long-standing concerns regarding the coordination of state and federal military forces during disaster response. the passage of legislation codifying the dual status commander makes it possible for states to effectively coordinate with federal troops operating within their borders when responding to a natural disaster. we have also worked with the public safety committee to advance an issue that was first raised by the 9/11 commission -- the creation of a nationwide communications network for first responders and public safety. currently, first responders must rely on commercial networks for mobile services, dedicating a portion of the spectrum, providing our first responders with a single communications network and a device that works seamlessly anywhere in the country. governors and first responders are pleased congress has passed legislation and the president has signed into law. the most important issues for us as governors are economic growth and job creation. it is fundamental to our future. my initiative as chair of the nga is growing state economies. our goal is to provide governors and policymakers with better policy options to assess the economic environment in their state, and create strategies that foster business growth. hi-growth businesses are a driving force -- force of the economy, and a primary source of job creation, prosperity, and economic competitiveness. as governors, we're looking for the best strategy is to strengthen economic performance. we want to help the private sector growth and create new opportunities for our citizens. we have held three regional economic development summits on this initiative in hartford, connecticut, national, tenn., and seattle, washington. i will host the final summit in april. they have provided the opportunity to learn from experts and business owners about the best strategy is to create an environment focused on the importance of high-growth businesses of all forms, scale- up enterprises, and corporations. it is my pleasure to ask governor jack markell, vice- chair of the association, to say a few words. >> thank you, and i want to say thank you to governor heineman. we have been friends for 14 years now. he has done great work. we expect to have really productive conversations. for most governors, you do not care where policy comes from, as opposed to where it can take you. we all need bhajans balance. people are looking for work, and they're looking to us as governors for answers. kids in public schools are asking what we will do to give them a better opportunity to have a great future. they could care less which party we come from. they do not care what part of the country we come from. all they care about is that we get the job done. thankfully, a lot of really good answers start with the work governors do with each other, conversations we have with each other, and the work of the national governors' association center for best practices, and i have the opportunity to serve as chair the ideas -- chair. the ideas drive a lot of the discussion we will have this weekend, and from a lot of work the governors across the country have been doing. the work of the center is funded through federal grants and contracts, as well as private and corporate foundation contributions and the nga's corporate fellowship program. the reason we come to these conferences is because we want to get things done. we want to figure out what might be working in other parts of the country that could work in our states. i will give you a couple of examples. the governor of west virginia helped the state tackle a dropout prevention and recovery legislation. we supported efforts for governor bob mcdonnell in virginia to help dislocated adults remain competitive. in delaware, we have the opportunity to participate in a three-branch initiative focused on adolescence in foster care, including people from our executive, legislative, and judicial branches, learning models to connect people in foster care with relatives, be adopted, and the like. this is the work government is supposed to do. when we can come together, we can make a real difference. while this particular meeting in washington, and the annual meeting we have every summer in july are the ones that are best- attended, there are more than 70 formal summits and meetings across the year. there are countless opportunities for cooperation and collaboration. if u.s. than any governor what three issues drive them the most, you would probably get the same answers -- building stronger economies, as governor heineman is working on, improving our schools, and been good stewards of our taxpayers' money there are probably one dozen ways to do that -- money. there are probably one dozen ways to do that, or probably 50 or more of thinking about that. what is so great about this weekend and the opportunities we have with each other is to share those ideas. that is why we are here. i look forward to a productive set of conversations with governors from both parties because we do not care of the good idea comes from the democrat or the republican so long as it put people to work, increase education, or helps be good stewards of taxpayers' money. >> thank you. we will try to answer your questions. if they're really tough, we will give them to jack. >> does a block grant that grows slower at the rate of inflation help you with medicare problems? >> from my perspective, the answer would be yes. i would prefer more flexibility on a variety of programs in general. other governors may have a differing opinion, but i just would like to have the congress that, as we do in our states, get budgets passed on time, so we know what we are dealing with. >> one of the great things about the weekend when we are great -- together, is we have an opportunity to meet with the president, and last year, the issue of medicaid flexibility came up because the president brought it up. he said high hear a lot about wanting additional -- he said i hear a lot about wanting additional flexibility. he said all we have to do is say what kind of flexibility we are looking for. we have to understand that not all of the answers are at the federal level. governor patrick of massachusetts, a leader on this, has legislation focusing on getting away from the fee-for- service model. it is something the number of us are following closely. it is about finding the right partnership and recognizing that we have irresponsibility in our own states -- a responsibility in our own states. in my state of the state speech, i spent time talking not just about medicaid, but about the fact that if