Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20151003

Chain was paying this person effectively 1. 69 an hour because they were providing a 5. 60 hourly tip credit which was calculated to include a meal that they would throw in. Thats 1. 69 an hour. They claimed to satisfy the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 when you add the two together but in reality she absolutely was not making 5 and 60 cents an hour. They figure and tips and the fact that employer have the nerve to make her work 20 of her time on nontip work in the kitchen. 1. 69 an hour in america, 2015. This is an honest person working hard to make ends meet and i dont care who you are, theres something fundamentally wrong with that. We have a system that would take advantage of someone like her following the rules working hard only to make that person more wealthy. There is story after story of that happening in our country. While this may seem i can say that there is hope and it starts here. We are in a unique historic moment in the Progressive Movement. For the first time the donor class, Major National institutions, the media and as we saw in the past few days the white house is aligned in understanding and a commitment in supporting progressive state infrastructure buildings and in particular state Innovation Exchange, meaning all of you. We understand when you are organized with the right information and tools and connected to each other and resources a lot can be done. We issued a report this year that highlighted the progressive victories around the country. You can get that report on line at www. State innovation. Org. But we found an at report is that it was clear from what we saw that even the reddest of states progressives ideas and values can break through. For example in my home state of nebraska they eliminated the Death Penalty and by Ballot Initiative passed a minimum wage increase. [applause] in north dakota they enacted pregnancy accommodations. Oklahoma they enacted an on line Voter Registration bill and these are just a few examples of red states. Of course no other state this year proved more possible in advancing a Progressive Agenda than oregon. This year they password twice standards by requiring sick leave and they address police concerns by banning profiling and instituting body cameras. They pass Public Safety measures that further background checks on gun purchases and made major changes to their education and voting system. Again you can find all of this in our report. In addition to working with all of you stage related to prevention of local laws and tax on the clean power plans. Do you remember that indiana religious refusal bill that passed and i think it was march of this year . Which basically gave a legal right to discriminate for businesses and others to discriminate against the Lgbt Community . One of the reasons you havent heard about many more of these passing or any of these others passing is because they have been working with groups to in many states to kill a lot of those bills. This year we are looking to scale up all of those as well as go on the offense on advancing family Economic Issues criminal Justice Reform and voter modernization. A big part of this conference and the work in the months and years of head will be amongst other things to help legislators prepare and provide the tools political and other sport you need to move bills this next legislative session that protect workers, enhance work as benefits help incentivize pathways between men and women and modernizer antiquated voting system. There are a number of other tools and resources that we are going to bring to bear to support all of your work in the coming years in the years to come which will begin do we hope to level the Playing Field across the country and really start working on behalf of working and middleclass families. We have a long way to go but im confident that working with all of you where going to seize this important moment and begin turning the tide on where we can get america working again on behalf of working middleclass families. Thank you. [applause] we are going to turn it over to the working delegation so i would like members on the oregon ballot delegation to please come up here. Good morning everyone. I am Diane Rosenbaum and with me are three of my colleagues from oregon and i think as now everyone knows, our hearts were broken yesterday when we arrived at the conference and started hearing the news about the shooting in roseburg oregon and i thought i would just Say Something about the town of roseburg because we dont yet know much about who the people are who were the victims but roseburg is a beautiful little town of just barely more than 20,000 people in oregon. It used to be a timber town and that is largely dried up so the students who died yesterday are generally older in their mid20s and learning to be nurses or welders, often being retrained for other occupations and it has got a river that runs third called the rogue river. Its a beautiful town late, great place for flyfishing and thats the place that it is. Yesterday it became our every town usa. These 10 students and one teacher who died yesterday morning and then the seven who were injured were just starting their day like any other day in the first week of school. As nick said earlier along with way too many names that we all know combine, aurora, charleston nl there is roseburg oregon. Our governor spoke last night at a candlelight vigil and said we dont know why this happened and we really dont know why this happened and the community is in shock and grief and we standing here are two but also while you hold us in our hearts and we hold those families and teachers and students in that community and our hearts, we also i think want to remember what president obama said yesterday that our thoughts and our prayers are not enough on a day after an event like this. In oregon its a state as youve heard that is the miraculous things including most recently closing the final loophole in our background check law but the fact