To not support the executive order. I voted against my party on that because i would never vote to shut down homeland security. It was cynical. It was a gotcha vote. I would never vote to shut them down. I also, david young and i, as you know, had the sarah root bill. That bill david young from iowa, the republican, we have a bipartisan bill that says if you committed a violent crime, i must take custody of that person , so what happened to sarah root can never happen again. We are responding. We are responding. Go ahead. Mr. Bacon you initially voted against it, then for it. Its the standard brad ashford flipflop. Rep. Ashford come on, don. Mr. Bacon when an executive order comes out that breaks the law, congress has to take a hard line. The separation of powers demands it. Brad caved on this to the president , and we have been working in a dysfunctional immigration environment and brad is part of the problem. Lets continue the discussion on immigration. You each have 30 seconds on this particular specific question. We have seen the images of Syrian Refugees including children fleeing that war torn country. 50 of those refugees resettled in omaha since may. Donald trump and others want to ban them from coming to this country. Would you support such a ban and what would you do to those who settled in nebraska . You have 30 seconds. Mr. Bacon we have 10,000 arriving here and a proposal for 50,000. Say no to never, but do good vetting. The role of government is to protect our citizens and defend our Constitutional Rights. And to allow 10,000 without hard vetting, you know isis is announcedey already they are trying to infiltrate through the refugees. I think we have to be very careful. We are better off trying to protect them close to home. 30 seconds. Rep. Ashford first of all there , are 6,000 Syrian Refugees here. There are 4 million from syria, 6 million displaced persons in syria. We have taken 6,000. Congressman charlie and congressman hudson came to me and asked if i would be the democrat cosponsor in a refugee bill to provide for ro bust vetting. Ore robust i was and i am. Homeland security and fbi changed the vetting rules. When a refugee comes here after 1824 months of vetting, they come here and they are vetted for the first year they are here, then at the end of the first year, which was a change in a response to the bill we introduced, they have another background check. So i think we should allow them to come here. They should comply with the procedures that have been implemented, but as far as i know, no incident, certainly in nebraska involving a refugee involving a terrorist attack, that i know. We will have to leave it there for immigration. Lets get to the tv and radio ads that viewers and listeners and readers seem. You both seem like honest guys. But both of your respective Political Parties are running fear mongering ads. Mr. Ashford, the Democratic CongressionalCampaign Committee is running an ad suggesting your opponent wants to raise the retirement age for Social Security for everybody, even though he said he would not change the retirement age. Do you support these ads and what would you say here tonight . Rep. Ashford i just dont support raising the retirement age. I dont think you need to do that, ever, whether its going back to 40yearsold, 30yearsold or 20yearsold. I think there is another plan to make Social Security sustainable for 25 years, which does not involve raising the retirement age. That is my position. What does the ad say . It has a couple on the couch and they say pretty much that they learn mr. Bacon wants to raise Social Security. They have worked long and hard in their lives and just found out they may have to work longer and harder. They cannot trust mr. Bacon. Rep. Ashford thats not our ad and we have no control over those. The point that is made in the ads is raising the retirement age is not good policy. I dont think don called it scare mongering. I dont think thats what its trying to do. Its trying to show that raising the retirement age is not a good policy. You want to respond . Mr. Bacon i would love to. First of all, i do not want to raise the retirement age for those in retirement or nearing retirement retirement. We have to make that clear. The ads are from nancy pelosi, shes trying to reelect brad because she wants her guy in the house. Shes working to do it. Its a lie. I have said those were younger, under 30 we should consider. Because we used to have 42 people paying in. Soon its going to be 21. Leaders step up and provide solutions and try to fix a problem. Politicians like brad and nancy pelosi want to demagogue. And they want to politicize it. I have not heard a good proposal from him. I have not heard one. Rep. Ashford i can give you one. Ill give you one. The nancy pelosi stuff is fine and i know its good politics and you talk about me as a career politician. The week after i got elected you decided to run. And you said, we need a change. I didnt even unpack my luggage in washington. Mr. Bacon you voted for nancy pelosi. Rep. Ashford sure i did. I voted against her on most every major initiative. Mr. Bacon thats not true. Rep. Ashford it is true. You know what those votes are . What happens in congress. This stuff, you need to study. Mr. Bacon im not a career Legislature Like you are. Rep. Ashford you are a good military guy. You are and i commend you for that. Your service is commendable without question. I have had 18 years of being a legislature. It is complicated. It is different. And you need to know that those votes are procedural votes. We have to go to break. Rep. Ashford those votes are procedural. Mr. Bacon 80 of the time he votes with nancy. Hes only a moderate if youre in california or new york, not nebraska. Time for our commercial break. When we come back, closing statements from each candidate. Youre watching the ashford bacon congressional debate in tandem with the omaha world herald. Welcome back. Before we get to the closing statements, this is a final question. Amendment the second should have restrictions on any firearm a person should own and should we ban assault rifles . Mr. Bacon no. We should have background checks. The nofly list and the terrorist watch list. There should be background checks done between 20042014, 90 of the people on the terror watchlist were not able to purchase them. Restrictions on assault weapons . Mr. Bacon i would defend the second amendment. One thing i point out, ted kennedy was on the no fly list. We need due process. So that those on the nofly list are not locked in and can get off of it. It is important for our rights. The fifth amendment should be protected. Time for closing statements. Mr. Ashford, youre first. Rep. Ashford thank you. And thank you again, both of you and to the world herald and the kmtv. Everyone needs to get out and vote and this is going to help us do that. You know ive had a life and my , family has had a life of Public Service dating back in nebraska to 1856 when my fathers family came from ireland. My mothers family came from sweden in the 1870s. Public service is in my dna and it is in the dna of all nebraskans. I had the opportunity to serve in the Nebraska