionary stages a few years ago. our task has been to apply these innovations in a practicable manner. 75 years later, his words call to mind our own efforts over the last five years. when i became governor, i promised to focus every day on making the lives of vermonters more secure. secure in an economy that grows jobs and works for everybody. secure with a smarter energy policy that relies on vermont-grown energy while protecting our planet and our economy. secure with an education system that gives can every vermont kid an sequel shot at success. secure in the criminal justice system that relies less on incarceration and more on rehabilitation. and secure with a health care system that offers coverage to all and costs vermonters less. from day one, i made it clear that i didn't run for office to be a caretaker. i ran to get tough things done. i ran for governor because vermont is a great state. i wanted to make it greater. [ applause ] i knew it wouldn't be easy. that's why i ended my first address to you with these words. our obstacles are many and our challenges are daunting. the change we're proposing is transformative and systemic. it will not happen quickly or easily. it hasn't been easy, but together, we have accomplished so much. vermont is a better place to live. it's a better place to work. it's a better place to raise a family than it was when we began. governor akin was forth right in sayinging there have ever been times when we have encountered rough places on the highway of our history, but he concluded we have been successful for the most part. both are as true today as they were. in akin's day. we've put vermont back to work. we started at the trough of a great recession, unsure whether we would be able to build back. soon after, irene struck. we were down, and we got knocked down again. but we stood back up. we've added 17,6hup new jobs in the past five years, and our per capita incomes are at or above the national average, and that's been true for every year that i've been governor and that has never happened in vermont's history. [ applause ] >> we've expended health insurance top 19,000 vermonters who had no coverage when i took office. no coverage. and in my forthcoming budget speech, i'll address the important work left do with our health care system and we have plenty of it. this hard work and these positive statistics are about real vermonters who have been helped to better times. christie of st. albans was lebbing the dream with her husband and eight children on their dairy farm when her husband became ill. they were forced to sell the family farm. she was only able to get a part-time job at the time. christie was struggling to support her family when he she found a free job training opportunity sponsored by the state of vermont to work as a medical coder at precise. now kristi is earning a great salary with excellent benefits and describes the job training that she found as a life changer for her. christie and matthew of precise are here in our chamber today. stand up so we can recognize you and thank you for your fight for sticking with it. thank you, christie. [ applause ] thank you. now, while there thousands of success stories like kristi's, there are still vermonters stuck with bills that are piling up faster than they can pay them. we have more work to do. vermonters who are sick shouldn't have to choose between going to work or losing their job. this is not just about fairness to employees. it is about protecting all of us. nationwide, almost 0% of food workers report they that they go to work sick. and according to the cdc, 65% of -- are 65% of food born illnesses result from the handling of food by someone who is sick. i'm encouraged that the senate is committed to getting the good bill the house passed to my desk. let's get that done this year. [ applause ] in the race to the bottom where states cannibalized each other for jobs, vermont has succeeded by being smart, not big. two years ago we added to our job creation arsenal the vermont enterprise fund.h enterprise fund. [ applause ] now the ceo and her husband and vice president are here today. thank you, lena and jac, for being vermont's newest job creators. thank you for believing in vermont. stand up, wherever you might be. thank you, thank you lena. thank you, jac. we'll make sure you don't regret it. 4400 of the new jobs we created are because of the new face of locally grown food in vermont. 4400. it wasn't long ago that many believed that our best farming days were behind us. but today, a new, young generation of farmers are competing for land and resources, and they are producing the best fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese, beer, cider, and spirits in the world. the world. [ applause ] in the past two years, i've had the privilege of moving america's best cheese award from one vermont farm to another vermont farm. take that, wisconsin. [ applause ] now, get this. i'm not done. long known to out of staters for our great deer hunting and you know i love to hunt deer. flatlanders are now coming to vermont to hunt beer. no, they are literally rising at dawn to drive to the promised land where they stand in a long line and they wait and they wait and they wait some more to purchase vermont's world award winning beers which they carry back with them in their trunks. the trunks of their cars to lift up their miserable lives because they don't live in vermont. i mean, this is the truth. you can't make this stuff up. [ applause ] you know that. so listen, here's the point. we can't let up. we can't let up on our farm to plate, farm to glass, and farm to can revolution. i am pleased to announce $175,000 in new money for the working lands fund which has been a catalyst in that agricultural renaissance. we have generous donations of $100,000 from lee and charles marinof of townsend. 