Issues. She also took questions from her constituents. This is about two hours. Hi everyone. [cheering] how is it going. [applause] good afternoon everybody. Hey malika. Lots of beautiful familiar faces, lots of people new faces. Welcome everybody. We are super excited, this is our monthly town hall and we are really excited and of course we are on track, we have not skipped a single month so weve kept on track for their promise at the beginning of the term, at least one town hall per month and this is nine out of nine town halls in addition to many, many local Community Events that we have been participating in. Very quickly before we start i want to acknowledge everyone here, our staff that has worked so hard putting this together. Id like to acknowledge them. Michelle, mabel, ariel, daniel, noreen. There we go. And marcus, sorry. Marcus is live streaming. Destiny, sorry and forgetting everything. And we have Translation Services this year today shes and we also have apollyon translation. If you need it, feel free to reach herer hand. And our staff can make sure that you get the translation servicee available. That being said, hello everyone. Hi, good evening. Are we at evening . Yes. Okay. Michelle is going to kick us off. What you can because often we will dive right into it. Hello good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming today for our Community Town hall, i am Michelle Hernandez and im with alexander ocasiocortez, we want to thank you all for coming to discuss an important topic which is antipoverty. In the congresswoman recently rolled out a legislative package called a just society. And its an ambitious and monumental antipoverty legislative package and we are excited to be talking about that today. Quick acknowledgments, we want to think mr. Gao with the Queens Public Library for sharing this space with us tonight. We want to thank sylvia martin, president of the city library, thank you so much for helping without me and i also want to thank gomez and malika for their promotional efforts, and i would like to recognize michelle who is a part of the tennis association. [applause] we are going to start with opening remarks from the congresswoman who is going to walk us through the legislative package in our chief of staff who is joining us from d. C. Area is going to talk about some of the bill and right before we get into that, i want to discuss and recognize everyones voice that has been here. In order to do that we are going to keep a little bit of time soi we can hear as many voices as possible in a pointtopoint my colleague mabel, everyone will have around two minutes to present their questions or comments and mabel will be keeping us on track. And then i also want to recognize one mike, one voice, we all went to listen to the person that is speaking. So create a respectful environment have this discussion in the last item, you have received a q a clip so if you have a clip and have any questions of my colleagues noreen and marcus will be going around collecting them, you can raise them and we will go around collecting them so at the end and you can be able to ask a question. Without further ado, it is my honor to introduce the representative of new york 14 alexandria ocasiocortez. Thank you so much. Hello again. So as michelle noted, one of the Major Updates that we have this month, we introduce our next major sweeping registration known as the just society. In one of the things that we really wanted tot talk about, e package of five bills and one resolution were talking about housing and who we allow to be eligible for our social safety net in america and were talkino about proworker policy that protects working conditions and promotes proworker policies like paid family leave, living wages and et cetera. It also compels us to join the Global Community and an elevated commitment to working people. Before i get into that very briefly, i went to address the news elephant in the room. One of the other things to happen, the house of representatives has decided to move forward with impeachment of the president of the United States. [applause] and this was a Major Development and some folks are saying finally, i certainly feel that way. I do not want to spend an enormous amount of time talking about impeachment but if you have questions i am happy to talk to you about it. Basically long story short, the president of the United States used the power of the United States government to attempt to extort a Foreign Government into creating or drumming up manufactured investigation into his opponents. This is a violation of the constitution of the United States and abuse of power and betrayal ofin our country and anyone who does Something Like that, i dont care a democrat or republican if you abuse power and betray our country in such a manner, you must be impeached in order for us to perfect our world of law in our country. Thank you. Pretty open and shut. And again, if you have questions, please reserve them for the and but i feel like its a pretty open and closed situation as many of you know ive advocated for impeachment for quite some time and this abuse of power has been going on for quite some time. I think for our community, there a lot of folks that are saying this is not a joyous moment or a moment to celebrate. But i think its important to acknowledge that this is a moment for many people in our community that have been the subject to the abuse of this ministration for quite some time especially for our committee about 50 immigrant and 70 of people over color and over working class which have to indoor over the last two years. I am not here to Police Reaction to it, we all need to go through a process. Feel what you need to feel. Ov that is what is going on. Again i want to move on, i think the whole thing is boring and he shouldve been impeached a long time ago. I am over t it. So that is how i feel about it. We have work to do. Because the impeachment of this president is the shortterm action that we need to take to preserve our democracy. But if were really going to thrive as a country, we need to make longterm investments and keep her eyes on the price of social economic and Racial Justice in the United States of america. That is really what this is about. So lets dive in. Very quickly, do i have the clicker, dry use the clicker . What we are going to do, what a just society is, it is about five bills in one resolution that is really focused on antipoverty legislation and focusing on establishing economic and racial gusts under justice. I will go through it. Quickly but basically the first is a recognized property act which speaks to update the Property Line. Our current poverty line is tagged to 1955 spending patterns. What does that mean, anytime, your qualification for everything is based on a measure that assumes one income earner in the home, one stayathome mother, it does not include the cost of childcare, healthcare, or a ton of other things or geographic cost oftu living. And really what the actual cost is in 2019. So this fixes that. This directs the federal government to provide any Property Line which we will talk about more, the second is a pizza prosper which is a sweeping set of housing reform to the entire country which includes a national cap on raising housing prices as well as punishment fore abusive landlords in the United States. The third is known as the embrace act. I will start with mercy and reentry act allows us to open all of our social safety net and ends federal discrimination on our social programs based on people who were formerly incarcerated. One reason that we do that, because one of the number one reasons for recidivism and mass incarceration is a persistent problem, it is poverty. Its because people come out, we refuse and we deny and we really fuserefused we create isolatn so they go to reeses th recidi. The embrace act, were doing the same and we are ending abusive legislation the and similarhe discrimination based on documentation status. It is the kind of a next level piece of legislation and it is something that people are going to say why would you do that,doi believe that we need to acknowledge the contributions that immigrants make inee ameri. Andli if you contribute to our society, i believe you should benefit from our society. In the last