Skills for America’s Future (SAF), an initiative of the Aspen Institute chaired by Jobs Council Member Penny Pritzker, recently marked its 300th partnership as part of the initiative’s growing national network of businesses, community colleges, industry associations and other workforce organizations. This partnership milestone will help ensure Americans receive the training necessary to meet the needs of employers and have the opportunity to obtain and keep good jobs. SAF fosters partnerships between community colleges and businesses by sharing information and models of success nationwide through exciting ventures such as SAF webinars, an upcoming partnership event series, an expanded website and the SAF Facebook page.

At a time when more than half of the world lives in urban areas, strong, successful American cities are more essential than ever to a strong America. CEOs for Cities is a partnership network that connects civic CEOs and urban leaders to each other and to smart research, ideas, practices, case studies, lessons learned, and compelling stories for making cities more economically successful.

In opening remarks, Steve Case said the U.S. is a nation built by entrepreneurs who made most of their important discoveries in cities, which are important enablers of innovation. Businesses, he added, can be divided into two major camps: Attackers, whose new ideas challenge the status quo; and defenders, which tend to be larger companies that hedge their downside by growing incrementally.

“This nation has been an attacker nation,” he said, “but it’s not certain that the next 200 years will continue on that track. It can, and hopefully will, but it’s not guaranteed. Other countries are figuring this out.”

Jean Case extolled the virtues of “fearless innovation” during her introductory remarks. Entrepreneurial communities are best when they shed their aversion to risk and learn how to “fail forward,” she said. “That means learning from mistakes while striving for the next success.”

Don Graves said, “There is a clear need for strong infrastructures for this nation and cities to compete on a global scale. This nation has been the hotbed of innovation, but without an infrastructure that supports that innovation this country is losing out to our global competitors.”

This week, 36 new states, local governments and school districts joined the Better Buildings Challenge, with commitments that together will generate $300 million in new investments in building energy upgrades, on top of the $4 billion in financial commitments that were announced last year. With these new commitments, which amount to nearly 300 million square feet, there is now 2 billion square feet of buildings enrolled in becoming more energy efficient.

The Better Buildings Challenge is part of the Better Buildings Initiative, which was launched in February 2011 by President Obama and is being spearheaded by the Jobs Council and former President Clinton.

The Initiative aims to utilize public-private partnerships with the goal of making commercial and industrial buildings 20% more energy efficient by 2020, as well as accelerating private sector investment in energy efficiency.  Achieving this goal would save U.S. businesses $40 billion per year in energy costs, and create a total of 114,000 new jobs.

There are now over 100 public and private sector partners working towards making America more energy efficient,  which will also save businesses on energy costs, promote energy independence, and create jobs in the hard-hit construction sector.

The Better Buildings Challenge looks to the private sector to act to create energy efficient businesses, while seeking to catalyze private sector investment through public-private partnerships as well as with tax and other incentives. Earlier this month, six new major U.S. companies joined the Challenge, including Starbucks, Staples, and Pacific Gas & Electric.

The Federal government is also committed to investing in energy efficiency in Federal buildings.  Federal agencies have invested about $2.1 billion over the past two years in building energy efficiency, all paid for with savings gotten through energy savings performance contracts, not with tax dollars.

The Treasury Department this week also announced new tax guidance that will make it easier for state and local governments to access more than $2 billion in existing low-cost financing through Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds, paving the way for additional job-creating investments in energy efficient projects.

Cities across the country have already started work to reduce the energy use in public buildings. The City of Atlanta, one of the first cities to commit to the Better Buildings Challenge, recently completed its first energy upgrade at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. The project has already shaved $93,000 off of the Civic Center’s utility bills.

The Jobs Council continues to focus on innovative ways to create jobs and enhance U.S. competitiveness, and the Better Buildings Initiative is promoting both goals. Committing to energy efficiency will make American businesses more competitive, helping companies to save money by cutting energy waste in commercial and industrial buildings. Just as important, it will create jobs in construction and the emerging green energy sector. By supporting the work of the partners of the Better Buildings Challenge, the Jobs Council is helping to create a more successful and sustainable future for American businesses.

Check out the full list of Better Buildings Challenge partners here.

Today’s announcements reflect feedback from and partnerships with local communities and the private sector, as well as ongoing initiatives underway across the Federal government to leverage all of our national assets, and it lets the world know that America is open for business.