you think about the number of people in delaware covered with health insurance, taxpayers pick up 40% of them. we have to do a better job in our state leveraging our roles as been the major procurer of health services. >> yes, sir. >> thank you, governor heineman. just as a follow-up question to that, under the welfare reform legislation pioneered by the governor, and later president reagan, and signed into office by president clinton, welfare was treated as something there was to be a cap put on, and states would have to work within a certain framework on funding it. has anyone discussed, when the president asks what your flexibility is, why not use the very model for welfare and medicaid? >> i think you will see a variety -- welfare on medicaid? >> i think you will see a variety of discussions on that. who knows for sure. from the governor's perspective, we want more flexibility. local governments do not want one-size-fits-all within the state. we are only asking the federal government to do what most governors tried to do in their state. what you might need to do in a state like nebraska or delaware is different than massachusetts, texas, or california. they have different needs, different demographics. we need the flexibility and we believe in states' rights. >> the issue of flexibility is an interesting one that comes up all of the time. as i said a moment ago, the president said to the governor's directly tell us what kind of flexibility you are looking for i have also heard him talk about it in the -- and i have also heard him talk about it in the case of education. 10 states have flexibility in the note child left behind waiver. he has said you can get that flexibility, but that should not be understood to be relaxing expectations in terms of what we expect in student achievement. so long as we continue to make progress in doing things the actually lead to student achievement, we will find the flexibility that we seek. [unintelligible] >> the same with medicaid. >> the schools that have been most under-performing, it will not be good enough if we let them continue to under- performance in generations not live up to their potential. >> let me address education for a moment. it is primarily a state and local responsibility, and in my state, i chair our p-16 effort, preschool through 16 years of schooling, and one of the goals is to eliminate the african- american achievement gap, or the hispanic achievement gap, wherever that might be. more rigorous expectations are critical. parental involvement is important. those are the things we can best do with the state and local level. >> california, the governor is smarting a little bit because the obama administration rejected their waiver request. did that come up at the meeting, or can you characterize how the president is looking at that? >> i did not think it came up in the meeting yesterday. i think the president and secretary sibelius for that matter, have been very forthcoming in meeting with governors in what they are looking for -- what kind of flexibility we need, and how we are going to make sure we continue to take care of people? if we're just going to drop people off and they're no where to go, that would be a problem. they've been very open and continue to look to governors for our best ideas, republican and democrat alike. >> was there a discussion yesterday about changing the way the nga works with the agenda throughout the year [unintelligible] >> yes. >> can you tell us more about it? >> one of the things jack and i are trying to do is getting governors to decide policies, not the staff. we want governors to make recommendations. we began the process yesterday. it really started last fall when we had our first executive committee meeting, and we asked the various committees, what your priorities are, and we decided these would be the priorities for the nga, based on what we heard for the governor's -- from the governors, and i think you will see the results of that monday when we vote. >> the people in our states are not all that interested in the policies, committees, and the internal work of the national governors' association, but here's what they care about, and governor heineman mentioned it a few moments ago. one of the best examples of how we can come together across party lines is what happened with the d-block spectrum. it has to do with the airwaves spectrum. there was uncertainty with what would happen with this block of airwaves. it could have been used for other things, but democratic and republican governors came together with a talented staff and public safety teams and we recognize that if these airwaves could be allocated to public safety, it could mean profound things for the people of our states. for example, imagine if a loved one is injured, in an ambulance, and a medic in an ambulance can have a video camera and can be showing the wound directly to the doctor at the emergency room who was waiting for the ambulance to get to the hospital? that could save somebody's life. they could be that ready. these are the things that our folks care about. the change in the process that governor heinemann talked about is not a change for the sake of change, but it is to make sure that we are focusing on the things that will make a positive difference in the lives of the people that we serve. [unintelligible] >> say that again. >> will this new approach allow using the directors to lobby? >> first and foremost, we would use our own staff at the nga, but this will give and the staff a clear direction of where the governors are at -- what are the general principles we stand for? secondly, almost every state is going to employ their own people to effectively persuade congress, relative to a particular issue and how it affects their individual state. to the extent that we can coordinate state and nga staff, i think we can be more effective. it is a little hard for us to see. i'm sorry -- the lights. [unintelligible] >> job creation could be a top policy, and a concern for chinese prudential -- provincial leaders, so you think there are opportunities at the state and provincial levels? thank you. >> i believe the answer is yes. in nebraska while i have been governor we have had a focus on education and jobs. i've been to china, about a different trade missions and i'm probably going back to asia this fall. we try to work with a variety of countries relative to the opportunities to export more of our goods and services out of nebraska and other states, and have had significant investment for chinese companies into nebraska. i've learned this