Transcripts For CSPAN2 The Communicators 20130204 : vimarsan

President to submit a balanced budget to congress. Over in the senate, members also come back at 2 eastern for general speeches. Then at about 5 30, a vote on the bill to reauthorize the violence against women act, a Domestic Violence law that expired in 2011. A final vote on that could happen later this week. Members of both parties are attending retreat this week. As a result, the senate will be out on tuesday and wednesday, and the house no legislative business on thursday or friday. Live coverage of the house on cspan and the senate here on cspan2. Host and youre watching the communicators on cspan. We are on location in las vegas at ces international 2013 at the Las Vegas Convention center. Heres some of our interviews that we did this week. Well, now at the ces International Show in las vegas were joined by representative zoe lofgren, democrat of california. Representative lofgren, what are you doing at ces . Guest interestingly enough, this is my very first trip to ces. Ive had my staff go in the past, but they asked that i come down and be a panel about immigration which i did this morning, and this afternoon im going to look around the hall, and then im going to fly home to san jose. So its been fun so far. Host what was your role on the panel, and what was your point of view . Guest well, theres a lot of problems with our immigration system, and everybody sees it from the such as theyre in the situation theyre in. So the Technology World sees that people who just got their ph. D. In Electrical Engineering from mit cant get a visa to stay here even if they28 any sense. Of course, if youre a farmer, you see your Migrant Workers dont have their paper, and youre going to have to tuck your field under, and if youre chucking crabs in maryland, you see your seasons going to be destroyed because you dont have workers. The whole thing is a mess, and i have hope well have a reform effort thats top to bottom and bipartisan. Host you represent a lot of companies out in Silicon Valley. Guest yes. Host what do you hear from them and what do you see as the solution to the h1b h1b visa problem . Guest its not so much an h1b problem. It does need reformed. It does have structural problems that can lead to underpaying immigrants to the detriment of the american coworkers. But the real answer is in permanent residents. Were competing on a worldwide stage, and if youve got some hot shot that just got his ph. D. In Computer Science from stanford, shes getting offers from all over the world. And to say, well, you can stay in some limbo for six years is not really competitive. So what you want to do is for people we want to have stay here to create jobs and thats not just in the it can field, its throughout the economy you need to make it easy for people to stay and create businesses and grow american jobs and help our economy recover. Host whats the atmosphere, the climate for potential Immigration Reform in congress and perhaps the administration . Guest well, on the democratic side weve had an interest in Immigration Reform for quite some time. We have not had that enthusiasm on the republican side. But heres the deal. In november mitt romney lost badly, and part of the reason why was because he got under 30 of the vote among asian voters and under 30 of the vote among latino voters. And analysts have devised that that is partly because of the republican posture on immigration. So really the Republican Leadership needs to think do they ever want a republican president again . Because these are the fastestgrowing demographic groups in the country. And if so, they have to join us and do Immigration Reform. Were happy to compete for voters on some other subject. Lets come together, reform this system that needs it so much. Itll be good for our country. Host and this is a priority for the Tech Community . Guest it is. And its a priority for me. Its something ive been working on for a long, long time. And i just, its a decision that the Republican Leadership needs to make. Now, i cant make it for them, but i am hopeful that they will decide this is a good thing to put behind them. And i know that we can Work Together to make it so. Host representative zoe lofgren, what else do you hear from your constituents in the Silicon Valley area about washington . Weve heard from some people its two different worlds. Guest well, its interesting because in the bay area there arent very many republicans. I mean, theres not a single Republican House member from the bay area, and theres not a single republican in the state senate or the state assembly. I mean, anybody that has to identify their party is a democrat. And that reflects the constituency, not just the elected officials. So i get when i come home people cant understand what republicans are doing, and i find it difficult to explain it, honestly. [laughter] you know, its an area that supports freedom, that doesnt want to manage somebody elses religion or somebody elses life. Its an area that just so thed to pass just voted to tax themselves so we could have Better Health care and better schools and better transportation. They look at washington and dont understand the fight in a lot of