Collective Banking Group's Economic Empowerment Conference

May 1, 2009

Introduction

Good morning. And it’s a blessed morning, isn’t it? Thank you so much for inviting me to be here with you today and for letting me start off what will be a long day with such good friends.

In the little bit of time we have together today, I wanted to talk with you about jobs, and more specifically, BRAC jobs. But first, we need to begin our conversation by looking at the national picture.

Putting Families First

These are tough times and Governor O’Malley and I know far too well that this national economic downturn is hitting families who have done nothing but play by the rules the hardest. You know these families. They’re your families. They’re your parishioners. They’re your coworkers. They’re your neighbors. They’re God-fearing men and women who played by the rules and have found themselves struggling to make ends meet, to pay their bills, to put away those extra dollars for their kids’ college education. They’re parents who are up late every night praying that they’re job is secure.

This recession has a human face.

It’s not just about markets and trends – it’s about the men and women, the families who need leaders now more than ever who are willing to stand up and fight to put Families First.

And that’s what Governor O’Malley and I have set out to do. We wake up every morning committed to protecting the progress we’ve made and strengthening our commitment to the priorities we set. And today, during tough times, it’s more important than ever that we continue our Families First work.

Public K-12 Education

It’s more important than ever that we protect our best-in-the-nation schools, so we invest $5.5 billion in public K-12 education – the third straight year of record funding and we commit $1 billion to school construction;

Affordable Higher Education

It’s more important than ever that we stand up to make the dreams of a college education a reality for more of our middle class families, so we fight to freeze tuition for a fourth straight year; we increase funding for community colleges by 40 percent over the previous administration; and we put more than $235 million in capital projects at our community colleges.

Protecting the Safety Net for Working Families

And it’s more important than ever that we fight to protect the safety for Maryland’s working families, so we’ve put in place nation-leading measures to prevent foreclosures. (And let me thank the Collective Banking Group for partnering with Governor O’Malley and I to help our neighbors in need. I know some of you were with Governor O’Malley on Wednesday talking with folks about this issue.)

We’ve expanded unemployment insurance to part time workers; we’ve updated our unemployment benefit system; and we’ve made a commitment to ending childhood hunger in Maryland by 2015.

Shared Partnership

Still, these are challenging times. Just like so many of our families, state and local government is forced to do more with less. And that’s part of the reason that Governor O’Malley and I are so excited to have a new partner in the White House – a partner who shares our values and is willing to do the hard work that is necessary to put our Families First.

And when President Obama took office, he immediately got to work and within 30 days, he passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – a package that may very well be remembered by our children the same way our parents remember the New Deal.

That package, which is going to create or protect 66,000 jobs in Maryland over the next two years; That package that helped us fully-fund K-12 education for the next two years; That package that helped reduce the tax burden on 95 percent of working families is just one part of the federal stimulus in Maryland.

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Our stimulus has three major components, all with the same goal: Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

The first, the ARRA package President Obama passed, which I just mentioned.

The second is everyday stimulus. It’s federal investment in research at NIH, in intelligence at NSA, in science and discovery at NASA-Goddard. It’s state and federal small business procurement in various disciplines, including:

$193 million in IT and scientific services;
$81 million in construction;
And more than $503 million all together in FY09.

And while this investment is not new to Maryland – for many years we’ve led the nation in federal contracting – under the new administration, which values the miracles of science, we’re likely to see more funding coming to our state.

Base Realignment and Closure

And the third, and perhaps most dramatic form of stimulus in Maryland is just another four letter word for growth and development – BRAC. Here in Maryland, BRAC is economic stimulus and it is economic recovery. Between now and 2015, we expect to create 60,000 new jobs in Maryland:

35 percent in IT and intelligence;
One fifth in life sciences and medicine;
And more in construction, communications, and the support sectors.

And those jobs are coming across the state:

At Aberdeen Proving Ground where nearly 12,000 direct jobs are moving…
At Ft. Meade in Anne Arundel County where close to 9,000 direct jobs will be created
And, here in Prince George’s County at Andrews Air Force Base where 3,000 direct, on-the-base jobs will arrive no later than September 2011.

Don’t get me wrong, Maryland isn’t the only state gaining jobs because of BRAC. But the jobs we’re gaining are different than the military jobs coming to other states. Our jobs are career, civilian jobs that require professional training and in many cases college education. These are jobs that pay well and will stay here for 30 or 40 or 50 years.

And I want to talk briefly about what we’re doing at the state level to connect more minority owned businesses and more men and women from communities like yours to the opportunities that are coming to Maryland because of BRAC.

Along with the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs, we’ve created the BRAC Minority Business Advisory Board and commissioned a BRAC Minority Business Study, which is cataloging the available capacity within the minority business community to compete for BRAC projects.

We’re also working closely with the private sector to identify companies like Hensel Phelps to serve as mentors for small and minority firms that don’t have the experience or clearance required by DoD for many of the inside-the-fence contracts that are being put up for contract at Ft. Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground…

But it’s not just about connecting businesses with more resources. We need to reach out to the individuals looking for a job – the individuals in your neighborhoods and at your churches. So our Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is coordinating with the installations to host BRAC Job Fairs. Our community colleges are offering BRAC programs designed to train incumbent workers and professionals who need specific job skills to compete for DoD jobs. And we’re engaging people at events like this.

So, again, our three forms of stimulus: the ARRA; everyday stimulus and BRAC. All three with three simple goals in mind: Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Conclusion

I’m going to conclude in a minute, but before I do, I want to return to a thought I had at the beginning of my remarks.

This recession has a human face. It’s our neighbors; our families; our friends; our church members who are getting hit hardest by this crisis. And while we struggle to make ends meet, I beg you to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to remember President Obama’s words from his inaugural address:

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.”

Yes indeed, they will be met. Thank you very much.

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