Immigrant populations. It is just huge the effect that will be unleashed for the country and thats part of why you know business is so strongly supportive. I agree with that. I think the argument that were missing is an argument an economic argument that connects with the average american. Levels are low compared to theyre compared to the years carter was in office. What we need to show americans, immigrants dont take jobs away from American Workers, like some people think. They actually help create jobs, good paying jobs for americans. Thats an argument that resonates with americans. I think we need a populous economic message to American Workers to say look, dont fear immigrants. Theyre actually helping create jobs for you. If you have people in the kitchen, cleaning dishes it would be very difficult to create good paying jobs for waiters that are going to be taken, jobs taken by americans. This is a very Important Message that we have failed to make. And thats part of the problem were having with a lot of American Workers middle class americans, opposing immigration. Let me i think hes right. Hes completely correct on that point. I would add that i just dont think it is that hard of a message to articulate to americans. They see what the work ethic is and in a lot of places this is going to go im a latina woman. Part of my frustration listening about Immigration Reform and executive action is that Immigration Reform has become more of a topic on hispanics and latinos. I feel we personally leave out a bunch of communities that are not hispanic latino, who will be affected by Immigration Reform. How do we aggress thisaddress this and become more inclusive . I have a nonprofit taking communities to work in and were working in northwest arkansas now because of the large latino population that went to work there in the poultry industry with very little support. Our focus is large populations with very little support. Who do we find when we get there . The largest population of people from the marshal islands is in northwest arkansas. You find pockets of ethiopians and people from the Pacific Islands and just an amazing mosaic across the country. We need to do a better job of making this discussion larger than latinos. And you confront it on issues of language, you confront it on cultural morets within communities. It is a real challenge. And were learning as we go. Let me just say quickly, the unstated piece of Immigration Reform that we havent focused enough on is the integration of immigrants for the long run. This is the right thing to do. I would argue it is harder for immigrants to be integrated today in a society that doesnt have the same kind of cohesiveness at the street level that we did in the last large immigrations, when the churches wanted parishioners and the unions wanted members and the businesses wanted workers and the Political Organization and machines wanted workers and they took them turkeys at thanksgiving and coal that doesnt exist anymore. It is harder in a country where you need Financial Literacy to function to integrate. We need to do a much better job of thinking about immigrant integration, no matter how this goes. Really quick. Im with the hispanic outlook, i cover congressman covering immigration for eight years. I agree, immigration is not just about latinos. It has become a political thing about the latino vote that is not that big. It is not that big. In some states it is. My question is it seems the real battle is between comprehensive and piecemeal. Republicans have passed several bills in the house watch this event in its entirety at cspan. Org. We take you to see Kevin Johnson who is the president of the u. S. Conference of mayors give the state of the citys address. The conference of mayors in washington, d. C. This is live coverage and this is mayor jn son. Politically and otherwise. The second Vice President mick cornell. Give mick a round of applause. Oklahoma state. Our Vice PresidentStephanie Rowley blake will join us later. Shes attending a swearing in. I want to acknowledge all our past president s. Mayor callous, mayor nutter mayor riley please give them a round of applause. And tom cochran hes handling business, we cannot thank tom for his leadership and the whole entire staff of the u. S. Conference of mayors, give them a round of applause. All of our plenary sessions are live streamed and available on demand at usmayors. Org. Use our uscmwinter15 when share about this particular conference. We have the Vice President joining us tomorrow at 1 00. Go through security and once you get to the second floor, youll be able to move along freely. Secondly, please take a look at your name badges. If you have a star you have the clearance you need to get to the white house. If you do not have a star you need to see the u. S. Conference of mayors staff today to make sure youre not left out of our white house visit. Yes, you need a gold star to get in. Let me thank the sponsors for this years winter meeting. Id like to thank let me get through all of the sponsors and give them one round of applause at the end. I want to thank wells fargo, our 2015 winter meeting Title Sponsor, american beverage association, americans for the arts, black and beach corporation, Engine Research foundation google, hdr Jpmorgan Chase and company lindbergher, sampson llp, Motorola Solutions target corporations uber technologies, the Walton Family foundation. Lets give all of our sponsors a round of applause. Im also pleased we have over 50 new mayors registered for this winter meeting. Lets give our rookie mayors a round of applause. To help introduce and welcome them to the organization, were going to show all