California attorney general and former u. S. Representative becerras stuff today. He outlined the lawsuits as the data failed challenging the administrations policies on immigration and the environment. From washington, d. C. This is about an hour. [inaudible conversations] hello, everybody. I guess we will get started. Good morning. Welcome to the National Press club and welcome to everybody watching online on the website and on cspan. My name is chris and i am a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and im a new member of the press club. Im happy to be here posting todays headline is bigger with California Attorney general. Many in washington are familiar with him. He served terms as a congressman from los angeles. He was a member of the ways and Means Committee and highest ranking in congress. Up until a few weeks ago i was based at the Sacramento Bee ceurosign more familiar with his recent work in california. Governor jerry brown appointed him as attorney general last year after his predecessor was elected to the u. S. Senate. His political future is a constant source of conversation in california. Next year hes running for his first full term as attorney general and position offered. Hes also navigating some of the most important issues in the state and the country. One out of every eight americans lives in california and the states democratic leadership is dedicated to opposing president trump. Hardly a day goes by as another action from his office. On the environment hes depended on everything from Energy Regulations for ceiling fans to buy clean powerplant and on immigration he sued over the construction of the border wall and to protect dreamers from possible dictation. Today he will touch on some of the topics his experience with california, washington and how hes using his current position to tackle the Trump Administration. Administration. A few housekeeping things, please turn off or silent for cell phones. Our guest is going to say a few words and then take questions from the audience for about 30 minutes or so. If you are watching online you can submit your questions online, email them to questions at a press. Org and we will work them into the program so without further ado, california general. All the folks at the National Press club, appreciate my having a chance to be with you today. I recognize a number of faces, former staffers and former colleagues on the press site i had a chance to work with so its great to see you all. I know im supposed to say that its nice to be back but the california weather and politics it is nice to be back home in california fulltime. I do enjoy visiting washington, d. C. Im going to try to keep my remarks brief because i believe you probably have good questions for me and i would like to get to as many as i can. Its nice to be here today to talk about federal issues even though i am a state attorney general because so much of the work that im doing these days in california pertains to the work thats going on right now in washington, d. C. At the federal level. I think its important because not everyone here used to work for me or is a former press person. Governor jerry brown a little bit more than a year ago nominated me to fill the vacancy created by the u. S. Center for california joining dianne feinstein. Ive been in office for about ten months now and ive been on pretty much every roller coaster ive ever had a chance to visit into this has been an extraordinary ride and i will hopefully get into some of that. But what is important about my experience as the new ag is that what i am finding is my 24 years in congress has informed immensely the work that i am doing is the state attorney general for the largest and most potent state in the nation, and its important to understand what goes on in washington, d. C. And sometimes we can make sense of whats going on in washington, d. C. Because it not only informs what we do in our state and throughout the state of the nation but it will impact on a daytoday basis people who live in california throughout, so it is great to have 24 years of experience running through my veins as i try to make crucial decisions for the people of the state of california. Its also important perhaps to mention my router to become the attorney general was in the most conventional. I believe because of my 24 years in congress, two years before that the state legislature in previous to that, for years serving in the office i now run as a Deputy Attorney general that all of those things combined gave Governor Brown a sense that perhaps this is the right time and the right place to have someone who brought together interesting qualities to this issue. I hope Governor Brown also take into account that im the first in my family to actually have a chance to go to college and i understand the importance of defending students who try to go to college and then get stuck with Student Loans they cant repay because the forprofit university attended goes under or never provided them with a diploma with the paper that was written on. Perhaps the governor looked at the fact that im the son of immigrants into recognized so much othatso much of what impace of california is the work done by families who came to this country very recently and perhaps because im the son of immigrants who for 23 years in Congress Worked on issues of immigration as a person who convened principally responsible for convening the Bipartisan Working Group on immigration in the house of representatives as early as 2008 and 2013. We have a lot of experience dealing with the policy on immigration but also personally lived his life as the son of immigrants. Or perhaps its because Governor Brown do that i probably wouldnt have a mother today were it not for the fact that my parents had Health Insurance. He was a union worker and because of his work in the labor union he was able to have Health Insurance coverage and as a result, when my mother was hemorrhaging at the loss of a pregnancy, we were able to have her go to a doctor. I didnt understand in those days. I was about four or 5yearsold, but i do know that today my mom is still alive and perhaps understood when i was in congress i was one of the people who work hardest on the Affordable Care act as a member of democratic leadership. I served for about ten years of democratic leadership aide as a result of that, perhaps he thought that there was someone who would stand up to fight those efforts might occur to try to steal from people the Health Insurance that they have gained under the Affordable Care act and perhaps that explains why we are so ready to not only defend the act by filing the case to intervene in existing