Now we know that china russia, venezuela voted to approve this. They will vote to lift the u. S. Sanctions. The only power we have left to override the president s veto, and groups like aipac who i have met with the past several days who have to appeal to democrats, this is a bad deal. That is the only way that this whole process can be stopped. Why does it need to be stopped . It allows them to continue their Nuclear Weapons program. That is not why we passed the sanctions over the last decade. We passed the sanctions to dismantle their nuclear capability. The idea that it is for peaceful, Energy Purposes is laughable. The icbm capability can continue to go forward. You develop that to deliver a nuclear warhead. It will start a middle east arms race. When i was in saudi, they said, why are you negotiating with iran . Our allies are confused and do not know if they are still allies. They are strongly opposed to this. Now we see a Nuclear Arms Race in the middle east, egypt will look at it, turkey. Lastly, hundreds of billions of dollars that will be lifted and given to the largest state sponsor of terror with hamas hezbollah, the influence in the western hemisphere, venezuela and other countries. We saw the saudi ambassador assassination plot. They conduct Cyber Attacks routinely on our financial sector. This will pour hundreds of billions into this operation. I think it is quite frankly our biggest foreignpolicy mistake in my lifetime, and i think it rivals neville chamberlains negotiations with hitler. If the president s argument is, it is this deal or war, but your assessment is, at this deal actually does is protects their nuclear infrastructure, allows them to become a stronger Nuclear Breakout state pours times of money into the regime and makes them more dangerous you argue the best course of action would be for the United States not to participate in the vienna action and that would allow the next president more freedom . Rep. Mccaul the only thing in the realm of possibility is to make it vetoproof. I think Chuck Schumer is a key player in this, in the senate, and we are working very hard to make this a bipartisan opposition to the president s policies. The more the American People here about this deal as they chant death to america, they are celebrating on the streets of tehran as they changed in the streets. I think that speaks volumes, and if we cannot accomplish that, then i think the only thing left is the next president. And i think that will make the next 2016 election that much more important. This is going to be a driving issue when we go home in august over the recess, and i think it will be a driving issue in the 2016 debate. At least i hope so. Lets just round out the discussion because why thats what i really appreciated from your remarks with how copperheads they were. Comprehensive they were. Dealing with terrorism overseas and domestically. Some of the legislation, part of that is how to deal with this so let me ask you a sense of the question where you have gotten some criticism from your friends on the right. If you were going to create a countering violent extremism capability in the hs, what is to prevent this administration from using that to go after political opponents, maybe conservative it conservative groups much in the way that the administration has been accused of using it . Rep. Mccaul the intent of the legislation is to go against radical islam ists, against radical ideology. If it occurred, you would see a pretty good response from me. That is not the intention of the bill. When i talked to secretary jeh johnson and others, their priority is radical islamists. They can go to the muslim communities to do that out reach necessary to find the next tamerlan tsarnaev. Chattanooga had a lot of flags going up before they kill people. If we can identify those flags before hand and d radicalize, that would be very helpful. This is really a two front deal. When i met with centcom, one of their biggest priorities is Homeland Security. Mine is protecting homeland from within but also, protecting homeland by eliminating threats outside. For instance, these what i call isis cyber commanders sending directives out on a routine basis to attack. The idea that we cannot take them out overseas, i have been pressing them to buy identify , i cannot name the names, but identify who they are at the internet cafes, and take them out. Not to say that that will end it. There will be others that will follow. I think at the end of the day, it is a war ideology. That is why the counter violent extremism is so important to provide the counter narrative to a radical ideology. We are in a longterm struggle that i do not know if it will end during our lives. Just affirmed that when it is done right, that can work. I was in st. Louis were two individuals were arrested for providing Material Support to isis. The community was complete utterly outraged, and they actually were extremely cooperative and wanted to engage with state and local and fbi officials because they wanted to protect their community and their children. I agree with you, when it is done right, it is a positive and a strengthening force in the community, not a divisive thing. Rep. Mccaul we will be able to identify radicalization early on and stop it. I want to try to squeeze in maybe one or two questions from the audience but i want to get one more point before we do that. Something that we have dealt with for a very long time, the role of the Homeland Security committee in the house and the difficulties and the importance of consolidating authorities and jurisdiction, just get your view on that. Rep. Mccaul i think unlike the house arms service, which has authority over the entire department of defense, my committee was built on a compromise after 9 11, so it shares jurisdiction with so many other committees that not only is the oversight cumbersome because we find officials have to testify all the time and cannot do their job. Secondly, it makes it more difficult to legislate. I think it is detrimental, the 9 11 commission came back again. This is one of the biggest threats to the United States and congress. We talk about silo and information in the executive branch and not communicating yet the congress, we have done that through our committees. Jurisdiction is the holy grail in congress, and i think it is something that needs to be fixed. I intend to present this to the next congress in the rules package but i think the argument needs to be made, and i think it needs to be done. We have a question over here. If you would just state your name and affiliation before you ask your question, that would be great. Thank you very much. My name is laura dr. Laura core, and im a subject Matter Expert in terrorist radicalization and dera dicalization. We are doing a lot of research for what you are talking about. How can we help . When it comes to online sanctuaries, twitter is a serious issue. Google and facebook have a Faster Response time. If you complain about a twitter handle, it takes weeks if not months for an account that is blatantly recruiting for different groups, to be taken down. An hour later, the same handle comes up. In the next few months, will you be addressing how to perhaps influenced twitter to be comparable to its counterpart and not be used as a platform for terrorism and recruitment and radicalization . Thank you. Rep. Mccaul great question. You can help support my legislation getting through and groups like heritage, that supported. I think it is common sense to counter violent extremism. We met the day before the shooting, ironically, and i think it is desperately needed. It is not a focus of the administration and it needs to be. With respect to, this is the hightech challenge. Bin laden, it was all careers and caves. Now it is this younger generation. Terrorists are very savvy online with their propaganda. They are in their 20s and they change their handles, they change their twitter accounts so trying to stay in front of them, we can argue about changing the law to include a backdoor into devices, but thats kind of dicey on the private seaside. We are looking more for a Technology Solution. My first meeting is friday morning, with the hightech sector, the leaders like google and twitter. And Homeland Security, fbi and doj, to see what kind of solution can we provide. I can get into a little bit more depth in the q and a. We see these situations from syria into the United States. We saw in garland, new york, in boston. For all i know, this guy in chattanooga could have and im not saying he did, because we are still to the forensics could have been communicating in what we call dark space. They will go to another platform like ask fm, knowing that it is secure, it is dark, which means that even with a court order we cannot see that communication. There are again 200,000 tweets, isis tweets per day. When it is an dark space, we cannot see that communication whatsoever. Theres a lot of communication going on between cyber commanders in syria and americans, thousands of followers in the United States about attack in america. We cannot shine a light on the communications through the darkness. As a policy maker, Civil Liberties, by the sea, this all has to be part of the equation but we have to find a Technology Solution to this so that we can better stop it. Otherwise, we cannot see the communications, we cannot stop it. If the guy in chattanooga was operating in dark space with the guy in syria, that would make it good case of why we need to fix that problem. I talked to the director of fbi and jeh johnson, this is one of their biggest concerns that they cannot lawfully monitor these communications. We will take one last question out here. Thank you. I think we can all agree that trying to monitor cyberspace is futile, lawfully or unlawfully. Given that it is a war of ideology, is there any plan on the table for policy to try and exploit that ideology . That seems to be the crux of it is, recruits will be replenished as long as they can be reached out to. Do we have a way to counter this ideology, use it against them . Rep. Mccaul it is a great question. When you go to what i was proposing in terms of a ground force, it has got to be under American Leadership with our guys and that it, and it is time for the city of arab nations to provide that ground force. They will do so if there is a strategy. When the infidel sets foot, the last resort, we try to do this or redo 100,000 u. S. Or we do hundred thousand u. S. Comment groups combat groups. That is an option that should be on the table. When i talked to centcom, you inflame them because the infidel is on their land. I think there is a smart approach, a smart way to do this without inflaming them, and indigenous force were the sunni moderates defeat sunni extremists. That seems to me, under American Leadership. The counter narrative is not there. That is the purpose of my bill to counter violent extremism at home. The state department does not have the counter narrative to defeated abroad. When i met centcom the dod has a lot of this Technology Capability to do it. The ambassador was there at the meeting. I was urging them to