50,000 from the progressive farm alliance and 25,000 from long trail. we are honored to have them backed up and thank you for supporting the farm resolution. so we can give you a hand. [ applause ] as i travel around vermont talking to employers, their biggest challenge remains finding enough trained and educated workers to help them grow. it's that simple. they can find them, they'll grow. they know that our success in moving low income kids beyond high school will determine their success. by expanding a number you have kids earning college credit for free while they're still in high school and becoming the only state to guarantee every 3 and 4-year-old access to quality pre-k, we have taken vermont's good education system and made it better. congratulations. [ applause ] kateland is a single mom working in johnson raising her 4-year-old daughter. like most working parents, finding quality affordable child care has been tough and it's been critical to her job. thanks to our expansion of pre-k programs across the state, kate's daycare in mud city it, i didn't name it, was able to offer kate and her daughter exactly what they need. thank you, kate, for being here today. stand up. and thank you for showing them how to get it done. [ applause ] now, despite having one of the highest graduation rates in the country, we continue to fall short getting more students the college education that is now a prerec question sit to earning a decent wage. we must ensure that vermonters who are not born with mountains of opportunity have the same shot at economic prosperity as those who are. that's why i signed the bill last year to help families start saving for college from the day their children are born. now we must fund it. my budget will ensure that every child born in vermont will receive a $250 contribution to get that savings plan for college started and that low income vermonterss will double that for them, $500 a child. that's progress. [ applause ] now, we also need to make it easier for those who are working hard in low paying jobs to get back to school. i constantly talk to vermonters who ended their studies in high school, are working numerous jobs to make ends meet, long for a better future and more education, but don't have two pennies to rub together to pay for it. the other night i went to morrisville and i visited the man up program at ccv which offers support and mentoring for young men who are exactly this situation. i met brandon and justin bordeaux last year, brandon was a line cook and justin was working at a local grocery store. through at man up program, these two brothers are successfully back on track, back on their academic careers. brandon, justin and billy dunham the facilitator of this program are here today. stand up and let's recognize them for pulling this off and showing vermonters how you can get back. [ applause ] way to go. power on. now, it's our responsibility to offer the same opportunity to every vermonter. to every woman, to every man. today, i propose that we not just man up. let's step up for everyone. in part -- let's do it. . [ applause ] >> in partnership with the ccv, the vermont state colleges and uvm, my budgeting will provide $2 million to launch step up. funding a semester of free courses, a semester of free courses and support services which are critical to help first generation and lower income students get back to school just like justin and brandon. let's do that together. [ applause ] now, global foundries has agreed to offer mentoring support to step up students. mike russo and kimberly finnegan from global foundries are here today. mike and kimberly, thank you for investing in vermont. thank you for investing in our stepup program. stand up so we can give you a hand. thank you so much. [ applause ] you all should be so proud. we should all be so produced that act 46 is working better than most of us would have ever anticipated. certainly me. communities across vermont are finally having the very difficult but necessary conversations about how we write our educational enterprise to improve quality for students and reduce costs over time for taxpayers. teeny part of the bill i believe has become the enemy of the good. i ask you to work swiftly in the coming weeks to pass either a moratorium or repeal this to sind them to the printers. let's get that done together. [ applause ] now, the most tropical christmas in memory, the most tropical christmas in memory should remind us that have climate change threatens the vermont that we love. from our ski season to our lakes. that's why we're working so hard to move to green, clean, renewable energy. that's creating jobs, reducing power rates, and putting money in vermonters' pockets as we do it. we're living in a state where vermonters' electric bills have actually gone down, not up for three of the past four years. [ applause ] that's affordability. when i became governor, our largest power generator was an aging, leaking nuclear power plant. five years later, we've increased by ten times, ten times the number of solar panels and we now have more clean energy jobs per capita than any state in america. [ applause ] that's a big deal. during of peak demand, solar power has replaced our nuclear plant as the largest power generator in our state. [ applause ] folks didn't think that was possible. now, last year, we passed the most ambitious, long overdue, clean water bill in vermont's history. no one knows better, no one, than vermont senator patrick leahy and his extraordinary co-pilot marcel that lake champlain is a great lake. and that's right. [ applause ] and no one has worked harder to make it greater than the leahy team. patrick and marcel are with us. thank you for all that you've done for our lake, all you've done for vermont, all you do for america. we are