Legislature for 16 years. That was Public Service. During that time i owned a business. A ran a law firm. I raised a family. The Nebraska Legislature taught me many things. The one thing it really taught me was nebraskans have a unique way of being. The Unicameral Legislature is incredibly unique. Theres no other place like it. There are no parties. People dont sit one side or the other. People dont even get voteod voted on based on the partisan designation they may have. It is the nebraska way. When i ran for congress, i said i would go to washington and take the nebraska way to washington. Ive worked with republicans on important pieces of legislation. Only 3 democrats have voted with republicans more than i have in the time in the 114th congress. I am the, ranked the sixth most bipartisan member of the United States congress. Those arent just things that im throwing out there. Those are factual. And i will continue to go back to washington if i am elected, and i would appreciate your vote and do exactly the same thing. Mr. Bacon, you have 90 seconds for your closing argument. Mr. Bacon i want to thank craig and michael and brad for being here as well. Im running for congress because i love our country. I want to continue to defend it. I think i bring in very useful experience. Our country right now is struggling. We have 19. 5 trillion debt. We have a Regulatory Environment thats crushing the Small Business community. A broken tax code. And we have a National Security system thats broke. I want to be the leader that comes to washington to work in i bipartisan way that moves the ball down the field on all these core issues. Career politicians are not getting it done. I also am going to bring useful experience there. Four deployments to the middle east, 30 years in nato. My time in the military will be very useful as the, the second most senior veteran in congress. When we talk about bipartisanship, brad keeps mentioning it. It was a bipartisan, quote, democrat who gave us the tiebreaking vote that gave us obamacare. And another tiebreaking vote that went against a balanced budget amendment. When the chips are down, brad will be marching right behind nancy pelosi. And we can do better. Bipartisanship is moving across the aisle to move the ball down the field on core issues. I look forward to serving you, i will work hard for your vote and i would ask for your vote. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Bacon. That will have to be the last word for the night. Id like to thank both of our candidates for participating and your willingness to run for public office. Also our viewers, listeners and readers, for more analysis and to rewatch the debate in the coming days, go to kmtv. Com or omaha. Com. We encourage you all to vote. Tuesday,rget, it is november 8. Thank you for joining us. Good night. Initially, when i was trying to come up with my documentary, i was daunted because there were so many different elements i was trying to put into it. And it is a lot of information to communicate in seven minutes. But then i realized it really is like a visual essay. I have been writing essays throughout high school, so it was something that became less daunting when i looked at it at the perspective of gathering information and instead of writing the information, i am filming it. I urge anybody that is thinking about making a piece, to reach out to as many different people as you could come and get as many different perspectives as you can come up because there are experts that are so much more knowledgeable about the subject than you are. And many of those people, the more you can get in your piece, the more credibility you will have. It is not just then a High School Students solving this problem, it is you are contributing useful information by highlighting these perspectives. Mostll us, what is the urgent issue for the new president in congress to address in 2017. Our competition is open to all middle school and High School Students, grades 612. Students can work alone or in a group of up to three students, to produce a 57 minute documentary credit include cspan document a. Include cspan and interviews. 100,000 in cash prizes will be shared between students and teachers. And the deadline is january 20, 2017. Mark your calendars and spread the word to student filmmakers. For more information, go to our website. In pennsylvanias eighth Congressional District, the fitzpatrick is running against democrat sant arsiero. Good afternoon. Welcome to Bucks County Community college. I am the president of the college and it is my honor to welcome you here today for the eighthbetween the two congressional candidates. Is important to our democracy. We are pleased to host the debate again, having done so for every Congressional Election since 2004. The lower bucks campus and braces are role as a center for community engagement. I would like to acknowledge all of the students here today. Prep,ts are here from somewhere. Raise your hands. [applause] bristolboroera high school, and of course Bucks CommunityCollege Students. [applause] and members of our community at large. I hope all of you have come here to listen, to learn and then to , go vote. It is now my pleasure to moderator, mr. Ezza, Political Science and history instructor here at Bucks County Community college. Thank you. [applause] mr. Pezza hello again. Today, october 13, is Breast Cancer awareness day. I hope every congressman elected next month across the nation will bring a passion to washington to provide the resources to combat this as well as other devastating diseases. Welcome to another in a series of congressional debates that the lower bucks campus of the Community College has sponsored in every primary and general election since 2004. We are proud to play a role in what we repeatedly described as a celebration of democracy. We take the responsibility seriously and we are equally proud of the audience decorum exhibited in the past and the decorum we know we will have today. I want to recognize our campus executive director and our director of security, as well as our technical crew for their work in preparation for this event. This debate is being broadcast statewide by the Pennsylvania Cable Network as well as nationwide by cspan. Debate questions were solicited from our faculty and the final selections and formation of the questions were made by me. After reviewing the long list of potential topics, i have concluded what we really need is a seven hour debate. [laughter] mr. Pezza however, we will do the best we can with the 75 minutes allocated. There will be twominute Opening Statements for each candidate with a one minute followup and then we will move through the possibletions, with a 10th if time permits. There will also be one minute closing remarks. Speaking order will be determined by a coin flip. Two of the students in the second row are timekeepers. When there are 30 seconds left in a segment, we will see a yellow sign briefly. And you can put it down. When there is no time left, the red sign should go up, in which time you can finish your sentence and close your remarks. We ask there be no comments or applause, or noise