start this counter narrative so that they can know, you can go to syria it is not disneyland. You are going to get put on the front lines, probably blown up. Frontline did a great special. I am always watching pbs. A special on enslaving isis women and bartering them off for weapons and 500. It is horrific what they do. The videos i see every week are just chilling. The lack of humanity, and that is a counter narrative that needs to be out there more. At the end of the day, it is providing stability in these countries. Power vacuums, when they fall, it breeds terrorism. After we saw the air of spring, arab spring, we saw libya. Pulled out of africa, completely out of iraq and syria. Without a counter narrative and a strategy to deal with it, it is going to continue to breathe and thrive. That is the problem, is it has metastasized so greatly globally. That is what worries me. Im going to ask you all to join with me in a small round of administrative jujitsu. Im going to ask you to join me in thanking congressman mccall. Mccaul, for his talk, which has been informative. I would ask for our panel to just jump up as soon as he leaves the stage and we will not lose any time. Please join me and thinking congressman mccaul. [applause] in thanking congressman mccaul. [applause] do you remember i told you the story that i lost secretary renfield rumsfelds bio . I just lost all their bios, but fortunately i know all these guys. This is a terrific panel because what you have here is just a net of expertise and knowledge which is really kind of unusual to bring together. So you had this minor job in the white house . Working on the Homeland SecurityCouncil Staff as an advisor. Somebody that really worked at this on the inside at the highest level. General meese was not just the attorney general of the United States but for many years, one of our most distinguished scholars. Among the things he has done in addition to dealing with these issues is he recently served on a very important commission that reviewed the counterterrorism functions of the fbi. Here is somebody with years and years of knowledge and experience who has had the opportunity to do an indepth investigation. Our third panelist is a test with Homeland Security. All the federal agencies state local, and international partners. You have three amazing perspectives. And i will ask each of them to make some remarks, and then we will get into as much cute and a the end as we can. Q and a at the end as we can. Thank you for coming today. Im going to use my time to lay out some of the statistics and trends the u. S. Has been seen in its long war against islamic terrorism, and give general recommendations echoing what general mccall. This data tells me that the u. S. Has faced more tears plots and attacks test terrorist plots and attacks this year than we have any prior year, and we are only in july. This is the most dynamic. Of terrorist activity that the u. S. Has seen since 9 11, of the publicly available information. There could be classified information. The fbi, they state they are tracking hundreds of individuals. It is clear that we have a very serious problem. At the outset, i just want to describe quickly what it is we do, what the criteria are that we look at when, is it a terror plot. It has to be a concrete plot with actual action taken. If someone wants to travel abroad support isis, we do not consider that a terrorist plots against the u. S. Homeland. A terrorist act is defined by statute and would be motivated by an islamic ideology. Generally, we also look for an official statement by the government and Law Enforcement to indicate that this was an act of terror, usually indicated by criminal charges. That is not always the case. Take the fort hood shooting. That was characterized as workplace violence, not an act of terror. With these criteria in mind, we have been watching and recorded 72 islamist terror plots since 9 11, not including chattanooga since we are still watching for some of those criteria. Of these plots, five were successful. U. S. Law enforcement help foiled 59 and International LossLaw Enforcement foiled 10, and we got lucky three times. These plots involved 171 individuals in total and at least 27 of these individuals were trained in terrorist camps abroad. 61 of the 72 plot were homegrown terror plot. These folks were here in the United States when they were radicalized. They did not get their ideology why they were staying abroad. They were staying here in the United States. 28 were foiled by Law Enforcement things. What exactly were they targeting . The number one homeland target has been the u. S. Military either personnel or actual basis. 19 plots or attacks have gone after our military. The second most common target is new york city, with 16 plots followed by Mass Gatherings at 12 plot. Mass transit situations are the fourth target and washington dc and Law Enforcement tie for the fifth most common target. The recent plots have been unique. All the plots this year have been inspired by or directed by isis, while most prior attacks were done by individuals who were inspired by or directed by al qaeda, one of their affiliates, or some other ideology. To have all 10 plots in the past six months will be connected to one group shows the influence isis has. It is not a coincidence that we have seen this spike in terrorism as isis has risen to prominence. During the past year, we have seen a spike in plots against Law Enforcement and our military, which makes sense since isis has specifically called for violence against them. The question is, what do we do about this . My panelists will have the opportunity to dive into some details, but i want to use to touch on two broad ideas. It is critical that the United States take a proactive approach. When we treat terrorism just like a crime that we can combat with Law Enforcement tools, we can deter it, we can punish it after the fact, we misunderstand the nature of the threat. Terrorists are happy to, and sometimes even want to die in pursuit of their goal. The bigger bang they make, the more likely they are to get us to change our behavior, so they are looking for those big opportunities. They are looking to hurt us, and criminal punishment after the path after the fact is not a deterrent. Theyre also looking for soft targets that are easily attacked. Take the most recent lot in boston. Plot in boston. Or look at tunisia, the attack on the resort. These are soft targets, not guarded by a lot of security very often. Security is not enough. We cannot have Security Officers everywhere. Security is helpful, it can help us in preventing an attack from getting out of hand, but texas was too close for comfort. We need to look at how we will be can be more proactive. This means that Law Enforcement to have the tools, the lawful intelligence tools available to them to find terrorists, to put together the dots, and make sure the public has never put in danger. We have to make sure we are preventing individuals from radicalizing. Second, the u. S. Does need to do more to defeat isis abroad. The success of isis is attracting followers. A lot has been made of isis and their use of social media, and there is no doubt that isis is very effective at using social media and other online tools. It is not just social media which is causing individuals around the world to take up arms for isis. Social media is just a true will that isis is using a tool that isis is using to display its message. This success is compelling. It is a compelling message to many in the world and so as long as isis is able to claim the success, would be terrorists will flock to their cause. The u. S. And its allies need to take more effective steps to defeat isis and other islamic terrorist groups. Greater intelligence and lawenforcement cooperation is obviously needed to uncover and prevent plots. We also need to be working through foreign fighters, and monitor those foreign fighters if and when they try to return back to the west. There are also other things the u. S. Should be doing in terms of how the fbi works with state and local governments, the role of dhs fusion centers. Im going to leave some of those topics for my copanelists. The message i want to convey is that the terrorist threat is very real, more so than any time since 9 11. This is not about fear mongering but about accurately grasping the nature of the threat we face, and with that in mind, we can pursue policies that prevent terrorists from striking us at home, and defeat their message. I have been asked to talk about the fbi and particularly the review commission of which i was a report a part, and what we found the fbi has been involved in counterterrorism for a long time. The time i was in the department is almost 30 years ago, but at that time terrorist groups were mostly overseas, like the Red Army Faction and so on. Most of the attacks that affected the United States were on u. S. Citizens that happened to be a broad. 9 11 was the big change, the start of a whole new era of terrorism for the United States. And so the 9 11 commission was formed and they did an extensive review of what the United States as a government and as a whole as a country had to do. They worked for almost a couple of years, and then continue to monitor the situation after that. When of the major decisions they had to make was, shall we follow britain and canada and other countries that established a Different Organization from their Law Enforcement agencies to deal with terrorism . I think wisely they decided the answer was no. It was to give the charge and responsibility to the fbi, but a changed fbi. What they said in their final report was, they said that we needed a specialized and integrated National Security workforce established in the fbi , consisting of agents analysts linguists, and intelligence specialists to ensure the development of an Institutional Culture imbued with a deep as skewed expertise in National Intelligence and security. That is what the charge was to the fbi of what they should be doing. This required a great many changes in the fbi itself. For one thing, there was a change in terms of mission. The job of the fbi and criminal intelligence, and criminal investigation is in criminal intelligence, inc. Criminal investigation is to find out who done it and gain evidence so they can be prosecuted. The intelligence rule is a numeral, trying to prevent something before it happens. Secondly this meant an organizational change. Instead of the bureau having a criminal investigation as the primary focus, there was a parallel focus on intelligence and on the counterterrorism mission, to carry out this role of prevention. This brought them a very a great cultural change in the fbi because you now not only have special agents, the people who carry guns and badges and handcuffs, but you now have a bunch of smart people coming into the fbi who have degrees in foreign area studies, who are linguists, who specialized in international relations. They had to be given a status, if you will, comparable to and equal to the special agents himself. This required a great deal of Cultural Exchange and understanding on the part of the people