of their names behind me. And if we missed or left out a mayor, i want to apologize in advance. All right. All right. All our new mayors in the audience, please stand up. We need to see who you are. [ applause ] all right. We know that this group will be instrumental in defining our priorities and helping this organization go forward. I am now very pleased to bring to the podium one of those rookie mayors she reigns from the great city the District Of Columbia, mayor balder served as a city council member. The conference has been fully supportive of full Voting Rights for the District Of Columbia. Mayors, lets give a round of applause for mariel bowser. Thank you. Thank you. Well, good afternoon mayors. And welcome to your Nations Capital capital, my hometown, our capital city washington, d. C. And thank you mayor johnson for your kind introduction, but most importantly for your leadership of this conference and your great city. I am honored to stand before you as mayor of the District Of Columbia and bring you greetings on behalf of all 660,000 of us. As a new mayor this is my first time at the u. S. Conference of mayors, but it wont be my last. I look forward to working welcoming you every january to our city. Here in washington, as you know, we are a little bit different. Were a city of county and state all rolled into one. We are a city that is growing and certainly on the move. You probably heard that were adding about a thousand people every month to d. C. That were attracting businesses at almost an equal pace were focused on technology and innovation in our city, and becoming a healthier, greener and safer washington, d. C. Were investing in our future every step of the way by building highways, sewer systems, schools to ensure that our children are inheriting an even better city. And we are most importantly investing in our people. I just left one of our schools over 100 million investment, where the chancellor and i announced a focus on young men and boys of color. And i want to acknowledge another great mayor in addition to you, k. J. , our friend and former mayor of the District Of Columbia adrian vinci. Give him a round of applause. And i do that because as a new mayor i know im building on quite a lot of the progress that we have been able to make in our city, from leaders like adrian and many others who have worked to build our city to where we are today. We know as mayors we dont have the luxury of kind of wringing our hands but were charged by our residents to get things done. And we need to get big things and small things done each and every day. We set aside partisanship to deliver for our residents and we have to lead by example. And just like kevin did in sacramento, when he secured 34 million in state and federal funding, to strengthen police fire, and Emergency Preparedness in sacramento, we do what we need to do to protect our communities. Just like mayor nutter was able to do when he increased High School Graduation rates and enhanced College Readiness in philadelphia. We do what we need to do to ensure our childrens success. Like my sister mayor to the north of us Stephanie Rollins blake, who closed baltimores largest deficit in modern history. We do what is needed to be done to balance our budgets, and govern in a fiscally responsible way. As demonstrated by so many mayors in this audience, we set aside politic and focus on the future of our cities. The gridlock in congress does not reflect how we operate in our cities. Across this nation under the leadership of mayors in this room, we get things done. And we understand that while our cities are on the rise, we still have major challenges to overcome. While we have growth and wealth, we also see staggering inequality. Affordable housing is out of reach for too many and too many lack the skills necessary to get good paying jobs. My goal our goal is to take those challenges head on. Like many of you i believe in making bold and pragmatic plans and executing on them every single day. During this conference i look forward to exchanging best practices, sharing ideas, and leveraging our resourcefulness as an organization. We will continue to get things done for our city and i pledge the support of the District Of Columbia to this organization to get things done for all of us. So i want to thank you, again for being in washington. I hope while youre here that you will enjoy the restaurants the museums arts and culture available to you in your capital city. Welcome, everybody. [ applause ] all right. Thanks mayor. Appreciate those comments. We will certainly enjoy the capital while we are here. I want to thank wells fargo for being our Title Sponsor for this particular winter meeting. This is a major commitment to our organization, so, again please join me in giving wells fargo a round of applause. Mary coppin, executive Vice President of wells fargo is with us today. Mary is head of Customer Excellence for wells fargo home lending. In this role, she collaborates with leaders across these;h entire wells fargo enterprise to deliver differentiated Customer Service to every wells fargo customer, every day. Mary will be sharing an important announcement. Mary, welcome to this meeting. We thank you for your commitment. Come on up, mary. Uzwxn thank you, mayor johnson, for that warm welcome to your conference and washington, d. C. I want to personally ask you, i did travel here and i have three children back home and one of them is a 63, 15yearold aspiring basketball player who has no clue what his mother does, but i think if i took a picture with you he might think whatever it is i do im pretty cool. Thank you. It truly is my honor and privilege to be here with