so happy to have you here. [ applause ] but you know, as the leahy team can tell you, the clock keeps ticking. we're running out of time. and the urgency for us to take every sensible action against climate change has never been greater. california under governor brown's leadership recently passed a bill to divest state funds from dirty coal and explore divesting from big oil. our small state must partner with california which manages hundreds of billions of dollars of state funds and divest vermont of coal and let's do it now. [ applause ] thank you. thank you. i don't need to remind you that vermont is downwind, downwind of the coal-fired plants to our west. where the tail pipe, the tail pipe to their dirty energy choices. their pollution sickens our children. creates acid rain, dumps mercury on our forests and our lakes and increases greenhouse gas emissions. i ask that you send me a divestiture bill just like california's and while you're doing that, governor brown and i will invite other governors to join us in what should be a national effort. let's do it together. [ applause ] while we await california's study on oil, vermont should not wait, should not wait, to rid ourselves of our exxonmobil stock. it has been clearly documented since the 1980s that exxonmobil's own scientists have long known about the dangers of global warming and chose to conceal it, conceal it from the public. at the same time that they were building their oil rigs taller to account for rising sea levels, they were funding front groups of scientists to deny that climate change is real. this is a page right out of big tobacco's which for decades denied the health risks of their products while they were killing people. owning exxonmobil stock is not a business vermont should be in. let's sell it. [ applause ] let's sell it. thank you. now, there's no one who's done more to promote divestiture than our own homegrown vermont's bill mcgiven. bill's here today. bill, thank you for your leadership. stand up if you would and thank you for all you're doing for climate change. [ applause ] thank you. since i took office, we've helped thousands and thousands of vermont families, farms, and businesses set up small scale methane digesters, solar, wind, and hydro. we can't stop there. we need more smart lit sited renewables to power vermont. we're learning as we go. last year, we gave local communities more say in the public service board process. i believe we should continue to build renewables on a vermont scale. rejecting megasolar projects that gobble up hundreds and hundreds of acres and require vermonters to pay for costly grid upgrades. we must also reject anti-renewable extremists who would shut down renewables through moratoriums and other job-killing tactics. [ applause ] instead, instead, let's give an economic advantage for locating solar on roof tops, brown fields, landfills, and other already developed lands where we currently have transmission capacity. it just makes good sense. [ applause ] let's do it. homegrown. homegrown, not corporate grown is vermont's energy future. let's not forget that. you all remember, it was a pretty lonely place when vermont had the courage to acknowledge the terrible disease of opiate addiction that was threatening our quality of life and killing too many of our neighbors. today, there can't be a state in the union that hasn't joined us. our innovation over the past two years is getting results. 65% more vermonters are getting treatment. we're moving addicts into recovery instead of jail. by getting rescue kits to anyone who will take them, we've prevented hundreds and hundreds of overdose deaths. we've saved lives. most importantly, we've removed the stigma, that diskrim nays against our friends and family members struggling so hard against this terrible disease. recently, i met megan and chelsea mitchell. two young moms who are beating addiction to build a better future for their children. chelsea became addicted, homeless, and alone. and her daughter was taken from her. success meant fighting relapse with all of her might, falling and crawling back up again. megan had a college degree. worked in early childhood education and began usingopias as an adult, an example of how easily things can get out you have hand and how quickly someone can fall into the pit of addiction. with the help of who your hub and spoke treatment center and the center, chelsea and megan are doing the hard work to recover. megan and chelsea are here today. stand up, thank you for your strength. thank you for -- [ applause ] i said -- i said two years ago that opiate addiction is the one thing, the one thing that could destroy vermont as we have known it. today, we live almost daily with drug-related violence. whether it's dealers getting shot on church street or people burning to death after being doused with gasoline, the horrors seem unimaginable. unimaginable. we live with despair, crime, death, and small children neglected by the people who are supposed to love them the most. so much of this burden, so much of this burden lands on the shoulders of our state's social workers who spend every day making difficult, tough, unfriendly choices to protect and give hope to heroin's most innocent victims our most vulnerable children. we will forever honor one of our very best, lara sobell whose love and compassion for every child, every family, every vermonter she touched shall be forever etched in our memory. indeed, it's lara's commitment, her daughters, her husband, her family, give us the faith in our common humanity to keep pressing on. to continue our search for a smarter approach as folks continue to become addicted faster than we can treat them. we're so honored to be joined today by lara's two daughters, julia and alana and her husband tim. thank you. stand up, if you would. we will