ways. Host specifically when it comes to technologyrelated issues, though, do you hear anything that your constituents guest well, yes. There is concern about innovation and the role that current law has in the area of copyright and patent in stifling innovation. Thats difficult to remedy. We had a patent bill that i actually ended up not voting for last year having worked on it for the years for 12 years that really didnt do what wed hoped it would do. Weve got an overarching scheme on copyright enforcement that is probably not that positive in term ors of Technology Terms of technology innovation. Im sure you all remember the sopa brouhaha of last year. We stopped the overreach from the copyright max laws, but the Technology Companies im just talking about individuals who are inventing things and creating things feel that there is a problem many terms of in terms of the copyright regime and can we come together and make sure that those laws work in an internet age. Thats something id like to work on, and im going to be introducing some bills i dont know that theyll pass the first session of congress, but at least to get the discussion going. Host when you walk around here at ces, do you see a lot of your constituents . Guest oh, sure. I run into a number of people already who i know, and one to have people Walking Around with me said do you want to go to x, y and z company from your district, i said, well, i go to those companies all the time. Lets go see some companies i dont see. So this afternoon im going outside the hall to another hall to visit the startups who couldnt afford to come into this hall and to see whats coming at us next. Host and they couldnt afford the rent here . Guest yeah. So theyve got the little tiny boosts in the startup ideas, and a couple years from now some of them will probably afford to be in this hall. Host representative zoe lofgren is a democrat from california. This is the communicators on cspan. Guest good to see you, peter. Host and ces international is held every year in las vegas. Its one of the largest trade shows in the world, about 100,000 people attend this every year. Its focused on technology. The communicators is here doing interviews and looking at some of the new technology. Heres some more of our programming. Former congressman tom davis, what are you doing out here at ces in vegas . Guest well, this is where its a lot more productive here than congress and my own life. Im speaking at one of the conferences here and trying to enjoy the show. Host whats deloiotte . Guest deloiotte is the largest of the big accounting firms, consulting firms, professional Services Firms in the country. Its a partnership. Host since youve retired from congress, is that what youve been doing . Guest thats what ive been doing, work anything the consulting practice. Host whats the panel that you are headlining guest well, ive got an issue on congress tomorrow. Ive got a couple other members, and were going to just talk about the fiscal cliff, we talk about whats happening or not happening in washington and try to let people understand why its the way it is. For people who dont understand how washington works and how voters work, sometimes we try to demystify it for them. Host tom davis, is there a particular angle to legislative policy when it comes to Tech Companies such as were seeing out here at ces . Guest well, theyre conflicted because they tend to be on the social side, the social issue side tends more with democratic policies on gay rights, abortion, seems to be more organized, affluent, educated societies. But on economic policy, obviously, walk around, free trade. Its not a union type of operation. A more market oriented on this, so they kind of get conflicted between the parties on this. So the politics have been in the bay area culture is the predominant force in peoples political ideas. My corner, tyson, a little different orient toward the government to understand those regulatory issues and the like. So i think theyre conflicted like everybody else. Tech workers tend to be a little more obama than romney, but its a swing vote once you get away from the social issues. Host when it comes to your service in congress, did you push tech issues at all . Guest absolutely, i pushed them. I had a Huge Technology interest. I did a lot of legislation in that area. We had a y2k bill when it was coming. People were afraid to touch it because of the tort liability and afraid to make corrections because if something went wrong, theyd have a liability on it. So we put a limited liability into place there. I was one of the cosponsors for a bill we had on shareholder derivative suits that basically protected companies from lawsuits that were hitting Innovative Companies when you get into some of the property issues that, intellectual property issues. Government procurement issues. Government is not a very efficient procurer of technology. Services acquisition reform act the last cybersecurity law to get through Congress Called fisma. So i was a pretty prolific legislator in those areas. Which tended to cross party lines. Host well, speaking of the Government Procurement process, does it work currently especially when it comes to technology . Guest well, the problem