Choosing America

The United States competes with countries around the world to retain domestic and attract international travelers, but we have traditionally been at a competitive disadvantage as compared to other countries that have a “Ministry of Tourism” to coordinate nationwide efforts and have a national marketing campaign. In addition to the Executive Order establishing a Task Force on Travel and Competitiveness, President Obama signed into law the Travel Promotion Act in 2010. The Federal government is taking concrete action to ensure more domestic and international tourists choose the United States:

• National Travel and Tourism Strategy. The Departments of Commerce and the Interior led a government-wide effort to outline a long term strategy for increasing both domestic and international tourism. This is a blueprint for the Federal government to reach our goal of attracting and welcoming 100 million international visitors, who we estimate will spend $250 billion, annually by the end of 2021. The National Travel and Tourism Strategy maps out what the government can and will do to enable job growth in the travel and tourism industry. The Department of Commerce also will create a national travel and tourism office to provide day-to-day support needed to implement the National Travel and Tourism Strategy.

• International Travel Promotion Campaign. Earlier this month, Brand USA, the non-profit organization created by the Travel Promotion Act that is charged with promoting foreign travel to the United States, officially launched its first set of international marketing campaigns to promote the United States as a travel destination abroad. Promotion efforts have begun in Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and are planned for South Korea and Brazil later this year. The DiscoverAmerica.com website has also been refurbished to provide valuable information about Brand USA’s efforts.

• Leveraging Messengers and Outlets. Using high-profile spokespeople, websites, social media tools, and our diplomatic presence in 192 countries around the world, government agencies will work together to create innovative mechanisms to communicate interesting travel opportunities to the international public and travel professionals globally.

• Providing Key Indicators of Travel and Tourism Performance. To give international travelers the tools they need to plan their trips, the Department of Commerce has developed a Travel and Tourism Dashboard to provide performance indicators for international travel to the United States and travel facilitation programs. This online resource provides the international travel and tourism industry, as well as private citizens and public sector stakeholders, accurate information about changes in visa interview wait times in key markets, international visitor and spending data, changes in flight processing times at key international airports, and estimated travel demand levels.

• Partnerships with Local Tourism Leaders. The Department of the Interior is partnering with local communities (e.g., San Francisco, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, and the Chesapeake region) to develop itineraries to encourage travelers to extend their visits to more and lesser-known destinations. This information will help local tourism officials develop partnerships with local small businesses and private sector vendors to not only expose travelers to all of America’s treasures, but also to foster increased economic activity as these tourists extend their travels.

Getting to America

The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is the flagship of our international tourism strategy. Over 60 percent of all overseas travelers to the United States are from VWP countries. In 2010, these travelers generated over $60 billion in annual tourism revenue. While the VWP remains the largest travel facilitation program, the Obama Administration is also committed to easing travel for the approximately 40 percent of international travelers who currently require visas to enter the United States. Building on the progress made over the past several years and in response to the President’s Executive Order, the Obama Administration is facilitating legitimate travel to America while maintaining security by:

• Supporting Legislative Improvements to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The Obama Administration supports and is committed to working with Congress on legislation to strengthen and expand VWP eligibility to nations with low visa refusal rates and rapidly growing economies, consistent with national security requirements.

• Increasing Arrivals. Comparing the first six months of fiscal year 2012 to the first six months of fiscal year 2011, arrivals of travelers using the Visa Waiver Program have increased by 8 percent and arrivals of travelers from China and Brazil have increased by 33 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Total non-immigrant admissions, which consists of admissions of travelers who are not U.S. citizens or returning residents, have increased by 4.5 percent during the same period.

• Shortening Visa Interview Wait Times. Around the world, wait times for visa interviews are generally short, and have dropped dramatically in some of the busiest travel markets where demand for visas is highest. Now, travelers currently wait less than one week for an appointment at U.S. consulates in China, less than one week in the Brazilian cities of Brasilia, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro, and 30 days or less in São Paulo. In anticipation of the summer travel season, the Department of State is adding staff and streamlining its operations to continue to keep visa interview wait times low.

• Streamlining the Visa Process. A new pilot program now underway at the Department of State to streamline visa processing will free up more interview slots for first-time applicants and allow consular officers to more effectively spend their time evaluating higher-risk visa applicants. Consular officers may waive in-person interviews for certain low-risk, qualified individuals, such as those renewing their visas within 48 months of the expiration of their previous visas, and Brazilian applicants below the age of 16 and age 66 and older. Consular officers retain the authority to interview any applicant in any category if security or other concerns are present.