who have traditionally been special agents of the fbi. Our commission looked at what was happening in terms of all of this, how this was going. Our overall finding was that the bureau had made great progress. They got off to a very good start. They need some extensive progress. A lot still had to be done and particularly, something that congressman mccall mentioned we had to increase the pace, the speed with which they were gearing up and expanding their activities to keep pace with the accelerating threats that we faced throughout the world any of which were discussed by the congressman. Many of which were discussed by the congressman. The vision that we as a commission came up with was that the future of the fbi was to be an organization that might be described in these terms. And fbi in which criminal investigation, counterintelligence, intelligence collection and analogies and analysis, and science and technology are all core applications of a Global Intelligence and investigative organization. Rather than its prior incarnation as primarily a domestic organization. The idea was that the u. S. Domestic intelligence, which had its global aspects with the fbi as its hub, would be a collaborative enterprise, and this is very important. Optimizing the initiation of players, including a considerable amount of activity in which the private sector would also be involved. One of these major functions of course was the building up of an analytical function. This involved bringing in, as i mentioned, intelligence analysts, at a very high level. It was necessary to develop a recruiting program because we have to go and are continuing to go into colleges and universities to find the kinds of people who have the skills, analytical skills but also the background in international relations. It involved knew training and education programs. One of the major changes was at quantico, at the fbi academy, to have special agents and intelligence analysts trading in the same classes training in the same classes that were relevant to what they were doing, training together and working together at the start of their careers so that they would continue. It was a matter of assigning the intelligence analysts for the first time really to field offices, to the 57 field divisions around the country working sidebyside in the squads that pertained to this with special agents. It also meant changing field offices, providing a new form of leadership in the field offices. In every one of these major divisions, there was a necessity of having people who provided leadership to the intelligence function. In other words, the assistant special agents in charge who would that have been who would have that as their primary responsibility, supervising intelligence activities. It also meant a change in status of the intelligence analysts and acceptance of special agents as full professionals. As well is the kind of opportunities they had opportunities to go overseas opportunities to have interagency responsibilities, to go to other agencies like the defense intelligence, to nasa, and other places where they could expand their professional capability by fieldwork with other agencies so that they would become truly a part of the Intelligence Community as a whole. Today, we had 16 or 17, depending on how you count them, different intelligence agencies in the federal government, and it was a matter of increasing the scope and understanding of both special agents and analysts in what other agencies were doing so that they could Work Together with people in those particular agencies. It also involved creating new career paths, upward mobility, promotion opportunities, and so on, so that we would retain the intelligence analysts along with a special agent. Another change that came about was to expand the role of the legal at 10 shays. A legal at a a legal att ache depicts the idea of someone working overseas in an embassy. The fbi had the ability to work with local Law Enforcement either the national Law Enforcement people or the local Law Enforcement people particularly in large cities overseas. In many ways, they are the tip of the spear in terms of our discovering potential terrorist plots and potential situations and information about terrorist organization. They have a new, very vital role in the counterterrorism effort. Part of this with stationing intelligence analysts with the legal attaches overseas. The importance of science and technology, keeping pace, which has not been a case generally throughout the Intelligence Community and particularly with the fbi, in terms of information to knowledge he and other ways in which science can be used to improve the capabilities of intelligence analysis, and also the communication of information in the organization. A key thing, of course, was to gain the budgetary and logistic support. It is kind of funny that sometimes the Little Things become very important, but one of the things we found was it was important for intelligence analysts in the fbi to have a secure phone, where they couldnt talk with their counterparts in other agencies, whether it is the dia or Homeland Security. Because most of the information, as you can understand, is classified. The idea of having a secure phone readily available offices, is a very important part. Two other aspects, information sharing. The key role of the fbi in organizing the joint Terrorism Task forces in which local Law Enforcement was brought into the whole effort against terrorism most of the information about potential terrorist activities in the United States is gained through the knowledge of local Law Enforcement about what is going on. And by domain analysis, fbi analyst looking at the potential in their particular geographic area, in digit is communities people who are returned, foreign fighters who are returned, all the types of things that make up the potential for future terrorist activities. What is going on in the mosques in the coffeehouses westmark these things are probably best in the coffeehouses . These things are probably best known to Police Officers. The importance of the legal authorities, we have had a great debate discussed briefly in the preceding activities here. The importance of the patriot act and the importance of the nsas activity, legally being able to intercept communications from overseas and with terrorist organizations, these kind of things are very important, and at the same time, the importance of maintaining Civil Liberties of our citizens generally. It is widely recommended that the fbi director have a special Advisory Panel available to him on a continuing basis to monitor the Civil Liberties aspect of what bureau is doing. These are some of the things that we found, some of the things that we recommended as far as the future is concerned. I can say this the United States is lucky to have an organization like the fbi, that not only has a great history but also the ability to accept change. It has not been easy. Over the decade since 9 11, little more than a decade, there have been some tough moments to get the idea of intelligence integrated along with Law Enforcement into the work of the fbi. It has been difficult to make the cultural changes, but they have made remarkable progress of until now. The new director is totally behind the recommendations that we have made. I think there is a very Bright Future for the fbi, but it is very important that there be one. The future of the fbi will be the way in which this country is protected against terrorism. I have been in touch on three key areas or three trends that i think art significant with regard to the rise of radicalism , and have important implications. The first is the growing concern with regard to homegrown violent extremists. And when we use that term it is useful to expand that technology in terms of, what are the different flavors of terrorism. Foreign terrorism is one, and those are foreign actors directed by foreign terrorist groups operating in the United States or elsewhere. The second is domestic terrorists and those are primarily based in the United States and not under the direction, influence, or inspiration of foreign terrorist groups operating independently. Then we have this third flavor, which is a homegrown, violent extremist. They are primarily based in the United States but inspired by foreign terrorist groups, but not directed or directly supported by those groups. The reason why they are significant, i will get into a little more. The second is the increasing emphasis on preventing violent extremists, rather than countering radicalism. The terms radicalism and violent extremism are used interchangeably. You can be a radical or an extremist and not be violent or break the law. We track that. We are focusing more of late on those who were actually about to, or are currently breaking the law, versus those to the left. Then the third area is the increasing availability of what some describe as Tech Knowledge ease of mass empowerment technologies of mass empowerment. You look at the availability of highly sophisticated technology, what are the implications for what terrorist groups, particularly in that category of hve, homegrown violent activists. Let me start our concerns are reinforced by the events in chattanooga. Characterized by either lone wolves, individuals who are operating either they are self radicalized were radicalized in a way that only has them absorbing, versus necessarily communicating with other entities. For small groups that radicalize each other, a group of four were five, and therefore again they do not have the signature that typically we in the Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement community are lazing in on. Who are they communicating with . Are they communicating with known actors of concern . Are they traveling . Visit the tippers that allow us to focus those are the tippers that allow us to focus on the individuals of mass concern to those who represent the greatest threat. The biggest challenge is they are extremely difficult to detect or prevent. If there is a silver lining, traditionally we have looked at these groups as having relatively low capability for hike went to court events for high consequence event. Small arms, relatively small amounts of explosives. You are not looking at 9 11 size or magnitude attacks or worse. Which takes me to the next area, which is, how do we differentiate the individuals that we are going to be concerned about an focus limited Law Enforcement and intelligence assets on . Versus the broader dais bora diaspora of those who may harbor enmity or other concerns for this country or our way of life. What constitutes radicalism lacks a consensus. We have a lot of people in our history who were considered radicals in their time who today, a lot of them are heroes. Martin luther king, booker t. Washington, there are a whole host of them. We have a society and culture that prizes and protects peoples ability to think what thoughts they want as long as they are not illegally incurring into other peoples space. Holding radical views does not necessarily progress to violent extremism. There is no typical pathway when we look at it, and