Transcripts For CSPAN National Governors Association Closing Session 20140713

, meaning the Unemployment Rate of veterans since 9 11 is above the number for the average folks and we are making sure that statistic is one we still have years from now as we still Work Together. The considerable challenges Many Service Members in our family face. We know our veterans fought for us and we will fight for them. That is why many states, including missouri, have taken membertees Service Transition to the workforce, such as issues with the state licensure. We have signed bills in that regard and i think everybody for tremendous work. A host of new or improved programs to host access to benefits and services and expand access of longterm employment. You will hear about in a little while here, it got started very simply. I was in afghanistan meeting with a Group Getting ready to go out to do with ieds. I was in a small room with those and they were putting on armoring getting night vision goggles ready. A locker room, everybody was getting fired up. I turned to a fellow from missouri saying, what scares you . , what scares me is not having a job when i get home. That scares me. We have all heard stormys stories like that. Always trying to do a lot of things. Missouri now has over 4000 employers in our program, including some employers we are from today and it is important to note those 4000 employers have already hired more than 6400 veterans in hours eight. We recognize to those employers with a flag of freedom award. It is simple. We tremendously the veterans. All of us have a lot to do and that statesmen come it is not a all program. It is not a onesizefitsall program. The Unemployment Rate has dropped significantly from its peak. We still have too many unemployed. Trendlines are going in the right direction. They clearly are. That is why we wanted to have the session to share best practices and make sure we were moving forward. Before we introduce the panel, return to the governor for any opening comments you would like to have. Our vice chair, the governor from the great state of iowa. Governor nixon, thank you for your leadership on this important issue. In iowa, my top priority i announced in the state address was something we call home base iowa, very similar to your show me Heroes Program. It included eliminating the iowa income tax on military retirement. It provides instate tuition for all veterans whether they came from iowa or not. It simplifies the process for them getting professional licensing and getting credit for their military training and education. We also have appointed a Bipartisan Group of leaders, former congressman boswell who is a democrat and bob mayer who is the ceo of Caseys General stores, theyre both retired colonels and friends. They are working hard. The effort is to line up. The Lieutenant Governor and i hear all the time for businesses we have good Jobs Available and cannot find people with the right skills. We have people coming out of the military with leadership and Technical Skills that fit with that. We are working hard to make that Information Available and market directly to those. We also have an opportunity for communities to become homebased communities, for businesses to become homebased businesses by setting certain goals. We also extended veterans preference laws to give private sector businesses the same opportunities to provide veterans preference that state and local governments do in the state of iowa. This was a very ambitious program. Im proud to say it received bipartisan support. I had the honor of signing it on memorial day at camp dodge in the goldstar museum. I lost 12. 5 pounds and wore my uniform to sign the bill. I am really proud to have had that opportunity. Debbie durham was on the panel. Her department is going to be implement in this, working closely with our outstanding budget adjutant general and workforce people in iowa. We think it is a Great Program and want to do all we can. We also have a 5,000 stipend we give to veterans purchasing homes. They can go towards down payment or closing costs. We increased funding to make sure there was an adequate amount that every veteran who applies can receive that tax credit. Im excited about it. We are just beginning to implement it. We have two counties already designated as homebased. The iowa business council, all of the major employers in iowa have signed on. The homebased businesses. And we are seeing a lot of interest through the state. I think we will see many other counties and communities participate. With that, i will turn it back to governor nixon. Thank you. In iowa, not only iron veterans but a Weight Loss Program also. Usually we get the lecture of the Healthiest State in the nation. Anyway, thank you. Lets get started. I will introduce the panelists and then we want to have engagement between us rather than sitting here listening to an hourlong speech. We have a very good panel. You will see quickly how it lays out. It is an interesting panel. I think we can have a good engaged discussion. First is the Deputy Assistant secretary for policies that the veterans implement and Training Service at the department of labor. This office serves veterans by preparing them for meaningful careers, providing resources and expertise, and protecting their employment rights. She also is in several Senior Executive positions in the department of defense. A veteran herself, she is a west point graduate, served in a variety of leadership positions during a distinguished 20year career with the u. S. Army. Our next panelist is the director of the transition to Veterans Program office in the department of defense. Dr. Kelly leads the office in charge of implementing the Transition Assistance Program to meet the needs of post9 11 Service Members as a separate from active duty. Dr. Kelly also serves as the cochair for the Senior Steering Group meeting transition assistant efforts for dod in coordination with five different federal agencies. She has a long and distinguished career in various offices of the department of defense and holds her doctorate in marriage and family from st. Louis university. Debbie durham is director of the eye what Economic Development authority and overseas Economic Development programs for the state including veterans related initiatives such as homebased iowa. She served as president of the Siouxland Chamber of commerce. Jeff joined my office in 2009. He was a member of the Missouri House of representatives including serving as House Minority leader from 2004 until 2007. Prior to election to the house, he was an assistant attorney general and attorney in kansas city. The assistant Vice President of Human Resources at enterprise holdings, also wins the coolest name contest today. Headquartered in st. Louis, it off rates alamo and National Rental cars as well as the enterprise brand. The Company Offers a rental and Car Sharing Services and retail car sales. He has served with the company for 20 years in various capacities. Jonah as Vice President of Government Affairs for express scripts. The company coordinates the distribution of Outpatient Pharmaceuticals including retail drug card programs, home delivery, and other Clinical Management programs. He spent several years in Product Development and corporate quality before leading the Public Policy and advocacy efforts. Done with that. A good panel. We have federal folks that understand the various agencies. State folks who have made progress and private sector folks who have embraced