as our workers act which creates a federal government to create a store for federal contractors on how good they are to their workers. From predictable schedules, to union participation, to Worker Cooperatives to paid family leave and then it directs the federal government to spend their money with companies that are good to their workers. And then last, directs the United States to finally ratify the un covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. We will dig into that more later. We can move on to the next slide. We are just going to places very quickly. It goes into deptho into what e legislation is. So we can all get so we can dig into a little more. We ran into technical difficulty. Nevermind is a not hooked up to the speakers . That is fine. We can close enough out. Now we can close it out. This video has all the things i just said. It. T worry about it was going to goti into more detail but i will do it because we have followups as well. As i said, it is five bills in one resolution. All of these are tackling the core underlying issues of poverty in America Today. This is just the beginning. It is not by any means and end product, theres a lot more that we need to go. But ill go one byt one so the first thing that we talk about is the society and recognizes and eradicates poverty. As i said, this requires us to update the Property Line. So we can go what this does our first party. We can adapt our federal poverty line to adjust for that. The second, the cost of healthcare, it is not covered in our federal poverty line. They assume that healthcare costs do not exist. The third is work expenses related to childcare, its a huge one. And i said childcare needs, it also includes new necessities. In our federal poverty line, we believe that Internet Access is a new necessity. In order for us to act on this opportunity. The next is the place to prosper act which is the housing legislation that we were talking about. We can go to the next. The place to prosper act, has anyone heard of the sweeping housing legislation passed in the state this year . The statewide one . Kudos to all of our organizers. A lot of the inspiration from this is pursuing the state laws and we are picking them up and trying to apply some of the lessons to the federal level. Which is how i believe the legislation should work from the bottom up. So what this does, they conclude provisions to protect tenants, there is a lot of our laws, we are not focusing on tenants, were focusing on mortgages which is great, we need to protect working and middleclass families. But i dont believe we have enough protection for tenants that are entered federally. We want to improve the quality of our Housing Stock and we want to rein in corporate landlords and we want to ensure that housing is available and affordable to all. One of the tradition says, if you are a landlord and cover a lot of housing stuff, then your documented for abusing and you have a track record of abusing your tenants, then you cannot get a mortgage to build until you get your act together. [applause] that is a huge part of our provision. The last, as i said before, it ends federal discrimination of our social benefits based on documentation status. People say, why should we do that because its very controversial et cetera. Immigrants pay taxes. All immigrants pay taxes whether your documented or undocumented. Immigrants pay for public schools, they help contribute to our society just like anybody else. As a billionaire can get away re taxes anding their we have public systems, and undocumented people should be recognized for the contributions to society as well. [applause] as i said a just society is merciful, that is where the mercy and reentry act comes into play. What the mercy and reentry act does is so often someone becomes incarcerated. A lot of times for unjust reasons, as we seen with the war on drugs. Where people get incarcerated, for ten or 15 years for selling something that people are making millions of dollars selling in california, colorado et cetera. Once you get out, theres a lot of federal programs whether medicare, medicaid, et cetera where you get caught up in the system and are either outright denied or discriminated against because you already paid your debt to Society Years ago. And what this does, it contributes to the pipeline of incarceration and going in and out of the system. When you create a state of economic desperation, thats exactly the kind of environment where you begin to spread mass in her trajan. This does the same exact thing anna says you cannot be discriminated against because you pay your debt to society some time ago. And you fulfill the obligation, we should extend our social safety net to you as well. This one, the uplift of workers act, it creates a lead score for the federal contractors in an enormous amount of our budget and our federal spending goes to contractors. Where the government pays a private contractor to fulfill some kind of need. So i believe that the federal government is going to inject a lot of money into our economy, that money should go into workers pocket and it should go to help establish a just economy for everybody. What this does, it creates a worker friendly score for federal contractors and it says were going to pick at the front for contracts if you offer paid family leave and pay a livingay wage to people and if you have a unionized workforce, if you are a Worker Cooperative and so on. In the last one says a just society guarantees economic, social and cultural rights for all. In the 1970s, the un put forth a covenant on economic and social and cultural rights. 170 International Parties have ratified the covenants of the United States has not. We need to do this. One of the reasons, one of the hunches that i have as to why we have not ratified this is because it essentially codifies 20 of century rights the right to a dignified and safe workplace, the right to an education, the right to healthcare and obviously we dont fulfill or satisfied all those rights in the United States. I think it is about time that we do. That is what advanced societies if we we want to be want tod continue to say that e United States is a leader in the world and we need to be a leader in the human condition and we ooneed to be a leader in human rights and we need to be a leader in equality and equity and we need to be a leader and really creating a robust economic and socially just society. So as i said, these are the countries that have signed on to it but the United States has not. And that is it. In terms of that. [laughter] [applause] now, given all of that, we went to open the floor for questions in this legislation we want to frontline any questions and we will also open the floor to other questions that you haveor and feel free to take it away, i quthink noreen or you, michelle has some questions if you have any more right them down on the slip and we will and them over to you. Wonderful. So abdul. You have the first question and then terry i want to take a moment to acknowledge a couple members d thank you for joinings tonight. Carrie graham . How are you doing ms. Cortez . Im good how are you. Last time we met was in the bronx and asked the question and you gave a great answer. I want to ask it again because its been a long time ago. My question is about the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has been reaching out to lgbtq concerns and immigration concerns. As they should. But in recent years there is one group that has been left out in its africanamericans and they to some degree feel betrayed or used by the Democratic Party. So when donald trump said what you have to lose, but they decided to stay home and said maybe we have a point. My question is, how can you, your squad friends and people like me reach out to africanamericans especially to sell you society which is been greatly explained. I appreciate that. Thank you abdul. The government. Give him a round of applause. [applause] first of all i emphasize a lot with that sentiment. I understand why people say that. I experience a lot when i am in d. C. Because it feels sometimes like our votes and our support are taken for granted precisely because how reliably democratic or communities are. I see it representing a district that is a safe blue district