we have been studying this for a year. What is that classic pathway that if we saw indicators, we could say this is an individual on the way to physical acts of terrorism question mark we see a lot of people who are entirely disenchanted, who have extreme thoughts, but most of them do not evolve into violent extremists. What we found is, in previous outreach initiatives to in this case, and were talking about islamic extremists, asking the muslim communities to identify those prone to radicalism. That would be left of attack or legal attack. It has the result of alienating those communities and cultivating a sense of paranoia and prosecution or persecution. If you look at the efficacy of many of our efforts today, and it is very difficult to do today as a government in terms of engaging with these communities in terms of what that counter narrative is, because we are getting into religious thoughts, ideology and thinking, and it is not a space that most government officials are very comfortable talking, nor do they do it very well. It is particular difficult particularly difficult for western countries to address the ideological foundations of the radicalization process. Based on the generally inconsistent results and im not just talking the United States. If you follow what goes on in the u. K. Or canada, they have had some challenges to their counter Radicalization Program where they have moved for more focusing on individuals assist to be conducting legal illegal act versus getting the Larger Community to the left that potentially may move to the right. It is also about taking care not to antagonize and alienate the majority of the population that do not hold the extremist views. At a minimum, are not prepared to behave in violent ways. We want to avoid inadvertently contributing to more conversions to violent extremism that were able to have conversions away from them. I will just briefly read to you the different characterizations of approaches to seize ee from dhs cve from dhs and fbi. The dhs approach does not focus on radical thought or speech, instead on preventing violent attacks. Fbi, which of course many of you recognize is the lead federal agency for counterterrorism, has a little bit more of a robust approach. The fbi approach is to reach people before they crossed the line between radical thinking to extremist violence. I note, one of the key strategies is to reach out to communities and build trust and rapport to stem the tide of violence. That has been a big challenge with fbi. Their relationship with these communities is a strange one at best, because they are looking to make cases. It is a very difficult balancing act to work with communities that are opposed to violent behavior, but where are you drawing the line between someone who has legitimate, defensive radical or at least the right to have radical thinking, does not plan on conducting any physical act. Are you trading their freedom away because the bureau is concerned about them possibly making that move . There is some result of these tensions between these competing phenomena, and is essentially a catch22. If not to risk worsening the problem, we and many of our western counterparts have backed off to identify and diverse those most prone to violent extremism before they act out those behaviors. We are left with the more challenging proposition of having to wait to intervene until radical thoughts are at the precipice of violent leaving precious little time for error. That is a tough space for us to operate in but that is the reality of what we are doing. I am going to get to this third and final category, and that gets back to this increasing availability of technologies of mass empowerment. This get back to this amazingly rapid evolution and ubiquitous availability of advanced technology. It is increasing the enablement of terrorist organizations small groups, all the way down to individuals with the means to cause significant damage in ways that were limited to nationstates not many years ago. By not many, i mean five to 10 years ago, capabilities in the hands of individuals were restricted. You can look at your iphone 6 and there are a number of them right in that platform. You can use that as a guidance navigational mechanism for a cruise missile. In fact, theres a book, the future of violence by benjamin waits and it highlights this trend. I would just comment, having read the book, many of us might differ on their conclusions on how this might change the world order. They offer a lot of discussion and views about what that does to the nationstate. But what is very interesting about the book is they do go down the paths of three different rapidly developing technologies biotechnology robotics, and cyber. And they posit different scenarios, what can be done today literally by small groups all the way to individuals with regard to these advanced technologies, and very significant, high consequence is sex. If you look at the tsarnaev brothers, low iq knuckleheads who put a lot of effort building these devices that were semisophisticated and certainly were impactful on a local scale. You are talking now into four or five years from now, these individuals, if only modern intelligence will be able to do paint by numbers bio sequencing and develop a biological agent with a dna synthesizer, they can get off the internet. That is what youre talking about. We have not seen it yet but the potential is there. This is particularly concerning for my perspective, when we talk about home loan homegrown violent extremist, because we cannot defend against every attack. Fortunately, the threshold of consequence that these individuals and small groups have been able to affect to date , as tragic as it is, have been relatively small. If these types of individuals who we have a very difficult, in some cases impossible time detecting, can have high consequence the facts, large numbers of tragedies and impacts on our economy, we are in a really scary place. I fear that dynamic is unfolding. I would just say in some, against the backdrop of all of our mounting concerns about the growing potential for homegrown the conventional wisdom that these actors are not really capable of having high affect is going to fade. Thank you, esther happy. Mr. Happy. We will have a few questions in the audience. If you would raise your hand, i would recognize you and if you state your name and affiliation and wait for the microphone. Let me just unpack a few things. General nice, you layout general meese, you layout this framework. Going from the International Program to the role of intelligence in the fbi science, technology issues, legal authorities, and information sharing, if that is kind of the baskets. I am guessing if i ask you what the strongest area where the fbi has made the most progress, you would say that we gets, the overseas mission, is that fair . Partly, but there is still a lot more to do because when you go overseas, when you put your foot in the Atlantic Ocean you suddenly come across the state department. There is a certain bureaucratic resistance to expanding and providing more facilities and resources overseas, so i would say there is still a long ways to go there. I think it is more accurate to say the furthest they have gone is in the intelligence and analytical capabilities, and the whole idea of bringing in this new class of people. Prior to 9 11, intelligence analysts, i do not even think they used that term. They were thought of as support people, kind of advanced clerks if you will. There has always been a tradition in the fbi, there was a big dividing line between special agents and everybody else. The intelligence analysts were, prior to 9 11, in the other category. I think it has been the development of the idea of intelligence analysts as coequal, or almost coequal with special agents. That is the area that is really improving, because it is only been within the last year that we have had the joint trading where intelligence analysts and special agents were in the same class, the same Educational Programs at quantico. The question i would ask which ask it gets the lowest grade . I would say science and technology. I think the computer programs and the communications, the Information Technology as a whole is probably lagging behind. Now it was lagging behind before 9 11, quite frankly in the department of justice and i am sure in other parts of the Intelligence Community. I would say that is the one that needs the budgetary support. I mentioned secure telephones. You would think, when we went to the office in london, and there was one secured telephone in the whole place in a little telephone booth the kind that superman used to change close in. Clothes in. Whereas, if they had had more, it is a matter of intelligence analysts being able to pick up the phone and talk to someone they know in dia working in the same area and be able to exchange information. If they have to go to a phone or wait or a phone or wait until some other facility is available, that really interferes with their capabilities. I want to ask you one question. There was a lot of discussion between congressman mccauls remarks and your points and some of the points that david made, by countering violent extremism. There is kind of two different related missions there. One is the space where i think the fbi and Homeland Security kind of figure it all else, can operate, which is the line between people who have violent particularly finding the people who have extremist views and are potentially operationalized. And i think, you know, we can debate what the best ability is and what the best structure is, but you can say that is appropriately something they should be involved in any art to figure that out. The other is a much broader issue, which is really the war of ideas. This idea of radical islam which in some instances has evolved into a terrorist act which is a different ideology, a different worldview. Which is in competition with the United States. That is a much Broader Mission and and and a different topic. You know, arguably something where the United States has been completely out to lunch. But i want to ask you about this other one, this more narrow mission of kind of people who are embracing these views and might have the potential to step over the line, so the question is is given as david has said, we have these folks and we look at the number of americans who have left to be foreign fighters, it is in maybe in the tens, hundreds, i dont know. But compared to other countries where it is in the thousands. So given the size of the United States and the percentage of population that is radicalizing to the extent that they are a problem, what is the right and given all the other things we have to do what is the right level of effort here . So you make an important point. It is a tiny percentage of the population that you might consider at greater risk. If you are talking about radical islam, you would be looking at the muslim population, the majority of which is not radical , doesnt chair radicalize use. So it is a very small percentage we have seen acting on that. Now you have a number are very conservative and have what