of any kind, except now as we welcome the candidates to the stage, democrat Steve Santarsiero and republican Brian Fitzpatrick. [applause] mr. Pezza good. Before we begin, i will editorialize. Was 10. D voting when i [laughter] mr. Pezza i have never seen the lowlevel of rhetoric we have seen this year. As an educator, i am concerned about the message it sends to students and young people. Attention for the first time. I want them to know that this is not the norm for president ial politics. I am confident these two gentlemen we have before us today will demonstrate what meaningful political discourse should be like. Firm, tough even, passionate, maybe, but always respectful. In the precious time we have together today, we will focus on issues of substance that may separate these two highly qualified individuals enough so we can cast an intelligent vote. Our Opening Statement is from Brian Fitzpatrick, based on coin toss. Mr. Fitzpatrick thank you. Thank you steve for participating. And all of the young people in the audience, this election is about you and i hope you get involved despite what was said earlier about the vitriol that has unfortunately taken over a big part of the election. Do not lose faith because we need you involved in the process, we need your voice to be heard, whatever that voice is, make sure you voice it. My name is Brian Fitzpatrick and i come to you from a very different place. 14 years in the fbi but we will get to that in a second. I am a lifelong resident of bucks county. My entire life i grew up right down the road in middletown township, it is where my parents still reside. Grew up here and went to grade school here, levittown high school. And i went to penn state for my degree. I am an eagle scout here. I am a certified emt here. Licensed attorney here. I had the honor to serve my country as a prosecutor here prosecuting violent drug and gun , crimes. And i had the honor of a lifetime to serve my country in a very significant National Security role with what i consider one of the finest organizations on the planet, the fbi. It is a job i miss dearly. It was the hardest decision in my life to leave that place and i miss the people there and i left for one reason, because like everybody in this room, i love my country and want to step forward and do my part to offer my background and credentials and my experience in what i believe to be the two most pressing issues facing the country today, growing our economy and defending our homeland. I made a career of balancing books and budgets and creating jobs. And as an fbi special agent, keeping our country safe from counterterrorism and counterintelligence threats, Cyber Security threats, Border Security threats, all of the threats that face our nation. I will be able to address them confidently from day one. I look forward to the debate, thank you. [applause] mr. Pezza thank you. We are not going to do that today. Mr. Santarsiero i want to thank especially the young people, College Students here at the Community College, as well as the High School Students. Many of you know that after september 11, i decided to switch careers and ultimately wound up teaching social studies. And it was for me one of the greatest career moves in my life. , and i saw the promise that that next generation has and it makes me fundamentally optimistic about our future. But i also saw the great challenges that they face, in terms of being able to get a good job when they get out of high school or college. And it is one of those things that has motivated me to seek office. To serve in the state legislature where i currently serve. And to run for congress now, because it Still Matters that we have people representing us. Dysfunctionalhow it seems that every level it , matters we have people fighting for that future for those kids. Fighting for families, to make sure their jobs will be there making sure they get the benefits. And fighting for seniors to make sure they get those benefits they have earned. I am very happy to be here and have this debate to have these discussions. This is the most critical election in my lifetime and i echo the sentiment all of us to do our Civic Responsibility and vote. [applause] mr. Pezza ok. We got that out of our system. [laughter] mr. Pezza for our first question, it is one word long. You can respond in any way you like. The word is taxes. Mr. Santarsiero we need to make sure that our working families do not suffer under crushing tax burdens. I think what we need to do is provide tax cuts for our families and we need to fund it by making sure the wealthiest in the country are paying their fair share and we close loopholes. You know, you probably heard from Warren Buffett about how he paying less than his secretary in taxes. And just the other night, we had donald trump more or less admitting he has not paid federal income taxes. There is something fundamentally wrong with our system when the wealthiest people in this country can take advantage of those types of access to the loopholes and not pay their fair share. One thing ive heard from people across the district as i have campaigned, is they think the system is rigged. They think every part of our system politically and economically is rigged. It is time we inject fairness into the system and make sure we are doing the right thing for working families and make sure everyone is paying their fair share. Because at the end of the day, our tax code should be about fairness. And i think that is one of the main reasons, you look at someone like trump who admitted he is not doing his fair share. That should cause every american to be concerned and it should cause the next congress to be doing something about it. That is what i will do. Thank you. Mr. Pezza thank you. Mr. Fitzpatrick i agree the system is rigged by politicians. That is one of the reasons i got into the race. I saw that it was rigged as an fbi agent who spent my entire career arresting corrupt politicians, investigating government fraud. These are the things i saw firsthand and that i investigated and pursued. Throughout my career. With regard to taxes, as i mentioned, i started my career as a cpa. We could use cpas in congress. People who know how to count, balance budgets, people who know how to end deficits. Most would agree that our code is a convoluted mess. Tax professionals cannot even understand the code. You have a system today where the wealthy can afford expensive tax attorneys and are the only ones who can play the game of the Internal Revenue code. It is incomprehensible. It needs to end. And with Corporate Taxes, we have in america the highest Corporate Tax rate in the free world. 35 corporate statutory tax rate in the United States. Our neighbors to the north in canada, 15 . Ireland is 12. 