Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the governor of the great state of missouri, eric greitens. Governor greitens thank you, thank you. Thank you, all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor parson, speaker richardson, and the members of the missouri house, president pro tem richard, and members of the missouri senate, chief justice fischer, and judges of the supreme court, state officials, members of the cabinet, our first lady and my wife, sheena greitens. We have many honored guests here tonight. And one who is particularly special to me is my kindergarten teacher, anne richardson, who is here with us tonight. [applause] Governor Greitens i was in mrs. Richardsons kindergarten class at mckelvey elementary, home of the dragons and it was , at mckelvey elementary that i first heard the story of a boy from the town of diamond, missouri. He was born over a century ago, and he was born a slave. When he was a baby, he and his mother were kidnapped. He never saw his mother again, but by gods grace, he found a loving home and a new family that raised him as their own. Now, at the time, no school in town would admit a black student, so his parents taught him how to read and to write. When he was older, they sent him to neosho, about 10 miles down the road, where there was a school that opened its doors to him. He worked hard, and he did well. So well, in fact, that he was admitted to an agricultural college. This was a tough time for american farmers. Their land was losing its richness, and no one could figure out a fix. The young man from diamond invented new ways to grow crops. He traveled the country fixing farms, sometimes one by one, helping Rural Communities grow strong and feed more people. By some reports, he is the man who saved american agriculture. When George Washington carver was born, he was considered, by many, to be property on a plantation. He became an american hero, a friend of president s, a counselor to everyone from the secretary of agriculture to mahatma gandhi. His face was on postage stamps, and his name on a navy submarine. He was and he remains one of us a missourian. And his story is our story. [applause] greitens you know, George Washington carver passed away 75 years ago this month. As we begin our work, in this time and this place, we should celebrate his life. We should remember where he started and how far he went. We missourians know that the contributions that have counted most have often come from people who were at one time counted out. I was sent here, i was sent here, and i believe that many of you were sent here, not to work for the connected or the comfortable, but for those who have felt counted out and forgotten. They are strong and proud, and while they may not have pull or power or privilege, they do have enormous potential. To those missourians, i have a simple message we have been and we will fight for you every single day. [applause] Governor Greitens we promised wed fight for your jobs, and we are. The most important thing we can do for missouri families is to make it easier for those without jobs to find them and make sure that those who have jobs keep them. Over the past year, we have devoted the energy and attention of our office to putting missourians back to work. And here are the results today, missouri has the lowest Unemployment Rate its had in 17 years. [applause] since lasteitens march, we have outpaced the nation in job growth, and in the past year, missouri moved up nine spots in the rankings of the best states in the country to do business. [applause] Governor Greitens there are more manufacturing jobs in our state than there were a year ago. Were putting a steel mill in sedalia, missouri, and we are competing for more steel mills and other plants around the state. We are bringing good quality jobs back to missouri. Now, we havent fixed in one year what was broken over the course of many decades, and many missourians still struggle. We have a lot of work left to do, but tonight, we can say there are more jobs in missouri than ever before, people are going back to work, and we are moving missouri in a new and better direction. Now, some of the people who need us most, who are counting on us, are the children in the missouri foster care system, all 13,000 of them. We live in a compassionate state, and there are thousands of loving families in missouri who have opened their homes and their hearts to foster children. In fact, some foster and adoptive families are with us in the balcony this evening. Please join me in recognizing them. [applause] Governor Greitens a year ago, if a child in foster care needed a copy of their own birth certificate to apply for a drivers license or to get a job, they had to pay for it out of their own pocket. Today, we can proudly say they can get that birth certificate without having to give the government their money. A year ago, a child entering our foster system might not have known their rights. Now, this is an issue that many of you have cared about for a long time and have worked on for a long time. And i was proud to join with you to sign into law a foster care bill of rights. [applause] Governor Greitens and last month, missouri officially joined the National Electronic interstate compact enterprise to make adoption easier across state lines. And i want to give a special thankyou for her hard work on this issue to the first lady of the state of missouri and my wife, sheena