never forget your mom. [ applause ] to continue lara's legacy, let's give her colleagues the support they need to do their job by an patriotic my request to fund 35 new positions at the department of children and families and help me take measures to ensure their safety in the workplace. let's doe that together. [ applause ] we also need to take two additional actions to deal with our addiction crisis. first, in order to meet our goal of getting rid of the waiting list, we must continue to expand treatment. in franklin county where approximately 250 folks have to travel to other hubs for treatment, my health department is working with the northwest medical center to expand treatment options closer to home. in addition, we are also working with the hospital to increase access to viacheslav trol, a drug that will block the effects an of opiates for a full month to help addicts in the struggle to stay clean. in burlington, health commissioner harry chen is working with myer weinberger, the medical center, recovery providers, law enforcement, community leaders to prevent addiction, reduce drug-related crime and expand treatment options there. across the state, the department of children and families is sending the drug screeners out with our social workers into homes where substance abuse is a contributor to children who are being abused or neglected. statewide, parents with young children in the dcf system will be moved to the front of the line until the waiting lists are gone. [ applause ] second, let's go after the source that led us into this mess in the first place. it's difficult for me to find words that much adequately express my frustration, but i can find the three letters that are at the root of the problem. fda. [ applause ] in the 1990s, the fda approved oxycontin. which lit the match that ignited america's opiate and heroin addiction crisis, make no mistake about it. in 2010, we prescribed enough oxycontin to keep every adult in america high for an entire month. in 2012, we issued enough prescriptions to give every american adult their own personal bottle of pills. on television, americans now see commercials for drugs whose sole purpose, so purpose is to help relieve the side effects from taking opiates. in other words, we now have fda approved drugs to lep you take more fda approved opiates. a few years ago, the fda approves oxycontin on steroids against the recommendation of their own advisory committee. just a few months ago, the fda approved oxycontin for kids. you cannot make this stuff up. the $11 billion a year opiate industry in america knows no shame. compassionate pain management has been transformed by big pharma into drug promotion and profit. and until america is willing to have an honest conversation about the way we're dealing with pain, our challenges will continue, i assure you unabated. in light of this, i ask you to tep me implement the following, first, we're putting an end to the system where doctors, dentists, health care providers send patients home with 80, 90 pills in their pockets. i'm proposing a new system where a maximum of 10 pills will be the limit for minor procedures. let's be sensible. [ applause ] now, we're also looking at reasonable limits for major procedures that provide pain relief without filling up our medicine cabinets with unused opiates. that's just vermont common sense. let's get it done together. [ applause ] second, we're going to partner with local pharmacies and communities to expand drug takeback programs to get rid of vermont's most dangerous leftovers. that is, too, is good common sense. third -- [ applause ] third, we're partnering with neighboring states to upgrade the prescription monitoring system to prevent addicts from crossing state borders to go pill shopping. i ask for your support on all three of these actions. thank you. [ applause ] now, we must also continue the good progress that we've made reforming our criminal justice system. it shouldn't surprise anybody that when you take people's driver's licenses for nondriver-related offenses like underage tobacco purchases, that we end up with four times as many vermonters with suspended driver's licenses than we have enrolled in our state college system. four times. that's right. now, i want to recognize our innovative state's attorney, t.j. dun know van, who worked with us to create two driver restoration days in two counties. t.j., thank you for your good work. where are you hiding? stand up. thank you for being so innovative. appreciate it. [ applause ] the stories, the stories that t.j. and i heard from low income vermonters standing in line for redemption made me ask this. why are we creating a permanent economic disability and making it so difficult for people who want to improve their lives? i ask you to make driver restoration days unnecessary. that's right. abolish them by passing legislation that ensures that none traffic related offenses don't lead to vermonters losing -- it's just common sense. let's do it together. has also failed. we all know that. there's no better example than our nation's marijuana -- took steps to change our criminal penalties and instatute a well regulated medical marijuana system that now serves 2400 vermonters. this careful approach shows that we know how to regulate marijuana. avoiding is the pitfalls that caused other states to stumble where vermont succeeded. so we've got a track record. but the black market of drug deal areas selling marijuana for recreational use is alive and well in our state. these drug dealers could not care less how young their customers are, what's in the products that they sell much less whether they pay taxes on their earnings. that's why i will work with you to craft the right bill that thoughtfully and carefully eliminates the era of prohibition that is currently failing us so