from another governor. governor markell was talking about how we learn from each other. early on, when i was governor, i learned from another governor, a reverse the trade mission. i've done two of them where we have invited the world to visit nebraska. they have been successful. we have had over 125 business and foreign officials come to nebraska to learn firsthand what we have to offer, and as a result of those visits, many companies decided to invest in the state of nebraska, and we were very pleased about that. >> absolutely right -- huge opportunities for us to work together, and when we last met as a group in july, there were a number of governors or party secretaries from china that were part of that meeting. we think about that as an opportunity to promote exports, and to attract for investment, like the governor mentioned. i had a chance yesterday to talk with secretary of commerce john bryson, so the u.s. commerce department has recently kicked off a new mission called select usa, and if you think about what the president has talked about with the idea of in-sourcing, and more companies coming back to invest here, select usa is an opportunity for companies around the world were thinking about expanding outside of their home market to make sure the u.s. is on their radar screen, and we as governors want to make sure our states are on the radar screen. >> governor heineman, there have been some governors, especially republicans, that have voiced concerns that federal government is getting too involved in education through the race to the top program, stimulus funding, and even no child left behind. what is your view on federal and state roles? >> state and local governments have the primary role for education in our country, ok? it goes down to local school boards. the federal government has a limited role. i want to be careful here. most school districts welcome their funding. they would like a little flexibility in how we use that. i would argue that what massachusetts wants to do with that money is different than what nebraska would do. i think we can all work together when it comes to academic achievement. that should be the focus. more rigor, higher expectations, increased parental involvement -- that is what i have fought for in nebraska. i want the very best teachers i can heavy and the classroom. my wife has been a former elementary school principal and teacher, so this is one i understand well. i lived for over 30 years since we have been married. the commitment we need from teachers, administrators, and parents is critical. i have always said the formula works best, good teachers, plus good parental involvement, = good learning. we appreciate the funding with as few strings attached as possible. >> to his credit, secretary duncan has been clear about that line, and one of the area's most dates have been involved in is the common core standards. there are some people that say this was a federal initiative. it was absolutely not a federal initiative. secretary duncan could not have been more clear that these were not national standards. this was an effort by states superintendents of education, by governors to work together across state lines to make sure the kids in our state have higher standards for them to meet that are also clear. i think secretary duncan gets a lot of credit for putting forth policies. in delaware, for example, the state government funded about 70% of education. we have 19 separate school districts, and each of them has an independently-elected school board. it is our view that the people that are closest to the kids generally have a good sense of what is in the best interest of those kids. >> one more question. >> go ahead, sir. you were pointing to someone that i did not see. ok. go ahead. >> one year ago, governors were dealing with severe budget challenges that were controversial. do you feel you have stepped back from the cliff in terms of some of the budget pictures? >> i think jack and i can remember that when your a new governor, you are trying to learn the process, and all of a sudden you are presented with a significant budget issue. by and large those are addressed by governors across the country, differently, increasing taxes, controlling spending, but at the end of the day i get the sense that governors are feeling a little better that their budget pictures have been proved. i will say this, i've gone through it for seven years, controlling spending is critical, but invest in priorities. education and jobs allow your state to move forward. i think most governors are feeling a little bit better. for the new governor's it is probably just the fact you have a year under your belt and that does help. governor markell? >> of the last 23 months in this country, 3.7 million new jobs have been created, so when governor heineman says the governors are feeling a little bit better, the way we feel generally has a lot to do with the way our people are working or not working. that is what is driving all of us today. that is why governor heineman's initiative was about growing state economies. i have now finished three years. the first year, i came in 2009, and you talk about looking at an abyss, things were in absolute free fall. i think we have stepped back from that. i would not say any of us are feeling great, but things are feeling better. we are moving in the right direction, and we also recognize that we cannot afford to just wait for things to get better. everyone of us is interested in doing what we can to put more people back to work in our states. >> thank you very much for being here this morning. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> we will have more live coverage of the national governors' association annual meeting in about a half-hour with the discussion on growing state economies, and later this afternoon, a look at economic growth at 3:00 p.m. eastern. while we wait for nga to continue, we will show you virginia governor bob mcdonnell and maryland's governor martin o'malley discussing a wide range of topics including the controversial abortion legislation in virginia, and maryland's passage of the same- sex marriage bill from the political state solution conference. we will show you as much of this as we can before returning to live nga coverage. >> we are close. on a lot of things, we get along and we have very different views of it comes to was going on at the federal level but that is the beauty of american democracy and the 10th amendment and their founders owritten by virginia. >> financed by marilyn. >> they always have higher taxes s