Yesterday, I was in California to talk with business executives who are part of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. We discussed key issues facing them as they continue to grow, create jobs, and drive both innovation and competitiveness here in the U.S.

They just completed an annual survey of their own membership. The biggest business challenge that they identified was their ability to attract and retain a skilled workforce.

I let them know that President Obama understands that we are in a global competition for talent and we want the best people right here in the U.S.

I gave two examples that are part of his commonsense plan for immigration reform:

First, many foreign graduate students come to the U.S. and study areas like science, technology, engineering and mathematics—STEM fields—at our universities. Upon graduation, we can't afford to lose those high-skilled workers to a competitor nation simply because they can't get a green card. That's why we need to "staple" a green card to their degrees, especially if there is a U.S. company that needs their particular knowledge or expertise to keep growing and creating more American jobs.

Second, some foreign entrepreneurs have successfully attracted financing from U.S. investors and are finding U.S. customers who want to buy their products. Through a "start-up visa," we want to find a path for these entrepreneurs to build their businesses in the U.S. and hire Americans to work in them. After all, more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies have been founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.

Taking these two steps—along with all of the others in the President's comprehensive plan for immigration reform—could help boost our GDP by up to 1.3 percent while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming years.

We need to act now. There has never been stronger, broader support for immigration reform than there is today. It's time to move forward with policies that will help America out-compete and out-innovate in the 21st century.

If we are successful, our economy will grow faster, we will create more good-paying jobs, and the future will be brighter for the next generation.

Rebecca Blank is Deputy Secretary of Commerce.

Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank Speaks at the National Veteran Employment Summit (Photo Credit: Monster Worldwide)

Yesterday, I spoke at the National Veteran Employment Summit hosted by Monster and Military.com. I announced that Monster has signed up to participate in the Joining Forces effort to help hire or train 250,000 veterans and military spouses. The companies participating in Joining Forces know that hiring veterans is not only the right thing to do, but it’s also good business. America’s veterans have the leadership, the character, and the team-oriented approach that employers want and need.

Under the President’s leadership, the Administration is working hard to make sure veterans find job opportunities. We’re making improvements in how the military transitions service members from the battlefield to the workplace. We're also ensuring that the post-9/11 GI Bill stays strong. And, through Joining Forces - led by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden - we're ensuring that veterans and military families have the support they need to land a job when they return to civilian life.

The Commerce Department is particularly proud to support the efforts of companies who are hiring men and women who have bravely served our nation. 

Moving forward, the Department will encourage even more businesses to make hard commitments to hire veterans and we will actively share the "best practices" we find in veteran hiring. More broadly, we will continue to give veteran-entrepreneurs, veteran business owners, and veterans in the workforce the tools they need to succeed.

I believe that America’s capacity to innovate and compete in the 21st century is tied to our commitment to unleash the full potential of our veterans. We must continue to do everything we can to provide them with paths to good jobs that will help our nation maintain and strengthen its global leadership.

This morning, I joined economic development leaders from around the country to discuss ongoing efforts to create jobs and grow the U.S. economy. The Economic Development Forum was hosted by the U.S. Commerce Department’s SelectUSA initiative, in partnership with the White House Business Council and the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the world’s largest professional organization of economic development practitioners.

The forum provided an opportunity to discuss the Obama administration’s efforts to support U.S. businesses and encourage companies to bring good jobs back to America, a trend called insourcing.

Acting Secretary Blank at International Economic Development Summit in Washington (by Department of Commerce)

Both American and international firms are increasingly looking for opportunities to invest in the U.S. And businesses are not only choosing to bring jobs back, but they are also making decisions to expand here instead of shipping jobs overseas. These investments mean that more products will be made in America. That means more jobs and greater economic security for families across this nation. In an effort to accelerate insourcing among U.S. companies, President Obama has called on Congress to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and give tax breaks to companies that bring jobs back.

I’m very optimistic about the extent to which we will continue to see growth in insourcing and foreign investment in the U.S. America has the most innovative entrepreneurs and the strongest consumer-driven economy in the world. We have many skilled and productive workers. The outlook for abundant and lower-priced domestically-produced energy is growing.  For all of these reasons, and more, the business owners I’ve met with over the last several months increasingly say that they believe the U.S. is the best place for their next investment.