greitens. [applause] Governor Greitens now, our team has been working with members of this body on 20 legislative initiatives to help children in need. Some of these initiatives will help reform and improve missouris adoption system, so we can get children into safe, stable, and loving homes faster. Another would help foster children get access to Bank Accounts so they can save their money. Together, these 20 legislative initiatives will make a meaningful difference in the lives of the children of the state of missouri. Now, as many of you know, before i joined the military, i worked with children in some of the worlds most difficult places. I worked with children whod lost their homes, kids who had lost limbs to landmines, and children whod lost their parents to violence. That work taught me that the damage done to children too often leads people to look at them as only damaged children. People see their problems and their pain, but they miss their courage. They see their scars. They dont see their strength. Every child in the missouri foster care system has seen more than their fair share of hardship. We need to see in them their godgiven potential, and we need to do everything in our power to help them to fulfill it. [applause] tonight, ieitens want to ask the members of this body to do something straightforward put politics on hold. Set any differences you may have youset any differences you may have with one another or with me to the side. These are children. These are kids. There are 13,000 of them. We must love them and care for them as if they were our own, because, in law and spirit, they are. So tonight, lets join together, and pledge to get this work done for the kids who need us most. [applause] Governor Greitens now one of , the most important things we can do for those kids, and for their families, and for families throughout missouri, is to continue to bring more good jobs jobs back to our state. For missouri to prosper, we need to get government off our backs. When we came into office, we looked at the burden of regulations and red tape on our farms, ranches, businesses, homes, neighborhoods, and communities. We had almost 112,000 regulatory requirements on the books, adding up to more than seven Million Words in total. Heres how bad things got in missouri. Since 2002, regulatory requirements in our state grew at a faster yes, a faster rate than the regulations imposed on us by bureaucrats in washington, d. C. You in missouri, there was a regulation on the books that forced some Small Businesses to install and pay for a land line phone even if they didnt want it and didnt use it. If you haul milk for a living, the government requires you to and do a training. Now, its a training that could be done online, on your own time, but because of outdated regulations, youve got to go to a meeting set up by the government in order to do it. Now, regulations like these that waste money, waste time, are outdated and irrelevant. They had been building up for too long, like plaque in the arteries of missouris economy. These regulations cost missourians money. They raise the prices of the things we buy. They slow down our mills, our farms, our factories, our shops. And they make government more bloated and more burdensome. Because of this, we launched the most aggressive, most thorough, most ambitious effort to roll back unnecessary regulations in the united states. [applause] Governor Greitens and by taking a strong, thoughtful, conservative approach to government, we can tell you tonight that we are taking nearly one out of every three regulatory requirements in the state of missouri thats 33,000 regulatory requirements that we are off the books for good. [applause] missouri hastens become a leader. In fact, other states have modeled their regulatory reforms on what we are doing to increase liberty and prosperity in the state of missouri. So my team and i will continue to eliminate regulations that are unproductive and unnecessary by executive action, and, when we need legislation to roll back regulations, we will work with you. But there is more we need to do to grow jobs in our state. Now, some of these weve talked about before making sure that we have the right laws on the books to be fair to family businesses, making Strategic Investments in education, infrastructure, and workforce development. Yet one of the best investments we can make in missouri is also one of the most straightforward cut taxes and put money back into the pockets of the people of missouri. [applause] last year, weens faced a choice we could cut spending or raise taxes. Im proud to say that we cut spending, and we did not raise taxes on the citizens of missouri a single nickel. [applause] Governor Greitens early next week, my team and i will lay out a detailed, thoughtful, and thorough plan to cut taxes on the hardestworking families in our state. [applause] Governor Greitens it is the boldest state tax reform in america. And with your help, we will lower taxes for working families and make it easier for businesses to come to missouri and create jobs. And we will do it in a way that is fiscally sound, maintains our states triplea credit rating, and does not burden our children. In 2018, i want this body to cut taxes for the people of missouri, and to cut taxes for businesses that create jobs. Lets get it done together. [applause] and today,eitens im proud to tell you that we continue to shrink the size of government. In