with Government Procurement is, ill give you an example. I put an addition on my house about a year ago. I didnt have to worry about advertising it. I didnt have to worry about Small Business set asides or minority set asides. Those issues, i didnt have to worry about o protests, and and i got it done pretty efficiently, and i could work it pretty quickly. I didnt have to worry about the buy america act. Government procurement has all these bells and whistles on it that try to, basically, look at other Government Policies and make procurement part of that instead of just looking at getting the cheapest goods for the cheapest price for the taxpayer. We try to pursue too many Public Policy goals within that procurement system. Is so its, no, it doesnt. The answer is it doesnt work very well. Host is there one set of Technology Tools that the government uses, or does each department guest no, you know, thats one of the difficulties is the policies arent always congruent. Agencies have their own stove pipes, and they dont theres no interconnectivity, you know, between the government agencies. It just creates a lot of inefficiencies. In theory, the office of management and budget should be overseeing these kinds of issues between in refereeing between the different agencies, but even within agencies you have people procuring different systems that dont integrate very well and as a result of that we spend billions repairing them, billions of dollars sometimes doesnt repair them. And its pretty inefficient. Its the nature of bureaucracy, the way that these people work up, build their own legacy systems, their own pride in them and dont coordinate with anything around them. Peter, its the same thing that in government the incentives to save money arent there because if you save money, you dont get the benefit. It goes to somebody who overspent their budget somewhere else. So the incentives in government are just, dont make it very efficient without b somebody at the top coming down hard on them and saying, you know, for the good of the order, overseeing it and making them [inaudible] host but isnt it up to congress to make the system, to create the laws that make the guest well, heaven help us if you leave it to congress. But the executive branch ought to be able to do that. The executive bran of. Has the authority branch has the authority to do it if it should choose to do so. Every president until reagan had authority. If you could reorganize the way you wanted to, youd have to bring it to congress for an up or down vote without an amendment. They get into all these jurisdictional battles, and you end up with the department of homeland security. You design a thoroughbred, and you end up with a threehump camel. So its the nature of government. Government operates openly, transparency, youre the bigger your budget, the more powerful you are. In business its the opposite. You make a quick, fast decision. Its out of scrutiny. You make a lot of mistakes in business, but you make a lot of decisions. In government you tend to put off those decisions because theres no reward in making them. Host tom davis, you used to be chair of the Government Affairs committee. Guest government reform and oversight. Host and represented also a tech area, Tysons Corner in virginia. Guest right. Host does congress understand technology . Guest well, thats, i mean, some members. People like darrell issa, just hugely proficient in the area. He built up a tech company and made hundreds of millions of dollars doing it, and then you have some members who dont carry a blackberry. Its just like the population as a whole. But, you know, understanding the technology and how to use it is different than understanding its applications, understanding Government Policies that will encourage innovation and encourage efficiencies versus policies that discourage it. Intellectual property rights. Congress coming down one way or the other could have a huge effect in discouraging innovation. Tax can have, your tax policies can encourage or discourage innovation. Our immigration policy right now where someone comes over here and gets a ph. D. And we kick them out of the country and make them go to their home country to compete against us. It doesnt make any sense to those of us who understand the way the world works, but its the way the world currently works. So, yeah, Government Congress can do a lot, and you dont have to be proficient on your iphone or blackberry to understand the applications of tech policy and what makes it work and what doesnt. Host whats your area of expertise for deloiotte . Guest i get a lot of the i. T. Area, information technology. Also a lot of look, even if you have the right policy in government, making it work, basically, is very, very tough. The implementation of that, if you will, very, very difficult. Where deloiotte excels is we take a look at what the policy is and then how do you integrate it and make it work. Were the largest her orier acquisition firm in the world the in terms of advisory. And we bring that source to government. So when youre trying to accomplish the same goals with less people and fewer dollars, those are the kinds of things we excel at. But sometimes the incentives in