Directors at the Islamic Center. We serve 5000 muslims in the area. Every0 of whom come here friday. Is a great honor to host [laughter] host is a great honor to our neighbors and guests from our Congressional District to participate in this discussion with a representative in congress. Please make yourself comfortable. Please note that the doors on my for women. Restrooms on my left, there are restrooms for men. Please forgive us for any shortcomings. Please let us know if you need any assistance. To invite our religious director at the Islamic Center to welcome our congresswoman. [applause] peace be with you. Good afternoon, everybody. And as the e mom religiousf the center. This is beautiful. [applause] [laughter] well, i lost my words. I like your tshirt. I am from pittsburgh actually. It is a great city. [applause] i would like to welcome all of you here in our humble facilities. How many of you are here for the first time . Almost everybody. Your dream has come true. [laughter] youe actually invite all of we are going to have our open 12 on day on october saturday. Please come join us. Learn about us and our community , about our religion, and about our mosque. Without further ado, i would like to introduce our representative, katie porter. We are so humbled and honored to have the townhall meeting here. Thank you so much. May god bless all of you and all of your family. Thank you so much. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. I want is a huge thank you to the Islamic Center of irvine for hosting this event. There are a lot of us, which meant a lot of for their community. This is my third or fourth time here. It is one of my very favorite venues to have events. In addition to bringing new people and making new connections in our community, this is also the only event where i do not have to wear uncomfortable shoes. Fan of the Islamic Center of irvine. I just want to say that i hope you will take them up on the offer to come back and visit. I am honored to get to work with the folks here. I do a lot of Community Service and go to a lot of Public Events for homelessness, for the environment. Virtually every event i go to, i see the bright blue tshirts of the Islamic Center of irvine. I am delighted to be here today. Thank you for your hospitality. I want to give a special shout out to the Irvine Police department. [applause] we have a number of former city officials here. Particularly, our current sitting congresswoman. Thank you for being here. [applause] congresswoman. I met councilman. It is a habit. I meant councilwoman. It is a habit. Talk forted to do was a couple minutes. How many of you, this is your first townhall with me . Awesome. If you have not been to one before, i run these so that your voices get hard. I talk for five minutes. Get heard. I talk for five minutes. Your do not get to question, they all get through written form. Even if i did not get to your question, no that you are being heard. I wanted to talk about what we have done in congress and what we need to do. Of what we have done, we need to do more. Those bills are sitting in the senate. We need to pressure the senate, pass those bills to stave what to save lives. [applause] there is nothing partisan about saving lives. Nobody nobody merged to irvine nobody moved to irvine for the nightlife. We need to pass those bills. Houseleagues on the Judiciary Committee are going to be going back to washington a peak early to take up additional gun violence prevention legislation. [applause] and everyone still hear me . Great. Services,f financial i serve on the Financial Services committee. It was my first choice. I serve on the Financial Services committee. It was my first choice. Not a lot of people apparently wanted to go to congress to work on credit default swaps. I did. I am a champion for capitalism. Need is capitalism creates opportunities for every american family. You may have seen my exchange the my penpal, jamie dimon, ceo of j. P. Morgan chase. [applause] chase is a big employer here in the 45th district. They provide loans to people to buy houses and start businesses. That is important work they are doing. But we also need chase to be sure that the work theyre doing making profits they are are being shared with those makg are being shared with those creating that value. So something i never thought i would see happened on monday. The business roundtable, the ceos of the nations largest corporations, came together and announced that corporations have a duty to stakeholders. Not just shareholders. [applause] and that means they can treat customers fairly. Are you listening, wells fargo . That means paying employees a wage where they can make ends meet, take care of their families, and save for retirement. That means being fair to suppliers so Small Businesses are able to also make ends meet, and theres able to be competition in our market. That means taking care of our communities, which i hope will be a fair tax system in which everybody chipped in for the collective good. So this is a huge step forward. I hope my conversation with jamie dimon helped prompt this. Im going to keep pushing because im going to hold them to that promise. We need a capitalist economy that works for the stakeholders, including the shareholders , because longterm, the shareholders when when the stakeholders when. That is what ive been working on there. More specifically i am introducing a bill to mandate introducing a bill to mandate the credit reporting agencies maintain, hold it, reasonable data privacy standards. [applause] because right now, they can gather all that data without your consent, and do absolutely nothing to protect it. That needs to change. Im introducing legislation on that. I am also working on we are having hearings on abusive debt proceedings on the student loan crisis. I founded the College Affordability caucus. We have 1. 