buto solemnly swear with that i will support the laws and constitution of the u.s. and the constitution and laws of the that if louisiana and will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all of the duties incumbent upon me as governor of the state of louisiana from the best of my ability to understanding, so help me god. congratulations. it is my privilege. [applause] guest: -- gov. edwards: thank you. [applause] gov. edwards: thank you all for being here on this oedipal day. thank you for the introduction you for theo thank 19 gun salute earlier today. have 491 men and women of the louisiana national guard employed, and over the next 12 months, more airmen will be deployed to the middle east, so join me in thinking then and their families for their sacrifice and praying for their safe return. [applause] gov. edwards: members of the ,egislature, governors scalisemen release -- and richmond and all of my fellow people of louisiana. enqueue for being here today. in some cultures, rain is a sign of good luck and blessing. i will except that today -- accept that. congratulations to all of the members of legislature, both returning and new. i look forward to working with all of you in a bipartisan way to achieve the real results that the people of louisiana act from us. you forenator, thank your 48 years of service to our state. [applause] >> we will miss your study leadership at the legislature and i know that you are looking forward to some much-deserved time with your family. thank the people who have stood by me from the very beginning. first of all, i have been extraordinarily blessed to share this experience with my best friend, my childhood sweetheart, and our fantastic first lady, my wife of more than 30 years, donna. donna, i love you very much. bell,children, samantha to sarah ellen and john miller, to mom and my family, both immediate and extended, i know that it has not always been easy. it is because of your love and support that we are here today. thank you for the trust you have placed in me to continue to lead this great state. inspired by the generosity and decency of the people of louisiana. my love for this deepens as i meet more people like you to remind me how blessed we are to call this great state home. i see a true representation of louisiana, which is especially inspiring as the birthday of martin luther king jr. approaches. --m happy to say [applause] gov. edwards: this has been the opportunity of a lifetime for me and i am grateful for your continued support. iwill not let you down and promise to work hard for all citizens of our great state. what an exciting time it is for louisiana. like many of you, i am looking forward to a great victory today down in new orleans. reason. is not the only that great breeze of hope that i felt from this very spot in 2016, that we all felt on that crisp january day has been with us ever since. it has gotten stronger, inspiring us to do better, to be better, and to keep louisiana moving forward. as we prepare for a new term in this new decade, there is a mounting wave of optimism sweeping through the state. go, and everywhere i the faces of all the talented and will that make our great state. from the brick lined streets of new orleans, from the mississippi river to the river of sweeper -- shreveport. i see it. at every groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting, every meeting with educators and students, at every church and worship service i have had the opportunity to attend. every time we help foster parents and children create their forever families. we are starting this new term from a position of strength, poised to reach even higher heights. we are in a better place now than we have been in many years. for years i stood on these steps. our state was on a precipice. we faced a deficit. colleges had made cuts more than anywhere else in the nation. as a result, tuition increased more than anywhere else, putting the burden of balancing the budget on the backs of our students. we faced other challenges. the hardest day of my first term was sunday morning when six of our law enforcement officers were targeted. three were killed. their families remained in my thoughts and prayers daily. a few weeks later, it began to rain and it did not stop for three days. 7 trillion gallons of water fell in louisiana, enough to fill the --tra chain -- concentrating lake pontchartrain. stronger than any storm that comes our way. powered by a diverse culture and our shared love for one another, we are louisiana strong and louisiana proud. time and time again, we have proven that there is nothing that we cannot accomplish when we work together. so we have done just that, working together in good faith with legislators, business leaders and citizens across the state. it was not easy. we knew that it would not be, but i promise that with shared sacrifice would come shared prosperity. we are on our way to reaping the rewards of our efforts. louisiana has achieved economic stability and growth and is stronger because of it. ground to solve the fiscal crisis. because of the surpluses, we have completed improvement projects that have created thousands of miles of roads and bridges. just this summer, i signed a bill appropriating the dollars for projects the estate. the largest in 30 years. theas made possible by bipartisan