and people say, youre going to vote for us anyway, we dont need to worry about you and it does not concern you. As a result our concerns and our pursuit for justice. Take a seat. A lot of times are concerned almost to the lack of the line because were not a spring seat. And everyone thinks we have to worry about the swing seats. And so criminal justice, we take the can on that and immigration justice which is also and not an africanamerican issue but a black issue as well. And african immigrants et cetera. And we kick the can on issues of Economic Justice as well, voting reform et cetera. All of a sudden its controversial to talk about these things. And so i understand and empathize with that too. People are saying, we vote for the Democratic Party, why doesnt the Democratic Party vote forge us. Why dont we sent our concerns. And that is why i get into trouble. [laughter] that is why people say, she is a lightning rod on the left in a writing log on the right, one of the reasons why we have controversial within the party, because we will say why do we have to wait forec these things over and over and over again. And james bollen has an epic clip where hes interviewed and says, my parents and my family were born waiting for our rights and they have died waiting for our rights. And so how long do you want me too wait. Exactly. And that is a very core part of the questions we are dealing with today. And i emphasize as well. My family is from puerto rico. Myil grandfather was born withot the ability to vote in federal elections and he died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria without the ability to vote in federal elections. So we will not wait. And like my friend, change acannot wait. We are at a point, a breaking point in American Society inequality in income and Racial Justice, and equality in her health, we are at a point where people are the brink of eviction, people are dying because they cannot afford insulin, because i have family that are caught up in mass incarceration. We cannot wait to c fix these problems anymore. So as the Democratic Party, we can walk into gum at the same time. We can worry about swing district concerns and we can also center the concern of the black community of officers or communities that are controversial to tend to. Because equal and equitable outcomes should not be controversial in the United States of america. They certainly should not be in the Democratic Party. [applause] i have not seen anything so far about alzheimers. In this is becoming a a Public Health crisis. The People Living with the disease is set to triple into there were only people who know who have alzheimers or who have had in themselves because someone is getting every 65 seconds. By the middle of the century, the cost is projected to be 1 trillion in two thirds of ab medicare and medicaid. Most people do not think about it in their personally affected and why was when my mother was diagnosed in 2013. But she was in new york city and plaintiff had really good healthcare. However, the cost of putting her in a facility was absorbent. If the money had not beenn saved then there wouldve been no way for me too take care of her. We have pending legislation right now and right now i am hoping as an advocate for the all Comers Association that you can sign on, i spoke to the advisor couple months ago about it and right now has a bipartisan support. Can we know that youre going to pay more attention to all o alzheimers and the way its affecting people because it has a disproportionate impact on women and people of color. So the caregivers and the people inflicted. Thank you so much. Thank you for your advocacy. There are so many issues that we have to tend to and so often the way that we decide which one to do any given day is strictly because somebody in our Community Stood up and actually made the request just like you did right now. I can tell you absolutely we will definitely take a look at whatever legislation you are tebringing up and i also want to take this moment to say this is why medicare for all is so important because not everyone is lucky enough to work for an employer that guarantees healthcare and if you work for an employer not bring anything. This is why im a huge component for medical fraud. Blushing. The latest provisions include provisions for law long care. First of all this is a big reason why theres a difference between public option in medicare for all. They are going offset the most expensive customers into the public option and it is going to create, is set that up for financial crisis. With the medicare for all syst system, it helps us address this issue. You are talking excluding rates of all timers. I believe this is also tied to demographic shifts in our country. We have a baby boomer generation, millennial generation and i believe is get asked about nuclear a lot. We certainly leave nuclear and that energy mix. It has to come to specific proposals. What are the Environmental Concerns . What are the subsidies involved . We allow that to be a conversation within the community. We dont take a hard stance. It is about the specific solution. Nuclear technology has changed a lot. That is something to consider in having a conversation. And this is not an ongoing debate. We have Nuclear Facilities now that i think we should be very concerned about like indian point that shouldve been shut down a long time ago and as he levels rise it is going to threaten the integrity of the facility and will have to figure out what to do without waste. With that being said i am not an Energy Scientist and i am not going to act like one. We know the science of Climate Change. And we know that wes need to gt 100 clean and Renewable Energy as quickly as possible. So i think there is w a whole st of conversation to be had. But for now we just need to get this Congress Finds elizabeth version to say we will fix a problem to be controversial. We are trying to taketo everyone along in one ticket to the people who will have the conversation. [applause] Charles Clark and michael coke. Charles and michael . Hi alexandra. Hey. I live in historian. I have epilepsy and currently faced three surgeries including orthopedic surgery which includes four months of recovery for 6 weeks in a sling that categorically loses jobs thatof include heavy lifting and i seem to be doing a lot of all the right things and no one will take a chance on me. I believe thats because a lot of recruiters and hiring managers are pretty rigid and have a mentality where they want the perfect quote unquote candidate and not somebody they can be flexible with. I know that the federal job guarantee is a new deal in a just society. It is something that i support and something bernie has honed in on. And aside from tuition free college, do believe that we should actually be paid to go to college and not the other way around . And then the academic credential,e that we get to advance in our careers and if something can be done if any public or private Higher Education official in the world hears this where they will actually pay me too go to their Classes Online or oncampus that i cannot thank you enough. Also this is the next part, the cost of housing is ridiculous. Even when im offered a place as i was recently for example, i got offered a studio for 853 a month but they turned me down because i was not actually on the lease. Im only as an occupant but i was not the leaseholder, my dad was. But i applied for the two years before as it was above my old job. But what you suggest i make the best out of my Current Situation . Thank you. Thank you so much. You covered a lot of ground. But i think its important to acknowledge that this is why we propose all of these policies at once. Its not because im radical on education and radical on Justice Reform and radical on healthcare. Its because we recognize that all of these situations are linked. And if you go this far in one area and then you have to step in another area you are not improving a persons bias. You can perpetuate a lot of problems. Let me know if i skipped anything. The federal jobs guarantee, i believe that this is a really exciting area of policy, the federal jobs guarantee acts as a shock exorbitant for our economy. What it means, there are a lot of jobs that pose a value to society