Marsha Blackburn and Jerri Green talk business

And we've talked some about a concept that I want to work on, and I've talked with Keith Carver, who runs the [University of Tennessee] Ag Institute, and utilizing expertise and putting a farmer right next to a researcher or a specialist in an area to help solve a problem that they have. It may be irrigation, or it may be fertilization, or it may be market access, or it may be exports, or it may be storage. If you want to increase the price and increase your yield, these are some of the problems that you need to help the farmer, somebody that's in production agriculture, solve those problems. And we had worked on a program with the military, … It's called the Pathfinder program, and the pilot project for that was over at Vanderbilt, and very successful. And now this is something that has grown to be nationwide. But what we looked at with Pathfinder was taking an active duty service member working with an engineer at Vanderbilt to solve a problem of the warfighter, the infantryman, and they developed an exoskeletal system type suit for heavy loads and helping balancing those loads. But bringing that type of concept into production for agriculture, where you can help solve the problems before they become a major problem, and then that solution many times is something that is scalable, and it is something that can be utilized broad-based. …

I had been in touch with Commissioner Holt recently when Chairman Xi was here for his visit, and we were talking about soybean exports and having China meet their quotas, and they're not there yet, but they're better than they were last year. And then what we've seen, and what the commissioner is watching, is the price that is coming in on that bushel of soybeans, and there's a little bit of an uptick in that price, which is a good thing because they've got to get to a certain mark in order to make a profit, and we want to see them hit that mark.

One of the concerns I have now is the way big tech has proven they cannot monitor themselves or police themselves or regulate themselves, and it is going to take Congress stepping in to do this. One of the obstacles has been the amount of money that big tech has spent trying to fight people like me, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont), which they have spent tens of millions of dollars on that, but you do need that federal privacy standard as I laid out for the White House. Look, if you want to win the AI race, and we all do, and we want our nation to be number one in AI, you've got to put some protections in place. You have to protect children in the virtual space, and you have to have a duty of care, a safety standard in the virtual space. The virtual space is the only industrial sector that does not have a safety standard. You have it for cars, for hair dryers, for bottles of water. You have it for the plastic, but you don't have it in the virtual space, and it makes no sense. So we have good bipartisan support on that. We're going to continue to push the Kids Online Safety Act federally. We're pushing the No Fakes Act that would protect your everybody's name, image, likeness, and voice in the age of AI, we are. I have been pushing federally for a ratepayer protection pledge, so that people know their utility costs are not going to escalate, and we want them to have that assurance now, because the federal government, because Congress has not been able to pass any of these provisions, the states have stepped in. So I would imagine Tennessee would be the most vigorous state in putting these protections in place. And I'm very grateful that our attorney general is someone who has been very aggressive in getting these cases to court.

There are mayors who are looking to recruit these. They have space, they have utilities, they have water. They have empty places in their industrial parks, and they would love to have a data center because it is construction jobs, but it's also solid ongoing skilled labor jobs. Those are the full-time jobs. Yeah, and so yes, there are some. You know, here in Brentwood, there is a data center that's been on Franklin Road for about 50 years, and it's just the other side of the railroad tracks from here, basically, and no one's ever really, really complained about it. But here's what I do think: it's going to be up to local communities, just like it was when factories were coming in and people were putting zoning in place. It'll be up to them to decide if they're going to want them. I do think the state has a role to play. I do think we need to pass a ratepayer protection act so that people know if they live in a county that is going to be recruiting data centers that their utility rates are not going to go up. I do think that the state has a role to play when it comes to some environmental protection, noise abatement. There should be some standards, just as there are for factories, and because data centers are the 21st century factory. I do know that people do not want a federal office of data centers, and they don't want the federal government coming down and telling them what they have to do or can't do. I do know that. But there will be some communities that go for them and there will be some who are going to say no we we don't want to go for that.