listing. Its still a case before the courts and we were also within hours of the administrations knitting their executive order that would deny women under the Affordable Care act access to Birth Control coverage. Ready within hours to file a case against the Trump Administration actions claiming that it violated the law and so i hope the governor in california believe he made the right decision in moving towards someone who had the experience not just because of the years in congress because he grew up as the son of the immigrants first in his family to go to college who understood coming from a labour household how important it was to have benefits like Health Insurance but there were things we could t do working together as a state. California is as forward leaning as you get. We are blue because we understand what it means to be green. We are progressive because we believe in moving forward, not going backwards and we intend to protect the 40 Million People in our great state and what i find intriguing is that my job as an attorney general and chief lawenforcement officer for our great state has always required me to be ready to uphold the rule of law to make sure that the 40 Million People in our state pv for not only they must follow the law bu but everyone p and down the state regardless of their status must follow the law. Its difficult to explain sometimes to 40 Million People that sometimes the most forceful actions i must take to defend the rule of law are against the very occupant in the whit whitee that supposed to be helping us enforce the rule of law and perhaps the most is to try to find how unwilling the adversarial party is going to give us the information about why theyve taken the actions that would undermine whether its health care, the immigrant rights or the Movement Towards criminal Justice Reform that we try to implement. What is it trying to hide when it doesnt want to reveal 200,000 in california the chance to remain with the 800,000 through the country the chance to remain weak not been able to get them to provide us with a document tha approved that provs for their actions to repeal the program. What is it in this administration that forces the administration to fail to reply to a symbol freedom of information request by the California Department of justice as a request anyone in the room could file today but yet we now have to go to court to force the administrator to simply provide us information we are entitled to a. Because im a member of the United States of americunited se citizen entitled under the freedom of information act and so i will call you back that roller coaster ride has been interesting. Whether this administration wants to enforce the law or the people in this great country in california youre going to pick up the fumbles i and run with it we dont care if someone wants to abandon the Playing Field right when people are counting most of the leaders to stand up for them and they said this to the people in the state of california if you play by the rules you should expect fair play in return. Thats the way that i saw it growing up when my father was able to see his kids went to colleggoing tocollege when he ht walk through the doors of the university of bologna the doors of a restaurant because outside it said no dogs or mexicans wers allowed secure your today ten months into the term im going to ride this as hard as i can because there are so many people on that roller coaster with me and figured that we not only will america thrived the economic engine which is the state of california the sixth largest economy in the world will continue to thrive as well and everyone deserves a chance to see if they work hard and like a generation ago a clear corporatclericalworker like my e the chance to own a home, send your kids to college. That is the American Dream, you give them that they will do the rest anrest into this with my fd and every construction worker in a clerical worker in america should know if that is still the way we played a game here in america, then the classes will be helpful. We should be optimistic in california we are optimistic. Im a son of an immigrant, so im optimistic because it is a n my dna that we are going to move forward and i think the governor of the state of california for giving me the chance at least for the last months to be the chief lawenforcement officer for the state of california. With that, it will take any questions you ma that you may h. Before we get started [inaudible] please email questions and when i call your name please identify yourself and we will get start started. [inaudible] [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] i will answer it in english and then i will summarize quickly in the spanish. The question relates to the issues of immigration and how we move forward given a number of circumstances that have occurred. I will simply say this, california didnt become the sixth largest economy in the world because it just sat around and waited. California has the largest number of immigrant families in the country and each and every one of those has contributed to making california the ipod economy that drives the american economy. Without those immigrant families, we wouldnt be number one in manufacturing. We wanted to be number one when it comes to the tech industry, we wouldnt be number one when it comes to everything we do in the entertainment industry. We wouldnt be number one when it comes to hospitality. We probably wouldnt be number one in the number of graduates coming out of the universities. We wouldnt be number one in Beautiful People and we probably wouldnt be number one in the ability to say that there is a future in the great state of california, so immigrants have proven a lifeblood to the american economy. Immigrants have proven that they revitalize communities of immigrants have also proven that they commit fewer crimes have used ultra system less than americans born in this country and so when people try to point the finger during all the animals we see in front of us and give importan get importante ability to immigrant families, i say not just the attorney general oattorneygeneral as thef congress because the son of immigrants you better read up on your facts because the revitalization of the American Dream comes at this because there are people agree to using their hands into their brains who are replenishing our stock of the 12 and could future so i think that its clear we will see that happen in california if we are successful we will see that for the country as well. [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] cybersecurity is a big issue we are facing these days before