that come at a loss for companies. For example, keeping our communities clean. How is that a profitable activity for corporation . It is not. But it is a valuable activity for our community. There is a whole lot of other examples that work like this and guaranteeeral jobs proposes is creating a class of employment that allows people to have a guaranteed minimum its essentially like a public option for jobs they guarantees a living wage, healthcare and more. And then it forces companies to compete to offer at least that much and it establishes a base quality of work and then what happens, when the economy does poorly and people are out of a job, the federal job guarantee expands and as the economy improves the amount of people lower. So it acts as a shock absorber for our economy and its really fascinating proposal so we dont just have to rely on social welfare programs, it adds to the mix of ways that we improve peoples lives and also investing in their skills and so on. I think its a great proposal and this has been proposed by several economists et cetera. Its something we deserve to explore. The second about tuition free housing and should we pay people for going to college . One thing that i did yesterday, the job and a producer programs in our effort to show program do pay people to learn. [inaudible] i think apprenticeships need to be added to way more field than they historically have been like just in the skilled trades. That is something that was brought up, our job apprenticeship and Training Centers by maritime college, that is one of the things they talk about. We offer apprenticeships in carpentry, welding, other Building Trades but even the folks in the school offering a produce ships were saying this is the future of how we create work in america. That we need to have apprenticeships for child care, teaching, writing, ett cetera. Thats one way people can transition into our quad ami without having to go for years without income. Which most people cannot afford. The federal jobs guarantee, one thing they do they specifically, some of the policy proposals specifically accommodate not just to people with disabilities but people who need a flexible schedule, working appearance et cetera. I think that we are investigating a lot of solutions to what youre talking about. But your Current Situation is a perfect example is why we need to make these jumped in our economy. S [applause] [inaudible] if you want to open a case you can open a case with mabel and we can investigate any federal program. Anyone else . Hi alexandria i am michael coach, i was very involved in politics lately and now im making the shift to federal. My question is a scifi one in a combination of the two. I have noticed in the green or do, that we have ideas for projects for Climate Change. I see them in action in tokyo is a very similar city in new york in terms of coverage. In one of the ideas i was thinking about was we have a lot of trouble with mta and Climate Change is going to affect the and flood the tunnels eventually like it did with hurricane sandy. We have a lot of debris fallingn from mta station and it will cost 350 million to replace. What im asking i did a sketch of the circle line in japan applying it to queens and im involved, i quickly can apply that to transportation and use the idea of degree new deal and have lines around queens even monorails and is much cheaper than the fda,. [cheering] i want to oppose it and see what do you think. Thank you, thank you so much. I find this very aspiring plate this is the whole point of us creating a new deal to elicit and challenge us to think about what we n can do as a society wh public funds and public infrastructure. One of the biggest problems that we have, we dont even realize how much money were spending because it is ongoing to corporations, military and the very rich. The idea of us having Tuition Free Public College feels c impossible because we are not used to government working for us in these ways. The government can worko for us if it were expressed half as much as it does for billionaires and corporations, our lives will be transformed. [applause] and logics like these are exactly what the Green New Deal is asking us to imagine into envision. It always blows my mind how we live and how our country lived through a time when we said, we are going to create an entire subterranean subway system in the biggest metropolis in the country. We are going to build an entire fleet or an entire system of public schools. We are going to pursue projects that we have never pursued before. Were going to go to the moon and electrify the country and fight for civil rights, if that is an at some point we stopped to say it is too hard. Even though we had already done it. So when it comes to mta, i believe it is being treated as though its already a lost cause. I do not believe in that. I do not believe that anything is ever toohi broken to fix andi dont believe that this country is too broken to fix. [applause] but someone would look at this and say you are crazy. But you are not crazy. You are not crazy for thinking that we can be better and for so long we have talked about the notion of american exceptionalism. That we are the best. In this idea causes to make investments that many places, many areas rediscover best in other areas we were not the best. But in some areas, research, technology, infrastructure, we work the best. But we cannot rest on our morals. At this point, when you compare us to japan in comparison to the Transportation Systems in japan in comparison to the Healthcare System in norway, the netherlands, canada, were increasingly saying we were one of the best craig i do not want to be the country. [applause] when it comes to the Green New Deal, were going to take away all of these things. And really what this is asking us, what are we going to make, not what are we going to take away, what are we going to establish. For everyone this is a Green New Deall i guarantee Climate Change which threatens storms, turbulence, air playing grounding and closures will ground airplanes far sooner and far worse than any climate legislation if we made a scientific investment were 0 carbon are. A place like that. I believe at some point hopefully we can create the technology. ,. Thanke] you. Paul and michael. Are yousp paul . Hi. Hi in regards to 9 11 first responders, i get emotional when i took credit. Of course. I have kids we started a 9 11 immigrant workers act which is the hr 50. And it seems like its going to die in congress and nobody haswa payment backup. And since you have taken over ia would like to know if you will continue that . Also i am an immigrant and they work for the law and order and i paid over 3 million in taxes and ive been in this country for 51 years and im 64. First of all i would like all of us to really acknowledge the contributions that mr. Eliasson has major country. [applause] he is showing me a photo at ground zero. I want to thank you for your service. [applause] there are so many aspects to your story that touched my core and its what i do what im doing. Because when i hear the rhetoric of this president and the rhetoric of so many people talking about immigrants and undocumented people as though they are disposable and unworthy, i think of people like you and how wrong that is. How wrong it is for them to do that and you said you been here 51 years, the fact that you have been here 51 years and have not been extended a path to citizenship means that we were wrong, not you were wrong. [applause] i dont want to mislead you. I came here illegally with my brothers and sisters and i got into trouble when i was here. Thats what caused a lot of problems. You know what, to me that does not matter. That does not matter to me. Because you have clearly given everything of yourself to our country, body and soul in this year one of the bright spots that we have had is that we did pass the 9 11 victims fund and we finally got that through but there is much more work to do. If my predecessor had picked up a piece of legislation and uc were dropping the ball, i can give you my word today we will pick it up. And im happy to take a look at that. But when people talk about immigrants in this country, we need to tell your story. I am tired of people acting as though