As we modernize the way the state delivers services, and if somebody has [franchise and excise] compliance, insurance compliance, licensure compliance, etc. They want to have their own dashboard with the state, and that really is a great idea. And that way, they can have everything in one spot that they need for complying with state laws and regulations, and that would make it simple. Also, it would be a way for them to track grants that are going to be made available through the state and look at what they can find through the federal grants that may be able. It's also a way for them to follow contract opportunities with the state. And one thing that I've heard across the state is I've talked with Tennesseans is they'll say, “Marsha, if somebody is coming in. We want to be in their supply chain. We want to be a vendor. We want to contract with them.” I had somebody in one of the meetings we were doing. He talked about a construction project that was a state construction project, and he had bid; his bid wasn't taken, but he had heard that a lot of the workers were from out of state. So he just went over and looked at the tags on the vehicles that were there and the number that were out of state, and for me, that says let's make certain we think Tennessee first on this when we're talking about these contracts. Let's look at our businesses first. This week we also had somebody; they were talking to me, it was a service that the state had contracted with, and they had bid. Their bid wasn't taken. They said it's not sour grapes, but it frustrated them that it was an out-of-state company that got that contract. So they want to be a part of the game. In Tennessee, people like to participate in what we've got going on. They step up to serve on boards and commissions, and they step up to support their community. They want to be able to step up and be a part of being a supplier to the government, of bidding on these contracts, of having the opportunity to do that, and that has been mentioned repeatedly. I want Tennesseans to be at the front of the line.

The work in logistics that is being done around what you've got in Shelby County with Memphis and with the Port of Memphis with FedEx, with all the Class One railroads being there, to look at how you develop those intermodal systems and how you innovate in transportation, in weight, in loads, in movements, and I talked to somebody from FedEx for a few minutes yesterday, and they were talking about how they're utilizing quantum and AI in order to achieve efficiencies. That's good for Tennessee; that is good for the whole country. That is good for anybody who is trying to move goods and commodities from place to place. So that is an innovation center that we have in the west end of the state. …

Of course, you've got all of the healthcare innovation, the financial services innovation that is being done here. The work with the music industry, entertainment industry, much of this is technology based. The AI that is used for healthcare, so that you can do remote monitoring for healthcare, be able to to push forward with disease analysis, predictive diagnoses, medical trends. … Another growth area for us. You go to Chattanooga, and of course they have the first commercially available quantum network. … And how exciting for Chattanooga to be able to say we've got this quantum network, we've got space at UTC and at the Vanderbilt Quantum Institute, which is housed in Chattanooga. Come test bed with us. Bring your technologies here, and by the way, we want you to stay and grow your company here again. … )

I appreciate the excellent work that has been done with the [Tennessee College of Applied Technologies] system and with our community colleges. I do think that they have stepped up in such a positive way to build career paths for people. I was out at Ball State one day this week with Chancellor [Flora] Tidings and looking at some of the radiology, sonography, the different programs they have. On there, there's a nurse tech program. There is a music production program that is going on there. These are certification programs. Some of them can be degrees that you can then build on. But expanding these opportunities — it was interesting, one of the programs I stepped into at Ball State, there were so many people in this that had a four-year degree that had then come back to take this specialized course so that they could go into the workforce. Opening those doors of opportunity, we should be the state of opportunity because we've got a great, healthy economy. … I appreciate that we're going to be able to build on top of this foundation that they have laid because the courses that we have. One of the things on TCATS that I'm looking at, like some of the programs are only offered in certain TCATs, and we'll hear from students that they want to take that program, but housing is a problem. So, looking at how we provide student housing for these programs, many of them are like six-month or eight-month programs, and so people can't go lease somewhere, and the housing is an issue. So we do need to address that.

One of the things we can do, and I'm going to do right off the bat, is a Tennessee [Department of Government Efficiency]. This is something I've talked about since I started my campaign, is taking that red marker and going through the budget, we've had so many legislators who have gotten on board with this. What we need to do is figure out where there are positions that are vacant that should be recalled, programs that have outlived their usefulness that we need to put a red line through. We need to review contracting. There are some contracts that are just on autopilot post-COVID, and then we need to look at where the state is making grants or giving grants to nonprofits. Look at the financials of those nonprofits and make certain they're doing good. Let's see where we're wasting money, and then kind of clean the budget up, and then that will be a way to make certain that we're not raising taxes because, of course, keeping taxes low is something that I say is an imperative. Then, when it comes to housing, we'll pass Amendment Two, never a state property tax-that's good for us because that helps us with rising wages and companies that want to compete to come into Tennessee, which is where it ought to be. When you talk about economic development, they should be competing to come to us. So we're going to flip that. Then, also at the state level, we should look at simplified permitting, simplified regulation. I was actually giving talking with a group yesterday, and I said I was surprised when I started doing a deep dive on workforce housing for essential workers. Our teachers and healthcare workers and law enforcement. I was surprised that 26 percent of the cost of a new build is permitting and regulation. And this guy raised his hand. He's on the home builders board, and he said, "Marsha, it's 27 and a half percent.” So he corrected me, and but think about if we can get that cost down.