will wrap us up here. >> leslie alexander with the state of tennessee. i want to say thank you to our governor who is a big proponent of foreign direct investment. also workforce development. >> our commissioner, randy boyd, was first tasked with developing a stronger workforce. i am going to hold those two things on the side and talk about a little bit about our strengths as a state. but also talk about the similarities. we are talking about the united states of america. one thing i love about the panel and my colleagues, yes, we are all landlocked. when you look at it from a logistics perspective, we provide a unique perspective. we are not on the coast. we do not have a big port for someone to come into. we have unique attributes. tennessee has one of those attributes. we also happen to have memphis -- we have the most exports with microsoft. we have some really unique attributes throughout the state, which is one of the things i see as similarities. onto some more specifics about tennessee, we are the volunteer state. that goes hand-in-hand with comm

will wrap us up here. >> leslie alexander with the state of tennessee. i want to say thank you to our governor who is a big commissioner, randy boyd, developingasked with a stronger workforce. i am going to hold those two talks on the side and about a little bit about our strengths as a state. but also talk about the similarities. we are talking about the united states of america. one thing i love about the panel and my colleagues, yes, we are all landlocked. when you look at it from a logistics perspective, we provide a unique perspective. we are not on the coast. we do not have a big port for someone to come into. we have unique attributes. tennessee has one of those attributes. we also happen to have memphis with have the most exports microsoft. we have some really unique attributes throughout the state, which is one of the things i see as similarities. onto some more specifics about tennessee, we are the volunteer state. that goes hand-in-hand with committing my colleagues about some of their attribute. are comeies between us along the ideas of indus

so, leslie alexander with the state of tennessee. i want to say thank you to our governor who is a big proponent of obviously foreign direct investment into the state of tennessee, but also workforce development. and our commissioner of economic and community development, randy boyd, was first tasked before he came to the state with developing a stronger workforce, identifying how to develop a stronger workforce. but i'm going to hold those two things on the side and talk a little bit about our strengths as a state as that's what we're here to do as well. but also talk about some of the similarities. we're talking about the united states of america here as well, and foreign direct investment into the united states. one thing i love about the panel and my colleagues here is that, yes, we are all landlocked. and so when you look at it from a logistics perspective, we provide a really unique perspective. we're not on the coast. we don't have a big port for someone to come into. we logistically have very unique attributes. and tennessee

group for the north dakota trade office and last but not least we have leslie alexander, international director for the tennessee department of economic and community development. but before getting to the panelists, i want to frame this. discussion just a little bit more. forgive me, i can't help but pu some data on power point slidesc so i wanted to share with you a little bit of some research that we at mckenzie have done. a few years ago we did a survey over 2,900 global company executives. we asked first the reasons for o why thesene executives and thei companies were seeking new locations. by far and away the number one reason was to reach new markets or customers as you can see on this chart. no other answer came even close including, i might add, seeking locations that had a lower cost profile. we also asked these executives s what criteria they used to choose specific locations.wth po the most important, again, by far and away was the size and growth potential of a local economy. that's what executives cared about.and than half of the executives also ome cared about key compon

alexander, international director for the tennessee department of economic and community development. i want to frame this discussion a little bit more. i'm a consultant and i can't help but some data on some powerpoint slides. i want to share with you some research we have done. a few years ago, we did a survey of over 2900 global executives. we asked the reasons why these executives and their companies were seeking new locations. the number one reason was to reach new markets or customers, as you can see on this chart. no other answer came close, including seeking locations that had a lower cost profile. we also asked these executives what criteria they used to pick specific locations. the most important by far was the size and growth potential of a local economy. that is what executives care about. half the executive also cared about two components like talent and the availability of an industry cluster, supply chain customers need to be nearby. rounding out the top five were infrastructure and local politics. this is what matters to companies. what is not on this slide is 14% of

. -- senatorr from the amar alexander, who played large role in every student succeed act. later today, our road to the white house covert takes us to greenville, south carolina four campaign rally with presidential candidate bernie sanders. he will talk to supporters after losing the nevada democratic caucuses yesterday to hillary clinton. eastern one at 5:00 c-span. [applause] more -- everyion election will remind us. >> c-span is a home for political junkies. >> it is a great way for us to stay informed. >> there are a lot of c-span fans on the hill. my colleagues say, i saw you on c-span. >> there is so much that c-span outsideknow that people the beltway know what is going on inside of it. >> we are joined by congressman adam smith of washington. he is a top democrat. he is a member of the select committee on benghazi. in our studio to help with questions, richard lager. we will start with richard. good morning, congressman. how are you? >> good. i would like to talk about the defense commission. they are calling for a major increase of the budget, $18 million for 2017