were a nation that is willing to throw people away because you make less than a certain amount of money and you lack a certain piece of paper. I believe in human dignity. I dont care your status or your past. The only way that we improve as a society is by giving people the opportunity to give. And we need to take care of each other. We need to take care of you. We also do a lot of work on casebycase immigration cases. So while we can work on passing this legislation. I want you to connect with marcus or michelle so we can pick up your case personally, we have kept families together. [applause]. Ak. Have kept families toge. [applause] i want to let some people know that if you know anybody, if you are in this room or if you know anybody who is carrying this burden, let them know that our offices here to help you. This burden to let them know that our office is here to help you. We just yesterday, i met with the contents to joint whos been here for 29 years. Hes been going regularly and faithfully to his i. C. E. Checkin he has no problems. No history and nothing. He walked in and ict and him and put them into a Detention Center for deportation. He had three children, ranging from 11 years old up to his eldest i would imagine is in his 20s. His wife is here. That experience alone, is traumatizing. That lowgrade, if you have ever lived that went out health insurance, and you walk out the door every morning and you are like, i hope nothing happens to me today. There are so many people that walk out the front doors in the morning thinking that. Both of its because you have an issue with your documentation and you walked to the door and say i hope nothing happens to me with our immigration system for your insured and you walk out the door to say i hope nothing happens to me it makes me need to go to hospital today. Are you walk at the door and you say i hope that i dont get fired from a job because of exploit the reason her because i have not educated enough that i can afford to go to college. When we have that loophole of anxiety, and there is a lot of it, it only creates chaos. It doesnt help us feel safe or secure. Yesterday, we are able to celebrate the fact that we reunited family. Our constituents were arrested and taken to i. C. E. He was brought to the airport and we were able to get him out. Working with our community partner. [applause] we been able to get constituents on casebycasee days basis. The work authorizations. Pro bono lawyers in our community that are finding, wait a second if you dig up something, and it changes, the outcome of the case. If you can, i ask you to open a case of their office will see what we can do for you and we will do everything we can for you. [applause] thank you. Height. I know i only have two minutes before i get to my question. I just want to thank you for the prosper actor you got to in corporately lords. I hope sometimes down the road, i read in the New York Times headlines, the christian was the first that they got. [applause]. Amen. My question, in the beginning, you know in the forefront with the house members for the impeachment of trump. I read, in the fox news and noted that there was some grievances between you and a few others but the House Speaker nasser alessi. Now is the varying series and important. Because we need to get this man named trump impeached. I think if there are any grievances or that you may have, im sorry have to speak up. Anything you have with the Speaker Pelosi is that they should be kept behind closed doors and dont let fox news have access to them because they created the vision. We dont need that at this time. We need the democrats united so that we can continue get to the sky out of office. It was a rhetorical question. Thank you for that. Back i think a way that we always talk about the studio is what they call the democratic caucus. It is basically all of the democrats in the house of representatives, we literally get together in a room much like this one once a week. We have our house like a family, we close the door and we dont let anybody in. Thats how we talk about it. Like a family, were going to disagree with each other, were void to get into her tips, going to have our disagreements in how how we want to do things. But we do not want to fundamentally disagree on her goals. Honor outcomes, we all want to move towards justice andst Economic Prosperity and have working families. We all want to root out the deep rot of corruption in this administration. And so, i can tell you that while i am proud to have this independence of my seat, i am not funded by corporations, i am directly accountable to them but i will beun speaking truth to power within the party sometime. I can assure you that in this moment, there is nothing that is going to shake the unity of the Democratic Party and the impeachment of the president of the United States. [applause] and that is what they are scared of by the way. Fox will make up to act like beef and i assure you on this, its not there. There was a constituent who wrote a note on this sheet of paper. Ergo. Thank you so much i am so honored to be in your presence. Thank you so much my question is regarding hiv aids effort and so given the current demonstration plan to tackle this honey see the Distribution Fund of funds in queens. Because, we need to Work Together with the different sectors and this its not a biological disease, this is the social disease. How will or will door team help us to support this epidemic. Thank you for asking this question. This is another area where we actually had a fairly high spot this year and is actually in the area of hivaids treatment prevention etc. You are completely right that its not just a biological disease. It is a social disease and it intersects with so many issues. One area where i can give you an immediate when the keypad is this year is that from the Oversight Committee of congress. We brought in the ceo of this Pharmaceutical Company called iliac. But we foundnd out was that gily asked was charging 2000 a month in the United States for prep. For medications that help people prevent the transmission of hiv aids. So if you are charging someone or even a study, 2000 a month to keep someone from spreading a disease, if they can afford that, where does that leave the rest of us. So we brought them in and heres what we found. They were charging were 2000 month for prep. But who paid to develop prep. We found that the public did. That through the cdc and for the nih, funded Critical Research that established that identified the beginnings of what came trump. And gilly asked simply picked it up and started selling it for 2000 month. What we pay for, this doesnt just happen with this the lot of other medications as wale. Not only do we find did we find that the public is entitled to if not a royalty, especially the patent, so we got a man, and i asked him, this is funny, you are charging 2000 from the United States and not australia 8. Are charging six to [applause] sometimes, we have multiple pools of legislatures. The bully pool that is one of edthem. They do not like to be exposed. And so sometimes we pass laws to force things happen. Sometimes we can use the bullyly pulpit to expose whats happening to the public and we will change their behavior. So they found is that gilead is going to after that hearing, gilead announced or read before or after, we were making the hearing, they knew this was coming and they announced that they are going to make prep generic a year earlier than they were anticipating which is next year. After our hearing. So after our hearing, theyng announced that they going to do this week have a win on prep. But theres still so much to go. From research to Public Policy that is backed by Public Health research because hiv is also, is the social disease. Were talking about her homelessness crisis. And drug opioid addiction and well talk about hiv we need to talk about all these other things social stigmas against the lgbt communities and also anyone that contracts hiv. So we have a lot of work to do. This president mentioned goals on hiv, so long as his goals are constructive, but jen. An ongoing did not work with them just because of his name. I will double check his work. [laughter] but im not strictly partisan in that way. But i do think that we