he Left Congress at the end of last year where the server was the sight of a bunch of Cyber Security incidents basically what happened people made unauthorized access to the server 6,000 times logging on with 17 different accounts it appeared you were actually moving other members data onto the server, so the reports youve learned about this in the summer of 2016. You block investigators looking at the fina file citing the clas the constitution is a physical server itself is evidence later disappeared. This kind of thing doesnt happen everyday in congress. You didnt mention those that stayed may have been affected and shortly before you resigned, the server did not disappear so what happened to the server and especially given your lawenforcement seeking to press charges against these it guys at a minimum certainly the rules surrounding cybersecurity on the house were violated in some pretty strange ways. And also today with the reciprocity permit to allow people to use the kerry permit. If they begin to challenge this lot . Having served on the taxwriting committee in the house over 20 years i am familiar with most of the different provisions that were in this bill except those that nobody had a chance to read because they were added at the last handwritten on the sides of the actual legislative bill, but what i will say is everybody is always told in america we will tackle the tax code to make it simple and fair and competitive. I find a hard to believe the product that has now surfaced from the house or the senate is either simple or fair or competitive. Certainly if you are the live middleclass of america he would be hard pressed to believe that increasing your taxes while decreasing the taxes for the highest and wealthiest americans for the largest corporations is what most people would define to make things fair it certainly does not make them simpler in the sense that we see the number of documents reduced but the chances are to come now paying no more taxes than you do today it is the on a simple course to figure out how you are less in taxes. To be competitive most companies are small businesses. They are not megacorporations and most americans work for small businesses. Not megacorporations but the lions share of benefits in the tax bills go to the megacorporations and those who are wealthy enough, how competitive that makes us is yet to be determined but i will tell you if you lower the statutory Corporate Income tax down at the low 20s that sounds good but for Many Companies in america that already paid below the mid20s it is an interesting dynamic. With those tax cut bills will increase the science of the deficit the same movie will play out again to keep the operations going. To have the research done. And then to send count kids to college and then to sustain the lifesaving programs as Social Security and medicare and medicaid because there with those programs because deficits have been increased to provide tax cuts to very large corporations. At the National Institute of family life. What evidentiary basis to have certain disclosures of the Pregnancy Crisis Centers so could you talk about that evidence the state was relying on . Good question. When you hear the Pregnancy Crisis Center what comes up in your mind . While you and i cannot do this but we cannot imagine what a woman must go through she seeks out guidance counseling from a what goes through your mind listening to Pregnancy Counseling Center . You hope that it would provide you with all the information you would need to make the best decision you can about your course of conduct because it affects you as an individual or your health and your future. We dont believe anybody should be marketing their Services Without disclosing what they do or on top of that a woman who with secant seeking the counseling can receive or is entitled to receive. So california has a law that requires the centers many of which are not licensed to provide Health Care Services of a licensed professional and to require them to provide full disclosure or the types of services a woman would be eligible for because those are her rights because every woman in america and california they deserve to have all the information to have the decision. So how you compare what you are doing from what texas did . Why should the states have this autonomy the Obama Administration does not want them to have . So to distinguish what previous states have done using the states rights when we go out to research under the constitution and tenth amendment is because we intend to be inclusive were not trying to separate to deny students a chance to reclaim the money forum a student loan form the forprofit university that went under or never provided a real education we are inclusive of the people to the state of california. In the 60s it was clear governments data murphy of of our affairs. Federal government stay out of our hair. To have breakfast or lunch at the public counter to figure out what seat in the bus a person could take. Into say federal government stay out of our hair have to retrieve the people . The approach is very different were simply saying that we should not allow the federal government to exclude people simply because it doesnt fit the political leanings of those in government we believe the constitution is there to protect everyone equally we will use our right does the state where we have the power reenforce the part of the constitution select you mentioned filing the intent to sue with foia with your canned massachusetts so i. M. Wondering with the given emphasis would is your take on this what is the biggest Environmental Issues our you building allies with others . We have been perking with other states from the very moment said they took office talking about what we would do together that is one of the redeeming features of this job to do work in concert with so many other talented leaders in the country who are attorneys general but i will separate the question because the issue of the administrator of the epa refusing to provide documents under the freedom of information act as required by law is i believed in absolute abuse of power and discretion because i am not requesting in the biggest day in the union i am doing it because everyone of us in the United States of america has a right to request the government be open and transparent that i have to sue the epa and the administrator just to have access to documents that are Public Record it is an outrage and unconscionable it is almost as if they believe they are above a lot. We have not loss a case against the federal government ever. What were doing is defending the rights of our state to move forward