that this could happen, the fact that these Mass Shootings keep happening in this country and really only here means that there is more work to do and i want to commit with all of my heart and energy today together with you that maybe we cant say not one more because we know there always will be but this has to end. We have to end this. [applause] so thank you for standing with us, for supporting us and let us commit to do that work beginning now and every day so that there will not be another roseburg oregon after today. Thank you all. Applaud [applause] thank you diane. I didnt get much sleep last night. I have found myself in various roles covering shootings at schools and other places. I was a reporter for many years and i spent director for the director for the portland schools and i ended up helping to go with the tiger team to deal with crises like this. I wrote a lot last night but i ended up just sort of publishing one paragraph and im going to read that right now. To the next person who offers condolences and prayers about the suffering of the families and communities of roseburg and beyond are you now ready to limit the number of guns sold . And bullets sold . Or do you just want to see another incident a week or two somewhere else and simply feed the fear that they track and some rum where we are not part of a real solution that can condolences only go so far. The president said this and the a number of people have said this. Enough. We have to take action and we have to take clear action. I had been to too many vigils to talk to too many folks about this issue and i think we all have. It is time for us to decide that we have too many guns in our country and start finding some way to bring those numbers down and take the opportunity and these kinds of incidents taking place. I want to thank all of your all of you folks who have been talking about this but it is really time to follow what the president said yesterday. In enough, its time to take action and its time to talk about how we have allowed the gun lobby and the gun industry to control the safety of our children. Thank you. [applause] im going to ask if you would mind to join me in a moment of silence if you wouldnt mind standing. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. I am shown the National Political director. This year ive had the honor of meeting and working with a lot of you in 2016 moving forward we will have many more opportunities to work, meet and support their work bridging in the states. This morning i had the pier project interviewing three experts that we worked with on many issues and they are going to be talking about the major issues that americans have focused on as well as recent polling and data from several areas. First you hear from david winkler. He will give us a broad picture of the Critical Issues people are focused on and discuss the general publics distrust of government at how that can be addressed in the enforcement of laws and regulations. Well hear from mali murphy. She has done extensive studies on family Economic Issues and will share some of that with you today. These issues are critical to your constituents since they are issues that fix is going to take a leadership role and helping to support u. N. Policies in your state. Finally with the recent conservative ranks midshipman potential shutdown over threatening planned parenthood we better be helpful for you to here on her from her in recent polling in other areas in this issue. So we will hear from these three panelists and then we will have ample time at the end for questions and answers following the presentation so with that david i will turn it over to you. [applause] good morning. Thank you for having me and thank you everyone for being here. Sean mentioned on the tractor of research and we are excited about our partnership with the state Innovation Exchange working with all of you on the state legislative issue areas. I want to draw the big picture here through research from three different sources and then we will get into the study that came out around the rules and how enforcing rules properly as a strategy for Building Trust in government, building a fair economy. This is a longitudinal graph of four different economic measures that are out there and i think what is the most important is if you look at the green line you can see the yeartoyear change in Hourly Earnings is stagnant so on the left side can see the worst part of the recession, unemployment at the top during the recession has been going down steadily. People are finding more work than they were in a recession but they are not able to keep up with the cost of living. Incomes are flat and people feel like theyre falling behind and they cant say save for the future or afford to send their kids to college or think about paying down the debt that they have. That is the central concern of peoples perception of the Economy Today is that problem. We need to understand that and find ways to try to address that another question from a recent survey about six months from now do you think there will be more jobs for the same amount or fewer and 40 say the same amount of jobs, only 26 fewer jobs so they are as hesitant about the future and things arent as bad as they were in the worst part of the recession. This is research for center from American Progress and a look at what people should give one or two responsibilities for americas Economic Future and the two phrases at the top crisis and those in the room onto the inking about how to connect with voters building an economy that works for everyone not just the wealthy and creating jobs in getting america back to work. Two of the strongest frames face on this research and this is from a few years ago but i can tell you what we have seen it consistently over and over for the last few years even just recently. The of voters, center for American Progress presented voters with a lot of different economic facts and wanted to see what caused them the greatest concerns. The top two were really around, the first one around the