hiv is the disease that can be ended in the generation. Especially because it is a social disease. We need to work on the social conditions. And they are direct results of Public Policy. Thank you. [applause]u. Alexandria, on cspan, you know my favorite superstar. [applause] month in the bronx. I dont know if you had a rehearsal. In all honesty again, if i make. Im just asking about hr 4088, just quickly. It allows for the direct access of funds from oil and chemical taxes rather than relying on congress to appropriate funding from the general revenue. Itsev already six cosponsors ad perhaps you know them, jared conley of virginia, Jerry Mcinerney from california, harry sewall from alabama, raul, from arizona, Matt Cartwright from pennsylvania and the wonderful, Elinor Norton from range. I am not sure the term but this just stated it 95, and to me, again with the two minutes, 70 dumps on your front lawn and leaves it there, and forces you to clean up, that is somebody to literally pay for their own cleanup so our funds, our general funds goes back to us. Rather than someone else who should be paying for their own nest. Anyway, hr 4088, these consideration. If this isnt on the Green New Deal, i dont know what else would be. For sure, thank you so much. I appreciate that. [applause] creatively circle back and take those look at it as you said, it is hr 4088 so minds are thousands of pieces of legislation so if you ever see that work on something and you are wondering why she isnt on there. Just bring it up to us. Literally there are so many so we always, were most responsive to her constituents. Well make sure that we circle back onci it. Was introduced july 26, only give him the credit to. Congressman is great. If you ever meet him, hell give you a little bicycle pin because he is very passionate about that issue. We will deftly circle back to look at it but i do think that you also get at a very critical issue which is that the companies and the corporations that are responsible for most of our environmental problems, also need to be heldro accountable ad been part of the solution to our environmental problems because this happens over and over again both of it was deepwater horizon his, there was like ten years ago. Its a ball that oil into the gulf of mexico. The public paid for all of that. Its not, it happens over and over again where they make a mess in the public cleans it up. They make a mess, and we get cancer. Get all kind off dumb his indoor public system. When it comes to Climate Change, the mobile new, excellent mobile even the federal government knew that burning fossil fuels were going to create this issue. They put money into deceiving the public and legislators about this issue and now in one generation, the majority of our carbon emissions, that are imperiling our planet right now, has it come since the First Episode of seinfeld. Almost about 85 percent of our carbonon dimensions have all happened since world war ii. So we got here at about 20 generations and i we have one generation to bring us back from thee break. Its going to take those real big reckoning with coward and the fossil fuel industry. If you think wall street is powerful, the fossil is like wall street is predicated on the profits and funding of fossil fuels. Oils and natural gas, all gas, etc. Money and politics, have you heard of the koch brothers. Right. Everybodys heard of them now. Theres one now. Just koch. Heres the thing, Everybody Knows his guys right. They are notorious for basically owning every republican in the United States senate. But when they get their money, they are in oil dynasty. We have to step back and acknowledge how bad inequality has become in America Today that we can continue name specific families that own our democracy right now. If you are like most power in america, the mercers, the waltons, the koch brothers, like the fact that you can name individuals that run our society tells us everything. About america and our economy and you can call it late stage capitalism, hypocrisy, i dont care what you call it, that is the state of our economy today. That is all of it in a nutshell. The fact that we can continue say which family owns the senate areas offamily owns Public Policy tells us that there is something wrong inn our democracy. [applause] they are the ones that dump the money into fox news, the methods of the money, and literally there is a guy that owns the New York Post, that owns individual owns that. Should be a surprise when New York Post sorry no effect. In any those folks in your butt journals are great but when we talk about this institutions the direction and the framing and hear the attack, are the people who are attacking and challenging theirr power. [applause] particularly, when fox news becomes like a 24 7 squad network, but tells me you are doing a good job. Because we are making the right people mad. That to me and for that, i also just want to say how appreciative i am for our community for understanding now and see through it in knowing where to call cs rbs and that recognize that truth. Because our community didnt recognize it, our community would easily be duped. I wouldnt be able to have a seat in congress. So just want to extend that appreciation to you all as wale. [applause] the next question is first saw it on and then moral morales. [inaudible conversation] are the entire transcript of the conversation that john had zelinski, there was no quid pro quo but joe biden did do that and brag about withholding a billion dollars from the brain if they didnt fire the prosecutor in this case. Please, we have, do seem to be a gap and i to her with the president , there is a coup ongoing and is directed. It comes from london, the british house of lords said that the special relationship between the u. S. And britain would not survive a second termot upfront. Pelosi did it support impeachment until she met with and more tonya that of the negatively and i dont know what he threatened with. Ill stop when my two minutes are up. [inaudible conversation] one thing i just want to say is only sure we respect process. Very often when we disrespect process, the people who arepe disrespected by that process on the people who are always marginalized. I just want to. [speaking in native tongue] i dont want to. [silence] your concerns. I am not here to say were only going to listen to people we agree with. I want to. [speaking in native tongue] im going to take this question im going to come back and avoid respond what you have say. [speaking in native tongue] thank you [applause] first of all thank you so much. The quick, dont know if you remember this but we do and, you laughed at me when i told you this was going to happen. Nobody knew who you work. And i am so glad that that happened. Im moree lighthearted question among baseman and all that stuff into an answer because i do it and i do work at best buy and very passionate about technology. I think if the green do deal, is very poor to you that i think that innovation to it should be is it too. I just wanted to ask, back before you know our representative, achieved by trying to dismantle and talk was for it. One of the only companies which actually try to merge right now stood against that and it was tmobile and sprint and theye said they were going going to guarantee neutrality. I think that is very important that there isnt a monopoly in a freespeech because that is what our i evolved to very what our society has evolved two. So why are you in the squad against the merger even though they are one of the biggest innovators in net metallic mentality. Question for this. Thank you. Really good question. Io command any company that stands up for net neutrality. The t mobile spread merger, thing bydid the right opposing not opposing, spread to the right thing in doing that. So this its not about opposing the merger. Raymond approving merger as rewarding Good Behavior percent. Ui. This merger is an antitrust problem. And when we hear kind of like is it too big to fail. We did have, so telecommunications is an area where there is something known as natural monopolies. What happens is rare for back the date in the 90s, they had been wale at all these Companies Instead and sometimes his companies, this is an area where theres always this kind of push and