many consider to be radical thoughts, but they have no intent and have demonstrated no actions, in terms of affecting those outcomes in a violent way. So, this gets back to and the chairman made the point, and any psychologist will tell you if you want to deal with this, you have to have a counter narrative. It is a very dangerous space because when you are doing a counter narrative against what some perceive as just a conservative interpretation of their theology, you run into a lot of problems. Youre not we want to first do no harm. We had this great maturity of a population that are, you know prized citizens of the country and we dont want to create more alienation. So i think that that is that is the piece we have wrestled with and that in a very good job, the same for the canadians, and the same for the british. Mr carafano what is the level of effort that we should be looking here between do nothing kind of tickled the system, and kind of a manhattan object. Where are we . Mr. Rapuano we have to take a risk informed approach to all threads. We cannot prevent every individual who might go into a sports store and buy a firearm and go on a shooting spree. We need to look at who posits the most significant threat. And the more significant the threat, typically the more signatures of activity. So if we spend all of our resources trying to diverge or identify anyone who may do any act, no matter what the consequence, we will run out of way before we are able to focus on the high order consequence individuals. And i think, for the most part we do focus on them. But it is a very difficult public, highly emotional, people respond psychologically in ways to events that there is a very low probability of happening to them. So you have to do what that dynamic. Let me ask you one last question. When we look at this kind of more narrow or part of countering violent extremism not the grants narrative, but working with people that are potentially and you have looked at the legislation and the program and the strategy and Everything Else so talk about some of the complications of working through that. Ken mentioned if you do it wrong, you alienate a community, so that is not good. And some of those other things. Could you talk about that . Mr. Rapuano i know there are some of the recent studies, one done recently in minneapolis. And it talked about how very often in these projects the Main Objective is to link up with state and locals and private sectors sector folks. The federal government cannot be the pointy end of the stick on this one. But i would we two new right folks, i we making the right alliances with these folks . This study i think found that most folks got funding from the government, but didnt necessarily were not able to show significant improvements in what they were doing. Other organizations were able to show very good improvements. So how can the government best partner with folks . That is definitely a challenge in this space. And the other question is if in the federal government, who is going to be who is the best person to take on that support role . I think in your report, you addressed the question of should the fbi be the primary counterterrorism organization, should they be doing it. I think is a maybe it should go to dhs. I think that dhs might be the right place, but at the same, same time, the fbi has allotted the has a lot of the embedded terrorism knowledge. The dhs might be, in my opinion the right place to put some sort of quit emitting office. Dhs is supporting state and locals. Since dhs is supposed to be connecting with state and locals, i think thats probably the right place to put quite a mating to put quite a mating to put coordinating. And so there are to be metrics of measure of what are you delivering on, right . And the focus is really more on when you are engaging with these communities what are the common interests and the protection of the community. That is what you are really looking at, which really is that kind of lie between the two things. I would encourage people the larger issue of of the war of ideas with islam, we have actually done some really excellent panels on that over the last few months. You can find them online at heritage. Just a week or so ago, we did a really good panel on the state of the play. And another one that went into great detail, which was what is the difference between islam and islamism. And also how it relates to the terrorist threat. If there are questions from the audience we were wondering if you would just wait for the microphone. Susan, former Police Officer former federal agent. Currently a pastor. My question is to david. David, of all the statistics, do you have numbers regarding how many were foreignborn, how many were born in the u. S. , how many were citizens, how many were here legally, illegally . I do not have all those numbers, but i am looking at tried to break out some of those statistics. I think at 1. I looked at some of the most recent issues. There have been a few fair number of folks who are naturalized citizens. So i know i have looked at that and it is sort of an abnormal number relative to the population. Folks who are becoming nationalized citizens, you can take them as a good example. One of them was naturalized, another gets was an individual who was one of the more recent plot he became naturalized well he is in the naturalization process, and his trip to syria, got naturalized which is syria, came back, and was basically told by someone, you should go back and attack the u. S. So it is an issue. How well are we assimilating folks into our society, think it is very important that we need to look at. First of all, thank you for your service. Coming from a family of cops. But that is a great question because it gets to the strengths and limitation of this database. So in terms of raw numbers about populations, it doesnt tell you anything useful right . It is just like profiling. Profiling doesnt get you very far because, yeah, that person was whatever, but there are also 80 other milley people who are whatever, right . So when you look at these numbers, you can say, oh, there is a certain percentage that are naturalized. When you look at the percentage of naturalized citizens of the country, it doesnt tell you anything. Whatever categorization you make of these hundred 20 some odd people there they are a tiny percentage of anything other than terrorists. But it shows process wise things to look at. When we looked at the cases of the naturalized persons, it doesnt tell you anything about a naturalized person more likely to be a terrorist. But what it does tie you is in the naturalization process there were things we when not doing that would much more clearly identify people that you should not have given citizenship to. And thats the kind of stuff in the database that is useful. And there is one thing, of course, and that is the returning force fighters. The people have gone overseas, it seems to me that you immediately have an indication of someone of that you at least have to look into. And have gone to syria or the middle east and they come back. And that is one of the testaments, more or less, that the fbi uses. One other thing i think is important is most of the people who have been radicalized and gone into violent extremists have certain characteristics. And they are about the same kind the characteristics of the people who join gangs. And that is they are losers, they have low selfesteem, they are unemployed, category such as this. While that is not a defining factor, it certainly gives you some indication of the kinds of people that usually get involved. There are differing statistics on that. I think that may be more true for example, to those who are going the foreign fighter route. Less true for al qaeda type operators. Again, you can go back and look at the 9 11 educated from wealthy families. I do have not seen across the board a high incidence of the down and outers that some conventional wisdom has had it. That is not to say there arent pockets. And there are kind of two aspects to the foreign fighter problem. The one people think of is that, oh, these guys are going to go there, or gross, and theyre going to come back and be terrorists. That is to to some extent, but what i think is even more vital is the fact that they are recruited going over there. That is a huge propaganda tool for isis. It shows if anything, it is kind of like going on american idol, it doesnt even matter if they accomplished accomplish much with a go there, it is that propaganda that got them over there. Shutting down this pipeline is an important part of diminishing the brand of isis. Yes, maam. And probably our last question. Susan with the washington examiner. I have been covering this terror twitter problem and im trying to get more done to probably a question that was better from but since i need to read about this today, im tried to ask it to the panel. We had the question asked about facebook and other social media sites being better about taking the site down. The 200,000 tweets going on a day. Is it you seem to dodge that question and talk about the dark space with being the real problem. And james komen a couple weeks ago talked about twitter on the shoulder of kill, kill kill and that message being dangerous but he also talked about the dark space. Im wondering if the white house has asked him about this, if the white house is letting twitter go about its letting twitter be more lenient because Law Enforcement has an interest in those in the open space and they are not cracking down on twitter or leaning on them as much. And if that is a helpful tool for Law Enforcement because the new contract them. And then our love to talk about the state departments failed effort so far in countering the counter narrative because there has been a lot of articles talking about that there isnt they have had some programs to try and do it, but it seems like they have all been either failed or have gone too far. Lets just run down the panel really quick in out give you the option of either a comment on the social network or the state departments role in the counter narrative, or maybe a little bit of both of it. Mr. Inserra sure. I guess i will talk about the twitter peas real fast. I am not that sure the government would allow the communications and is, you know, being nicer to twitter just because it is maybe in intelligence told her it seems to me that an intelligence tool. It also seems like a doubleedged sword as you are allowing those folks to they communicate a lot with a lot of other people, potentially radicalizing other individuals. So i have no specific intelligence on what the government is doing in that regard, but it seems that would be a very fine line, a double its sword to be used. Edged sword. To be used. I think we should employ some of the psychological warfare capabilities of the military which is an important part of it. Mr carafano i would add to that, i just dont think it is something the government as well and i think it needs to evolve into a private type process where you have some government element to it, but it is not solely government. The other point out