corporate ceos make 273 times the average worker. I think now that numbers over 300 times the average worker salary so when people feel like theyre not keeping up and they cant get ahead and see the contracts with those at the top that is their greatest concern about the economy and we need to address that. And i think the second is powerful fact that its important to bring home is one in four American Children are growing up in poverty. People are blown away by that number and they know we can do better. So i want to encourage you to remember those powerful ways to connect with the public. This is from gallup about government production. A shift from economic concerns to government concerns arising perception, this is a worldwide study that these are american numbers. Whether corruption is widespread and gallup releases a couple of weeks ago. 75 of people in the u. S. Perceived that government is corrupt and you can look across the world and we are one of the top countries. There are some countries that only 15 think their government is corrupt so this is not a human american issue. Its a human issue. We have to find a way to address the perceptions and hopefully i can give you ideas for that coming up. At the federal level there is almost record low trust of the federal government to handle the problems of the country whether they are international. I appreciate and have so much respect for the work of state legislatures do and their jobs are incredibly valuable. The public has some awareness of the difference between what the federal government does and state state versus local but everything starts at the top so that distrust in the federal government down to their perceptions of other levels. This is a stat that i think ought to be very concerning for anyone in congress. I know we dont have anyone here today but we are in the shadow of capitol hill. Whether or not all members of congress are corrupt at the top and thats a fairly stable number that has been consistent about half the public saying they are corrupt but interesting recently the increase in people saying that their own personal member is corrupt and this theres there has been a gap because everyone they say everyone is corrupt but i love my country. Thats not true anymore and as progressives as people who are not in charge of the u. S. Congress would need to make sure the public understands we are on their side and who is Running Congress right now. I know that you are not in congress and we should be that contrast to be drawn in distinction. This is some polling that came out earlier this week actually on the Global Strategy Group and they talked about two questions that i thought were koran peoples confidence, the Government People doing positive things for the country. 56 of all voters were very or somewhat confident and 12 not at all. You can see the breakdown when you look at core republican voters. They call them republicans. They are split down the member member down the middle with 43 not at all confident and a quarter of republicans are very or somewhat confident but everyone else is much more confident in the government at 61 . That it cares about the issues. More than promising to address those issues as people are skeptical. The linkage of caring and to be a voice stronger than and speaking for you or promising to fix things but generally the words on the left as they advocacies speak detailed transparent inclusive but not quite as they want the rules to be applied in a way that is equal. The reasons we want to enforce them fairly to protect seniors and children and reduce pollution to hold big business accountable. 30 or 40 years the rightwing has pushed a narrative that government is the source of our problems and that rules and regulations are killing the economy. This Research Shows there is a message to solve that challenge that is more powerful and speaks to those perceptions of the role of government that is reason to want to walk you through seven dash 10 and feel increased enforcement of the law is good. And people were more supportive of the increased enforcement but basically they thought they should have increased enforcement. This includes even more independent voters and democrats they are split down the middle Small Business employees come down on this side. We ask people the way of raising these and there is favorable ways and more so than standard door enforcement. That is a great way to say everyone should have a fair shot to be on a level Playing Field. Year unanimous support for increasing laws and regulations we have four different words to you describe the increasing portion should be. Proper or common sense . Bearer or tough is basically strong support but slightly higher 94 percent said proper enforcement and common sense. What are the priorities . They want us to focus on clean water and food and drugs imported from other countries and government discrimination and drugs and u. S. Nuclear energy wall street banks and financial industry a lot of various in their everyday life that there are Rule Breakers better getting away with it. We ask them a specific federal agencies to have similar state agencies or opportunities that congress is set the alltime low in terms of approval. And to read those specific ones but the public is favorable to these agencies. Only two years old at the time of the survey 36 percent did not know that yet. What do people think enforcement can do . The top reason is profanity deadly mistakes and save the lives. Seniors and children, preventing pollution, incredibly powerful reasons to prevent the Financial Markets from harming people there is a whole second tier so these are the top reasons stated they feel it is not fairly applied and their hurts Small Businesses. And was last the day then slide that i get into the messaging section this is from a bipartisan National Poll released to the public with that conservative argument because they only work to read pain is more difficult to create jobs and economic growth. Maybe add a few points in your political life or from the voters