miserably. miserably. to do it right, we must do it deliberately, cautiously, step by step and not roll it out in one leap as we legislate the lessons learned from the other states that went before us. you'll insist on five things before i'll sign the bill. first, a legal market must keep marijuana and other drugs out of the hands of underage kids which the current system does not. our new system must. second, the tax -- must be low enough to wipe out the black market and get rid of the illegal marijuana dealers. third, legalization must be used to expand addiction prevention programs statewide. fourth, we must strengthen law enforcement's current capacity to improve our response to impaired drivers under the influence of marijuana who are already driving on vermont's roads right now. and fifth, take a hard lesson learned from other states and ban the say of edibles until other states figure out how to do that one right. those are the five things that are good common sense. now, i understand that the senate's going to go first. and i look forward to working with senate president pro tem john camp bell with the senate leadership, senator series on the senate judiciary committee to construct a sensible caution bill. we have a history of tackling difficult issues with respect and care the vermont way. i believe we have the capacity to taking this next step and get marijuana legalization done right the vermont way. let's do it together. [ applause ] as we begin a new year and start a new legislative session, we commit ourselves anew to the work ahead. i know that there are those critics who perpetually see the cup, vermont's cup as half empty. while some pessimists talk down our economy, vermonters know that we continue to make progress growing jobs, attracting businesses, because of our unique quality of life. our tight knit communities and our dedicated innovative workforce. while some cynics call endlessly for vermont to join the race to the bottom, i believe we should continue our commitment to clean jobs, clean water, clean energy and a quality educational system. our cup is not half empty. it's overflowing with the most hard working, most resilient, most rugged innovative people in america. that's vermonters. [ applause ] together, together, we aspire rightfully for a brighter future and vermonters deserve leadership that is forward looking and unafraid. well, some want vermont to join the majority of governors in our nation in closing its borders to the syrian refugees fleeing violence and death. i believe vermont must not abandon its long heritage of being a welcoming state to those are escaping unimaginable horror, unimaginable horror to seek a better life. [ applause ] how many -- how many of us can claim in our own family's arrival in america fleeing famine, religious oppression, dictatorship or war was not a motivation to come here? vermonters have a long tradition and a proud tradition of rejecting racism, big gottory, bullying, intolerance, and fear. you know, when mccarthyism reared its ugly head in america, senator akin cautioned his own republican party that are saw the, and i quote victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance, and intolerance. more than half a century later, the same un-american spirit dominates our political dialogue. we are so blessed to live in a state where so many reject fear and hatred. and i pledge to continue to work with president obama with our congressional delegation, our refugee resettlement community, clergy, volunteers and our mayors to make our state a beacon of hope and hospitality to the muslims, to our syrian brothers and sisters, to all who seek to build a better life right here in vermont. let's do that. [ applause ] now, this news probably won't surprise you. but i love being governor. and i'm so grateful for the privilege of serving you. those of us entrusted by the people of vermont to effect positive change have the unique opportunity every day of putting words into action. our time is now to make a difference in the lives of vermonters. let's get to work. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> every weekend on "american history tv" on c-span3, we feature programs that tell the american story. here are some of the highlights for this presidents' day weekend. saturday afternoon at 5:00 eastern, author margaret oppenheimer talks about her book the remarkable life of eliza jumel." her unusual life including a second marriage to former vice president aaron burr. >> what brought these two celebrities together? on both sides of the altar, the undown theed attraction was. >> you mel's money. a marriage to eliza jerusalemal will give lim a big pot of money to spend. jumel had no motivations for the marriage. on the one hand, she would soon have to begin settling her first husband's estate. burr with his knowledge of the clue help her protect her assets. but the main attraction of the marriage for her was the opportunity to enter social circles that had been previously closed to her. >> at 6:00 on the civil war, historian dennis fry on the reactions of both southerners and northerners to john brown's 1859 raid on the federal at harper's ferry as americans headed toward the 1860 election. sunday afternoon at 2:00, historians explore the death penalty in america including the supreme court case that is affirmed the constitutionality of capital punishment. monday afternoon at 3:30 eastern, author james swanson compares the assassinations of abraham lincoln in 1865 and john f. kennedy in 1963. their personal similarities and differences in their terms in office, the backgrounds of the assassins and the state of the country at the time. he also talks about the experience and reactions of the two widows, mary lincoln and jacqueline kennedy. >> but jackie was very conscious of history. jfk was very