this and hired thousands of veterans through a myriad of programs. I want to thank everybody for being here. Rather than going through the routine of each of our panelists give a presentation, i would like to jump right into an interactive discussion. Our goal is to make sure that everybody has a chance to discuss these issues. Our conversation will focus on three key issues. One, strengthening partnerships. Two, improving the means to identify job opportunities. Three, eliminating barriers to veterans in employment. I would encourage my colleagues to jump in at any time to share any innovative practices or questions for these folks. We will start with a general question about strengthening partnerships and leveraging resources. States are often in the best situation to provide Employment Support Services and engage with employers. To do so effectively requires active partnerships with the federal government and the private sector. To our federal panelists, how can states best partner with their military installations, National Guard and federally supported job centers to address veterans employment challenges . Thank you very much. Hit on something important here. It is a partnership. Department of labor is uniquely positioned to help a friend this partnership. We certainly recognize the significance of full Employment Opportunities and its relationship to the readiness of your National Guard duty. We frequently talk about the fact that many guard and reservists are either unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed. The job centers offer a great way to connect. What we are busy doing is trying to encourage our federally funded state reps in each of your states to work closely with your state workforce agencies to engage, to make sure that that relationship is strong so that we can connect the local jobs in and around your unit with the folks in those units to make sure that we know about them, they are registered in the system, and we can help with the matching opportunities. There are lots of opportunities, and the challenge is often simply connecting that young guardsman to the opportunities out there. We think that the workforce system and the job centers there close by offer a great way to have individual counseling for that guardsman or reservist, and a direct connection through the state job banks, the job centers and that personal connection. I would encourage you as you go back and talk to your labor commissioners that you hook them up with that feedback there in your state and make sure that partnership is strong. The next point i would make is regarding military installations. Not every state has an active military installation. We worked very closely with the od d. O. D. To develop memorandums of understanding that encourage military garrison commanders to actively engage with their local workforce agencies to bring those folks on two bases. We are about to publish guidance to those job Center Directors through your state workforce agencies, encouraging them to be available when that military Installation Commander calls. It is vital to enable what dod has going on in terms of their transition system programming, making sure those Service Members before they transition know about the job center resources. I want to make sure you know any active Duty Service Member who has separation ordered or a separation date is considered a dislocated worker, for the purposes of access within the job center network, the workforce system, and for access to Workforce Innovation Fund training. Service members with etf dates are eligible. Priority of access to those resources, and that is a critical way to help fill that. Is that automatic . It is automatic. It is in policy documents that the department of labor issued. Going back to 2005. Dislocated workers also finds the spouses, spouses of Service Members who are changing station and Service Members who are separating. Theres a couple of things right off the top that demonstrate the critical partnerships between dod, your guard and reserve unit, and the National Workforce system. Teresa, you said that our veterans are unemployed, underemployed, or unhappily employed when they come home from service and transition into civilian life. Why is that . What are the obstacles for them to be happily employed . Why is anybody underemployed . What is the cause of that unemployment from happiness . Oftentimes it is based in the fact that they may jump into the first job available because they feel the need to find some employment, and may have found a job that does not fit their skills or interests or aptitudes. We want to make sure they know that the utility of the job centers and counselors that are there to actually do skilled assessments with them, figure out where training gaps are, make sure they get the guidance they need to find jobs that will help them be happily employed with meaningful work. Do they have a higher Unemployment Rate of veterans returning than we have in the general population . The aggregate veterans Unemployment Rate has been below the national Unemployment Rate almost continuously for the last three years. You have to keep in mind that the veteran population is older than the average demographic in america. 65 of veterans in america are over the age of 45. Unemployment tends to decrease as age increases. The post9 11 vets do have a higher Unemployment Rate, but it is closing on the National Average for the equivalent age groups. In may, they were almost statistically equivalent. It is closing. It has a lot to do with dods efforts to introduce folks before separation to really Critical Thinking about their transition. Our partnership with dod to make sure they have access to the resources they need before they transition, to develop the right skills and search techniques and identify opportunities. Thats what i wanted to make sure everybody understood so we can structure this conversation, that the Transition Assistance Program has gone through a significant redesign. You see some of that literature in your notebooks at the table. We have worked with d. O. L. , department of veterans affairs, department of education, personnel management, and really hammered out what did we want as an end result with the transition preparation that we gave to Service Members. What you have now is a set of Career Readiness standards that every Service Member needs to meet before they separate. It just like they need the physical fitness, military training, standards, all of that, they have to meet Career Readiness standards. An example would be a 12 month postseparation budget. We get them to look at what they have coming in now and move them to, where do you think you will relocate to. Using some of d. O. L. s tools, finding out what the job market looks like there and what they could be earning. One of the other Career Readiness standards is an military occupational code crosswalk so that they take their military occupational code, translate those into the civilian occupational code, go to the labor market in the location to which they think theyre going to relocate, and look at if those skills are in demand. A lot of times are Service Members are thinking, im going to go back home. If the labor to market does not have these skills that you want to have as a career, what is your plan b . The post9 11 g. I. Bill connects veterans to that part of their curriculum, which is accessing higher education, which tells them how to select the best universities, community colleges, can they get