5 trillion plus in dollars outstanding student loans. That is a huge problem for our economy. But it does not do any good to solve the Student Loan Debt of yesterday if we do not make the Sticker Price of College Affordable for families tomorrow. Everybody who is working hard in this country should be able to save enough to send their child to at least two years and hopefully four years of a public university. [applause] so we have to really pair those two things. We cannot forgive the Student Loan Debt from yesterday only to saddle the next generation with the exact same problem. There are things we could do to make student loan servicers accountable. Theyre pulling the exact same tricks i saw the mortgage servicers poll. Pull. You call, you get a different answer about what you pay. You call, you asked for help, you get disconnected. As all the same bag of tricks. Were going to be holding them accountable. Making sure our Student Loan Program is solvent. And i mean it rainy day solvent. Because with what the president has been doing, we could well be headed toward a top economic period, if not a recession. So we want to make sure that Student Loan Program is solvent. But it should not be a source of profit on the backs of our young people. Education is an investment. Nobody knows that better than those of us here in Orange County who have again come up come here partly because of the quality of education that our kids get. From kindergarten all with your post secondary. So im working on that. Im also doing a lot of work in terms of Mental Health. We need to defend the Affordable Care act. And to be clear, it is under attack. But it is also important to acknowledge that some of the premises in the Affordable Care act we are still struggling to , make reality. One of those is Mental Health parity. Meaning that Mental Health coverage will be treated the same as physical health problems. Anyone who has looked at their insurance and tried to locate a psychologist or psychiatrist in Network Knows that there are not very many. They are not taking new patients. It is very difficult to get that coverage. So i recently toured and saw what they were doing with pediatric Mental Health, and im proud to report to you that it is truly best in the Nation Services for our children. I will continue to support that going forward. I also have a bill on affordable childcare. Im happy to report that all the bills im talking about our bipartisan. [applause] they want me closer. So if it squeals it is your fault. [laughter] so they have been, all these bills are bipartisan. The Mental Health bill i mentioned, working on affordable childcare. I used to wonder before i got to congress, who thinks that Childcare Costs 5,000 per year . Because it does not. What this bill does, it would allow working families to keep more of the money they earn taxfree to pay for either childcare or senior care. So they can continue to be in the workplace. Parents should make their choices about whether they should stay home or not based on what is right for their family, not on their ability to pay for quality child care. All of these bills i mention are bipartisan. There a lot of these bills passing in the house. There is more to be done. The senate is not moving on this important legislation. Background checks might be the best example. But there is an endless stream of bills that passed including with republican support in the house in some instances. That are dying in the senate. That is a tough problem that we will need to continue to press to try to get the senate moving on these bills. Because the American People deserve solutions to their problems. If congress had a motto, it might be solving yesterdays problems tomorrow, maybe. [laughter] we need to demonstrate through hard work and being forward thinking that we are doing the work the American People need today and for tomorrow. We run for election every two years in the house of representatives. The idea behind this is it would keep us very connected to the people we represent. Back when congress started, people would go to washington, be here year and half and come back to get reelected. I come back and forth all the time. But the idea is that we be connected to our community. So we need to make sure we are actually delivering results for our community. And tackling the longterm challenges. One of those longterm challenges is our budget deficit which has grown tremendously under president trump. And part of this deficit is making sure that we are coming up with a fair system of taxation in which every Large Corporation pays its fair share. [applause] that has been a problem and it is a problem that has unfortunately gotten worse. And the deficit has gotten worse under the president. We need to be working on those issues. Im a leader trying to change the trump tax law that limits state and local Tax Deductions at 10,000. This was a radical change to tax policy. And the president has been pretty clear that he did it to be punitive to certain people. And our tax system should never be used for political partisanship. Our tax system is our collective investment in each other, and in our democracy, and in our economy. [applause] so we need to stand up and reverse those changes. Those are some of the things im working very hard on. Working very hard on. I have