• Building Capacity in China and Brazil to Meet Demand. The Department of State is investing approximately $68 million in 2012 on existing facilities in Brazil and $22 million in China – adding interview windows, expanding consular office space, and improving waiting areas. President Obama has recently announced that the United States will establish consulates in Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre, Brazil, while major expansion projects are underway in China.

• Increasing Consular Staffing and Implementing Innovative Hiring Programs. To address immediate growth in demand and ensure that the United States can continue to offer timely visa services to qualified applicants, the Department of State is doubling the number of diplomats performing consular work in China and Brazil over the next year. Similarly, the first group of newly hired consular adjudicators recently arrived at U.S. consulates in Brazil and China. These adjudicators were hired under a program targeting recruits who already speak Portuguese or Mandarin.

Traveler Experience in America

Close to one million people enter the U.S. every day via ports of entry operated by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, with other Federal agencies and employees playing a critical role in providing the first impression of America and facilitating tourism throughout the country while maintaining security. The following represent a sampling of efforts underway at U.S. ports of entry and throughout the nation to improve the customer experience of travelers in America:

• Enhancing the Traveler Experience at U.S. Airports. To improve the secure processing of passengers at U.S. airports, the Department of Homeland Security continues to expand and strengthen U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trusted traveler programs. As of the beginning of May, over one million pre-approved, low risk trusted travelers have Global Entry benefits and we expect even more international travelers will take advantage of this program this summer, when South Korea joins. Members of Global Entry use kiosks to expedite the entry process into the United States at 25 of our busiest international airports, as well as seven pre-clearance sites in Canada. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has launched TSA Pre✓™, an expedited screening program for U.S. citizen domestic travelers, at 14 of the nation’s busiest airports and will be expanding to an additional three airports by the end of June. TSA has already screened over one million travelers though this pre-screening initiative. CBP is also launching a website where foreign travelers can access their I-94 arrival-departure forms in an initiative to digitize forms used at airports. These efforts will collectively reduce wait times and labor costs at U.S. airports.

• Releasing New Visitor Information and Data on Public Lands. In the spirit of open and transparent government, the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Defense recently released new data on our national public lands. Recreation.gov was originally designed to be a tool to help the public make reservations for visits to our public lands. The database has been updated and fully populated with visitor information about all of our national treasures, and is now accessible to the public in a user friendly format that will enable small businesses and technology companies to develop additional promotional, itinerary, and web-enabled applications. Furthermore, Interior plans to completely redesign recreation.gov to provide a much more seamless, one-stop-shop for planning and making reservations for thousands of recreation sites in the United States.

• Expanding Foreign Language Service & Youth Job Opportunities. The Department of the Interior is piloting innovative ways to use technology to provide information and interpretive content to non-English speaking visitors. By taking advantage of technologies like smartphones and translation apps, we are providing new, dynamic content in the most in-demand languages, and will be able to continually reassess and respond to new language and information needs. Additionally, each summer the Department of the Interior hires 20,000 young people to work on our public lands and, as part of the Administration’s Summer Jobs+ program, is dedicating 30 percent of these new hires for visitor outreach and education, with a particular eye towards developing family friendly activities and adventures in our nation’s parks and refuges.

• Small Business Capacity Building. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is releasing new online outreach to provide advice and resources for small businesses in the travel and tourism industry, to help them prepare for and make the most of the upcoming travel season. Additionally, SBA will host an upcoming webinar for small businesses that would like to learn how to work with travel and tour operators.

• Increasing Distribution of the “America the Beautiful” Pass. The Department of the Interior has made it easier for more partners to become third-party vendors of the annual America the Beautiful pass, which provides pass holders with unlimited access to hundreds of public lands and waters nationwide. They are actively reaching out and encouraging partners to both sell the pass online, at trade shows, and in other tourism venues as well as to develop promotions for buying and using the pass. The goal is to increase sales to both Americans and international visitors, who will then have an incentive to visit more destinations and lesser-known locations, and to extend their stays.