the skills they need for that civilian occupation, or a career Technical Training track which teaches them all about the institutions that offer Vocational Training in your state, in your communities, and what is the correct course of study they can use to cover and pay for. Part of this entire curriculum, we have moved from a fourhour separation counseling to a mandatory 88 hours of instruction. Brick and mortar, virtual curriculum available to them. To teach them far earlier to start considering how they are going to use this rich skills and training after they get out of the military and apply those to their lives when they separate. That is the culture change for d. O. D. , articulating clearly that everyone, whether they serve four years or 40 years, whether you are a firsttermer or four star, everyone if all goes well will separate from active duty. How do you start making wise decisions for you and your family now to embed that kind of thinking that that exercise will start at the First Permanent duty station for every Service Member. In the last 90 days of a military members career, we are embedding that across the military lifecycle. They are going to start looking at the information about your states, your colleges, your universities, your labor markets, and they will be looking for those training opportunities you will be offering at your state towards the careers they want to have. This is a completely different mindset, a complete change in the system. We are partnering with dol to get that longterm thinking applied across all of the forces. Youre not going to be seeing Service Members hurrying and scurrying at the last 90 days of their military service. Starting in 2015, those coverts will start this longterm thinking and deliberate planning. For now, we have a lot of our Service Members coming back from a rack and afghanistan. They are already going iraq and afghanistan. They are already going through that training. Commanders, a new responsibility, commanders have to ensure that they meet Career Readiness. If they dont, they get one hand over to the d. O. L. A terrific resource for everyone. They make it connected make it connected to veterans affairs. It is very much a dovetailed curriculum. I wanted to offer that to you so we are not said in this thinking, short term, last 30, 90 days we will be looking at more deliberate planning so you can also be knowing that Service Members are going to be looking at your state much earlier. Clearly, a lot of work has been done on this, and we are at a point where all of us are going to be in service in one form or another when we break through the barrier. One of the key parts of that is the state partners. We have two with us, iowa and missouri. Also with you, debbie. To utilize partnerships and get the connections between employers and organizations and the families themselves. Absolutely. Im going to tell you how we are implementing just what you said in the states through homebased iowa. Homebased iowa is a fiveyear initiation. We have a single site portal that comes into workforce development. Workforce development will do the first assessment. We are using that crosswalk assessment. We are using that to say, this is what you did in the military. This is what it means in the marketplace. Then we put them through the national Career Readiness certificate skills assessment. We say, here is what you came out with an this is what you need, and we connect them with those jobs in our state. We are providing a service for them. This is a privatepublic partnership. He will spend between 750,000 to 1 million a year. The private sector is paying for the marketing. We are working with those 25 Top Employers of the state that are creating the same protocol for their hr department. What we have realized is there is a disconnect between those hr departments and trying to hire this population. We are trying to create this continue on that is comprehensive continuum that is comprehensive and matching exactly what you are talking about. Then we have said, if you know this, lets drill down into the basics. We have done research to show every base in the company. Those military rankings, and what that means to the marketplace when you do that translational software, and saying, we know you have one base that has an abundance of i. T. And we have to higher x amount of i. T. Because we have predicted with the baby boomers exiting the marketplace how many people we are going to need. Not just jobs today, but two or three years from now when they are deploying. Now we are reaching out to try to touch those individuals before they ever think of saying, heres where you need to go. As the governor said, we are doing instate tuition not just at universities, but arrive at an community colleges, and we are about the whole family. We are taking exactly the foundation that you have laid for us, and we are implementing it into the marketplace. Governor, our show me Heroes Program in missouri was started in 2010. It is a basic concept. That is to link veterans, give them a chance at employment once they leave military service. As the governor mentioned, it has been a Successful Program. 4006000 employers have taken the pledge to be show me heroes employers. 6836 military veterans are now gainfully employed in the civilian sector since the inception of this program. If i were another governor in another state and if i were looking at how to design a Successful Program, there are two basic concepts. Our program is pretty straightforward. An employer takes a pledge, signs a pledge to give a veteran a shot at an employment opportunity. That employer gets a person who is trained to standard, who is mission oriented, goal focused. The two basic reasons why we believe this program has been successful are, we kept it simple. Its not complicated during an employer signs a pledge that that employer will give a veteran a shot. We have not had an additional byzantine bureaucracy around this program. It is a single point of contact. We have a director, a website. Everything works up to and through that director. There already is an existing apparatus out there. We did not believe it was in our best interest to make it anymore complicated, but to make it simple and to achieve our goals. The second thing we had done i think this is the other reason it has been a Successful Program we have utilized existing resources that are out there. One of the folks mentioned the levers, which is an acronym for local veterans employment representatives. We have 14 of those across the state of missouri and they are in direct contact with employers, direct contact with military veterans, and we worked with them, complement their efforts, and use their information to funnel up to the top to the show me Heroes Program and with the ultimate goal, and we like our success rate. The ultimate goal of giving that veteran the opportunity to succeed and giving that employer express scripts and enterprise, an employee whose skill is going to make their company even better. Lets move to those employers real quickly, then we will open up again. Representative of express scripts and enterprise said that we are already doing a lot in these areas and have really embraced these programs. I would like to let them talk about their experience and what advice they would have and to other employers out there, what they have discovered, from embracing this these have been two of the organizations in our state that have been incredibly involved at every level to assist folks