been doing a lot of going to tour businesses and talk with people, going to schools working , with our faith community. If you have not visited our District Office in irvine, please do. I have several Staff Members here. Raise your hand if youre a staff number. There are couple more somewhere. Jordan is my d. C. Staff. We have been able to work on veterans issues. We recently had our first win on behalf of constituent who is the heard by the muslim travel ban. Those are hard winds to get it but we got a win for constituent, to allow them to be able to see their family members. [applause] and we were able to help a veteran get over 200,000 in denied veteran benefits. That veteran was facing homelessness, until they were able to come to us and we were able to help them. If youre having problems of the federal agency, please call. Because it is my honor and my job to serve you. So with that, im going to stop and take some questions. [applause] is the outreach director here at the Islamic Center of irvine. Im going to ask her to draw the questions and hand them to me so im not moving away from the microphone so much. Ok, lets try it. She will draw the questions, i will read the questions and answer them. [laughter] when i have children do this, they are really into it. Ok. All right. I believe the impeachment of donald trump is a big mistake. He must be defeated at the ballot box in november, 2020. Any impeachment efforts will merely play into his hands. Where you stand on the impeachment of donald trump . The question summarizing is where do i stand on the impeachment of donald trump . Ok. So i came out in favor of impeaching donald trump. [applause] i believe that no american, especially not a democratically elected president can be above the rule of law. [applause] i made a video about this. I was one of the first people who flipped a seat to come out on this. People said well, this might be risky. You might not get reelected. I said im here to do what is right. There is substantial evidence that he broke the law. Obstruction of justice. It is in the mueller report. I think we ought to hold him accountable. The question asked is he must be defeated at the ballot box in 2020. So absolutely, we all know what the senate is going to do. We need to move forward on our legislative agenda. I guarantee you, im going into meetings forthose you prepared. Im more than capable of making sure that donald trump is being held accountable at the same time that im able to deliver the work that we are doing in our community. So i encourage you to look at the mueller report. Learn more. This is terrible. I think it is just the two mic problem. Ok. [laughter] [applause] considering how much this administration uses their power as a bully pulpit to attack their own citizens, how do we drain in this abuse of power . The answer is democracy. The constitution gave us the tools. [indiscernible] trying to take power away from the people. When you read the constitution [inaudible] the shortest one by far is the executive branch. That was by design. What we are seeing is the president trying to do things with congresses ability and we are seeing with spending, international affairs. [indiscernible] the solution here is to get engaged, make your voice heard, to vote, and that is how we are going to solve this problem. It is difficult and scary and hard. Democracy is like that. [indiscernible] we will hold the president accountable, every single one of us. You have the same power as a citizen as i do. Vote your values. Get other people engaged. Call my office. Do everything you can to stand up [indiscernible] [applause] [indiscernible] very difficult to source the production of my company outside of china. Millions of people will be unemployed. We need to be proactive as a society. Two parts to that, one of them tariffs. You cannot make effective trade policy by tweet. [laughter] [applause] by definition, mr. Trump is about negotiation. It is about doing business together. Is about coming together for a mutually beneficial deal. So his tariffs that he announced yesterday is an effective tax on every single american. Many Small Businesses, particularly here in california, where you do a lot of trade with china and asia, will be devastating. We need to empower out United States trade representative who a reallydy for this quite good crop official. Really quite good. To do his job. The president needs to allow the people like the trade representative to negotiate. There are real issues with china around intellectual property, around the enforcement of environmental standards, but we should be tackling this in a strategic alliance. The president does not get to hear by order anyone to do anything in this country. [applause] the fact that we even see that is incredibly disrespectful to the Business Owners who are working so hard to build a successful business in our community. With regard to the enchanting neighborhood of jobs, we are going to see a transformation with retail, absolutely. We are seeing with other industries with the transition from fossil fuel to clean energy. The solution is to recognize that it is a longterm problem. We need to be making investments and training the longterm workers of tomorrow. We are doing that here in irvine with a strong Public School system a strong Stem Education , program, excellent Affordable Community colleges with a terrific transfer and success rate. And our amazing fouryear university in our backyard in uc irvine. So making sure that our educational system is strong and we are funding it it is however going to produce the workforce