5 . Russia is 20 Corporate Tax rate. We have a 35 Corporate Tax rate in the country and we wonder why we are hemorrhaging jobs in the country. Just a few weeks ago, Ford Motor Company announced they were relocating all their small car manufacturing from michigan to mexico. If that is not evidence that our Economic System in the country, whether it be taxes or regulations is broken, i do not know what is. And for all of the unfair trade deals, throw them into the mix as well. We need to get the economy moving again and make america a fair place and incentivize people to do business in the country. Because we will continue to hemorrhage jobs. And if we do that, the unemployment will continue to rise, which means we will have less people paying into the system lower revenues, and we , will not be able to fund of some of those important programs we need, including National Security, at a point in time when we are living in a more dangerous world than we ever have. Mr. Pezza thank you. One minute to follow. Thank you. Mr. Santarsiero you know, we do need to cut red tape, especially when it deals with Small Business because it is the biggest driver of job growth in the country. And it is absolutely true that real wages for the bottom 90 of people in the country have dropped enormously over the last 45 years. We need to turn that around and we need to create an environment in which we have more job growth, and that requires investment. Investment in infrastructure, education, and job training. If we do those things, we can grow the economy even greater, and help us make the system more fair for working families. And as someone who has brought jobs into the district and fought to protect the jobs of thousands in the district, i can tell you from day one, that is exactly what i will do is as a congressman. Mr. Pezza thank you. Our second question. It is an increasingly dangerous world we live in. With so many foreignpolicy challenges, one barely knows where to begin. Just yesterday the United States , navy launched tomahawk missiles against rebel installations in yemen that had fired on our naval ships. The Nuclear Weapons in the hands of leaders such as kim jongil in north korea is certainly worthy of our attention. I raised this north korean issue with both of you six weeks ago and since then, north korea has more. How proactive should the United States be in preempting the threat . Mr. Fitzpatrick . We need to bek proactive for sure, and be proactive by working with our International Partners in delivering heavy economic sanctions. They have to be delivered and soon. North korea was raised in the last debate, shortly thereafter, they conducted a nuclear test. Their leader, a mad men who conducted a nuclear test caused a megaton earthquake in north korea. A 5. 5 megaton earthquake. Causedarison, hiroshima a six ton earthquake. We have serious National Security threats emanating all over the world now. North korea was the example provided. Dangerousunbelievably Nuclear Agreement that paves the path even the Obama Administration acknowledges we handed them 150 assets, previously frozen, because of lifting sanctions now they will grow the economy at 12 per year. And then we have cash being delivered under the cover of darkness and foreign currency in unmarked airplanes. You have russia annexing crimea with impunity. And they continue their invasion in ukraine. You have china literally manufacturing islands of the south china sea. The most afford trade routes in the world. The most dangerous trade routes in the world. We live in a dangerous world, his wife think it is critically important, more than ever in our countrys history, that if we send people to congress who understand the threats, know where the threats are coming from, how they are financed and how to cut that off that is , particularly true in the area of counterterrorism come boko haram, alshabab, hezbollah, hamas, all extending their reach, throughout the middle east into africa, they have attacked copenhagen and munich. They have attacked in brussels. Mr. Pezza your time is expired. Mr. Santarsiero thank you. The actions of north korea are a serious threat to our National Security and global security. There is no question about that. As is the fact that the iranians have been working toward a Nuclear Weapon program. I actually was publicly against the deal not because of how to withe actual deal iranians, but that it did not go far enough. The fundamental point is we as americans need to be engaged in the International Community. We need to have certain goals that we are going to pursue. And one of the most important is nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It is amazing to me the republican nominee for president has actually said he is for proliferation, to let more countries have access to nukes. That thet even know russians had taken crimea, and he said flattering things about vladimir putin, that it makes you wonder, ultimately, what american policy would be were he to become president. I raise that because the fact is , up until about six days ago, my opponent was voting for donald trump. And thought at that point it was ok to give him the nuclear codes. That is an important issue in the campaign because it goes to an issue of judgment. I do not think the revelations of last friday were necessary for us to understand that donald trump is uniquely unfit to have that responsibility and i hope voters will understand that on november 8. Mr. Pezza mr. Fitzpatrick . Mr. Fitzpatrick just to clarify your position on iran, you actually said it on this podium in the primary, during the primary debate. You opposed it originally, but you supported limitation. That is exactly what you said on the stage and on tape in the primary. I think that is incredibly dangerous for the reasons i mentioned. To give the extent of those assets to statesponsored terrorism, and it continues to flow and we learn more about it every day, to the point where it is considered a ransom payment. And it makes everyone of us less safe because every american who travels abroad now, now that the policy is ended, that we do not pay ransom to terrorists, because we have now broken the policy because of the iran deal, everyone of us who travels overseas now has a price tag on her head. Isis and boko haram, are everywhere. Throughout eastern and western europe. They now know how to raise money. Mr. Santarsiero i think what is dangerous is supporting a man, up until just last saturday, who is on record saying he is fine with that eventually would encourage the proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. I think what is dangerous is supporting someone who will create a religious test for coming into the country, thereby making our ability as americans to fight terrorism and fight terrorism with our arab and muslim allies, that much harder. I think what is dangerous, frankly, is supporting somebody who has absolutely no understanding of geopolitics. And that was your position up until saturday. Mr. Pezza i will ask a followup. With regard to iran, i will allow you both a minute to respond. Wasnt that irans money, the money that the International Community and the International Courts ruled was their money . Mr. Fitzpatrick it depends on how you find that. If the money is gained through illgotten measures, i do not believe so. The second component is a lifting of sanctions that will allow the economy to grow. So you could argue it is their money but it was money frozen for good reasons. Because we cannot allow them to continue to enrich uranium, which