that are transitioning out of the military to get into the economic sector. We will start from the express scripts gentlemen. You made my mothers day. She can see me on cspan today. Saturday afternoon audience cspan, it spikes to unknown levels as she joins the two librarians in boise. [laughter] hello, mom. Lets give the governor around of applause. Such a wonderful job. [applause] i think he should sing for us. [laughter] sing makes you want to after coming to nashville. A little kick in your walk just being here. Fantastic trip and a wonderful meeting. We want to also thank your staff. Your sponsors and hosts, let health but this meeting together, along with our mga staff nga staff. This is our closing session of our summer meeting. It has been a great pleasure to serve as your chair. One of the reasons why i chose my initiative for tomorrows jobs was to ensure the changing business client in our nation matches Business Needs and also our Workforce Needs and home. We are continually aware of how technology and innovation have ourver changed and altered National Economy and affected our schools and ailey life. We should also Pay Attention to our large cities, small cities, and employers large and small. Our businesses on main street have long been the breadandbutter of our economy. Very pleased this morning that our next speaker comes from a unique perspective, leading a bothny that succeeds on main street and e street. Has a company in 1966, the name was changed to best buy in 1983. 140company has more than thousand employees globally and more than 1400 Retail Locations in the United States. Each year, about one billion people shop online at best and 6 million shoppers visit their u. S. Stores. It is a great pleasure that we ,ave with us our guest speaker the president of best buy. Didto say this right i do good . I have been working on it all week. I especially look forward to hearing the talk about the future of americas brick and mortar stores. It is something the governor has focused on and talked about a lot. Best buy to our local stores in anan succeed everchanging economy. He has a strong reputation of being able to turn around companies and chance for them and bring his expertise and also, the French Division of electronic data system, and in the three years there, the company reversed its revenue ofde to an annual revenue significantlyhile increasing its profit margin. Prior to joining best buy, he before coming to carlson, he led a unit and grew from 8 billion to 25 early in in four years. A remarkable history. To our governor secured today and our guests that have joined welcome. Give a warm [applause] thank you so much, governors, to speak with you this morning. Despite my accent, i am from where 2500a place companies are headquartered and a wonderful place to live. We also have winters but we will not talk about that. Executive officer of this company and it is a great honor to have the thertunity to speak with governors of the states in this great United States of america. This is really an important topic to be speaking about. It is important because of the importance of the Retail Industry and economy of all the states. Retail is about one messickof the gross to product of the United States Gross Domestic Product of the United States. When you take into account the people working for retail who and so forth,es it is about one quarter of the jobs in the United States. It is enormous. From a states standpoint, do i need to tell you the sales tax, it is about 250 ilion dollars . On average 30 of the revenue of each of the states. We are happy to provide 2. 6 billion. The impact of retail goes beyond this. Active members of the ,ommunities in which we operate beyond the jobs we provide, we contribute todays charitable causes, given the last 15 years. Time,0 hours of volunteer employees per year throughout the states. We also have a recycling program. Probably most of you know the citizens of your states can come to our stores and recycles our electronics. In the last four years, we will have recycles one billion pounds , helping the planet. A big impact in many ways. Topics also a timely because of the rise of ecommerce. That is significantly transforming the Retail Industry throughout the u. S. Billion and50 growing rapidly. That is about 17 compared to the previous year. , ecommerce is about 20 of the industry. It is very significant. Beyond that, it goes beyond that because the shoppers of Information Available online now, when you buy something significant, more than 500, in 80 , you start your shopping journey online, researching the product, comparing the product. Cases, some the shopping journey starts online. More traffic is going down in contrast. More traffic in december was down 14 yearoveryear. That is very significant. Is, is it in the future the best of main street . We have to ask this question. What is main street need to do to thrive in an environment where technology is significantly transforming the Shopping Experience . What do we need to do to be successful in that context . I am trying to answer this question. With the benefit of the experience of the transformation we started two years ago when i became the ceo there, in my message this morning, i will say of course this is not the best of main street. Provided ite transforms itself significantly and innovate the customer physicale, marrying brick and mortar, which we can do online through a multichannel customer experience. I will base my remarks on the transformation of best buy. Governor, you highlighted a bit of our history. Is one of these amazing american success stories. In the u. S. , it is a 35 billion company and has been very successful. 15 years ago, i was the ceo of a Videogame Company providing games to best buy and i saw how great of a company it was. It was the best in the business. Probably five or six years ago, it started to go sideways. That is something that happens that are very successful. You can become complacent. Competitorsmazing and the group started to grow significantly. Of course, we are competing with some of the foremost companies on the planet. Walmart, costco, and so forth. Emphasis on the customers, we got distracted, and all of this led to a bit of a drama a few years ago that was highly publicized in the media. I love challenges so i was not suicidal. [laughter] of 2012, we did a diagnosis of the situation and found that we had two problems, but they were significant. Time totook the identify our assets. We had amazing assets. Most of your customers. You talked about 140,000 passionate about Customer Service. 