that is ready to take on the jobs of tomorrow. But we are going to need to stand ready to help people who need to make that transition. So being ready to do that and able to do that is something we need to be thinking about. One of my frustrations is that the twoyear nature being in congress, causes some people to only think about what they can get done in two years. The biggest problems facing this , affordable housing, a fair tax system, Prescription Drug costs. We do not get those into years and were not going to take care get out of them in two years. So i think about what i can do today and also what we can do for 20 years from now. That is what we have to think about developing a nextgeneration workforce. [applause] how do we deal with the hate which is growing and dividing our country . Orange county has one of the highest rates of hate crimes in the country. Which is shameful, given that we have one of the most beautifully diverse and successful populations in the country. We live in a place where we should be celebrating each other everyday. [applause] im so proud of the diversity of our community. There are a lot of solutions on hate crimes. Part of it starts with each one of us. Living the kind of values we believe. Speaking up when we hear hate speech. When we see people engaging in hateful or disrespectful acts. Part of it comes with making sure that our department of justice is enforcing the hate crime laws. That people feel empowered to call our police when hate crime occurs. And making sure we elect leaders who model respect for the diversity that makes this country the most beautiful, powerful, and strongest nation in the world. So theres no easy fix to this one either. Some of what we are seeing in terms of hate, was under the surface, and is now coming out. So we have to look this problem squarely in the eye. And we have to be brave enough to say, i do not want to be treated that way. I believe in respect. I respect you. Please respect me. We have to have those kinds of conversations. And we have a wonderful, among other Orange County organization, we are so blessed to have an amazing Interfaith Community that is doing a lot of important work in this regard. Amazing advocates for immigration, for immigrants, trying to make sure that we are recognizing that we are stronger because we respect each others contributions. I wish i had an easy answer for this. When i came to the Islamic Center a few months ago, we had a town hall where the children were allowed to ask the questions. Every single question was a story about a hateful act. In irvine. So, we have to look this problem in the eye. It is happening in irvine. Is happening in our Public Schools. Our Police Officers know what is happening. Our faith leaders know it is happening. Our parents know it is happening. It is on all of us. I will lead us much as i can on this. And i will stand up to hate and condemn it. But we are also in one together. Because that hate that is cropping up, it is not just cropping up in congress. It is cropping up across our country. And then is manifesting itself in the United States congress. So, we have big work to do on this. But it starts by coming together in a respectful way in places like this, to have conversations. [applause] this is the question. How can we label food grown with oil field wastewater . Can you introduce legislation . Im happy to take this back and think about it. Generally labeling food and making sure that we have a healthy food supply, is something that is really important. So im happy to follow up on this one. I will say one of the things that we talk about having border protections and strong borders, people sometimes ignore the customs aspect. Of what the border and customs Patrol Service does. And we do not want adulterated food, products that will hurt us, coming into our country. So there is an Important Role here both internationally and here, in terms of leading on clean water and clean air and a safe and healthy food for this country. The second question was, how can we get more people to drive electric cars and trucks . The answer here is extend the tax incentives that have been in place. And make sure that owning and electric or low Emission Vehicle is feasible for people, even in areas with long commutes, like Orange County. So ive introduced legislation along with commerce and harley rouda, the clean corridors act, that would put into place more fueling stations, so people who invest in electric vehicles are able to get throughout our area knowing they are going to be able to get the charge that they need to continue to get going. We have to make sure that when we work on transportation and we work on infrastructure, this fall, that we are building for the future. We are building the infrastructure that we need 50 years from now. Not the infrastructure that we needed 50 years ago. So that is a big part of how part of the debate we need to be having about transportation and infrastructure. How are you . Ok. Will i commit to placing clear restrictions on Homeland Security funding to avoid reprogramming of funds toward further inhumane practices . Holde working very hard to the department of Homeland Security accountable, including immigrants and Asylum Seekers are being treated. This is an issue of not just humanity with which we treat each other, but also an issue of where our tax dollars are going, and whose pockets are being lined on the backs of this kind of inhumane treatment. The bills we have seen come through have not had adequate oversight. I did not like the senate bill that came before me. That came