they are not using for energy purposes. They are using it to build a nuclear bomb. We cannot allow that to happen. That would be the most dangerous thing our world could have, is iran having a Nuclear Weapon. I am telling you the agreement is paving the path to that. Because there is not a single Government Official, not a Single Member of the iranian parliament, that has signed on to that agreement. We are abiding by it and they are not and we are fools to do so. Mr. Pezza what options would you feel the United States would have if you had a Different Administration and a congress willing to undo that agreement . What path do we take . Mr. Fitzpatrick we continue sanctions, increase sanctions to cut down on their cash flow. Because like i said, there is not a Single Member of the iranian parliament, no Government Official that has signed that agreement. Not a single one. Abiding byonly ones it. They are ignoring it and laughing at us because of it. Mr. Pezza thank you. If your comments are that you initially opposed to the agreement support implementation, would you clarify that . Mr. Santarsiero the agreement is done. The sanctions are lifted. And money is flowing into iran. Apart from the money discuss ion here so far this afternoon. For sanctions to a useful and actually have an impact as they did previously with iran, they need to be multilateral. You need to have all of the major potential trading partners part of that regime. By the time i take office if i were elected, this agreement would have been for over a year. It is not realistic to think we can somehow undo it. I would love to be able to but i do not think it is realistic. Unrealistic. What are we left with . We have to do everything we can to enforce this agreement to the letter and we have to keep the iranians, you know, abiding by that. To say that we can undo it, it is not realistic. United states could oppose sanctions tomorrow but if the rest of the community does not do that, they will not be effective and that is the reality. Mr. Fitzpatrick they have not signed the agreement, they are not honoring the agreement, they are already in violation. There is a lot we can do. I am telling everybody in this room unlike steve, i am not learning about the agreement on cnn. I was behind the curtain and understand the threats. Iran getting a Nuclear Weapon, which they are on the path to do, would be the most dangerous thing the world has ever seen or itseen and we cannot allow to happen. There is a lot we can do. We can cut financing off today if we want. I am just telling you that i ran getting a Nuclear Weapon, for us to put our faith in the Iranian Regime that they will abide by an agreement they have not signed, is very foolish. Mr. Santarsiero as i said, i do not support the agreement when it was negotiated. What curtain you were behind, but the truth of the matter is we are left with , this agreement now and we act unilaterally, we will not have that kind of an impact. The sanctions were successful before because it was not just the United States. It was the rest of the International Community, our allies, the chinese, all of those countries are part of it. For us now to unilaterally moved to try to do something it will , not work. Believe me, i wish it would. I do have concerns about the agreement in terms of what it will do at the backend. But we are not in that situation now, unfortunately. So we have to deal with reality and that is the point. Mr. Pezza we will move on. Thank you, gentlemen. The next question, recent terror attacks at home have refocused refocused our attention to identify threats from our own citizens. To what extent should we engage surveillance, and how do we build in constitutional safeguards while doing so . Mr. Santarsiero to the greatest extent possible, there needs to be transparency. There needs to be due process. We must always balance the need to protect the public in the United States from these threats with our Constitutional Rights to privacy. That balance can be difficult at times. The touchstone has to be to arele people who essentially subject to this obviously we want to make sure that our government is pursuing every threat of potential evidence to prevent an attack before it happens. Part of that also has to be this we have to make sure we have strong relationships within communities where potential terrorists may be coming from. That has to be not demonizing muslim americans. We have with donald trump, a worldate who has told the that he would institute a religious test for people coming into this country. Ive met many times with the Muslim Community here in bucks county. And they are uniformly opposed to donald trump. If we are going to be effective, and our Law Enforcement is coming get the information it needs to stop these attacks, we need first and foremost, good relationships with those in the community. I think donald trump is a disaster in that regard. My opponent was supporting him until last saturday. I think if he were to become president , it would put us in much greater peril than we currently are. I am notatrick speaking as a politician, but someone who has actually done it. One of the premier Law EnforcementLaw Enforcement organizations on this planet. Act, there was a considered which was the controversial provision, which came to light during the eric snowden scandal. Addressedeedom act the controversial provisions of action 215, which was bipartisan solution. Dealing with safeguards to keep our country safe, and protecting and preserving constitutional and civil liberties. Scandal told us is that under section 215, there were two parts to it. There was a court order component where those collection of metadata, and the second was a person program. The metadata issue dealt with telephone records, cell site information, the location you are at what you make a cell phone call. Addressedeedom act the controversial provisions in a bipartisan fashion, which is something we need to do more in different areas, not just National Security. It is a way to preserve the security of our country well struck preserving civil and constitutional liberties. Mr. Pezza thank you. . R. Santarsiero you have another minute, anything else . Very good. Mr. Fitzpatrick i can if you like. I can talk about Electronics Surveillance all day. [laughter] i will say this mr. Pezza would either of you both expand im not sure to what extent the public is aware the checks and balances, when the Judicial Branch has a role to play. Mr. Fitzpatrick in a criminal context, youve heard the concept of a title 3 wiretap. That is a provision of the army best crime bill in the coolest section of the u. S. Ashley nee criminal section of the u. S. Code. It is middle section of the u. S. Code. It is considered a last resort from an investigative standpoint to tap a phone line. The evidence is great, but is considered an intrusive investigative technique. The fisa court is a title iii wiretap. What the second three circuit found when they reviewed this case, specifically with the present program and fisa court verizon order was that the nsa was abusing their authority under the patriot act. Again, i felt like the usa freedom