Remarks by President Trump in Working Lunch with Governors on Workforce Freedom and Mobility | Eastern North Carolina Now

    GOVERNOR DUCEY: There is a -

    THE PRESIDENT: You're seeing a difference.

    GOVERNOR DUCEY: There is a difference. There is a real crisis there. And I think it's still contingent on Congress to act -

    THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.

    GOVERNOR DUCEY: - not only on the USMCA, but on adjusting the laws and making sure that the resources are there to deal with both the humanitarian crisis and the security crisis.

    THE PRESIDENT: It's true. It would be so easy to do. We could sit down with the Democrats in a very short period of time. We need the votes; don't have the votes. We have to have the votes. And we could sit down - and you know we could sit down - in a very, very few number of minutes and get rid of -

    GOVERNOR DUCEY: Yes. Yes, we could.

    THE PRESIDENT: We could solve the asylum problem quickly and we could solve the few loopholes; they have a few loopholes that are just horrible. No other country in the world has them. And if the Democrats would agree, we could sit down and solve that problem.

    In the meantime, Mexico has really stepped up to the plate. I hope it continues. But there has been a lot fewer people running up. And they have 6,000 people on their southern border. As of today, it's pretty much - their force is fully intact. And we'll be there and - there's a big difference.

    But with all of that being said - as Doug has said, it would be, really, to everybody's advantage if we could sit down with the Democrats and make a very fast deal. We've been trying; they don't want to give us the votes, they don't want to give us the effort. And that's a shame. Because you have people dying on the border. You have people dying, you have children dying, you have women dying. You have the human trafficking. You have drugs coming across. It would have a tremendous impact, Doug, on the drugs.

    And you have people coming across that shouldn't be coming across. You have gang members; you have a lot of other things. And we're apprehending them and we're getting them out. We have people all over the country. You'll see it's starting in a much bigger way over the next week and a half. But we have people all over the country.


    ICE - they're going out and taking out MS-13. We're taking out MS-13. We're going over the bad ones and getting the bad ones out. They've been here for a long time. And we're taking them out by the thousands. Thousands of people being taken out - MS-13 and other gangs. They seem to be the worst, but I hear they have some others that are pretty bad too. But we're getting them out.

    So, with all of that, if anybody would like to say anything while you have these wonderful people from the media here, please feel free. Would you like to go? Anything? Mark, would you like to say something?

    GOVERNOR GORDON: Well, thank you, Mr. President. I'm the governor of the great state of Wyoming. Yellowstone, the first park in the nation. And I'm honored to be here. I appreciate your leadership in convening this bipartisan group of governors. And I look forward to having a productive discussion. And I thank you for bringing together the governors to seek and listen to our perspectives.

    As President Trump has recognized before, coal is important to our nation's future prosperity. Wyoming is a leading coal producer and has among the largest coal reserves in the world and certainly the cleanest.

    The President has been a strong supporter of coal and advancing new technologies that support carbon capture and sequestration that is critical in addressing climate change and to provide a bridge to a cleaner and healthier future and really good jobs. Progress on these fronts is imperative for Wyoming, and I look forward to working with you on that.

    And, you know, and a changing economy requires an evolving workforce. In Wyoming, we have sought to expand educational opportunities, including vocational education, to develop the nimble workforce that our economy will need, allowing Wyoming to gain the skills that Wyoming workers (inaudible) the skills needed to improve the quality of their work, their take-home pay, and ultimately better lives for them and their families.

    The President's apprenticeship program and expansion - and, Ivanka, your work on that - is an avenue for Wyoming to pursue the financial support for building our own workforce. We have applied for a grant and are appreciating the program in Wyoming, which, if awarded, will increase the number of registered apprenticeship programs in Wyoming.

    And I will say, Governor Ducey, I'm glad that you're following our lead. We are the lowest - (laughter) - licensed state - licensure state in the nation.


    THE PRESIDENT: I was waiting for that. (Laughter.)

    GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: But that's what makes the country strong, right? Is the competitiveness of the governors.

    GOVERNOR GORDON: Thank you, again, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Really good job, Mark. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

    Chris, you're doing fantastically up in New Hampshire. Do you want to say something?

    GOVERNOR SUNUNU: We're doing well, Mr. President. There's no doubt about it. You know, when you talk about workforce, I mean, there's two issues that really come up. One is, obviously, we're at the tip of the spear on the opioid crisis. And Secretary Acosta has been great.

    We created a program that came out of - when I ran a resort, in my previous life, we created something called Recovery Friendly Workplaces, where, again, if you want someone to be in recovery, there's a big picture. There isn't just a 28-day treatment, "goodbye and good luck." You need employment, you need family, you need community, and allowing and training the private sector to be, quote, "recovery friendly."

    And through Secretary Acosta's grant, we've been growing that program. We have tens of thousands of people in New Hampshire now working for a recovery-friendly workplace, which dovetails right into what we're also talking about, which is justice reform, right? Giving people a second chance. Allowing folks, when they come up, to have a job waiting for them. It's the same type of concept, making sure that - we have 2.4 percent unemployment. I got more jobs than I know what to do with. We need the workers. They're there. And they really need - we need to be allowing them the opportunity to get into the workforce.

    And I also want to say, you know, what Ivanka and her team has done on paid family leave. This is a concept that a lot of states have taken on. I know they're discussing it in Congress. Again, we've tried to find an innovative way where there's no burden on the taxpayer. Right? We've found that we - joining with Vermont, I think - I don't know if Vermont is going to forward with it. I got to call Governor Scott and see if they're on board.

    But a way to get the private sector involved, and, really, to be able to provide a benefit without an income tax. And you do that through public-private partnerships, which, Mr. President, you have done more on the public-private partnerships in this country than a lot of folks could have even imagined.


    So by putting some of these pieces in place, it really drives forward.

    The last thing, if I may - I do want to mention - when you talk about second chances, when you talk about - where they're talking about the opioid crisis, where you're talking about justice reform and prison reform: mental health. I have all the jobs in the world, but we need to be working behind the wall - something your SOR grant did very, very well - providing recovery programs behind the wall in the prisons so when they came out, they're healthy, they're ready to engage in the workforce.

    You have to make sure we appreciate the horrible fact that many of our prisons in this country are essentially mental health institutions. And that's a crying shame.

    So you need to have the programs there to make sure that, when they come out, they're ready to be part of that workforce in a productive manner. You create an economy with so many jobs out there, it's unbelievable. The opportunity is there, but we've got to make sure we're appreciating the individuals as individuals and getting them the services they need so they hit the ground running.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Great job. What are you at - 2.4 percent?

    GOVERNOR SUNUNU: 2.4 percent. I'm competing with Kim over there.

    THE PRESIDENT: Wow. 2.4. (Inaudible.)

    GOVERNOR REYNOLDS: Yeah, 2.4 in Iowa, too. (Laughter.) So, yeah. There's jobs.

    MS. TRUMP: I think (inaudible) amazing follow-ons to what you just said - and I think is so important - is it's because of the booming economy, because of the policies that have been put in place around tax reform. And actually, as part of tax reform, the first national paid family leave program was passed to incentivize employers who have workers making under $75,000, to offer paid leave benefits. So we're seeking to do more. But that's a very important program that - whether it's deregulation or tax reform, the market is booming and unemployment is at record lows.

    But one of the most rewarding things is to see people coming off the sidelines and back into the workforce, and workforce participation rates, across the country, rising.

    So just in the last quarter of 2018, 73 percent of all new jobs were from people who were on the sidelines of the economy - not even people on unemployment. So it's really - whether it's criminal justice reform, second-chance hiring, all the work we're doing around skills training, employers are getting creative and they're reaching out and they're creating better and more opportunities, better and more jobs for American workers. So it's very exciting. And thank you for your leadership on this.