before me. I wanted the house version because the house version allowed us to make sure that the money we are authorizing to provide for families on the border is being used in a way that is productive and consistent with our beliefs and our values. And those provisions were not in the bill that ultimately passed the congress. So my colleague Veronica Escobar , who represent el paso, congressman ruiz, having working on making sure that money we spend is actually use at the border. I also want to say, for all of the efforts that we put in or doing with problems at the border, i think we need to spend a lot more time talking about how we improve the quality of life and people come to the country from guatemala, honduras, el salvador, and every other place. They have every right to seek and we made that commitment as part of international law. They travel here at great hardship. We need to ask ourselves what can we do to improve quality of life and safety and opportunity in those countries. And trump tweeting away foreign aid has only exacerbated the situation. So, i want to see us working not just at the border, but also being a really good partner to our neighbors in central america, to make sure they are having thriving and safe societies where they are. There are real problems with corruption and those governments. There are real problems with violence. We export guns to those countries. Play as welle to as making sure people who come here are treated humanely and in accordance with international law. The work here, the bills we have passed to date have not been adequate. They have not had the level of oversight that you all deserve. As taxpayers and citizens. From the United States congress. So theres more to come on this issue. We know that our work is not done. [applause] what will you do to prevent toxic chemicals being sprayed like roundup in public spaces, i. E. Parks and schools . This is a big issue at our state level and local level as well. We have started to see local bans on this. We are developing a better Scientific Understanding of the longterm effects on schoolkids , the people that enjoy those parks, as well as the workers who have to apply them. This is an issue of not just protecting those of us who enjoy the green space but protecting the workers who create the green space. My first and foremost answer is i will always defend making policy based on science. This has been not so easy to do. [applause] we have seen the president attempt to roll back, and the epa to rollback the clean water act, the clean air act, the endangered species act. All the moment in time when the science tells us that we could not be moving forward aggressively enough. The answer here is, i support funding that the nih and other Public Research institutions, to make sure we understand the health risks. And i support people taking action to make sure that we are banning and limiting the use of pesticides where appropriate. One of our biggest opportunities to address the Climate Crisis is actually to move in partnership with both business and agriculture. So a lot of people think that what happens with the climate, that it is sort of what happens with emissions that that is important. But the things were doing on the Agricultural Committee are really important to addressing Climate Change. The things we are doing in the Natural Lands to create wildlife corridors, to protect different kinds of species. The answer is sciencebased policy. I also encourage people to be locally active. California has led the way, not just in the United States, but around the world on environment al issues. And we have leadership in the Governors Office that is going to continue to do that. So i encourage you to speak up, to make your voice heard. We all deserve to be healthy and safe at school. And in our parks, and in our this is a question about the city council, it says will you help us fightour children will be listeningso this is one of the few issues that is actually with all the problems donald trump creates, actually not my problem right now. So i support a veterans cemetery. I do not think there should be any real debate about whether or not we should honor our veterans with a place of rest here in Orange County, in the sixth most populous county in the nation. We have a large veteran population. They need and deserve a place to be honored. So the question here is about how are you going to allocate our local land. And how we going to do this. This is a question for local government to work out. This is been ongoing for long time. Some of you are survivors of the El Toro Air Force base airport. We have a history of making troublehow shall i say, broadly supported political decisions regarding land use in our area. This is going to be a challenge. I look forward to helping to provide funding at the federal level if we can, to make this happen. But this is really something that needs to be done at the local level. The federal government is not in charge of everything. It should not be. So im not going to wade into something that is appropriately left in the hands of local officials. [applause] rep. Porter please state your position on the disposition of dhaka, that is acdaca, the dreamers, in Orange County, their fight to become citizens or at least get green cards. So we made a promise to dreamers. You may or may not agree with that promise. But we should be a country of our word. We promised to them and that if they came forward, they identified themselves, they got in school, they were paying taxes, theyre working hard, theyre contributed to society, that we would provide