pull with us antitrust. It will naturally move towards larger and larger networks. In one of the big problems that we have in our society is the concentration of wealth. In theio concentration of power among corporations. For example, in the case of net neutrality, you allow both of these bookstores. Now all of a sudden you have one company. Whereaslo net can be one forum f competition between members of area. I oppose theme merger on antitrt grounds. I am concerned about corporations merging is it too much. We see this with bio, comcast and all of these things. And so, its funny because a lot of people are the sandwich as she said democratic socialism we believe in the free market bubble bath. Meanwhile they wont corporations to become our government. And consolidate in huge massive entities. I oppose the mergers up on antitrust guys because we need to have separate actors in this market. You bring up excellent points and i do want to reiterate the commitment to that neutrality and even with an inner measurement on the poverty line, you talk about internet is the new necessity. There has been a lot of damage that pie has done. Because he was a former bryson lobbyist. So they are putting in every part of government. And he is the wolf in charge of this. We address it disagreed with it in a Corporate Power but is because we disagree with neutrality. [applause] i am a. [speaking in native tongue] and i will never apologize for that is been very hard for me to not apologize for that for the past couple of years. So this very poor question does not do policy directly but i do see on twitter and on the news that a lot of things going on with muslims and china. I dont know if im pronouncing it correctly but i do feel like if we are going to so blatantly say that we stand on the jewish community. Or we stand with the Japanese Community for the Asian Community why are we not doing the same thing forwa muslims and why do i always see most of the muslims bring us up, is the global issue. One of the collision is the tech right now everybodys going to be attacked in the future. Your hundred percent right. I believe we have offered less letters on this. I enjoyed letters talking about this issue. Of muslims. What you know talking about, is exactly correct. In that we need to amplify disability or this issue. When the doing work and joining letters filing congressional inquiries on this, but it is a huge issue. The tension, it is no secret how i feel about it. On the train, organs are so the blackut and market that is discussing. And reports coming out of these camps are shocking. So i think you are absolutely right. This is an issue that we need to draw a lot more attention to. Because it is truly horrifying. So we are doing the work of congressional side with a big part of that push is the commitment to amplifying that. Im happy to join you and help we can put more shine on this issue so that more people pay attention. Thank you so much i really appreciate that [applause]. I did say is going to address binary care, graphic question. What i would say and what i would encourage people do, is to, when i clearly have thoughts on this issue. Im not going to try to tell you you are wrong regular cat what i am going to do is just invite everyone to actually leap read the transcript. And come to your conclusion. Send me when someone says i need you to do me a favor though, and then that is to investigate a political appointment and you connect that person to your personal attorney and the domestic attorney general, secretary, that to me is the crime. We may disagree worried and that is totally fine. But that is why i had by our constituents to relieve myself. Come to your own conclusions. [applause] what i have heard from our community. A bunch of nazis and towering ukraine. The United States on obama, ran a q and ukraine were people waiting is saucy because. And thats crime that should bey investigated. Again id invite everyone to look into it etc. We cannot come to your conclusions for this district. Ive heard loud and clear from the majority of our constituents always down this issue. In my job is to all of and go to full faith. [applause] thank you for being here. For the first time in my live, you caught my attention for the person in my live. [laughter] [applause] i will exercise my vote. I will be participating eventually. Devote on behalf of someone like yourself. I hope that someone same day you will be a leader of the century. You know protecting our families. You know protecting our communities, you are the voice for us. I do mortgage financing and i hear his multiples impossible for anyone to apply for a loan. The medication is so high they dont have the ability. Talk to whenever theyre doingre questions about for a present, often no oneme address why we he to wait 20 and 40 years, to lower the cost of medication when all of the country is 80 percent cheaper. Your preaching to the choir here. You know completely right, it is such a condemnation of our system that it is controversial to believe that all people should be entitled to the right to healthcare. In the United States. To be it is actually pretty heartbreaking. I greww up in a very patrioticne family. First generation and deepening, im puerto rican so its obligated. When i grew up and my parents always talk to me about the american dream. They always talk to me about how incredible and blessed we are to live in the United States of america and we are. But that is why it breaks my heart that we are always talking about what we arewa not capable of. Meanwhile, everybody else is doing it. Canada guarantees its people healthcare. The uk has National Healthcare events. All of these countries that are developed, know that in order to be an advanced society, you need to guarantee people healthcare and we have not earned the right to call ourselves in advance country if we dont do that. So should have the controversial to say that we need to do things that weve never done before because thats what growth needs. Not 20 years from now, very important. We need you. We need to have more inventory of housing. They are working hard but they dont have a saving ability. Things are is it too expensive so we need someone like yourself to put up a voice in congress and evil to have. The dream off this great countr. Thanks for being here. [applause] is also why its not just on us. Such is on me or if you people, we need to elect a lot more people. Eing committed to this because i for one, am tired of us operating in a political system where people do things out of fear. Either they do things because they are scared of what they are going to lose when they do things because they are scared of what people are going to say about them we need to operate more out of our convictions in our visions because if we, we are always operating from a flip place of fear, and i did this, am i going to lose reelection. If i do this, and i going to be less powerful now than we were before and we have to stop operating out of fear. Have to stop operating out of elections. Need to start acting as principal. That is not really what politics does [laughter] but it is something that we can continue encourage as electorate as voters andnd people who demand accountability intersystem. [applause] so these are the last two questions. After this, congresswoman is going to present some Closing Remarks and then, if youre interested in reading the conversely, and would be taking a picture of her, at the end please line up in the middle and we will create a line so that you can do so. So last two questions come from borderline grant and nicole mack billy, the razor has fleas. We only have a few months left. I love that you support the greenfield but fossil fuels not going to solve the problem fast enough. Our swedish professor said will have dead people. With god to start, is it too much fuel, you know pollutants. All of you. [inaudible conversation] we have to start now, i am so happy you know really supporti supporting, but its not enough. Even if we something with russia. We have to get rid of the baby steps to fix the big problems. [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] one of the things is very important to us is that we need to treat the Climate Crisis with these urgency that it does present. Luckily