70 lives within 15 minutes of a best buy store. And is an amazing asset this combined with the relationship with our vendors turned out to be a great opportunity. We are the only place of scale where they can really showcase the fruit of the billions of dollars of our r d investment. Products are complex and difficult to understand and they need a place to showcase this. They had her website, which was significant at the time. We had these assets but we needed to transform the company. We needed real chance formation efforts. The heart is a real focus on efforts. Mainstreamte what needs to do, let me illustrate our playbook. The first thing we need to do was decide prices needed to be competitive. Isa world where information pervasive and we sell other peoples products, there was no way we could not be competitive. Phenomenong is a where people go to our store and spend 30 minutes with blue shirts about our product them and buy it internet. That is frustrating to our blue shirts. These are people who come to our stores and create tensions. Their hours to lose. Macscision was to internet price. We will match internet price. Good enough because it is not just about the price. We studied strategies to focus advice, service, convenience, at competitive prices to customers, inticularly those interested Customer Service but need help. I need help shopping because it all changes all the time. Starting on this side, on the shopping site, how to write shoes a tv, how to i compare with which content videos, a lot of advice on the site. We have invested significantly in the training of our lou shirts. Workedll we have also with our vendors to make the Shopping Experience great. Samsung that have invested hundreds of thousands to really explain to really display how everything works together. We have super trained blue shirts. If youre walking in, you probably do not know you need a high an hdtv. You do not know and then you lou shirts. Of our i guarantee you they will then know, and the only question is which and when. This technology is very complex. In terms of help with your design, setting it up and transferring data from your old phone to your new phone, they will need to take care of you and set out send you out walking and ready to go. Help using the product, we are proud to be birthday ofthe 20th our geek squad. That is one of our secret weapons. Service, and convenience. About 50 of the orders on our tosite, the customers decide pick up the orders in one of our stores are the customer decides to go to our website and they decide to go to our store because of the convenience. Now is good for the customers. You like what youre seeing and you can get help and advice. Countrythroughout the. 2 Distribution Centers all of our stores can ship to our customers directly. When people go to the site, even though we do not have the product in one of the Distribution Centers, we will get it from the stores. Or, we do not have a product in that particular store, but we will get it to you. Convenience is returned. All the way, you have a big tv to do, we know what will take care of it for you. Convenience is how we fight the battle. A significant transformation for everybody in the country, if you think about it. I think i have highlighted some of them. Everything is being transformed significantly. Let me illustrate that with the marketing function. 10 years ago, marketing was tv, the insert in the sunday newspaper. With the data we have about our customers we have the opportunity to have targeted and highly relevant digitized Marketing Communication and really develop relevant communication with our customers. For that summer, i can talk to you about some games. You bought a camera and maybe you want to talk about lenses. I can talk to you about how we can help you move and get equipped in your new place. Customer we have a database that we are leveraging to be helpful to our customers game changes the significantly. Not all the transformations are fun and painless. We have taken out in hundred 50 million of costs into the system. Because we are very advanced, our focus now is shifting to growth. Always easy. The tv from this year is much cheaper than two years ago. Great opportunities around new technology. Aboutis a lot of talk health and fitness technologies. Week withsummit next an insurance company, a hospital system, to see how we can Work Together to the benefit of customers and reduce Health Care Costs and improve lives. Are nowng in our homes connected. How can we help our customers take advantage of that . A are focused on highdefinition tv. Significant Growth Opportunities for us. This hopefully gives you a oppositionhe counter that are not unique. Like the ones from nebraska. You want to go to their store to. Iscover what they can do also a Great Company from a direct consumer. Very much emphasizing service. 50 of their business is now direct consumer. All of these companies now combined stores and online to the benefit of their customers. The key drivers of these transformations are refocus on the customer, levering leveraging a niece unique aspect of the best buy story. We need to innovate, to the benefit of our customers. From that standpoint, it is still early days in that revolution. I have an interview with the ideas is author in the that you have to try a great number of things. The 14 stores. Theory, it is very difficult to direct the bicycle. You fall. But if the bicycle is moving, if it is not moving in exactly the right direction, it is not a problem. You can always course adjust. A lot of things need to take place. In that contest, my comments about the future of main street would be incomplete if i did not talk about the help from governors. This is about the marketplace. This country, retailers who do not have a physical presence do not collect the sales tax. It is not about the internet versus brick and mortar. We do collect sales tax on our website. To theot can should be communities and so forth. We think it is an unfair situation. We thank you for your leadership on the matter. Needs ton issue that be fixed. I do not know anyone who thinks the governors should be the winners. In theready to fight level of the governors should not take the witness. Alas last revenue. Into the university of tennessee. The last opportunity from a revenue standpoint is 25 billion. Do, manystates will states have said they will lower the taxes. Economists concluded based on a thorough study that if we change the law, this is the opportunity for the country to create 1. 5 million jobs. Reduce the taxl burden and this will facilitate growth. This issue needs to be solved because of jobs. The number of stores that are closed, 15,000 store closures in the past few years, 5000 were announced this year. 3. 4 . Ome margin by about while we match internet prices, i cannot match the sales tax. I cannot fight with an eight percent price advantage. Jobs are being lost every day and decisions about store closures are made every day influenced by this situation. The situation needs to be solved urgently because of the base at which business is moving online. The good news is it is an issue that can be solved and can and must be solved this year. I know he was here earlier this week and spoke to you about this this week. I was with washington with members of the house. Gamew today is the final of the soccer world cup. The United States, we do not like that game because we get beaten by the germans every time. If we all Work Together, we can push this over the finish line for thend employees and the country. Leadership, it has the opportunity to be very helpful. Hear thathted to youre working on this. This is a fight that has almost bipartisan support. It is a fight supported by an extremely broad mainstream coalition. Associations, economists, and so this is something that is a common sense solution. In conclusion, i want to again thank you for inviting me again and giving me the opportunity to speak to the governors of the state and talk about our industry. It is on an honor for me and i am happy to take time for any anyone out there this morning. So thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much for coming. This is a critical issue for all of us. Existing businesses don my now . For best buy, depending on the quarter, it is high single digits. Eight percent. Online, it is lower than the physical world. Thank you for being here. We are honored to have you here. We are