government are such that why would i do that . Then my budget goes down. We have, i know a company that has this software that basically tests Software Much faster, ten times faster or than the government currently does it, but you dont need the people to do it. You can test it quicker and faster, but the managers say what does this do to my people . How do i protect them . So government just has a different set of incentives than the private sector does because its a monopoly. And so change comes hard. Host over the past couple of years, weve seen google and facebook and their Washington Offices grow exponentially. Guest right. Host we did an interview with the executive Vice President of samsung earlier here at ces, and he mentioned that they have one person in washington. Um, would you recommend to a panasonic, to a sony that they beef up or keep their Washington Offices strong . Guest well, you know, microsoft didnt have much of a Washington Office until all of a sudden the feds came after them on antitrust issues. And then you get the Justice Department going after you on something else, and then you get the sec on something else, then Congress Passes some law, and your whole Business Plans out the window. They recognize i mean, its unfortunate Companies Need that. But the reality today there are so many conflicting interests that somebody if they have an advantage in washington will write the rules to benefit them. And that can undo your business plan. So, yeah, id say to sony these Companies Come out of countries that dont have that kind of tradition. Were a full democracy where lobbying is embedded in the constitution. These countries its a little bit different. And so theyre a little late to the party on stuff. Google learned the hard way, but googles been very successful. Susan molinari is doing a great job there. Theyve learned the hard way that if you dont have that washington presence and the tendency of a lot of these tech firms is we dont want the government, we dont need the government, let us just innovate on our own. Thats great in theory, but all of a sudden the rules change, and youre out the window. Host what do you miss about congress . Guest very little. I miss the foreign trips, and i miss the members. But the dysfunctionalty right now, im a lot happier on the outside. I left voluntarily, undefeated and unindicted which is the way you want to leave the place. I was turned out as committee chairman. Id been in leadership for two cycles and three cycles as committee chairman, a Ranking Member and a subcommittee chairman host and you ran the National Republican guest yeah. I ran the Congressional Campaign successfully two times. Thats a pretty good run. And so its just time for me to do something else. I didnt get potomac fever. You know when members just gotta stay in washington, and they crave the the only known cure is embalming fluid. And i just, i have, i was ready to do something else. I respect the people that have stayed there trying to make the most of a difficult situation, but for me it was just time to move on and do something else. Host and this is the communicators on cspan, and weve been talking with former republican congressman tom davis. And up next on the communicators an interview with the ceo and chairman of panasonic north america. Now on your screen is joe taylor who is the ceo and chairman of panasonic north america. Mr. Taylor, were here in las vegas at ces international. What products is panasonic debuting . Guest well, peter, first, thanks for having me. And second, i think the interesting thing about what were doing here today is not just introducing some new consumer electronics, but really rolling out the new image of panasonic globally. And thats a company thats almost a hundred years old that east 100 billion and has Portfolio Products far beyond consumer electronics. Host such as . Guest well, our b to b space is really, really growing for us. We have major market shares in the avionics industry, inflight entertainment. Automotive industry far beyond speakers and radios. Complete multimedia interfaces and navigation systems. We have sports and Entertainment Venues as well as a very large energy business. And these are things, shame on us, but we havent made people well aware of even though were a hundred years old. Host well, mr. Taylor, we are aware of panasonic televisions, cameras, things like that. Youve got a brand called your tv. What is that . Guest your tv is the latest innovation. People want their content the way they want it when they want it. They want to be able to communicate with each other, they want to use twitter, they want to see youtube, they want to shop. Were enabling that in a custom fashion on your tv. So we use facial recognition and voice recognition. You walk into a room, and you say my tv, and immediately the screen shows your home page. Its really the coolest thing. Host is it on the market . Guest it will be on the market this spring. Host 4k, oled. What are these terms . Guest so 4k is the latest innovation in terms of high resolution. Its four times the resolution of what you have on your hdtv at home. Its got the same qualities as digital cinemas that youve been visiting around the world. When you