Commerce’s SelectUSA program is helping to leverage the full strength of the federal government to make sure that even more dollars reach our shores to build things and create jobs here at home. SelectUSA works in partnership with local and state economic development organizations to make it easier for businesses to choose the U.S. for their next investment. It provides a single point of contact at the national level to help international and domestic firms learn about U.S. opportunities and deal with issues that might arise related to Federal regulations or requirements. Among other activities, SelectUSA has worked to train U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service officers to promote investment in the U.S. and to link foreign firms with the information they need when considering a U.S. investment.

We must continue to find ways to foster an environment where businesses and communities across America have the tools they need to grow. President Obama’s top priority is strengthening the economy and creating jobs. At the Commerce Department we’ll continue to do everything we can to support more investment in the U.S, to help American businesses bring jobs back to the United States.

In terms of production, manufacturing output is up 20 percent since 2009, and increased again in July. One manufacturing sector that has been consistently strong is the motor vehicles and parts industry, which has added 165,000 jobs since June 2009— a sector that might not even exist in the U.S. today if not for the assistance this Administration gave to the U.S. auto industry in 2009. 

This matters because we know that manufacturing jobs are good jobs that pay more than average and provide greater benefits. They strengthen economic security for middle class families. 

There is a powerful link between America’s ability to make things and America’s ability to innovate, compete, and create good jobs. We have come to realize that you can’t separate innovation and production—they have to sit near each other. Manufacturers perform 70 percent of all private sector R&D, investing in and producing technological advances that accounted for 90 percent of U.S. patents. Economic research indicates that innovation – in new products or new processes – was central to three-quarters of the nation’s economic growth since World War II and it is not an accident that the manufacturing sectors where America is most competitive are all advanced manufacturing, where new technologies, new products or new production processes are central to the success of specific firms. 

And, of course, manufacturing doesn’t just support production jobs; it also supports non-manufacturing jobs up and down the supply chain. 

That is why across the Administration, we are redoubling our efforts to promote a vibrant manufacturing sector. We are acting on the findings of a report that we released entitled, “The Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the United States.” It outlined steps needed to support America’s innovators and entrepreneurs. The report outlines a number of investments this country needs to make to remain competitive over the next two decades. 

President Obama has proposed several things that we need to do right now to build on our strength in manufacturing. First, we should stop rewarding companies for outsourcing jobs overseas and start rewarding companies for bringing jobs back through insourcing. Second, we should put construction workers back on the job to repair our crumbling infrastructure. This will help our manufacturers send their products to customers as quickly as possible. We need to extend the middle class tax cuts for the 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of America’s small businesses making less than $250,000 for another year, as President Obama has proposed. With these cuts, a typical family of four would see taxes rise by $2,200 if we don’t extend this through 2013. 

Finally, the President is calling for a network of institutes focused on manufacturing innovation. At these hubs, we will bring together our top researchers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and other partners who can ensure that we continue to out-build and out-compete the rest of the world in the years ahead. Proposals for a pilot institute went out from the Department of Defense earlier this year. And very soon we will be announcing the winner. 

Having an opportunity to discuss these and other important issues with U.S. manufacturers served as an important reminder that our collaboration is absolutely essential to ensuring that Made in America remains a strong slogan well into the future.

Travel and tourism has been a particularly bright spot in our economic growth over the past two years. I recently announced that 2012 will likely be another record year for international travel to the U.S. In fact, in May 2012 international travel to the U.S. reached nearly $14 billion – up 8% from May 2011. That caps 29 straight months of growth. Many people do not realize that international travel to the U.S. counts as an export, since foreign citizens purchase U.S. goods and services when they travel here.  Hence, the travel and tourism industry has been a critical factor in the increase of export-supported jobs, which have grown by 1.2 million from 2009-2011.

We can build on this momentum by strengthening public-private partnerships with the industry, which is the core of the new National Travel and Tourism Strategy. Already, we’ve reinvigorated the Tourism Policy Council – a Commerce-led team involving a dozen agencies that touch on travel and tourism. Also, the Trade and Tourism Advisory Board – involving many of the people at this Forum – has never been more active.  In fact, they contributed many great ideas as we wrote the Strategy.

For our part at the Department of Commerce, we’ve taken several concrete actions:

• We have released data on international tourists via our travel dashboard that helps businesses and travelers with key decisions. 
• We are also moving forward to establish the National Travel and Tourism Office at Commerce next year.  This office will be coordinate travel and tourism issues across the federal government.
• In addition, we’re working with industry leaders abroad who drive international travelers to the U.S.  For example, this year we formed a VisitUSA Committee in India to build on the fact that Indian spending in the U.S. jumped 15% from 2010 to 2011.

