SAIC Cyber Innovation Center Grand Opening
September 27, 2010
As Prepared for Delivery
Today is a great example of why I am so excited about our future here in Maryland. If you look around our State at what we have in terms of the talents and creativity of our people – and where we sit at the epicenter of science, security, healing, and innovation, there is not another place anywhere in our country better poised to take advantages of the challenges that confront us and make them the job opportunities of today and tomorrow.
Cyber security and defense is one of our nation’s greatest emerging challenges – and it also happens to be one of our greatest competitive strengths here in Maryland. We have emerged strong as the national epicenter of cyber security – and you don’t just have to take the word of your State’s braggadocios governor for that. The federal government selected Maryland to be the home of the new Joint Cyber Command.
Creating Jobs, Advancing Innovation
We are in a battle in these times of tremendous global challenges. It’s a battle that requires us to step up our nation’s cyber defenses. And it’s a battle which calls us to create jobs and strengthen our economic future.
There is no more powerful place in our State than a family's home and nothing more important for protecting that home than a job. This is therefore a battle for our children’s future. And there will be states that win and states that lose. We can’t win by retreating back. We can only win by marching forward – creating and saving jobs, improving education and public safety and our quality of life.
Because of the tough choices we’re making together, our State is winning this battle. We are recovering faster and rebounding stronger than other states – and this year we’re growing by twice the national growth rate, creating 33,200 jobs for our best start to the year since 2000. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that we’re one of the two best states of innovation and entrepreneurship. Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard and Poor’s certify our Triple A bond rating – a seal of fiscal responsibility earned by only 8 states and we’re one of them. And Education Week magazine says that for the second year in a row we’ve built America’s #1 best public schools.
Maryland’s economy is an innovation economy. It’s our job in your state government to help our businesses large and small harness the power of innovation to create and save Maryland jobs. And it’s our job as a people to invest in our greatest competitive asset – one another.
Together, we’ve launched workforce training initiatives in the cyber security field. We’re investing in cyber security curriculum development. And even in the toughest of times – even as we’ve cut $5.6 billion in state spending, which is more than any four-year period in our history – we are choosing together to make record investments in our public schools.
We’re choosing together to make an historic $1.3 billion investment in school construction. We’re choosing together to reinvigorate education in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math. And alone among the 50 states we’ve chosen to freeze tuition at our in-state colleges and universities for not one, not two, not three, but four years in a row.
Conclusion
Our best days are still ahead of us, but we must choose to work together in our own times to make it so.
Together with forward looking companies like SAIC we move forward!
Thank you and congratulations.