fact, today the government of the state of missouri is the smallest its been in two decades. At the same time, weve been improving how government serves our citizens. To do this, we brought in a team of outsiders, with a Clear Mission the most effective government at the lowest possible cost. In the department of natural resources, we discovered a backlog of over 2,000 permit applications that had been submitted by businesses. The backlog was decades old, and in just the last year, the department sliced it in half. They actually found a permit they actually found a permit that a company applied for in 1997. Im happy to report to you tonight its been approved. [laughter] [applause] not onlygreitens that, they got all of this done while cutting the departments size and spending less money, and even with a smaller and leaner department, they still managed to make sure that missourians have the safest Drinking Water theyve had in almost 20 years. [applause] Governor Greitens this type of change is happening across government. We found four planes that the government didnt need, and we sold them off. That also saved taxpayers almost 40,000 a year in maintenance, money the government was paying for planes that nobody was using. We found 30 cars the government didnt need, and were getting rid of them. Thats going to save missourians over 500,000. Every year, the Governors Office printed thousands of pages of paper for its annual budget. And every year, many of those big books sat on shelves, unopened and collecting dust. So this year, we are putting the Budget Online and saving 3,601. 50 in printing costs. We Pay Attention to dollars, and we Pay Attention to cents, because we remember every single dollar this government spends was earned by the hard work of a missourian, and this is the peoples money. [applause] for us toreitens save dollars and serve citizens, we need to reform state workforce laws that are decades old. Today, government cant move people to where they will help the most, cant reward people for good work, and unlike a business, it cant get rid of poor performers who fail our citizens and fail their colleagues. We need your help to build a common sense government. Speaking of common sense, our task force did a full audit of the boards and commissions in missouris government. They were in bad shape. For example, the state of missouri has six child abuse and neglect review boards. These boards do important work to protect children across the state of missouri. Four of the six of them werent able to hear cases because they didnt have enough members to meet. We fixed this. Now theyll be able to get to work to protect our kids. To serve citizens well, government needs to do fewer things and do them better. For years, people have complained that missouri government is chock full of redundant and unnecessary and wasteful boards and commissions. So our task force did a careful review, board by board, commission by commission, and recommended the elimination of hundreds of unnecessary government positions. Senator riddle has introduced a bill that reflects these recommendations, and i urge this body to pass that bill. [applause] Governor Greitens thats how we make government smaller and better. We must also make sure that our Public Servants serve in the publics interest. We need to slam shut the door between the legislature and lobbyists, and we need to pass term limits for every statewide office holder. [applause] in my veryeitens first action as governor, i signed an executive order banning gifts from lobbyists to state employees of the executive branch. A bill that would have done the same thing in the Legislature Passed the house last year. And thank you to speaker richardson and the representatives who voted for it last year and who already took action on it again this year. Last year, the bill stalled in the senate. This year, both bodies need to get together and pass a ban on gifts from lobbyists to the legislature. But in the meantime, i have a simple request i call on every member of the legislature to join me in a pledge not to accept any gift from lobbyists. [applause] we promiseditens the people of missouri that we would support our Law Enforcement officers and first responders, and thats what weve done. Theres an officer who tonight will step into the cold to keep missourians safe. The wife of one Police Officer told our team that when he leaves for the night she cant be sure that hes home safe until she hears the velcro of his body armor being taken off. This is what our Law Enforcement families experience every day. Last year, some of our Law Enforcement officers gave their lives in the line of duty. Others were wounded. Last month, i visited the bedside of officer ryan oconnor, after a criminal shot him in the back of the head. The day we went to visit him, as he was lying in a hospital bed just a few feet away, officer oconnors 17yearold son aiden told me that like his grandfather and his father, he wanted to be a Police Officer. [applause] aiden, wereitens want you and young people across the state of missouri to know that serving your community as a Police Officer is a proud and noble profession, and were proud of you. Were proud of you. [applause] Governor Greitens last year, together with this body, we passed and signed blue alert legislation into law to help bring to justice and strengthen the penalties for anyone who attacks or injures a Law Enforcement officer. This year, we