efforts of the legislature. yet another example of what we can do for the people of our party labels cast aside and work together. another clear sign of progress is our economy. [applause] of. edwards: another side progress is our economy, which is the largest it has ever been. announcedtisan bureau that louisiana has the fourth fastest growing economy in the nation. [applause] because wes: in part have landed 211 economic development projects, delivering more than 40,000 new jobs while generating $42 billion in capital investment. just as important, we are investing in the most precious natural resource that god entrusted to us, our children. stability,our fiscal we made the first investment in 10 years. we gave our teachers and support workers their first pay raise in a decade. additional $20 million in early childhood education. and as promised, on my first full day in office, we extended medicated -- medicaid to the working poor of louisiana. here we are four years later with over 450,000 people with health care. our uninsured rate has been cut in half. we saved more than $300 million and we have not had a single hospital close. [applause] gov. edwards: most importantly, health outcomes are improving across louisiana. people can afford to go to the doctor and received life-saving care and return to work. he had changed lives by putting our differences aside. this has helped us to dramatically reduce our rates, while making our computing safer -- community safer. we have beeneason able to make so much progress is because we chose not to let the dysfunctional hyper-partisan politics of washington dc paralyze our state. we rejected the notion. [applause] gov. edwards: we rejected the notion that people from different parties cannot work together. in short, we put louisiana first. if we can accomplish all of this despite the adversity we face, imagine what we can do this term. pastday is not about successes. someone to challenge this new legislation to think and envision a louisiana but a fully diversified economy. a steady reduction in party and an educational system that prepares our people for the jobs and careers that will keep here, at home. even though we have come along way, we have a lot more work ahead of us, and i am the first to admit that challenges remain because there are still too many people living in poverty without adequate access to opportunities needed to succeed. education is poverty's mortal enemy and she was right. our governor who passed away a few months ago believed in the potential of every child. while we continued to mourn her loss, we have a responsibility of carrying on her legacy, specially when it comes to her vision for education. [applause] we know that education is the key to economic opportunity and that pathway to -- must begin at the early stages of life. will be onerm focus early childhood education. of brain development happens before the age of three and experts believe that teaching children during these pivotal years is one of the greatest tools we have for closing the achievement gap. we will better fund every level of education. for as long as any of us can remember, k-12 students, parents and educators were told to be happy with the standstill budget that did not account for inflation. i met with educators across the state and they cannot fund their classrooms on empty promises. they deserve better. our students deserve better. we will continue to increase classroom funding and we will give educators additional pay raises to get them to at least the southern regional average. [applause] gov. edwards: speaking of pay raises, we know that seven dollars an hour is not a meaningful wage in 2020. it wasn't acceptable four years ago either, which is why i have fought so hard for workers every year. the minimumised wage to begin the new year but sadly, louisiana remains one of five states without its own minimum wage. ofoverwhelming majority people in louisiana support raising the minimum wage. if we want our workers to get the pay they deserve, it is up to us in the capital, but we cannot stop there. i will continue to advocate for equal pay for equal work. [applause] justedwards: this does not affect our daughters, mothers and sisters. it impacts all of us, especially our children. the fact that we had the largest gap between what we pay men and women, when they do the same job and have the same qualification offends me. women succeed, families succeed, and when families see, so does louisiana. [applause] gov. edwards: this brings me to my next, second term priority, workforce development. as we continue to diversify our economy, i want to make sure that our workforce is the most job ready in the region. we can do this by building on programs we already have in place. expanding apprenticeship opportunities and partnering with industry leaders and organized labor. we will prioritize the growth and expansion of women and minority owned businesses, where the ceos reflect the diversity of the state in which we live. we will continue to increase funding for institutions of higher education, including community and technical colleges. an ambitious master plan for higher education. our goal is 60% of working age adults will have a degree or high valued credential by the 23rd. -- by 2030. reaching this goal will create a pipeline to prosperity