the right wing has spent decades to push that narrative millions of dollars of resources. Some people say when a fair and tough enforcement to protect American Workers and families to give the little guys including Small Business a fair chance to compete. One that has not been consistently applied, the narrative beat the future regulation peace in the National Study. That is what we take that there is a path toward building a fair economy, of government and one of the ways to do that is a forcing the rules that are on the books. To get into the messaging, the most effective way to talk about this is the case studies. But the most powerful talk about the negative consequences failing to enforce the regulations with disasters. There are some real Success Stories. To show people it is possible to have success to save lives and save money in to build of level Playing Field to call for criminal penalties for the ceo of a crucial way to make the economic argument and get to people that believe those at the top get special breaks while everyone else is left behind. I will briefly read the language from the west texas lawenforcement is collected the results can be disastrous. In 2013 and explosion at of west texas killed 13 people including 121st responders destroying preschools and nursinghome and hundreds of homes. The last time it was inspected was 1985 despite serious violation they got 30. 5 and. Well need to perfect situation is like this there is a case study in West Virginia in contaminated water 300,000 families. There are examples like this in every state probably. It is a great opportunity to help people see their real role of government and a way to do better. Here is a way. A positive case study. The language is on the web site cbs be ordered bankamerica added to pay 727 million in fines for charging products that customers never agreed to. In to pay for wordy deceptive billing. It is 3. 5 billion since its creation in two years ago would be to strengthen the enforcement not weaken them. Incredibly powerful Success Story how enforcement can make a difference in peoples lives. This is the image that you get when you google banker. [laughter] said his daughter shot from our office. And a few other messages you can find this online. But to piece together the negative consequences and the reasons for it one of the of their Success Stories was to keep millions of products that of the u. S. Market with eightpoint to million in six months. Very powerful but to underline the message, that Small Business of entreprenuership is the engine of the economy to create wealth level Playing Field so corporations can squeeze Small Businesses out of the marketplace. So that is my section of one of the pathways i look forward to working with you in the future as we dived deeper into more recent research and upcoming challenges with the next years legislation. [applause] good morning. I am a partner at the polling firm that has over the last several years conducted Extensive Research on issues impacting families, middleclass, and their role and relationship with the workplace. What i will do today is give you public polling on these issues to augment the presentation with recent examples that i can not necessarily share from my clients because they own the data but we have seen consistently about the power of these issues to make a Family Friendly economy to major those issues are a top priority. We can go ahead and get started. Talk about family Economic Security i dont know if there is the way to a size that down to the edges are not cut off but to set the stage, we noted the economy is moving and recovering since the recession about what is not happening is they dont see that direct benefit to bin terms of wage growth and improved quality of life Rand Workplace benefits for about this shows you do not see a movement while unemployment is down you dont see it in household income. Poll after poll people feel they use are generally Getting Better but when you ask about their own personal financial situation they feel theyre not saying that a proponent that will impact the 2016 election and families every single day. Because of this there is the broader framework of issues that are out there to address some of these concerns. That impacts minimumwage workers than there are many out there that are looking for greater relief. We also see greater focus to close the loopholes and there is the huge perception out there that those at the top for doing great to see their bosses arrive but they feel they are paying for its also access to affordable high quality care and child care and not just the wages they bring home but what theyre able to provide for their families for called preschool and College Affordability with the education spectrum are Economic Issues and theyll look in terms of opportunity. There is enormous support regardless of the extreme spectrum might say that there is a gender discrimination problem so we did a poll for america ted women choose to test a package of issues asking if they supported raising the minimum wage at 10. 10 and a guarantee the ability to earn paid sick time and tested equal pay making it harder to pay women must then creating that of family medical leave the insurance fund. When we tested this is 63 of the 2016 voters, those who turned out, they will support this as a package. You know, it isnt just support among democrats. This is something that we get support across the board. And as we have seen between what people like and what they are willing to years. We do not see at disconnect but we ask people in canada its are elected office but higher minimum wage paid family and medical leave does and make you more or less likely . I think those who supported our seen very bill backlash. Want out of four. Not surprisingly you see a lot of candidates take on these issues to talk about them directly with the president ial candidates and Hillary Clinton and talking about equal pay it is a family issue and the American Economic issue. That is how people look at it. Lead is help people connect to