all of you today and to be provided the opportunity to share just briefly a few comments about the exciting and energizing work happening across our country and in your cities. From strategies that stabilize revitalize local neighborhoods to those that create and support jobs and especially those that help support our veterans, may i commend you all for your efforts and leadership you are in this room it is just incredible what you have been doing as we have worked to turn around our country, our communities our cities. Wells fargo is appreciative of the opportunity we had to partner with you in our alliance and stands ready to continue to support you with the efforts needed to stabilize rebuild, and grow the communities in which we live and work. Over the last few years our collaboration with the United States conference of mayors has, of course, first centered on the practical needs of our city sies but our alliance has become so much more as it established a Solid Foundation for us to build on into the future. Together we work defectively on important issues related directly to the nations crisis. They were practical. They were focused on foreclosure prevention, Property Maintenance and care and promotion of responsible Home Ownership. Together, we shared concerns we created plans from best practices, and then we developed the necessary unique actions needed within your communities with answers directly provided to the constituents at our outreach events directly held in your city sies. Were very proud, energized and excited about our neighborhood lift program. It is one that helps promote affordable us susand sustainable Home Ownership. I would like to share with you a brief video from one of our lift events, i think held in new orleans, and one of the grant recipients and the testimony. Like many who visit new orleans, valerie never got around to leaving. Originally from france shes called the big easy home for more than a dozen years now, living in apartments in some of the citys historic neighborhoods. I came to new orleans out of curiosity. And just fell in love with the rent renting was easy, affordable. So i was a happy renter for years. Until katrina hit. And then post katrina situation was a lot different. We had landlords, more than doubling our rent overnight. And that was a wakeup call for me. She decided to buy a house. And as a single mom, wanted a duplex or double as theyre known in new orleans so they could earn rental income to help with mortgage payments. I also wanted a real neighborhood where you can walk to places and also something where i would feel safe living with my daughter. Valerie found this barge board house built in the late 1800s from pieces of the barges that sailed the mississippi and once again fell in love. But knew the renovations it needed would push her Financial Resources to the limit. It is beautiful old house in new orleans, but there was some structural work to do, reinforcing the outside walls, foundation work. I had to put in central ac. And a lot of other things that needed to happen. So when valerie heard about the neighborhood lift program, which provides home buyer education and down payment assistance, she was immediately interested. I contacted the wells fargo representative who guided me through what i had to do to make it happen. The program allowed me to have an extra 15,000 that i dont have to pay back that i could use toward the renovation of the house. And in five years it is forgiven so it is just equity for me. Since 2012, lift programs, a Public Private collaboration between wells fargo and the nonprofit neighbor works america have helped make more than 8,000 people like valerie become homeowners in locations hit hard by the economic downturn. Now with the renovations complete, she and her daughter sophie are enjoying their new neighborhood and their home. I like the backyard with my tree house. It is a piece of new orleans history. So really, excited about that. I have a tenant. I have a very comfortable situation financially. It is not the perfect place, but just knowing that this is ours and nobody will tell us to pick up and move, this is a good feeling. Thank you. As i said we believe in programs such as neighborhood lift that we believe have a real impabst impact to the communities and families. While were proud of our accomplishments and the Housing Market does appear to be improving, wells fargo understands there is a lot more work to be done. We believe it is not time to take a step back, but to continue to move forward and bring best practices that deliver tangible benefits directly to your constituents. Wells fargo is a company and knows this. Were only successful when your communities are successful. When customers and constituents can afford and sustain Home Ownership and when the communities in which they live continue to thrive and grow. So as i stated a moment ago, our work continues and last summer wells fargo committed to a new threeyear 3 Million Grant Program through our wells fargo foundation. And today i have the opportunity, im delighted to share with you were ready to begin encouraging nonprofits in your communities to apply for this new program. It is entitled Community Wins on your table are the flyers about the program. It is aimed directly at providing support to local nonprofits who engage in important efforts such as workforce development, cleaning up neighborhoods, and renovation of housing. It will be 1 million per year, awarded through a competitive application process, that is going to be administered by the United States conference of mayors. These grants will assist cities of all sizes, and we hope that youll want to be educ