under the law with the support with the federal government to take actions which not only benefit with the state and environment in the california barrasso the entire nation. Not only under the law of the with the blessing of the federal government if they wish to change course there are ways to do that but once again the federal government is not above the law and has to go through a process to take legitimate changes to the general policies that are in place to make those consequential Financial Decisions how to move forward i dont care if youre talking about energyefficient light bulbs or ceiling fans would never side of the spectrum i can show you those billions of dollars to make clear california a cleaner stay and clean Energy Producing states and so to impact consumers and businesses to put them at a disadvantage with someone who doesnt want to be as clean or want to move toward. Cry from the hispanic outbluff from Santa Barbara covering higher education. What do you see is the leverage that the recipients have to close out the government and let me give you some background so to hear the latino voice in congress this year is and labrador and harris and to be one of the leading latinas in the nation but even shouting down policy so what is the leverage to get the daca kids legalize completely . I dont see and. And i firmly believe that i have said this from our many years as attorney general now but i believe the Daca Dreamers are here to stay in they will be some of the greatest leaders in the future. But to get out there talking were undocumented and unafraid is powerful because they put everything on the line because they used to shout me also. But that is the america away. That is what i love about them so much theyre willing to get out there to say i will fight for this. I need is subject to deportation but to say we want you in the fight. But they are tough and there are some politicians and w. The role is diminishing and believe it is increasing. Madison the Latino Community but throughout the country to understand but of letting my dad talking to a restaurant because of the color of his skin he never once complaint about the future for his kids and by god would you come to my office of the initial use of photo of the president of the United States standing in between me and my family you will understand how they were rewarded for their dogged fight just as the three measures would be rewarded for their fight. But a california on every single race in our state wide election next year there will be a latino on the ballot. There is change its stand you will see that will make us a Richer Country and politically prepared country but get ready because the drivers are coming dreamers are coming. Were almost to the End Next Week on december 12th secretary of agriculture that evening donna brazil will be here and Walter Isaacson wouldbe talking but his book of leonardo da vinci. And the couple more questions . There is the case with the Consumer Financial protection and bureau for those that have weighed in on the administration. If california or any other states with the acting director . I dont remember that working very closely with the bureau and mr. Court dray we will do everything to make sure that the cftc continues forward in a robust fashion whether that means defending the provisions and statutes that proscribes whod take over in an absence are to make sure it isnt an agency that the next the Playing Field of those who know how to quarterback a so many good issues we will be there. There just too important of the agency. And we had success working with them on any number of matters so we will continue whatever form it takes. [inaudible] stay tuned. [inaudible] want feedback bar question so what leverage do you think the dreamers have to shut down the government . The leverage is now with the dreamers. The only folks that can shut down the government are those who have the votes to keep the government from securing the money that it needs in the budget. And to have a party system the only people that can stress that shut down the government if you have a majority of the of votes you determine what fails or passes they can never kill a bill because they dont have the votes to always require a membership of the majority to participate by definition and it is democracy. And then very simple we will have a budget the Government Services of National Defence homelands security will not shut down if a majority of members of the house and senate vote to pass a funding bill in the budget. If they cannot get a majority of the votes the Majority Party will run its bill and nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer are not given the chance to write the bill to keep the government opened. They are in the Minority Party the Majority Party will draft the bill on whether or not there are up or down votes to keep the government running. If it shuts down those to have a vote in america. Because a majority did not put together those votes necessary. The republican majority in the house and senate. So who goes to school on one day . Do not shift the responsibility where it does not lie. You get elected to do your job with a majority in your party covered then you should govern. I wish there were as powerful as some seem to indicate dont expect them to stop but dont blame them for those to have their own bill for Government Services. The doesnt always make it over the rockies back to the east coast so what lessons and that would be worthwhile to consider. So it takes a little while but we were in the throes of the immigration debate a couple decades ago proposition 187 of antiimmigrant measures it propelled republican governor peoples to reelection had a time when he was losing in the polls we were ben there and done that but it is past tense. They will get there and once they do it is better to have Clean Energy Jobs in california we have 10 times more Clean Energy Jobs than there are the entire jobs of the coal mining industry. Why do you want to go back to the old days . We want to explain if they lose a coal mining jobs lost a job altogether. No. There will be replacements because everybody has to work. I have to build something so what we will find that california may look like that but one of every eight it is hard to be the allied air when you are so bigfoot every other with the district of columbia this much is that needs to be part of that. We cannot let you go back without this extremely important coffee mug. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this began speaking Spanish Speaking speaking spanish [inaudible conversations] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]