act struck a record serve our National Security to serve ourd National Security. Mr. Santarsiero with the fisa court, we need more transparency and more challenge to what its rulings are. Lets get back to the fundamental point. That is making sure we are doing everything that we can to prevent acts of terrorism in our homeland. And to do that, yes, electronic surveillance is part of the mix. But so too is picking sure that we have good relations in these communities that we can get information from in a variety of ways that can enable us to prevent an act of terror before it happens. That, at the end of the day, is equally important, and something the next administration and next Congress Needs foremost in its mind. Mr. Pezza thank you the ide. Of a major job trading Infrastructure Program seems popular with both parties. We need to build roads, bridges, modernize airports and power grids all needed projects. Listening to the two president ial candidates, i felt like i was watching a monopoly game. One said, i will spend 500 billion i will double that, i will spend 1 trillion. First of all i support first of all i assume you support and Infrastructure Programs. What size should be and how do you pay for it . Mr. Fitzpatrick interceptor is one of the several areas infrastructure is one of the several areas i view as an investment and not expense. In not justnvest roads and bridges, but the electrical grid, underground pipes. In many respects we have an archaic Structure Program in this country. I think we need to fund it significantly. It is an investment, not an expense. How do we do it . It comes back to growing the economy. From an economic standpoint we cannot afford to fund critical info Structure Programs the environment, Fund Education so we can have the best educated youths in the world. The reason we cant do it is because we have a terrible economic situation. We have 19. 5 trillion in national debt. Entire gdp is not 18. 5 trillion. If Interest Rates tick up a little bit, this will become the Third LargestSpending Program in the country. This is just the debt we are having. As ie hemorrhaging jobs, talked about most recently with Ford Motor Company to mexico. And you have regulations that are literally strangling businesses. Our Overall Economic climate is struggling businesses and every Business Owner told me the same exact thing. They cannot grow and hire new employees because of everincreasing regulations, ever increasing burden some tax rates. If we can create a progrowth economic environment we can fund critically important infrastructure. Mr. Pezza thank you. It is aarsiero critical issue that i care deeply about. I have been involved in it is a member of the state legislature. We were able to pass a major in the structure funding major transportation info structure funding bill. I see my colleague in the audience. You see roads and bridges being repaired, and is because of that. Both of us on the sides of the aisle came together. I think the fast act was a good start, but is one third of what needs to be done. We need to invest not just in roads and bridges, but our waterways. In the eighth district we have a revocable river. A navigable river. We are blessed with about. We need to invest with i. T. And energy infrastructure. How do we find all of this fund all of this . Infrastructure bonds are one way to do it. Secretary clinton talked about creating an infrastructure net solely to be geared toward granting money in the capital for infrastructure. We ultimately need a president and congress that will make this an absolute priority so that it happens. We can put people to work. We can create more jobs and grow our economy while at the same time making our roads and bridges safer and making us more competitive in the world by having a worldclass infrastructure. It needs to be a priority. Mr. Pezza we have another minute each. Mr. Fitzpatrick, your view is that we would fund these through economic growth. And you are indicating steve and pay fort bonds it that way predominantly. Reactions . Mr. Fitzpatrick interesting that i want to grow our way out and steve wants to add debt. Mr. Santarsiero let me tell you something, for decades in this country we have funded projects like this through bond issues. That was done by republicans and democrats i would love to grow our way out of things too, but that wont happen overnight. The truth is that if we are going to have a stronger economy that employees more people, that has wages rising, that brings more revenue into our government, we need to have worldclass infrastructure. Just saying its going to happen through growing the economy is a nonanswer. The end of the day we need to make sure we are making this a priority. It needs to happen on a bipartisan basis. The good news is that it happened on a bipartisan basis. It can happen in washington d c as well. Mr. Pezza thank you. Next question. In case you havent noticed it is rare that the democratic president and Republican Congress agree on issues. However they did agree on the Transpacific Partnership trade agreement. In fact, speaker of the house paul ryan explained that 1 in 5 jobs in america is based upon foreign trade. In this campaign both donald trump and Hillary Clinton said they opposed the agreement. How can for me the highestranking democratic and republican figures agree on a plan that they say is good for america, and two major candidates say that it is abd for bad for america . To what extent is the proper balance between free trade and protectionism . Do you support the Transpacific Partnership . Just the general concept of free trade versus protectionism. Specifically, how did each trade agreements impact your potential constituents in bucks county . A criticaliero issue. I think it is a false question between the 2 a false tradeoff. The alternative is protectionism. We trade agreements that are fair. The fundamental problem with the tpp is that it is not fair. It leaves American Workers and jobs at risk. You still have the other signatories, systems or they dont have the same environmental productions we have been the u. S. They dont have the same worker safety protections we have fought for over 100 years. And in fact this agreement would ultimately subject those to potentialin u. S. Litigation and challenge. The issue isnt whether it will be protectionism or trade agreements but whether we will have fair trade agreements that will level the Playing Field so that American Workers and american jobs can compete with developing countries. That is what we ought to be fighting for. If we think the old question about whether we should engage in protectionism we are done with that era. We need to make sure countries like china are being fair when it comes to how they treat american companies, and how they deal with trying to steal with our intellectual property. Those are things we need to be dealing with in separate agreements. But ultimately our trade policy has to be governed by the concept of fairness first and foremost. Mr. Pezza thank you. Mr. Fitzpatrick i am opposed to the tpp for one simple reason. We cannot afford any longer that to engage in trade agreements that are