on the five yard line and we can probably push it across the finish line here. What do you think the options are . There are options here and we will try to put up a stiff defense i expect. Can we get a vote on this before the august recess . Who is going to be opposed to it . Where are our challenges . And this is an issue, there is broad agreement that this issue needs to be fixed. Not that anyone is saying the current construct needs to be fixed. The decision in the Supreme Court in 1992 was made before ecommerce existed and we talk about how important ecommerce is, so everybody agrees any to be fixed. The senate voted last year. It is now in the house. A congressman from utah, jason chaffetz, who was done terrific some issues ine the senate bill. He has worked each of them to make sure that the solution is simple, is fair, and be implement it, that it can be phased. The states that have some influence on how it can get done, so there is excellent work that has been done. Anunderstanding is there is important law that expires on november 1, which is the not taxing internet access. The house will have the opportunity to expand the moratorium on not taxing the internet. My understanding is the senate then wants to attach a bill. Originalhe it is the bill or coming from the house is not for me to say, but it is a brilliant move because it makes it clear that it is not about not taxing the internet, it is about establishing fairness in the marketplace, so that it comes back to the house, and then leaders of the house will have to make sure it gets done either in september or later. About the talking obstacles, it is good to talk about what we can do. Each governor talking to their delegation canh have both on the senate and house five, highlighting emergency many thees have highlighted opportunity to lower the tax rate. Veryme states that is impactful. In fact, for us to discuss how the states should use the proceeds, there is a great thing in this country, which is called democracy, and it is a federal system, so it is for the states to decide this, so for the governors to clearly talk to their delegations, say you can do this with leadership, and press the urgency of the matter. There is no technical obstacle today to solving this. Courtason why the supreme 20 years ago decided against it is they felt it was too complex. Took mane country that to the moon and of these extraordinary things, calculating facts, software can do this. There are Many Companies that provide the software. It is not difficult. We do this every day. It is limited, the ability to audit, because it was a consent about so many states auditing more companies at the same time. I think the work that has been done in the house will solve this. There is no technical obstacle, so i would like to say that defining what to do is often easy. Defining how to do it sometimes is more difficult. Just doing it, that is true in business, that is why i take the analogy of the fiveyard line. If we push together and talk to everybody who will make a decision, we know who the decisionmakers are, lets just get it done. It will be good for the country. I see it now. Is all of you have done so much, and after 10 years, it can feel that you are tired. No, this is the fiveyard line, so this is the time to push. Any other questions . Can i just say one more thing . It is an interesting time, and you hear talk about corporate greed and some of the challenges that we have in me marketplace out there. Store,y is a remarkable you started in 1968, really a Success Story that we can all learn from. I did note that Forbes Magazine named you the best top company in america here a few years ago, but just as impressively, they named you the top 10 most inerous corporations america. Tell us a little bit about your philosophy at best buy, and how does your giving back i think here in the national area, you probably have three or four stores right here in tennessee. What is your philosophy of giving back to the community as part of your Corporate Mission statement . Muchvernor, thank you so for this question. This is something that is very dear to the heart of everyone at best buy. We feel that when you lead a major corporation, we have ofponsibilities as do all the stakeholders. Of course we have a big response will be because we have shareholders. We completely get that. We have a big responsibly for our customers, for our employees, and we have a big responsibility for the communities in which we operate. We are very grateful for the hospitality that each of your states provide, and we feel we are in the boat and rowing together. This is from the dna of minnesota. What i went to minnesota six and a half years ago, i felt very clearly that there was a sense of common responsibly, the common good of the community, and everybody in minnesota gets in the boat and rows. We have our charitable activities. We have the best buy childrens foundation. We are very focused on kids and technology. Each year we do a big fundraiser in minneapolis. We ask all of our vendors and partners to contribute, and we raise the several millions of dollars to contribute from that standpoint. It also means getting involved. Many of us are involved in local institutions. The program that is the most remarkable i think at best buy is the recycling program. Course the planet we really care about this planets, and being able to recycle in the last four years one billion pounds of electronic products is a great contribution to the common good and the planet. And because of our relationships with various vendors and so forth, we then take the Raw Materials that are in these and recycle them, so it is not that we just get them out of the home, we do something with them. Speaking. Lone many corporations in america and around the world feel the same. This is not just about making a buck this is about contributing to the common good, and through the jobs we provide but also through the impact we have on the community, so we are very passionate about this, and we thank you for your question, governor. Based on your hospitality or your generosity, i appreciate that particularly in my neighborhood of minnesota, in particular in the twin cities, some people may not know this, but it was Just Announced by the nfl that the super bowl is going to be in the twin cities, and i thought i particularly feel generous because it makes my commute to watch the packers plan a super bowl much shorter than it normally is, so i appreciate that. [laughter] true competitor with that team. Do you have a professional law team in your state, governor . I think the 13 World Championship that we have compare with zero i think there are in minnesota, but [laughter] i also was probably a little more they dig when i said it. I am a good midwesterner, and i think it is only right for our neighbors because it is probably closest a vikings fan will ever get to the super bowl, so that is pretty good as well. [laughter] thank you for sharing that story. [laughter] this was the great case of the community in minnesota getting together to get this outcome, so the governor and the Sub Companies in minnesota all got together and said we want to get this done, and my friend who got , anduper bowl 20 years ago mitchell davis, the chairman and ceo of u. S. Bank, all of us got together and we provided the ipads for the presentation and so forth, and this was the case of a team effort to get this done, so we like to get together and do great things, and yes, i know, we have got some work to do. We will keep working on this, governor. All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time today. It was very exciting to hear how the transition of your company and integrating ecommerce with main street and how all of that works. You gave us so many ideas to take back home. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Lets give a round of applause. [applause] thank you. Thank you very much. And we all like to shop at best buy, so we appreciate that. Were counting down to our final few moments at the closing session of the National Governors association, and may i just say that it has been a great honor and a great pleasure to serve as your chair this year. I really have enjoyed getting to know even better our fellow governors across our nation, and it makes me very proud of the great work that we do together in a bipartisan way, both democrats and republicans, talking about our best practices, Public Policy, issues, challenges, opportunities facing our very state, and certainly working with our corporate sponsors, our different organizations that also belong to the nga, we appreciate your parents as well because this gives us great insight, great expertise from industries to have you as members of the National Governors association. Before i leave today, i also have to thank someone was stuck by my side during this year because as you can imagine, governor hickenlooper, it does take a little extra time to begin national chair, but that is my husband, wade christiansen. [applause] i appreciate it, honey. Thank you for everything. I also want to thank our executive board. We are getting ready to change over, and i know some of our members have already had to leave, but our incoming chair, Governor John Hickenlooper. Governor hickenlooper and i have worked closely over the past year on many different issues that we find commonality on, so thank you, governor hickenlooper. Im looking forward to your service. Governor branstad, we appreciate your service on the executive committee. Governor bullock, governor herbert, governor walker, thank you so much, and we also have governor beebe and governor dayton, who has already left, so thank you for your service on the executive committee. Once again, thank you to Governor Haslam and his team, your staff. I know it is not only you and christie by your staff that have worked very, very hard to make this possible and all of the tennessee hosts and sponsors as well as all of the people that are in the rooms today as our corporate sponsors. I also want to thank the nga Staff Members because it takes a tremendous amount of work you put on his conferences, and there are many of them across the nation, not only our summer meeting, our winter meeting, but also the congress as we have on health care, transportation, homeland security, education you name it. Cyber security. They do work all year round and provide great seminars for our staff. I also want to recognize our great team with the nga, and there are a lot of people, but i want to start out with the Top Executive leadership. Dan, thank you for being our executive director. We appreciate you. Where is the . He . [applause] you tell him great job. We appreciate him. David plum, david moore, jodi omar, did i say that right . [applause] thank you all. Also on myy and project, america works, richard lang, garry gross, and art knockout job. Thank you very much. Just a bang up job on that. They did a super job putting together all of the materials and giving us something that we can all take home with us. And i have to tell you that when i was nominated to be the national chair, i went back to my staff and i said guess what, we got nominated to be the vice chair, which means that in a couple of years, you will be the chair. I wont repeat the words of what my chief of staff said to me [laughter] but she did say she would not be with me any longer. But she is here today, and we have spent 20 years together working through various bu positions, but my chief of staff, denise northrup, i want to give her a round of applause. [applause] thank you very much. Katie, who is our policy director, works very hard with all of your stuff across the nation. Wentz, ournett, alex communication strategist, taking pictures right now. Travis brower, who was put together all of our materials, and there are many other people, but these are the core people here today. Thank you to my staff. [applause] it has been a great pleasure. I know governor hickenlooper, you are going to have a ball. It is a lot of fun to work with our fellow governors and our Corporate Partners throughout the nga, so now i would like to call on our chair of our nominating committee, governor governor early tomlin, who is to share our executive committee nominations. Thank you, governor chair. We would like to say thank you for your Great Organization over this past year, and we want to know we want to let you know that your committee has worked very hard, very diligently over the last 72 hours to come with the recommended ages for leaders of this organization, from 2015. We look north and we look south, east, and west, we did hear,ound checks, we did butid all kinds of things, it is really my privilege and honor to officially nominate the following governors to lead your innovation through 2015. I will start with the nga governor committee, Terry Branstad of iowa, mark dayton of minnesota, pat mccrory of north carolina, Steve Bullock of montana, you, madam chair, mary fallin oklahoma, dan malloy of connecticut, and scott walker of wisconsin. Chair, governor gary herbert of utah, and is 2015, chair for Governor John Hickenlooper of colorado. Madam chair, i move that the nominations. Thank you for your work. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed nay. The motion carries. Governor hickenlooper, congratulations as the new chair of the National Governors association. [applause] all right. I turn it over to you. Well, thank you, mary. You have been a truly outstanding leader for the National Governors association, and im excited to continue the work that we have started together. I am looking forward to work with our new vice chair, herbert , and we have a history of working on those organizations. We have all committed to that and that we can influence stressed the importance of governors, states working within the nga. Believe in governors and their role of directing the laboratories of innovation, democracy, we believe in the nga. The ngas role in helping governors do better. There has certainly never been a greater urgency for governors to play that role, and governor fallin, you have done that. Or is no small work over the last year that governor fallin has been remarkably dedicated to the work of the nga, to better connecting the educational he jobs of our states to t markets of the future, and on behalf of all of your colleagues , i would like to tell you i have never had so many people come up and just say what a great job somebody has done. Im honored to present you with this gavel, commemorating your year as the chair of the nga. Oh, wonderful. [applause] thank you. Dont hit it yet. During the last year, mary and i both started a consistent message, states leading this nation forward, governor from across political spectrum and from literally all parts of the country are working to improve the way government operates, putting politics in place that improves the lives of our citizens in every corner of this country. Some of us may believe that governments should be larger, some