may, in in at least the studies i have seen with regard to recruitment online, recruiting online is an important tool but it is the studies have not shown a high indication that solely online recruiting results in conversions to violent extremism. You still need that physical presence of someone who is going to close the deal with the individuals. And that is great important from a Law Enforcement and intelligence perspective. There has been so much focus on the social network aspect of this and i think we tend to think that that is the problem. And i dont think that is correct. Katy perry has, like, 70 million twitter followers. If katy perry treated out, go kill your parents. My guess is known would go kill their parents. Why is that . Because that is a Virtual Community, and that is a Virtual Community bond by a certain level of common interests. That doesnt mean anybody is necessarily going to do it anything katy perry says. What makes this phenomenon dangers is there is a social network, a Virtual Community that links with the human web a human community. And that is what maximizes the impact of social networks, the fax that social groups are going to do something. Katy perry saying, go kill your parents not that she would say that but what with we sought with the green revolution in iran, yeah, there was this largely socially driven diaspora but why was it fueling the green revolution . Because there were people on the streets. There is the link between the virtual web and the rather than count of concentrating on the phenomenon, the most significant thing you can probably do to diminish the value of the virtual web is to diminish the value of the physical network. So this is not just in terms of networks of people in our countries, but this thriving growing metastasizing thing in the middle east that is claiming a state. I would touch on a comments that jim made earlier in terms of what is the true side of the nature of the threat. And there is a huge delta between the psychological threat that we perceive and the actual threat. If you look at all the numbers of the folks on twitter looking at isil or other extremist propaganda, one thing that is fascinating and surprising, if you to just take things at face, is how few attacks that have been in the United States. You have seen a relatively small number of foreign fighters, at least compared to european numbers. Why didnt they focus them on attacks in the United States . Granted, it is focused in the caliphate, but if they were really intends like al qaeda many of you are familiar with inspire magazine, al qaedas online recruitment and howto manual for terrorists. It gets gives very detailed instruction with professional photography of how to make explosives in your moms kitchen. How to cover up all the indicators and sides. Signs. We have not seen you the kind of use for a lot of numbers people like to throw around. Oh, we believe there are this number of actors. They can all be sleeper cells waiting for the command issued, but, you know, you do need to take a with a great assault the level of hyperbole associated with the threat. Of course, i am the one who has come at the end of my presentation, talked about technology enablers. And that is very real and you have to be we have to be very cognizant of that, in terms of how how the future state, in terms of what is available to small groups and individuals can change the game. But the fact is remain youre not seeing a lot of adherents, in terms of action, from very large potential recruit base. And that is good news. I want to thank our panel. You couldve just had a session people could have come in and done it scare things, oh, let me list all the terrible things. But you didnt hear that. You also heard different options , of ways to deal with the issue. And i think a really good discussion about how can you make a risk informed decision and weigh the cost benefits of Different Things we can and potentially should do. Im so pleased with our panel. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for your questions. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indistinct chatter] back live now to the Greenbrier Resort in west virginia. As we continue our live coverage of the National Governors earners the National Governors associations summer meeting. It is chaired by the democratic governor of colorado and the vice chair is the republican governor of utah. This year, the nga focusing on a number of issues, including this form about to get started and skilled Training Needs to enhance state economies. Governor Brian Sandoval of nevada is expected to chair this session, which should get underway in just a few moments life here on cspan. Live here on cspan. [indistinct chatter] brian [indistinct chatter] we are going to get started in just a minute. [indistinct chatter] [indistinct chatter] [indistinct chatter] good afternoon, everyone. We are going to start our session, please. [indistinct chatter] the meeting of the National Governors associations education and Workforce Committee is called to order. Thank you all for joining us. I am making hassan, governor of new hand sure governor of New Hampshire. Governor sandoval is unable to attend todays session, as he is overseas on a trade mission, bringing more jobs to his state. But it has truly been an honor to lead to the nga education and Workforce Committee with him this year. First, a bit of housekeeping. The proceedings here today are open to the press and all meeting attendees. As a consideration, would you also take a moment to enjoy your cell phones are silenced. The briefing books for this meeting was sent to governors and advanced and can also be found in the blue binder in front of you. They included the agenda, Background Information updates on state and federal actions under this committees jurisdiction, and materials from our speakers. To my right is steven parker, legislative director of the education and Workforce Committee. So please see him or nga staff if you need any assistance or have any questions. Today, we are pleased to be joined by thomas perez, our nations secretary of labor. We are also very excited to hear from harold, from the Jack Kent Cooke foundation, and crystal from the high school for math and science at the City University of new york. As governors, we are constantly trying to create more jobs in our state. By helping grow existing businesses and attracting new companies from overseas. And sometimes, even trying to attract jobs and businesses from other states. Each governor wants to be the best Jobs Creation officer in the country. However, before the press releases announced the latest deal to bring hundreds, or even thousands, of new stats to our state, we have to answer one really important question. Can we fill those jobs . Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult roster answer yes, to that question. For us to answer, yes, to that question. A survey found that more than half of the ceos for major corporations view the shortage of skilled talent available for open positions as a major hurdle to their u. S. Operations. Yet this skills gap isnt just affecting our largest companies. Last month, as part of the National Federation of independent business that he, 80 of Small Businesses said that they had few or no qualified applicants for their open positions. As i travel around New Hampshire, what i hear more than anything else from our businesses, both big and small is the need for an Even Stronger workforce pipeline. We are living in an innovation economy and it can only be fueled i hardwiring innovation in our k12, our post secondary, and workforce training systems. If our students are not prepared for the jobs, we cannot keep those jobs in our states, and more importantly, we have failed at giving the next generation opportunities for a successful life. That is why we are doing everything in the Granite State we can to help our students develop the skills and innovative thinking needed for good jobs in the 21st century economy. Earlier this year, i proclaimed 2015 as a year of stem in New Hampshire. And just last week, i signed an executive order establishing the governors stands, bringing together experts from the education and business communities to help implement the Previous Task forces recommendations and to develop their wins. In New Hampshire, modernizing how we educate our students in these high demand fields is critical. We are developing innovative partnerships between Higher Education and the Business Community, such as the one in rochester and Great Bay Community college that is helping to position our emerging Aerospace Sector as a leader in the industry. In New Hampshire is also breaking new ground on how student progress should be measured with innovative highquality, competencybased assessments that provide more certainty that students have mastered key content and skills for moving to the next grade level. New hampshires performance assessment for competency education is a first in the nation accountability strategy and it is allowing districts to reduce the level of standard eye testing in favor standardized testing in favor of more localbased initiatives. Both bolstering Stem Education is just one pathway to creating career opportunities. In iowa, the governor is making his state a leader in registered apprenticeships. Since 2011, the governor has increased it to more than 8000 participating in more than 600 Apprenticeship Programs. The governor is using the strength of this new career what he workforce to attract billion dollar career ready workforce career ready workforce to attract billion dollar companies. Through creation of a Skills Development office to bring together education and the Business Community. He also created a Career Education and Workforce Development board composed of representatives from various industrial sectors. As part of tennessees drive to 55 initiative, the governor has pioneered the Labor Education Alignment Program to ensure that post secondary institutions in his state of producing these skills and credentials that tennessee employers actually need. The governor is utilizing grants and local alignment groups to tie the training and skills that has colleges are teaching directly to Workforce Needs to help more tennesseans qualify for good paying, highquality jobs. And just last month, governor hickenlooper signed a bill ensuring that colorado students get a head start on Career Training while they are still in high school. The governors new pathways and Technologies Early College high schools will allow students to earn an Associates Degree well completing while completing their high school diploma. With governors from connecticut to california, connecting education to the workforce system, including the innovative pathways to careers, the federal government took notice and has taken steps to support this work in the past year with the authorizations of key legislation. They workforce innovation and opportunity act we authorized last year by Congress Gives governors or flexibility to meet the Training Needs of their states workforce by allowing them to connect federal education and workforce