bleeding jobs in this country. It goes across party lines. It was bad under president clinton, bad under president bush, and now a problem under president obama. It past this would encapsulate 40 of the world gross domestic product. Bad and we have a very history of entering into trade agreements. Yet again this year we will have a massive trade deficit. Every one of these trade agreements we enter into our bleeding jobs. I have seen it firsthand in my hometown perhaps anywhere else in this district. Khamenei reinfection base in our country is the Manufacturing Base in our country is being decimated to part and parcel to these trade agreements. There are 12 member countries. I know is in draft form at this moment. It seems like a bad idea to me. The main reason is that what we have learned from history is that when you enter into trade agreements with countries that have different lower labor standards than we do, lower environmental standards, countries that manipulate their currencies as a matter of public policies, it is a loser of a deal for this country. Is good and necessary but it has to be fair and benefit the u. S. Mr. Pezza you both have a followup. Let me interject because i respectfully have a concern with what both of you have said so far. I want to reiterate, the democratic resident democratic president and Republican Congress have supported this agreement. What were they thinking . Are we pandering to populism . I am speaking nationally now, not just the two of you. I understand the frustration among the American Workers. Jobs are leaving and we need to blame it on someone or something. What were the leaders of our country thinking when they negotiated this deal and said good deal, lets support it . Mr. Fitzpatrick i think they had good intentions. But just because being against it doesnt mean it is pandering. I understand what they were trying to do. They were trying to create these trade blocks that would be a counterbalance to china. That makes sense strategically. But the terms of the agreement make they are important as well. Just because that makes sense becausecally, and just president obama happens to be in favor of it does not mean it is the right thing. I would not vote for it for the reasons that i have stated. It is not balanced and fair, and it will ultimately cause more american jobs to leave our shores anytime we can ill afford that. Mr. Santarsiero politicians always tell as these deals make sense, and they never have. We have a track record. Nafta, tafta was a bipartisan agreement. This apparently is a bipartisan agreement. I dont care who comes up with the agreement. Ima numbers guy. I have not seen it completely, but from what i have seen i do not like it. It follows the same past. If we dont follow the lessons of our past, shame on us. Mr. Pezza thank you gentlemen. Lets discuss Health Care Without the tired, old, predictable rhetoric. We know the problems and we know the benefits. So let me summarize them. We want to hear your positions moving forward. The upside window editions of a million the upside, we know millions of americans have coverage because of the Affordable Care act. On the downside we know that coverage has risen will be on expectations. How can we expand coverage while at the same time bringing cost under control . Please be specific. Mr. Fitzpatrick the way to wantd coverage, and we all everybody to have Health Insurance i believe it is a right not a privilege. We need to have everybody injured. The question is, how do we do it . What weve seen with the Affordable Care act, looking at three components to the Affordable Care act, the individual mandate, the corporate mandate, and staterun exchanges. Five years after implementation, Health Care Costs have gone up, and not everyone is insured. Within the Congressional District alone five years after implementation, we have roughly 35,000 people that still dont have Health Insurance. Mainly by joyce, because the hoice, mainly by c because the way it is set up is that the younger healthier population would subsidize the younger the older population. However well intended it was, it collapsed under its own weight. The numbers are showing that it is more costeffective to pay a fine for the younger than you ensure themselves. That is the problem. The employer mandate i have spoken to so many businesses throughout this district, especially in the restaurant industry. They were told that the Affordable Care act would only apply to organizations with more than 50 employees. Many of them are filling up the aca complaints spreadsheet is that you have to aggregate parttime hours. That is putting them in a position where they have to lay off employees or pay a fine which puts their business in jeopardy. On the state run exchanges we are seeing that so many of them are falling out because they cannot afford it. To answer the question from the is by the way we expand reducing cost. Competition breeds excellence. We see it in every industry. If you allow competition, costs will go down. Medical Liability Reform which most physicians will tell you is a significant cost driver in medicine, ordering tests that are unnecessary. The model has to be to reduce cost. If you reduce cost, you expand access. Mr. Santarsiero there are two fundamental problems. One is making sure that people are more in short. That is an issue with regard to younger, healthier people. The other is the cost issue. The cost issue takes two forms under the aca. One is the cost of policies, the other is the cost of these high deductibles. As a practical matter many families that have insurance are paying high outofpocket costs. We have another issue of the high cost of prescription drugs. What do we do . There are a few things we should do. What did not make it into the initial bill that was supported by many members of congress is the public option. Even speaker ryan supports the public option. I think the public option would give yet another opportunity for competition with Big Insurance Companies to help bring the cost of those policies down, ultimately to bring down the cost of the adoptables the deductible. But we also have to let medicare negotiate for prescription drugs to bring those costs down as well. We have an aging population in this country, and it is not acceptable that the cost of prescription drugs are skyrocketing, and many people are having to choose between their medication and being able to be themselves. I think those things are changes made, aca that need to be and could have a real impact on both the scope of coverage and bringing cost down. Mr. Pezza thank you. Followup . I will ask a followup. Public option . Mr. Fitzpatrick i think more competition is good. Mr. Pezza defensive medicine, what do you think . Malpracticeero reform is a red herring in terms of the cost of health care. It has not been driving up Health Care Costs. The fact of the matter is that those jury awards are not in fact making health care more expensive. I do think we need to be mindful of the fact that what is driving it is the lack of competition. We need to make sure that people have another option. That is why the public option is