that will transform our state. as our economy grows, so must the quality of our roads and bridges. -- infrastructure backlog with an infrastructure backlog, must -- it is about more than supporting commerce. every hour spent in traffic is one less hour that a parent has to spend with their child at home. improving roads is about improving the quality of life. and just as important is protecting your way of life, which is why we must continue to aggressively fight for coastal restoration. our coast is unique in its abundance. [applause] vulnerable to sealevel rise and storm surge. this is where over 2 million of our people live and work. it is their home, it is their livelihood. but if we want future generations to enjoy the same beauty and benefit from the same bounty, we have an obligation to take bold action. fortunately, we have a way forward thanks to our coastal master plan, which received unanimous approval from the legislature in 2017. but you know plans are nothing without action, and we have under design and construction right now the largest number and most significant coastal restoration project in our state's history. that translates to the highest level of hurricane protection for more of louisiana's citizens than ever before. and i am excited to report that over the next four years for the first time in history of our coastal program, we will break ground on projects that will restore more land than we expect to lose. [applause] god created this paradise, but he has charged us with taking care of it, and we shall do that. in louisiana, we are accustomed to the dangers of water and wind -- but the newest threat we face is the hacking of our public and private computer systems. in the last four years, we made great strides in improving our cybersecurity preparedness and response. in fact, we've been nationally recognized for our leadership, which has led to improved outlook with one of the biggest credit rating agencies in the country. i'm proud of the work we've done through the cybersecurity commission and i know we have some of the best trained and practiced technology professionals on our side, including those in the louisiana national guard. last year in partnership with the national governors association, we hosted the north louisiana representatives from -- we hosted north louisiana representatives from all 50 states for a cybersecurity summit. further proving our commitment to this issue. but technology in the hands of those who wish to do harm is ever evolving and so much of our -- and so must our capabilities. as i've often said, this is the new normal in louisiana. and across the globe. in louisiana, i want our new normal to be the highest level of cybersecurity defense in any state in the nation. the common denominator for each of these priorities is improving the quality of life for all citizens. the future is ours to seize, but we have to commit here and now to work together, to continue to reject the partisan rancor and dysfunction that plagues washington dc. louisiana was born from inspiration and the hope of a better tomorrow. today, we embark on a new expedition, one filled with just as many possibilities and dreams. and i stand here with you today in the drizzling rain asking you to join me, join me in continuing to create an education system that prepares every child to reach their god-given potential, join me in cultivating the business -- a business environment that encourages growth and investment to create good paying jobs and rewarding careers that we want. join me in forging coalitions in -- that will excel in the pursuit of what we can do failing instead of the certainty of what we can't do when we are blinded by division. join me in living by the words chiseled into the walls of our towering capital. union, justice, competence. and finally, i ask you to join me in praying for guidance and wisdom as we embark on this journey to create a brighter future together. god bless you all, god bless the great state of louisiana, god bless the united states of america, and go tigers. [applause] thank you. [applause] the house will be in order. announcer: for 40 years, c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events from washington dc and around the country so you can make up your own mind. created by cable in 1979, c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. announcer: the senate impeachment trial of president trump continues friday at 1:00 p.m. eastern as house managers continue presenting their case against the president. watch coverage of the senate impeachment trial on c-span2, on demand at c-span.org/impeachment, and listen on the free c-span radio app. q&a,ncer: sunday night, on with the iowa caucus just a week away, we discussed the history of the first in the nation caucuses with iowa public television's david y. >> it is a lily white state, rural, but the argument is made that it is not all bad. first of all, it did provide a big boost to the first african-american president, hillary clinton's with an early victory in 2016 on the republican side. they point out ted cruz, marco , have a cuban-american come forward. pete buttigieg in iowa is poised to give a big boost to the first openly gay presidential candidate. have ising that i once yeah, we are white, but it is not a hostile place. announcer: watch coverage of the