The Obama Administration’s number one priority remains strengthening our economy and creating jobs, and we will continue doing everything possible to make the U.S. welcoming to visitors to support even more American jobs. Increasing travel and tourism to the U.S. is an important way for us to expand our commercial ties and ensure balanced trade growth in services as well as goods.

Tourism is America’s number one service export, and today we have even more evidence that America is indeed open for business. New data released by the U.S. Commerce Department today shows that international visitors spent nearly $14 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States in May—$1 billion more than was spent in May 2011—marking 29 straight months of growth.
 
This data also means that the U.S. is on pace for a record-setting year, with international visitors having spent over $68 billion so far – up 12 percent compared to last year.
 
The facts are clear: tourism is a high-growth bright spot in our economy. We must continue to build on this momentum by making sure that America is travel-friendly to international visitors, thereby helping our businesses create even more jobs.
 
Fortunately, there are many dedicated people working to increase travel and tourism. This morning, I had the chance to talk with a few of them at a meeting of the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board in Dearborn, Mich., where I joined federal agency partners, as well as U.S. Representative John Dingell (D-MI), to discuss the Obama administration’s ongoing efforts to increase travel and tourism to the United States. During the board meeting, we discussed implementation of the recently released National Travel and Tourism Strategy (PDF), a blueprint for the federal government to welcome 100 million international visitors each year by the end of 2021. These visitors would spend an estimated $250 billion per year, supporting even more jobs and spurring economic growth in communities across the country.

Many people do not know that foreign visitors to our country increase America’s exports, since this results in foreigners buying U.S. goods and services. So more foreign tourists translates to higher exports, a reduced trade deficit and stronger U.S. economic growth. One of our priorities at the Commerce Department is to push forward with the President’s National Export Initiative, which set the goal of doubling exports by the end of 2014. We’ve already made strong progress. For example, last year we had an all-time record of $2.1 trillion in U.S. exports. Our services exports reached $606 billion, with travel and tourism-related exports representing over one-fourth of that total. Most important, we’ve seen the number of export-supported jobs increase by 1.2 million from 2009 to 2011.
 
The Obama administration’s number one priority remains strengthening our economy and creating jobs, and we will continue doing everything possible to make the U.S. welcoming to visitors to support even more American jobs. Travel and tourism to the U.S. is an important way for us to expand our commercial ties and ensure balanced trade growth.  Under President Obama’s leadership, the Commerce Department is working closely with America’s travel and tourism industry to encourage more travel to the United States.

Yesterday's U.S. Census Bureau report shows that not only was the 2010 Census delivered on time and significantly under budget – but even more important, it was extremely accurate. I am proud of the extraordinary accomplishment by the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department in its success with the massive 2010 Decennial Census effort that gathered data vital to understanding our nation’s population and to allocating equal representation in our democratic system. The accuracy of the 2010 Decennial Census is particularly impressive considering outside predictions of failure. The Census was able to reverse a decades-long decline in survey response rates with its 2010 count.

The data released yesterday are from a post-enumeration survey of the 2010 Census called the Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) program, which measures the accuracy of the coverage of the nation’s household population (excluding the 8.0 million people in “group quarters,” such as nursing homes or college dorms). It surveys a sample of the 300.7 million people living in housing units and then matches the responses to the census, providing an estimate of exactly who was or wasn’t counted in the census. The results found that the 2010 Census had a very small net overcount–just 0.01 percent–which is statistically virtually the same as zero, and a significant improvement over the 0.49 percent overcount in 2000 and 1.61 percent undercount in 1990. You can learn more about how the Census Bureau conducts the CCM survey after the census to help measure its quality.

However, as in past surveys, this release shows that certain populations were undercounted. More work remains to address persistent causes of undercounting, such as poverty, mobility, language isolation, low levels of education, and general awareness of the survey, in addition to duplicate counts among the elderly and college students living away from home. As a nation, it is imperative that we work to address economic inequalities that impact those populations by promoting education, opportunities and jobs–particularly those in high-paying, high-quality science, technology, engineering and math fields.