Over the past year, the Federal Government has been working to implement President Obama’s directions for a 21st-century regulatory system, which he described in Executive Order 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.”  Executive Order 13563 requires U.S. regulators, to the extent permitted by law, to select approaches that maximize net benefits; choose the least burdensome alternative; increase public participation in the rulemaking process; design rules that are simpler and more flexible, and that provide freedom of choice; and base regulations on sound science. Executive Order 13563 also calls for an ambitious, government-wide “lookback” at existing rules, with the central goal of eliminating outdated requirements and unjustified costs.

Today, President Obama has built on Executive Order 13563 by signing a historic Executive Order on Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation.  The new Executive Order will promote American exports, economic growth, and job creation by helping to eliminate unnecessary regulatory differences between the United States and other countries and by making sure that we do not create new ones.

As I discuss in an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, the order makes clear that in eliminating such differences, we will respect domestic law and will not compromise U.S. priorities and prerogatives. Even while insisting on those priorities and prerogatives, we can eliminate pointless red tape. Today’s global economy relies on supply chains that cross national borders (sometimes more than once), and different regulatory requirements in different countries can significantly increase costs for companies doing business abroad. As the President’s Jobs Council recently noted, international regulatory cooperation canreduce these costs and help American businesses access foreign markets.  Such cooperation can also help U.S. regulators more effectively protect the environment and the health and safety of the American people.

Today’s Executive Order calls for, among other things, an interagency working group, chaired by OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to provide a forum to foster greater cooperation and coordination of U.S. Government strategies, including those for promoting regulatory transparency, sound regulatory practices, and U.S. regulatory approaches abroad.  Today’s Order also requires Federal agencies, as part of the President’s retrospective review initiative under Executive Order 13563, to consider regulatory reforms that eliminate unnecessary differences between the United States and its major trading partners.

As we work with other governments to tackle unnecessary differences in regulation, we must continue to protect the environment and the health and safety of Americans. Today’s Executive Order emphasizes this point while reaffirming the primacy of domestic law and national prerogatives.

The new Executive Order will build on work that is already underway. We have started close to home, with President Obama launching Regulatory Cooperation Councils with Prime Minister Harper of Canada and President Calderon of Mexico. The Councils are implementing work plans to eliminate or prevent the creation of unnecessary regulatory differences that adversely affect cross-border trade; to streamline regulatory requirements; and to promote greater certainty for the general public and businesses, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises, in the regulation of food, pharmaceuticals, nanotechnology, and other areas. The United Statesand Canada released the United States-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Joint Action Plan last December. In February, we announced the United States-Mexico High-Level Regulatory Cooperation Council (HLRCC) Work Plan.

I invite you to review both plans and provide your thoughts and ideas on how we can reduce red tape and unjustified costs by increasing regulatory cooperation, in North America and beyond.  Just email us at international-oira@omb.eop.gov.  The ideas we have received from the public have helped shape our efforts to date, and continued public engagement will help ensure that we make meaningful progress in the years to come.

Cass Sunstein is the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Today, I am in Atlanta on the campus of Georgia Tech for a “Day of Engineering” Facebook pep rally to kick off the President’s new STAY WITH IT campaign devoted to recruiting, retaining and graduating 10,000 engineers each year to maintain America’s competitive edge. Corporate leaders, educators and students have gathered for dialogue and panel discussions on the dire need to increase the number of American engineers. Fourteen universities from across the nation are participating via Facebook viewing parties. Spearheaded by Intel President & CEO, Paul Otellini, who is also a member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, the STAY WITH IT campaign will provide mentors and other supports to increase the number of American engineering graduates which has fallen woefully behind other surging economies and has led to a shortage of skilled workers for American jobs.

More than 65 companies have already committed to doubling their 2012 summer engineering internships, including Intel, GE and DuPont – making an overall $70 million investment in giving students valuable hands-on experience. In addition, engineering deans from some of the nation’s top universities – including Georgia Tech – have developed a gold seal standard of excellence for colleges and universities focused on improved retention and graduation rates.

The participation of NASA and Intel is particularly important because aerospace and computer technology are clearly the growth industries of the future; but the only way to ensure that growth is by maintaining a constant pipeline of qualified workers. The centerpiece of our efforts to overcome close the skills gap is the engagement of more students in the study of science, technology, engineering and math or the STEM disciplines.