programs with their states systems. Congress built on this alignment this year as they worked to reauthorize the elementary and secondary education act. And greater role for governors to bring the Business Community and the workforce system to the table to ensure that college or Career Readiness is a reality. Today, secretary perez will engage us in a conversation on how to leverage these federal resources to build a worldclass workforce in every state. Following the secretary, Harrell Harold and crystal will benefit illustrate how innovative state policies are creating opportunities for students every day. They will offer action steps for governors to continue to create pathways to current and future high demand job opportunities. Following each of their presentations, time is reserved for question and answers. The bulk of the session is reserved for governors discussion to share policies and our states that accelerate reform. Before we proceed to our program, we are hearing were governors do at the state and local level federal level to advance state education state and workforce education. They can talk about what we are all doing to build the pipeline. Thank you. Governors, thank you very much. My name is richard, i am the director of education for their National Governors associations senate for best practice. In my colleagues and i are the team that provides Consulting Services to you all and your staff when youre asked the question, what does the research say about best practice . What are the programs and states during the best in specific areas . And what of the challenge you need to go grow to set the path and learn lessons from each other . My division supports the education reform along the entire education pipeline, from Early Education to k12 to post secondary. But let me give you a specific example of the work we are doing in collaboration with our Workforce Division in terms of connecting education pipeline to the workforce. Building on the initiative plaster, america works, and the fact that there are jobs governors and education governors, our vision created a twoyear consulting engagement to work with 14 states, many represented around this table, to help you improve and align your education and training have one to the Workforce Needs. We are working handinhand with martin and his team, but in terms of the Technical Assistance we are providing and the grants of up to 100 70,000 per states, we are bringing together state leaders from her k12 systems, post secondary labor, commerce, and the private sector to articulate what the needs of the private sector are so that you can start to align your twoyear or fouryear workforce Training Programs to the needs of the economy and to create better opportunities for students to make choices that will give a better Life Opportunities to enter the middle class and beyond. We are helping our states connect the labor and Education Data that they are collecting that oftentimes sit in silos to start to better understand how to rely on the programs of the opportunities that students need to understand where the jobs are, what the training requirements are. The other piece of it that are starting to play very strongly in the states this summer and the on as we are helping the states inventory the resources that are available to start to think about how youre spending your training and workforce dollars. It is amazing when we asked the question of states, where are you spending the dollars . Most of them dont know the money sitting in isolation that could be realigned to the vision you are trying to create for your students, including the Education Workforce training opportunities. As a result of the 14 states that we are working with, we are creating the Lessons Learned both positive and negative. We are creating the tools, both from the states in this policy as well as the states not involved. And putting together toolkits that other states will be able to utilize. And start to reallocate resources to actually make a difference on the ground. In fact, from these lessons, we are going to be working through with the current 14 states, we expect to have a second cohort in early 2016 that will be available able to accelerate. So that is a snapshot of what we are doing. Let me turn it over to my colleague, martin, to talk more about future opportunities. Good afternoon, governors. I am martin simon, the Program Director for Workforce Development at the nga center for best practices. Lets see, i have to bring this closer. [laughter] ok. I am going to use up all my time here just getting the microphone set. Again, im with the economic Human Services and Workforce Division. I appreciate the opportunity to spend a couple minutes talking about a new project that we are just starting at the nga center that builds on the work that richard described and she duly will complement the work underway in your states that governor hansen just described. Until i first july 1, we initiated a new project that is supported by the siemens foundation. As part of this project, we are going to be working with six states that will be looking at strategies for connecting young people 16 to 29 and connecting them with jobs, skilled jobs in stem area. Where we will have a competitive Selection Process. Participating states will receive up to 100,000 to cover the extra costs of participating. We will issue the selective Selection Process this fall for this project. On a parallel track, we have been working with the u. S. Department of labor on the American Apprenticeship Initiative that focuses on rethinking apprenticeships in this country and the department is investing with hundred Million Dollars in grants to expand apprenticeships, both in existing industries and new industries. Workbased learning, training approaches bridge the worlds of learning and work. These are earn and learn approaches that prepare young people with the relevant skills that employers need, but also so that they can achieve economic success for themselves. All 14 of the states that are participating in the Talent Pipeline that richard talked about are incorporating workbased learning approaches into their strategies for developing pathways to jobs and careers in the Growth Industries in their states. They workforce innovation and opportunity act that would into effect july 1 had its First Anniversary on july 22, a couple of days ago, and requires governors boards to implement Career Pathways that include work faced learning approaches. So we think this work in this area with states is timely and it important part of building the Talent Pipeline in your states. We look for to working with you and your staff. Thank you. I turn it over to david, the deck Deputy Director for policy at nga. Thank you. It is so good to be with you today. During the winter meeting, you give us all the charts and said we had 150 days to a compost the things. One was to help with the regulations around the new workforce investment act to make sure that states could implement it. What with the secretary of the department of labor to make sure that law works. Number two, to restore the 50 set aside under the law. And number three, was to put governors back in the dsca. To make sure that the 43 states operating under waivers to not have to do that anymore. Im happy to say you have a great shortcut. We have the made strides on all three fronts. We worked with Martins Group to really put together an example of how those regulations need to work and we provided all that information to the department of labor. They are due to come out with that regulation i believe early in 2016. We will continue to be an active partner to make sure that law works. On the 50 set aside, im happy to report that the Senate Appropriations committee has just said they will restore a full 15 . The house is still a little bit behind, but we are convinced we can get them to join the senate and rejoin the 50 set aside. In 2011, it has been reduced to 5 . We have been slowly increasing that amount. We have returned over 130 million to the governors during that time. This will be that final step to fully restore the 15 . And finally, put the house and the senate have now moved major authorization bills. In the senate, working with the chief state school officers, nga was able to get an amendment with senators heller and mention mansion to have governors and essential part and help sign off on the state plans. What that does is it brings together work on a pipe on because only governors can bring together all the different aspects of education, from the education through k12 to higher ed in the workforce system. A friend of mine likes to say that Public Education is a team sport. Governors, youre always the leader of that team. So that amendment in this bill will put you back in that chair to help you align all those programs. We have more work to do. This committee will be very busy, but we look for to a final law that makes it to the president s desk. Thank you, david, very much. A lot of work and a lot of activity in a short amount of time. I think were making good progress. Now we are going to turn to our program, and it is my distinct honor to introduce our first speaker, thomas perez, the nations 26th secretary of labor. He has committed to making good on the promise of opportunity for all, giving every working family a chance to ahead and putting a middleclass life within reach of everyone willing to work for it. To accomplish this, secretary perezs priorities for the department include assuring a fair days pay for a fair days work, connecting ready to work americans with ready to be filled jobs, through skills programs like registered apprenticeships and onthejob training, promoting gender equality in the workplace ensuring that people with disabilities and veterans have access to equal employment opportunities, and insisting on a safe and level Playing Field for all americans. Most recently, secretary perez from 2002 until 2006, he was a member of the Montgomery County council. He was later appointed secretary of marylands department of labor licensing and regulation. Secretary perez received a bachelors degree from Brown University in 1983. In 1987, he received both a master of Public Policy and a law degree from harvard university. He lives in maryland with his wife and their three children. Mr. Secretary, on behalf of the nations governors, welcome and thank you for being with us today. Secretary perez thank you so much, governor, and it is an honor to be here with so many people. I want to start out by saying thanks to you, and thanks to all of you. The workforce has been a joint venture between all of us between the federal, state, and local governments. The federal sector, the private sector, Community Colleges across the country. As someone who worked as a state secretary, and before that someone who is a local elected official, i bring to this venture in acute appreciation for the Important Role of states and the Important Role of local governments, and that has certainly, i think, helped me. I really want to say thank you. Theres so much innovation around this table and around this country. We just celebrated the 25th anniversary this week of the americans with disabilities act. I want to say thank you to the governors. We have sent a letter out, signed by myself, to again underscore the importance of disability employment because the Unfinished Business of the 88 is jobs. Ada is jobs. We need to do more to focus on the last seven letters of the word and less on the first three letters. Thank you for your leadership. And governor fallin, thank you for your unfailing commitment to work for us. This has been remarkable. And were seeing results. When i go around the country, i hear the same story. It is a great story. I talk to Large BusinessesSmall Businesses, businesses in between, and i hear the same thing, which is im optimistic about the future, i went to grow my business, and one of my Biggest Challenges is making sure we have the Skilled Workforce to compete. My life is groundhog day. I hear that everywhere i go. I see that as a remarkable opportunity because we do have a wind at our back. We have seen a 64 consecutive months of private sector job growth to the tune of 12. 