The 2010 Census count shows how the U.S. population has grown and shifted over the last decade. People use this data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more. Not only does the Decennial Census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, but more than $400 billion in federal funds are distributed every year to states and communities based in part on Census population data and American Community Survey (ACS) results. State and local governments use this data to plan new roads, new schools and new emergency services, and businesses use the data to develop new economic opportunities – all crucial for a safe, educated, equitable, and thriving democracy.

Yesterday's Census Coverage Measurement results underscore the accuracy of our federal statistics and provide useful information that will pave the way for the Department of Commerce and U.S. Census Bureau to achieve an even better and more inclusive 2020 Census.

Today, a high share of companies regularly relying on robust intellectual property (IP) protections to attract investor capital and stay competitive. These IP-intensive firms create an average of three million U.S. jobs per year. More than ever, we must be efficient and effective in helping entrepreneurs protect their intellectual property.

America’s entrepreneurs are the primary source of new ideas that drive innovation. Entrepreneurs provide us with better production processes, new advances in health, and improved consumer products. These are people who can move from ideas to products and from products to the marketplace. These activities strengthen our economy and our global competitiveness. And they create jobs.These new administrative jurists will directly help to reduce backlogs that prevent game-changing ideas from breaking through. Specifically, they will help with the new in-house review process for challenging patents that have already been granted. This process is faster and less expensive than litigation.

The new review process is part of a larger set of patent modernization efforts that are part of the recently-enacted America Invents Act. USPTO has already implemented seven provisions of this federal legislation–all on time. This new law is helping to provide America’s entrepreneurs with better service through smarter tools, streamlined processes, and fewer barriers. As a result, we are increasing the confidence that everyone places in America’s patent system. Even prior to the enactment of the America Invents Act, USPTO cut the patent application backlog by approximately 10 percent as the volume of applications filed increase by approximately 5 percent, between 2009 and 2011.

With the addition of these nine individuals, USPTO will be able to do more to help entrepreneurs get new ideas to the market faster and create American jobs. This is one more important step toward enabling us to build more products here and sell them everywhere around the globe.

As President Obama said when he launched the Campaign to Cut Waste in June 2011, “No amount of waste is acceptable, not when it’s your money. Just as families are living within their means, government should, too, so we can invest in the things that we know will create good jobs and grow the economy.” As part of those ongoing efforts to make government more accountable to the American people and cut wasteful spending, I am happy to report today that the Commerce Department has awarded a contract for computers that is expected to save taxpayers $20-25 million over the next five years.

Through the contract with Intelligent Decisions Inc., we will reduce our cost for desktops and laptops by 40 percent. The contract leverages the large volume of computers that Commerce purchases each year and standardizes specifications to achieve significant cost reductions. Making wise spending decisions like this will enable Commerce to focus resources on its primary mission, which is supporting innovation, helping American businesses create jobs, and driving U.S. competitiveness around the world.

Intelligent Decisions Inc., is a small business reseller offering products manufactured by Dell Inc. By awarding this contract to a small business, the Commerce Department will increase its small business participation for computer purchases by over thirty percent. Intelligent Decisions Inc.  will be providing valuable services to Commerce, including helping to better monitor its inventory of computers, improving delivery time, and loading custom images onto computers. Through the new contract, Commerce will be able to do the following:

• Reduce the thousands of employee hours required to award hundreds of separate contracts for computers;
• Reduce IT complexity and longer term support and maintenance costs by standardizing PC specifications across the Department; and
• Streamline the computer ordering process.

Thanks to the diligent work of the Census Bureau’s acquisition team, this contract maximizes the Department’s buying power by aggregating the purchasing power of all the Commerce Bureaus to drive down costs. And, through smart contracting strategies such as strategic sourcing and better management of our information technology devices, we can make a difference to our bottom line. 

The Commerce Department achieved more than $50M in administrative savings in FY11, including $42M in savings through negotiating stronger pricing with vendors and reducing the size of contracts. Savings are also being achieved in fleet, travel, printing, and other key areas including shutting down wireless devices that aren’t being used and reducing use of desktop printers. Commerce is already well on its way to achieve $143 million in reduced overhead costs and administrative savings this fiscal year, and  Commerce’s FY13 budget proposes to increase that to $176 million.

Increasing efficiency and cutting administrative costs is an important and achievable goal in government. At Commerce, we want to direct our resources to investments that will create jobs and help our economy grow. To do this, we will continue to search for new ways to do more with less and do our part in making the government work better for the American people.