them with a real path to citizenship. That is what we need to do. We need to keep that promise. [applause] we have a lot of dreamers. We have a lot of dreamers in our district. They are a very diverse group. Dreamers are not just coming from one country. Theyre coming from korea, from central america, from all over. These are children that came years children and they represent one of the best and brightest opportunities we have to enrich our country. So i was proud to support and vote for hr six, the dream act. That bill is dead in the senate. That bill combines two things. Dream protection for dreamers along with print temporary protected status. The political along with temporary protected status. We live in a community. I worked at seven or 8, 9 universities. I have never seen students as hardworking and dorky and lovely and delightful as the uc irvine students. [applause] so i strongly support, we should be so lucky to have those People Choose to make their lives in this country. That is what we need to do at the dreamers. We need to provide them with certainty. This is not fair to them. Is not fair to the families. Is holding a back from investing in their education and in the workforce. So this is a straightforward issue. At has just been very different difficult put it, to get the senate to do anything. [applause] q are you willing to keep our immigrant Community Safe . How . Earlier i mentioned things we can do to address hate speech and hate crimes. Making sure the department of Justice Department civil rights is doing its job. Making sure we are working with Law Enforcement tos report hate crimes when they occur. Making sure immigrants understand that it is safe for them to report crimes to Law Enforcement. I had a very difficult conversation with sheriff don barnes. Because we disagree on many thanks. But he told me that he will protect and defend anyone who is at risk of a crime, or has been harmed by crime in our committee. So we have to hold him accountable to that promise. Because we are living in a situation in which many immigrants are suffering crimes, criminals are been allowed to get away with things. And they are there going to continue that come in a behavior. So it is very important that each of us feel safe to make that phone call to lawenforcement. To ask for help or resources will be needed. And so encouraging or and recognizing that our immigrants need and deserve to be a safe part of our society. This is one that is a real challenge in the trump era, to be honest with you. Part of this is continuing to make sure, like i said, we are finding those who did this work on the front lines including nonprofit groups that do that outreach. [applause] this is the exact same question asked before. It is about restricting dhs from reprogramming funding. Ok. Brett kavanaugh assaulted dr. Ford and appeared to lie to congress during his confirmation hearings. Is there anything that can be done to investigate him for perjury, or should be affect the fact that he will be on the Supreme Court for decades to come . I think you should accept the fact they will be on the for decades to come. And one of the things that is most challenging about our democracy is the burden it puts on each of us to accept the consequences of democracy that we disagree with. So when people say, well what about trump, what about trump, without trump, we have to be honest. Jan trump got elected . A lot of people voted for him. A lot of americans. Our neighbors. Some of our friends, some of our family. You will know you have an uncle somewhere. [laughter] we have to address the fact that we are probably going to be dealing with brett kavanaugh. This means there is a heavy burden on congress to be passing legislation to protect rights that we maybe cannot count on the court to be a safe guard for, in the way they have been in the past. This means our duty, our constitutional duty as Congress People and the need for a president who not only follows the constitution, but cherishes it and lets set up, is even more important but lifts it up, is even more important in an era where you have a Supreme Court that may be less willing to do that than in the past. [applause] q do you believe we are close to having enough support to impeach donald trump . One thing to note here is that impeachmentwe use the word impeachment. It is really a twostep process by design. Impeachment occurs in the house of representatives. Where i serve. Where we would vote on articles of impeachment. It would then go to a trial in the senate. Were only a on conviction, what the president be removed. Given that we can to get the senate to pass things like background checks that have the support of 80 or 90 of republicans, i do not think youre going to see the senate take action. That does not mean we get to be silence. I have spoken up about injustices. Sometimes my voice is not get heard. But that does not mean you get to stay silent. I addressed this somewhat before. But i think it is important to stand up and speak out, if what youre saying is people who are disobeying the rule of law, who are engaged in him will activity, who are dishonoring our constitution. Whether that is applicable out of we can win is a different story. Whether it is a political battle we can win is a different story. To be honest, if the only times i got out of bed were days if i thought something the only thing i was going to vote on would pass this senate. I would have bedsores. We are in this far values, because we are patriots. We are in this for our values, because we love this country. The political question