critical. Mr. Fitzpatrick i think defensive practice of medicine is a significant cost driver. Virtually every doctor told me that. I understand you were supported by trial lawyers. There are many that dont think that adds to the cost of thats the cost of health care. Medical no insurance premiums are through the roof, that factors into the Health Care Cost absolutely. Mr. Santarsiero when you were injured, you want to make sure you have recourse. At the end of the day, that is an important allison point. Important policy point. If there were evidence that this was the maiden driver of this issue, there could be discussion. But there isnt evidence for that. That is just the reality. Mr. Pezza thank you. Enemy. An amorphous well it is in syria and northern iraq, it is in parts of africa. Areuld like to think voters tired of bombastic fingerpointing and want to hear something of substance. Can you identify 3 specific steps we should take to combat isis, and do they include American Forces on the ground . Mr. Santarsiero they dont include American Forces on the ground. What they do include are one, working with our arab allies in particular to make sure that they have a coalition that can effectively defeat isis. The good news is that that effort has been effective. We need to make sure we are working with those allies and not offending them, as donald trump has in the course of his campaign. Secondly we need to make sure that we stay engaged. One of the reasons isis came into being is that we were less engaged than we should of been with the iraqi government, which at that time was dominated by shia was doing things in iraq that was targeting sunni minorities, which provided fertile recruiting ground for isis. There likely will be other radical groups to come in the future. We need to make sure our engagement is constant and consistent so that that does not happen in the future. We need to do is to make sure we are working with particularly with our nato allies to make sure we combat the threat not just in the middle east, but that it does not become the terrorism that gets exported first to europe and then the United States. That means having the best screening process for those coming into this country, and making sure that the europeans do the same. Mr. Pezza thank you. Mr. Fitzpatrick i know the problem well because i was in iraq myself and i interrogated sis,precursor entity to i the Islamic State of iraq. The problem started quite frankly by the initial invasion into iraq, which i think was not the best decision, followed by a worse position to precipitously withdraw without a status forces agreement. When you create a vacuum in a dangerous part of the world where dangerous people live, it should come as no surprise that isis has risen up. This is a fight we were engaged in and i was engaged in open till earlier this year. The first and foremost measure is coming off the illicit International Money laundering funding not just isis, but virtually every terror group on the planet. There are ways to do it. We know the culpable countries. Those countries do business with the United States. We can use our leverage as the u. S. Government to force these countries to work with the National Amusements community, which i was a part of, investigating International Money laundering to cut down funding on isis. Just like any company for nonprofit, terror groups are no different you cut the funding off, you cut the head off the snake. If they cant purchase the tools they need to perpetuate their evil schemes, they dry up. The kurds have been very effective in helping us fight back, and the third has been Law Enforcement. That has taken a hit in recent years. We need to support the National Security community, department of homeland security, the fbi, i. C. E, to fight these moderator thank you. Im hearing a lot of agreement between the two of you. Is there an area where you more strongly is agreed. We will see in the course of this debate further. Moderator i meant specifically about the isis question. Day, therend of the are things we need to be doing right here in the United States to make our community safe. That is reasonable gun legislation. It is not going to solve it all, but there is no reason why we should not have universal background checks and a nofly zone. The Republican Congress has not entertained that legislation. We need a congress that will bring those bills up. Will they solve the problem . No. But they are reasonable steps we should take. Moderator mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Fitzpatrick you want me to comment on moderator your level or agreement . Mr. Fitzpatrick the fight against terrorism has a Foreign Policy component, a counterterrorism component, a Cyber Security component, and a gun safety component. It is not just guns. It is all weapons that terrorists use. We need to take measures that guns stay out of the hands of dangers people including background checks. Moderator working with our muslim allies, cultivating our allies, working with our nato allies, stopping the flow of illicit money that funds these guys and giving Law Enforcement the tools it needs seems to be what we are saying. Why dont we send a letter to washington today and clear this up . I have stood on the stage for 12 years and asked congressional candidates their view on the millions of undocumented immigrants in america. Ive heard up talk about sending them all back and compassionate talk about creating a path to citizenship, but little substance has changed in that time. Can today be the day that we hear a proposal that is pragmatic, workable, and still respect the rule of law . We start with mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. Fitzpatrick the first part problem isgration stopping the illegal flow of immigration, which is securing our border. It is no longer just drugs and guns coming across the border. It is now people who want to do us harm. We saw this all too frequently in my days in the fbi. Once you secure the border, the question is how to deal with the undocumented immigrants in this country. I believe they need to be dealt with humanely and the coming of american values. We are a nation of immigrants. Im the grandson of irish immigrants. I think most of us can trace our lineage back to somewhere other than this country not too far back. That is a good thing. The guiding principle should be that we should not award bad behavior over awarding good behavior. People who have done things the right way need to be given priority status. That being said, i think mass deportation is a silly idea. It could not be discussed. It is not workable. We can do it in a humane manner that is becoming of american principles. Moderator thank you. Mr. Santarsiero this is an important issue and one i feel very strongly about as the descendents of immigrants from both italy and ireland. I can tell you that, yes, we absolutely have to secure our borders. That we are going to deport 12 Million People is one, not workable, and two, not humane. We have to do, our policy and the good news is we came very close a couple of years ago to a bipartisan deal that would in thelved this Issue Congress and