WASHINGTON DC – Governor Rick Snyder discussed Michigan’s efforts to improve the talent levels of its residents in hopes of filling existing job openings during an appearance before a U.S. House committee. Snyder, along with Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, a Democrat, answered questions from the Education and Workforce Committee.

The goal of talking to Congress is “not to come and criticize the federal government and talk about how great Michigan is,” but to seek ways to partner, Snyder said. He praised the small business credit initiative, a federal program that supports lending to small businesses and small manufacturers, and the export/import bank as examples of a good partnership.

Snyder talked up the state’s new jobs portal at mitalent.org as a way it is trying to connect workers with specific skills to jobs or the education they would need to do those jobs. Snyder said a welder could find a job in 20 minutes in Michigan, but most people have no idea what welders do, how much they make or how to get educated to do the job.

But he urged Congress and President Barack Obama to get the nation’s deficit, again running at more than $1 trillion, under control.

“That would be one of the greatest things we could do for our employers in Michigan and the country,” he said. “That is holding back job creation in our state.”

Snyder also used the opportunity to push his proposal for the federal government to create a green card for foreign nationals who obtain advanced degrees, like in engineering and medicine, in the United States, only to then be forced to leave under immigration laws.

“If we could have those people available, what a difference that would make,” he said. “We’re educating these people and then telling them to leave our country.”

Several committee members also asked Snyder whether he thought the federal government’s bailout of Chrysler and General Motors was the right policy. Snyder said it was and had the two automakers been allowed to liquidate, it might have taken down Ford too.

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