does not guide what we do. We do what we think is right, not what we think we should do to get reelected. Then we do the best to be the change we want to see when democracy gives us our next opportunity in 2020. [applause] qtwo questions. One is about Holding Trump accountable appeared i just talked about that. No one is above the law. Correct. Second question. What are you doing or will you be doing about Climate Change. If we fail, nothing else really matters. Heres what the house has done to date. We have enacted permanent funding for the land and wildlife trust. That passed the senate and became law. So that is a success story. To help fund preserve land. We voted for hr nine, which said the United States should honor its commitment to the paris accord. We voted to restore bears heirs national monument. Bears ears to being preserved land. We have done some things, but we have not done the big fundamental Building Block work yet. Theres a lot more Congress Needs to be doing. Not only the house but the senate. The hard part about this is we have a president who at every opportunity is isolating himself on the climate, rather than partnering with those who want to produce solutions. China is by many, many multiples outstripping us in its investment in clean energy. Are they doing that because they love trees . No. Theyre doing it because they know to be economically strong in the future theyre going to need to add sustainable energy. And we do too. We have a select committee on the Climate Crisis, mike 11 one District South of here who represents Orange County mike levein, serves on that committee. That committee has had the first hearings on Climate Change since i do not know when. But we do not have twoyear suspended committee. So i think we may have as little as 11 years to make dramatic changes before we have to steer so seriously reversible damage to our climate. This could be a huge issue as we elect the next president. This is going to require everybody playing on the oar together. State, local, business, labor, environmentalists, everybody. All of our global partners. One of the most frustrating things about this president is he is isolating us internationally, exactly as we face an International Crisis of Epic Proportions with her guard to Climate Change. With regard to china clenched china with regard to Climate Change. We need china to be a partner in addressing clement change even as we hold them accountable for trade practices. What have we done . The answer is not enough. The answer is not resolutions or deals or words. The answers to take action. To actuallyto actually pass meaningful omissions and standards. To actually expand the endangered species act not to repel it. Exactly to make sure the epa is doing more science and more research, not less. It is actually to make sure. This is going to be tough under this president. It is going to be a long year for our planet and the people who live on it. We are trying very hard in the house to have the discussions and develop solutions thomas we can move quickly. Because we cannot move quickly enough to end lament them when we have the local forces behind us to do so. To implement them when he had the local forces the Political Forces behind us to do so. Q this is a long one. [laughter] ok. This is a question about a particular family. And a problem theyre having. The family is named in the question. And i do not know if the question came from the family, so im not going to read it out loud. But i will tell you that the general thrust of the question, is broken immigration system, people being separated, when can you dowhat can you do, how can you do more heres one of the sad realities of immigration, if you have not figured this out yet. The president , the executive, has a lot of authority over immigration. So we have, we can make inquiries and we try. But our office does not have the unilateral ability to get anybody a visa, or get anybody we make requests. We may things are acted on make sure things are acted on. But we do not haveill give you the most poignant example that ive worked on. We have a constituent, a father for, us surgical nurse, estate home mom. He has been held in vietnam for one and half years, not allowed to see his children, not allowed to have any contact with his family. He was sentenced without any kind of rule of law. And what can i do . I write letters, i try to be with the abbasid are, i checked his wife as mike i took his wife as my guest at the state of the union. I try to beat with ambassadors. We have a limited amount we can do on these cases i try to meet with ambassadors. We have a limited amount we can do. I know that it is important to have loved ones close and know that they are safe. These are excruciatingly difficult cases. We are happy to try to help. But please recognize there are limits on what we can do in any individual case the congress memory. What i take away from as a congress member. What i take away from so many cases is we need to pass meaningful emigration reform that crates a 21st century of immigration. Immigration reform. On individual cases we are fairly limited in what we can do to intervene. It is difficult to have those conversations with constituents. [applause] q the question is there are few Public Services as democratizing as providing safe, reliable, affordable Public Transit other longterm goals for Public Transportation for Orange County . The answer is, yes. And this is where federal state, county, and local cooperation has to occur. So it does not do any good for me to fight for grant money at the federal level, and then