NASA is now embarking on ambitious agenda of deep space exploration that will carry our astronauts to places where we have never been, including an asteroid and eventually Mars. We need engineers to help us design the new rockets and capsules that will carry us there. We need scientists and researchers to help us develop materials to withstand the stresses of deep space exploration, to sustain humans for long-duration stays in space, to make air transportation quicker, safer and more efficient and to aid us in our quest to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos and improve life here on Earth.

My message to the students participating in Georgia Tech’s Day of Engineering was simple: Stay With It! Stay with your studies. Stay with your research. Stay with your dreams as you prepare to take your rightful place as the next great generation of American engineers, innovators and leaders.

March 14, 2012

America needs jobs. Yet Congress cannot enact such basic legislation as the reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Bill that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Instead, this week Congress once again is looking to deregulate Wall Street—this time in the form of the cynically named JOBS Act, which would weaken the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate our capital markets and allow companies to sell stock to the public without providing three years of audited financial statements, without having adequate internal controls and without complying with key corporate governance reforms in the recently passed Dodd-Frank Act.

We still have millions of unemployed workers as a direct result of decades of financial deregulation. Workers’ pension funds have yet to recover from the effects of the last time we created a bubble in IPOs during the late 1990s.  And yet members of both parties in Congress seem bent on repeating these experiences, even as congressional Republicans block any initiative that might really create jobs and set our economy toward the path of long-term prosperity.

In case our own ugly history with stock bubbles and financial fraud is not enough, Congress should heed the warnings from other developed countries that recently have experimented with deregulated securities markets. In the 1990s, Canadian regulators condemned the “continuing occurrence of shams, swindles and market manipulations” on the Vancouver Stock Exchange of loosely regulated small company stocks. More recently, the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market has been described as a “casino” for its highly speculative small company stock listings.

Workers’ retirement savings will be in greater risk of fraud and speculation if securities market deregulation once again is railroaded through Congress. Once again our economy will be at risk from the folly of policymakers promoting financial bubbles and ignoring the needs of the real economy. The AFL-CIO calls on Congress to set aside the politics of the 1%, the old game of special favors for Wall Street, and turn to the business of real job creation. The labor movement strongly opposes the JOBS Act and any other effort to weaken the Dodd-Frank Act.

We support the efforts of Senate Democrats such as Jack Reed, Carl Levin, and Mary Landrieu to amend the “JOBS Act” to lessen the harm it does to investors, pension funds, and the U.S. economy.

We want jobs, not cynical Wall Street scams.

During his visit, the Secretary discussed the President’s FY2013 Budget, which includes common-sense proposals to revitalize American infrastructure by creating a 21^st century transportation network that allows companies to ship their goods more efficiently throughout the country and the world. The U.S. Senate is scheduled to consider a key part of that plan – a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill – this week. A modern transportation infrastructure network, supported by both public and private investment is vital for the economy and job creation.

As President Obama stated in his recent State of the Union, manufacturing is a key part of creating an “America Built to Last.” However, the majority of manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and hire qualified workers. As demonstrated at the beginning of the discussion, many of the PMPA participants raised their hands when asked who currently needed, but could not find more employees. During the course of the meeting however, several important ideas were put on the table along with new Administration-sponsored programs and initiatives aimed at restoring America’s manufacturing sector.

Positive program suggestions came again in the form of public-private partnerships between local community colleges and businesses. These partnerships allow for the development of specific workforce training programs in addition to a direct feed of skilled workers for employers. State and federal grants, specifically the Trade Adjustment Assistance Grant Program, allow community colleges to continually update their facilities with the latest equipment and machinery, an important issue raised by a participant.

Several other partnerships, programs and initiatives were discussed including the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national effort bringing together industry, universities, and the federal government to invest in the emerging technologies that will create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance America’s global competitiveness. Additionally, Michael Molnar, the Chief Manufacturing Officer of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) confirmed manufacturing as its top priority and highlighted a partnership with AMP along with a commitment to the recently established “Make it in America” program. Lastly, Administration representatives noted the release of the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) “National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing.” Recently released in February 2012, the report focuses on important opportunities for federal policy to aid in the sector’s development as well as upcoming challenges.

Overall, the joint discussion, organized by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Permac Industries CEO and Jobs Council Member Darlene Miller, and PMPA, demonstrated the enthusiasm and willingness of both public and private sectors to work towards a common goal of supporting revitalizing the manufacturing sector.  The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for small business leaders to both have their voices heard and learn about the many innovative programs the administration is undertaking to help small businesses and build the economy.