need to pass legislation that protects the health, safety, and wellbeing of our firefighters, Police Officers, and other first responders. Some of these issues weve talked about before. One issue i want to raise tonight is the harassment of Police Officers. Today in missouri, radicals can file liens against a Police Officers house. They can do this in secret, and it can affect the credit of our Police Officers and their families, costing them thousands of dollars. Its harassment, and it needs to stop. On behalf of Law Enforcement officers throughout our state, id ask this body to pass a clean version of legislation that protects them from this type of harassment. Tonight, i want to let the Police Officers of this state know your governor, your fellow citizens, and the vast majority of your elected representatives, we have your back. [applause] Governor Greitens were working to build the finest National Guard in the country, and im proud to say that we were able to add 800 National Guard jobs this past year. We want missouri to be the best state in the country for veterans and military families. We have members of the armed forces who get orders to come to missouri to serve in places like Whiteman Air Force base and ft. Leonard wood. Today, what makes it hard for some of them is that, if their spouse is licensed to work in another state, missouri may not recognize those licenses. That means if your spouse has a career in dentistry in tennessee and your family is moved to Whiteman Air Force base, they may not be able to work here in missouri. That needs to change. We need to grant full reciprocity of licenses obtained in other states to military members, veterans, and their spouses. [applause] and there is more. Right now, in the state of missouri, a Small Business owner who declares that he or she wants to hire veterans can be sued. Thats right if you say that you prefer to hire veterans, you could face a lawsuit. Thats wrong. This legislature needs to pass a bill allowing employers to establish a veterans hiring preference. Most states in our country have done this. Its time for missouri to do the same. [applause] i had thereitens honor of visiting with the men and women of missouris National Guard when they were serving overseas with u. S. Central command. The men and women from 1st battalion, 138th infantry regiment, are home now, and i wanted all of you who are here today to be able to say to them welcome home, and were proud of you. [applause] proud of greitens you guys. We promised the people of missouri that we would fight for them. We have, and we will. We promised the people of missouri we would do different. We have, and we will. We promised the people of missouri that we would fight for the least among us, the counted out and the forgotten. We have, and we will. Tonight, we can look back with pride and look forward with confidence. We have come far in a year, and though we have a long way to go, the state of our state today reflects what the state of our people has always been and missouri is strong, and she is getting stronger. Thank you very much. God bless you, and god bless the people of missouri. [applause] with the escort, the Escort Committee please repaired to escort the governor from the chamber. Prepare to escort the governor from the chamber. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3, saturday, 8 00 p. M. Eastern, Lebanon Valley College professor on the lead up to the american revolution. We will have a tax on things , glass, paper, lead and tea. We were collected at the ports. Big surprise. More outrage, anger, and fear. Sunday at 4 00 on real america, the 1963 film, assignment iran. He learns techniques to survive in the arctic wasteland. He knows the ultimate alternative faced by the special forces man in action, adjust or die. At 6 00 on american artifacts, a preview of collections for the u. S. Diplomacy museum set to open next year. Americas first diplomat conducted these treaties, and this commerce was essential. It granted france mostfavorednation trading status, and the french were very excited about being able to get into that economic trading war with Great Britain after the war was over. This treaty would remain in effect for several years afterwards. American history tv every weekend on cspan3. Sunday night, a Georgetown University law professor looks at the way the Court Penalizes the poor through excessive fines and fees. The criminalization of poverty in america. He is interviewed by a georgia congressman. Was poverty and issue in terms of the war on drugs or the victims of the war on drugs . How did poverty play into that . No man around, what happens to families, what happens to the men who have been locked up and all the collateral consequences so they cannot get jobs, they are not allowed to live in public housing. The 5000 laws across the country require consequences of one kind or another, it destroys somebodys life. If they were not poor before prison, they are povertystricken for the rest of their lives. It is totally connected to poverty. Watch sunday night at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. President trump earlier today signed a proclamation honoring dr. Martin luther king jr. Ahead of mondays federal holiday. He did not respond to questions about his comments yesterday on on he the and african countries. And african countries. This is about 15 minutes. President trump good morning, everybody. Thank you very much