8 million jobs. We collect data on the number of job openings. We have more job openings in america right now 5. 4 million than we have ever had since collecting this data set. We now have about 1. 6 job seekers for every job opening. I would rather compete against one person in six people for a job. And you have openings across various sectors. And you know the situation in your states. Opportunities abound. And what i like to do is talk for a little while about what we are trying to do to help a be that catalytic force it partnership with all of you, and partnerships with business, and also give you some reflections on my experience as state in State Government because we learned some things, we did some things right, and as we go through some of the things we are trying to do now, i certainly want to give you the benefit of that insight because when i speak the folks who have been in this space for a long time, people like martin and others, what i hear consistently is we have this is the work opportunity right now. I have never seen more excitement in this field than we see now. Opportunities indeed about. I call it the eisenhower moment. Dwight eisenhower broad as the interstate highway system. And the challenge for us is to construct what i call a skilled superhighway. We need to make sure there are on ramps and off ramps for everyone. And that is exactly what we are trying to do. And the destination for workers is the middle class. The destination for employers is future for them as sustainable profitability. To take the remarkable best practices we see emerging across the country, figure out their principles of general application, understanding that what works on one side of the country may not have immediate application house were, but recognizing there are principles of general application and then figuring out how we scale and sustain those. And one of the on maps that we have discussed on ramps that we have discussed, the onramp of apprenticeship. It is not hard to figure out whether you Unemployment Rate in germany is roughly half of what it is here. The apprenticeship model in germany and his only other countries enjoys a statue that we allowed to atrophy in this country. And that is unfortunate. And what we have been trying to do, and we in the sense of not simply the federal government, lets only around you, because apprenticeship is a try into is a triedandtrue message of business development. When i was in bowling boeing in seattle recently, they said roughly 70 of their workforce is in the age of retirement. And the age of the workforce is available phenomenon. The interesting thing about apprenticeships is when a lot of people think about it, they immediately think about skilled trade. An apprenticeship has remarkable applications in the skilled trades, and we had to reup our efforts. I feel like our plumber often charges more than a lawyer. It is a good, middleclass job. So we should be trading people in these fields. But apprenticeships also have applications in i. T. When i was with the mayor of philadelphia recently to announce the 100 million investment, they have an investment in philadelphia with a are taking kids from the Philadelphia Public School system and putting them into i. T. Apprentice partnerships. As the parent of three teenagers, with the kino is that young people are good with gadgets. When i have a problem with my iphone, i go to my 13yearold. Because he is pretty fluid to that. So they are taking that fluency and interest in translating it into the middle class career. And others 5. 4 million openings, i would note that roughly 10 are in the i. T. Sector. So as you think about apprenticeships in your state, i would certainly encourage you not only to think about the traditional skilled trades, but think about other opportunities. In our 100 million grant solicitation, it was explicitly attempting to branch out, not only to the traditional skilled trades, but in other areas. Ups operate a remarkable Apprenticeship Program is the largest sticks context. We have hunted before Health Care Apprenticeships that enable people to get pathways to the middle class and health care in health care. And i. T. , as i mentioned. Many states have made available apprenticeships through various statefunded initiatives. We could go around the table and talk about that. Cvs has been a very prolific user of the tax credits that South Carolina put in place. And what they are doing is they are taking folks who are on and giving them a Career Pathway into a career as a pharmacy technician. I have met with one person who has decided she now must become a pharmacy pharmacist. I would encourage you and this is very much consistent with what you heard from your professional staff to take a look around your agencies and do it i try to do in maryland which is follow the money. Because if you have a 22yearold veteran returning from military service and he is living with his mother in subsidized housing and he is on perhaps footsteps food stamps, i have just indicated perhaps half dozen agencies that have workforce dollars in the federal government. We created a workforce of cabinets when i was in maryland. The president has created a workforce cabinet that i have the privilege of training. Our goal is to so that we are working together. For instance, we did a great recently to help people who are on stamps get access to Career Pathways is 10 states 10 states where rewarded that grants. We are defining success now as a Career Pathway. Jobs that give you the selfsufficiency that we all want. So that kind of stove pipe implosion between the Labor Department and the usda is an example. We are doing that in other areas. I predict that whatever agency that will have the most money when you convene or if you decide to to convene cabinets ask them about that will be whatever agency administers your program because there is a lot of workforce dollars in that context. In other words, there is a lot of opportunity there. So when you do that stove pipe implosion that we are trying to do in the federal government and that i think will have great application elsewhere, you can make real progress. And the apprenticeship context is one area. In a very much encourage you to follow the lead of your colleagues or have done great work. The president set for the goal of doubling the number of registered apprentices in this country over the next five years and we are making tremendous progress thanks to people like these governors and so many others in this room. And i will tell you, we are going to foreign countries, we decided just assigned an mou with the government of sweden. And what they are doing with us is they have the apprenticeship footprint as part of their dna. And they have a u. S. Footprint. And what we are doing with them as they are becoming our ambassadors as we establish what we are calling the leaders program. Because when Companies Come to us and say, im thinking about this, but im not sure, i think the best answer for that question is for me not to talk but for me to have been talked to another business because when you have that businesstobusiness mentoring going on, it is a great way to go build apprenticeships. So i continue to partner with us. We have our leader program, which is going getting busters. Have a partnership with Community Colleges call the registered Apprentice Scholarship consortium. Because one of the Biggest Barriers you will find to apprenticeships his parents. When you say that word, they say no, no no, like it is going to college. And we are here to say that apprenticeship is the other college, except without the debt. And when you get involved in in Apprenticeship Program, you get affordable and stackable credentials. And through this registered consortium, those credits are then articulated to the Community College and you are two thirds of the way to your Associates Degree and sometimes more. So there is a lot happening in this space. Apple opportunity. I certainly encourage you to get involved. One other onramp that we are constructing is a skilled superhighways, reentry. Again, i want to reply applaud your efforts i have a big believer in second chances. Applaud your efforts in second chances. I am a big believer in second chances. If i had run peterson, the president of hopkins hospital here with me, here is what he would tell you. This is not an act of charity. This is an act of enlightened selfinterest. We have a remarkably talented pipeline and we have taken that pipeline and it is not simply entrylevel positions, it is xray technicians, it is lobotomies, it is other allied Health Professionals and we had the lowest attrition among our people who have come out of prison. And so, there is a lot to be done there. What thing i we did when i was in maryland is we took correctional education and brought it within the workforce system. So what . Want to consider when you go back is, ask who is running correctional education in your state. Ask them what their Outcome Measures are. Ask them how they are connected to the workforce system. Talk to people who run your local jails because we just gave out 50 million in grants to city and county jails because when i was in Montgomery County, maryland we built a Onestop Center in the county jail. And the return on investment has been remarkable. Because the best way to reduce recidivism is to get people the skills they need and the job they need. And there are many businesses who are out there who are willing and in need of talent. So, we have an opportunity here. As we build this skilled skills superhighway, i encourage we give out a lot of competitive grants every year. We work closely with the department of justice. There are grants for you to innovate in this important space. In terms of Community Colleges they are the secret sauce of success. I refer to them as match. Com we match jobseekers with businesses who want to grow their business. The secret sauce is Community Colleges who are so remarkably adept at devising programs in partnership with businesses because we must always be demand driven. That is the first principle