we have more than a few months. We do need to get net zero in several years. But i think we need to understand that there are a lot of solutions that we have and that we can continue pursue and that is if we act in a positive way, there is space for help. We are never beyond hope read [applause] thank you so much. Again your message of hope for all of the working that you do. What you stand for and the government right now, i myself and a granddaughter of someone passed away fromme alzheimers. So thank you for your question. Should alzheimers for ten years. Fortunately we were able to get the money to take care of her and her needs. Also my cousin is in federal prison and i want to thank you for the Justice Society bill you just represented. My question to you for all of us Young Millennials author in her 20s and 30s, just starting out from college, what can we 30 do, not just on social media, which we can see a change from that. We look your platform and what you accomplish from that. But what can we do in action outside of social media that can help you. Its a lot of work that you are doing. In all areas of government. T. The things that we brought today in the sample meeting. But what can we do to help you in your platform. To thrive and really helped change this government. Of course, thank you so much. Its a really great question. What is the things that i think is that its not just about helping me. Because i am just part of a larger movement. I am here because people of Critical Mass of people, have demanded justice in our criminal Justice System and environmental doses. And in education and incarceration etc. So i of the best things that you do, is find an issue that you and you know are the most passionate about. You often dont have to reach for it. Usually your live experience informed so that should be for you. I started this whole thing because the issue that touched my live was Early Childhood education because sometimes a kid, my parents, i was born in the bronx and my parents felt like they had to pack up our whole lives and move to another zip code just so i can have a chance. So i grew up in the back to the bronx. Because i didnt want a nice generation to to make the choice that my parents made. I dont believe that a childs destination should be determined by the zip code. Education and Early Childhood education became a national mind. Eventually that is guided through a series of accident circumstances boys it is whatever is what brought me here. I think that one of the best things you can do is dive into the areas that directly impact your live. If you know being directly impacted in a really urgent way, by housing, joint housing organization. Join your tenants organization. Work with the Justice Coalition etc. The h best thing you can do is start to organize back here in our own backyard. Huck builds all of the way up. And i would hope, around election time, i would have the privilege and the honor of asking you for years before. Because i believe that i have to fight for it every time. As of the best thing you can do, is lean and to work around alzheimers, as our neighbor did rightt here. We need to work on incarcerations because that seems to have touched your live. You need to housing the environment, we dont all have to be the masters of everything. Sometimes the best path there, is to really late into the face that touch our lives. For me it was a childhood education. For you might be something else. The best thing you can do right now to help this moment is to be a really an amazing organizer of people. [applause] alzheimers society. Thank you. [applause] i am so glad to meet you. Can you hold the microphone closer. Theyre not very good. From the time you know elected, i am from village, i see what tv, but ive never heard you anywhere in the neighborhood. So thank youu for coming. I am glad to be here i listen to all. My sister died in england from dementia. In mywe church, we havent an Outreach Program for people incarcerated. I had at the community but gives to the people who are incarcerated. The children and we give them presents at christmas time. So, everything here, is for to my heart. My question is thery community n the vision and village that a dividend, we have such a hard time. Everything is monopolized including the how we get our internet is someone spectrum. In verizon and then pricing can command, i am very tired senior citizen. I think hundred and 47 a month so i dont know what anybody can do something. I written the manager today and he told me itshi the same with all around. I dont think so. Because my friend and started selecting 80 a month because she has heart. [inaudible conversation] why do i have to be hundred and 47 a month. Thank you. First of all, we do have to say, theres also almost a Million People in our district. We are out and about so im really glad im having a facetoface with you right now. This is one of the reasons we opposed to the merger. Because of this outcome you are experiencing right now. We have a handful of these providers in our backyard. Depending on where you know, you might havein two. In my neck of the woods, it is verizon or optimum. So is verizon and seven. In some places its like spectrum punk ass, you see what im staying, all of these are all backedre up against each other. One of the reasons these are so expensive is because of the lack of competition. Natural monopolies. We have to check in your individual scenario to see if theres something you could qualify for the can help you bring your cost down. Its a similar think thatme some of the services are far is it too expensive particularly for vulnerable populations. Will have to check on your specific situation and figure out who building a neighborhood etc. To see if theres something we can do for you but, it is really expensive and this is part of the cost of living is pricing our entire communities. Since part of a much larger story thats how new york city, if anybody grew up here, they know that the whole city forms. In some ways for better but in other ways are getting completely priced out. My opinion is that displacement its not a forum of community development. A lot of times we say we are investing in the community but all of that we are doing is orbiting them out and theyll wee importing people that are already making more money. They were asking and staying that we improved everybodysfo income. Thats not how i am interested in doing this. When people talk about, amazon. They cant want to continue about this controversy. Ill be honest, im not sorry about this stance we took. Jobs jobs jobs. Where did that number come from. Where that 25000 jobs number come from. To find out. Came from amazon. First of all, those jobs for us. And also, we had a little bit of a natural experiment here because they were trying tome pt hq to. When it hq one go. Ironically, in the backyard of washington dc and virginia. What we found is that they didnt build that year they did build their and moving forward with moving it there. Theyre not even done it and brent is already gone 20 perce 20 percent. It is skyrocketing. This is the displacement strategy and approach to development. My approach is we dont invest in m buildings, we need to invet in people. And if we dont invest in the people, what is the use of investing the billings when the people cant afford to you live in them. [applause] i think that was our last question. Some were going to wrap up as michelle and marie talk about it. [inaudible conversation] thank you all again so much forng coming. We really appreciate it. [background sounds] background sound. [background sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds] that were entailed. Having a process for pictures that make the most sense then everyone sits down, and then when i am going to do is kind of like an archer from church. Im going to comment and will forum from er. Does that make sense to everyone. So if you are waiting for a photo, just take those seat, obviously Church Pressure and will have everyone make sure they get the picture. Yeah. Allry right. Cool cool cool. First step, everyone sit down. [background sounds] thank you so much. Is everyone seated . [background sounds] [backgroundd sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds] [background sounds]