of them believe it should be smaller, but we all believe that government has to work. The work that we do collectively through nga is so important and so valuable through that enterprise. As we have seen this weekend, sharing our stories and best practices with each other really helps each of us to do a better job managing the challenges we face. Each year, the nga chair chooses an initiative of importance to them and importance to other governors across the country. This year, were going to broaden the focus a little bit. Touchesvernment today numeral aspects of peoples lives and delivers an array of services from building and operating new highways to broad social programs. Poised to make these operations work in the most costeffective, the most efficient costeffective way possible. And colorado, we have been saying efficient, effective, and elegance to drive home that part of the Summer Service at the end. That is why have chosen to focus for the year 20142015 the National Governors association chairs initiative of what were going to call delivering results. As the stewards of revenues collected by states as well as those that fall from the federal government, governors oversee significant operations in both scope and scale. That expansion makes it even more important for governors to harness the human talents, innovative and imaginative emergingew and technology, and sophisticated analytics to increase performance and deliver results. Some of our governors are already taking advantage of recent innovations to address the fundamental issues of how do we deliver better results. There are truly some cuttingedge ways to do this, including recruiting the best and the brightest to work in their administrations, employee modern Management Practices to keep government lean, and last but not least, using technology to drive results, track progress, and really create innovation. There is a Large Community including academic leaders, businesses, thinktanks, a broad array of skilled consultants who have assisted governors in this work. This Community Health governors generate success across the country. By showcasing the successes in various states and providing an opportunity to share best practices with each other, we can Work Together over the next streamlined State Government and improve the lives of people across the nation. I know we in colorado have ideas and innovations to share, but i think like all states, we are going to gain much more than we give. During the next year, my initiative will can be in several meetings of experts, from State Government, from universities and innovators from the public sector, including nongovernment organizations, to score the cutting edges of operation, instate and in policymaking. The knowledge gained from these meetings will lead us to a summit in 2015, which i hope many of my fellow governors will attend and be able to call attention to the promising and best functioning practices, and frankly to borrow and quite nakedly to steal from each other. I am looking directly at Governor Haslam and governor walker. I know each of you believes in this mission and every governor is working on it, but i think why focusing on that ability to share best practices, we can accelerate our progress, and i look forward to working with each of you on this and all of the issues over the next year. Again, thank you all for being here for the 106 nga summer meeting, and thank you, Governor Haslam. Amazingu have been an host. I think this will go down in history as one of those trends were now people will be elbowing each other to make sure they are at each summer meeting. Thank you so much for doing that. We are now adjourned. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] and governor fallin getting the gavel and handing over the chairmanship for this year to next year to colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, and that she answer chair as the nga, she released her report, the yearlong initiative called america works, education and training for tomorrows jobs. You could buy the almighty would like to read more. You can also find the past three days of sessions that have been held here at the nga online. Just go to our cspan video library. Let our republicanism so focused and so dedicated not be made fuzzy in futile by unthinking and stupid labels. [applause] i would remind you that and the defense of liberty is no vice. [applause] thank you. [applause] the why. Thank you. And let me remind you also that in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. [applause] senator goldwaters acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican National convention this weekend on American History tvs reel America Today at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Baseball does strike me i do not want to get metaphysical about this, i am the antimetaphysical school of baseball, but it is a good sport to be the National Pastime of the democratic nation because is about compromise and settling. You do not get everything you want, and baseball is like that. Every team that goes to spring training knows it will win 60 games, losing 60 games. You start out the whole season to play up the mi ddle 42. You win 89 games, you have got a good chance to play in october, so it is a sport of the half loaf, as is democracy. George will on his latest book on baseball and wrigley field, and the recent controversy surrounding one of his columns tonight at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. Next, we will take a look at the Senate Appropriations hearing on president obamas request for 3. 7 billion to deal with unaccompanied children who are crossing the u. S. Border. Homeland security secretary jeh johnson and hhs secretary Silvio Burwell testified to answer questions about how the money would be used. Recognizing our dual purpose of taking care of these children while he also enforce the laws. We must acknowledge that many of the children crossing our borders to not have a legal basis to remain in this country. We mustnt knowledge that we are talking about children, many of who areng children, escaping unthinkable violence and living in conditions that are difficult for many of us to imagine. Often times, they are preyed on by smugglers, who have made it their business to bring unaccompanied children across the borders. To meete opportunity with a few of these children last week, as the chairwoman mentioned. We visited a customs and Border Patrol station along with a temporary shelter at an air force base in texas, and we met the remarkable americans who were caring for these children and supporting this mission in other important ways. Femaof the folks work for and hhs. Others are grantees and Community Members all going above and beyond. Heartbreakingad stories to share. Heteenage girl told us how s she had fled her home when her uncle had been murdered in front of her house. Sadly, this is not an anonymous not an anomaly. They and their families are being preyed upon by smugglers. The situation of this magnitude requires us to work across the law and to care for these children that honor our values. Federal law says that hhs role is to feed, shelter, and provide medical care for these children until we are able to place them in a safe and suitable setting with a Family Member or sponsor while they will await immigration proceedings. As the number of children have grown, our resources have been stretched thin. In fiscal year 2011, an estimated 65,000 unaccompanied children came into our care