have a local government turned its back on that finding. Our county needs to be working on this, our region needs to be working on this. So i have met with the Southern California regional people to talk about Public Transit. I met with the Orange County transportation authorityoc the tollroad authority. They told me everyone loves tollroads. [laughter] that was a long meeting for that. We need to keep working on that. This one of our biggest challenges. We need to invest in transit and Public Transit infrastructure we also need to be creating opportunities for people to live close to where they work. Building Workforce Housing here were the jobs are been created in irvine and in our job centers is incredibly important. So this is not something that is about housing or transit alone. It is also about housing, it is also about creating differ models of housing so you can have people live and work close to their communitys. Theres no such thing as a free lunge, theres no such thing as a free highway. Were going to have to commit to funding this. An opportunity to invest in jobs, in infrastructure, in infrastructure and connecting communities and attracting businesses to Southern California. Have any of you moved to Orange County for the traffic . A lot of people moved here because of the traffic in los angeles. That is how we group. We now face big challenges in this regard. If youre going to continue to make these communities, the best and the brightest, places that attract the best and brightest, we have to make sure will provide transit to allow people to get to work. I am there and willing to have conversations including hard conversations. The transit authorities, with the regional people, with the state level people, to create a Transit System that provides opportunity for everyone to get to and from work and school. And we have a lot more work to do here in Orange County to make that happen. This is a question about what you recommend the federal government needs to do about white supremacism. Dousman is going to be taking this issue up. To limit gun ownership for people convicted of mr. Meaner hate crimes. Cooperation between branches of Law Enforcement is. The answer is a renewed energy to look at this problem. Its a hard part of them in our country. Did Judicial Committee is coming back early to ask what we can do so we are not putting lives at risk. [applause] i want to and these on an upbeat note. Another upbeat topic, the deficit. When obama was the president no one will benefit from an outofcontrol deficit that we have no ability to address. The promises made by the president about his tax plan have not come true. He tweeted out saying if we elected him in 2020, he will do something about taxes. You dont get a reboot. Impact on longrun Economic Growth and little to no effect on the wages of nativeborn americans. Importantly as well, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for federal tested welfare so they dont pose a threat to entitlement spending, which is already out of control. From 2002 to 2009, immigrants subsidize medicare, making 14. 7 of contributions but only consuming 7. 9 of expenditures. A third common misconception is on document immigrants wont some of you are making your voices heard and we know who you are. We really encourage people to keep reaching out. Stay engaged, were in this together and thats how going to move america forward. [applause] coming up this afternoon, a discussion on constitutional issues raising the Trump Administration and what that means for u. S. Democracy. Coverage from the American Political Science Association starting at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Next week, with Bader Ginsburg will talk about her life and career at an event in little rock, arkansas. Its part of a lecture series is part of the clinton foundation. Live coverage tuesday at 7 30 p. M. Eastern. Queen elizabeth yesterday agreed to Boris Johnsons request to suspend parliament for five weeks. This comes as the u. K. Continues to try to work out a brexit deal before the deadline to leave the eu. Next week, members of the house of commons will question Boris Johnson during prime ministers questions wednesday at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan two. In the late 1850s, americans generally trusted their congressmen but they did not trust congress as an institution. Congressman trust each other. By 1860, many congressmen were routinely armed not because they were eagle eager to kill their opponents but out of fear that their opponents might tell them. Joanne freeman will be our guest on indepth. Book is the field of blood. Her other titles include the essential hamilton, hamilton writings, and affairs of honor. Join our large desk live conversation. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern on afterwards, been help examines whether evangelicals are choosing political power over christian values. I think the lesser evil argument is tempting but dangerous. It contributes to keeping a system in place that takes accountability out of the system. I think it also is an easy way to bring in Something Like evangelicalism then use that as a way to get votes which seems like the worst possible way to do that. Watch tv every weekend on cspan2. In the wake of the recent shootings in el paso, texas and dayton, ohio, the house judiciary early from the summer recess to markup three and violence prevention bills. Restricting firearms from those deemed by a court to be a risk from themselves and preventing individuals convicted of misdemeanor hate kinds crimes from purchasing a gun