go see a movie, thats 4k resolution, we can bring that into your home. Oled is another technology for displays. So we had crts for many years, those are the the its the old, big old boxes. Then the next one was plasma, led, lcd, the next is oled which is much more organic. In fact, o stands for organic les. And its literally pape or thin, and we can paper thin, and we can bend it. Its the most amazing thing. You have to go over to our booth to see it. Host when you say organic, what do you mean . Guest we use a phosphorous rather than semiconductors as the activating agent. So its much greener. Much Lower Energy Consumption than any display on the market. Host joe taylor, what happened to 3d . Is 3d television successful . It was all the rage here last year. Guest i dont think anything happened to it. I think 3d is still developing. Theres more and more content coming out all of the time. I think the biggest impediment to 3d still remains the glasses. And i think as 4k develops, i think the future for glassesless that doesnt even sound right, 3d without glasses, how about that . I think that future becomes more imminent. And i think then youll really see an explosion in 3d. Host in your keynote here at ces international, two topics that you brought in. The cloud and energy efficiency. What did you talk about . Guest well, the reality is theyre both kind of related. The cloud allows us ways to collect, store and analyze data in ways that weve never done before. So as it relates to energy, every device that plugs in your home can be connected to the cloud and send data. As we analyze this data, we have new ways of helping you save energy in ways that we never dreamed possible before. We can manage the entire home electrically in the most efficient way than you could have ever imagined, and we do that through the cloud. The cloud also provides many other opportunities for us, but in the end the cloud is a big server x all this datas coming in, and now we have ways to analyze this data in a very useful manner. Host what about apps . Does panasonic use apps . Guest we dont make any app, but we create operates systems that are open operating systems that are open. The operating system for your tv is a very open architecture which means App Developers all around the world can create apps for these tvs, similar to whats done on smartphones today. Host mr. Taylor, youre the First North American ceo nonjapanese, correct . Guest i am. Host whats it like bridging the two cultures and the business cultures as well . Guest i dont know if i want to answer that question. No, its been, its been very interesting. Its been very challenging. And i say that if panasonic waited 50 years for me, they should have done a lot better. Host want to ask you about u. S. Jobs with panasonic. How many people are employed . Guest in north america right now we have approximately 15,000 employees. Host 15,000 . Guest right. Host in what capacity . Guest well, everything from manufacturing through sales, marketing, engineering and r d. A complete range of jobs that you would expect in any major corporation. Host when it comes to r d expenditures, do you have a set amount or a set percentage that you put towards r d . Guest we dont structure r d that way, but it ends up to be kind of a percentage of revenue. But it isnt budgeted that way. We look at r d business by business, and businesses that are growing spend more in r d, and businesses that arent growing or that we dont anticipate to grow perhaps we spend less. But we have six r d sites in knot america alone. North america alone. Host is the north American Market unique . Guest well, we like to think its unique. But whats unique about north america, what cant be disputed is roughly it constitutes 25 of the world gdp. It is by far the largest market in the world. The United States itself is the only developed nation on earth whose population is still growing. So from that standpoint, it makes it a very, very interesting market. Some things in common we merging markets and, of course, the most advanced marketplace and the most competitive in the world. Host joe taylor, how much time do you spend on regulatory and policy issues with washington, d. C. . Guest as little as i possibly can. We have a whole organization of people who are very capable of dealing with that very frustrating process. And im very happy to let them do their jobs and stay as distant as i possibly can. Host but as north american chairman, you have to be aware. Guest im involved, and im aware, and its a mess, frankly. Its just a mess. Host why . Guest it makes it very difficult for business. So businesses can deal with anything but uncertainty, but uncertainty. Its very difficult to make Investment Decisions and expect any kind of return on investment when you have no way to predict the future. And our difficulty right now is theres no consistency or certainty in our policy decisions. And, in fact, i think its become well beyond politics into ideology, and theres no compromise in ideology. So its difficult as a business person today. Host joe taylor, what keeps you up at night when you think ten years down the road about what panasonic will be, how people will be watching tv, how your products will