their own families. Bernie sanders also talks about this when millions of workers have seen declines working long brouwers with lower wages. This is connecting with voters where they are right now. But it doesnt surprise anybody that candidates are talking about these issues. For the First Time Since i can remember you hear republican candidates embracing these issues many probably saw that senator rubio rolled out his program that is a wolf in sheeps clothing but he takes it upon. The previous slides should give you every explanation as to why and who disagrees . One of the threats is to Many Americans have to choose between being there for your children are reading the financial means. That is why these policies are so important. To talk about only conservative principles can solve the income gap but this is the problem that has preached a urgency point in this country and voters are looking for Real Solutions with rand paul talking about income inequality. So in our polling we found there is huge support for the paycheck fairness act. This was a National Study the voters also support the family act and to reach a fever explanation than the softish making an end to read it again we see huge support across party lines and when we did focus groups around these issues we heard fervors talk a warrant in their words and they dont see it as only as something but the benefits that all workers should have. They have british lives without having access to know what it to freeze and a this is the scope of research for a first address the problem to read the voters where there are. But not being able to make ends meet in to be there for their families. I guess marco rubio soaves too many are forced to do choose to be there for their loved ones leading people where they are recognizing its a major problem. We want to and knowledge of our shared values and to learn the call or page 81 dash benefit from a stable work force and everyone that works hard should be able to make a better future. We believe that their shared values but we need to address the fact that the facts are on their side. This is good for businesses says it saves money to retrain and employee turnover and they have proven in place is where it is in effect to make an and economic impact. Route two have the ball you on our side. But explain why this matters for everyone. But instead the workforce and the economy is stronger and will strengthen the future generation. It will set families set for a successful future for their children and grandchildren in this country. I will wrap up there. Sari. [laughter] [applause] i feel like these presentations build off of each other so i am happy to follow that. I and the executive director of the planned parenthood action by and. That is the fidgety that does political and advocacy work and i will be sharing some research on womens access to Reproductive Health care as well as its one organization but is now like to ask their of the federation of america and as wolf may narrow bridge and provides a and we provide a range of Reproductive Health care and issue he asian. Well woman the same stomach cancer screenings comer breast exams, Birth Control and abortion. 75 of patients and lowincome 150 at the poverty bubble or below and in addition through our educators we provide comprehensive more then and that more young people every year. But our mission has been to provide compassionate with care and but to be in those under certain areas with that population in certain sense but theyre tough and nt attack and some members of state ever revs as well as the antiabortion extremist. The goal is to take planned parenthood out of participating in medicaid and other Government Programs that reimburses planned parenthood for services that are provided to low income people. I will share some polling but at heart this is an about Birth Control or sex ed but whether or not it should be safe and legal in this country but unfortunately we think it is discriminatory toward the women but that is the law so we follow that so we look dash fit will be the rule. And they favored continued funding for permanent planned parenthood at the end of july and found ages 63 through 28 murders and they are especially strong. 60 but National Polls though of and to a 61 and theyre eliminating funding but to a proposal over shutting the government down or funding planned parenthood and a new poll shows that the vast majority of the public agrees with the u. S. Supreme Court Decision that made abortion safe and legal 67 29 and the twothirds majority is an unchanged but with that marriage to call ladies and larry nance and this is fair and so he tested similar to web malis said about a but that doesnt mean that they vote. Their votes to done if and 30 those that is a rooster from an i amusing republicans as a sure hand because that is the party in power but obviously we have a lot of republicans that support funding. I dont want to be too broad brush. The voters are skeptical about the Congressional Republicans hearings and investigations. Now were under investigation by congress we went to use that at the essence. But how the public is absorbing this date think it is political. 57 n 28 they have a political agenda theyre trying to push. 60 25 in the investigation into play and parenthood is designed to score political points. Women voters have a high regard for planned parenthood. Not surprising many our patients. And as a couple things to note 61 believe they play an important tool to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies at a 40 year low right now so that is a very Important Role and 59 of a planned parenthood is one of the few Affordable Health care options. To summarize, over the past two months we go over the last several years Reproductive Health care access is under attack at the state level like never before. My colleague is ever state policy director in will be in the the a panel later today to talk about the state to attacks to preview what we are anticipating the next legislative session after Reproductive Health care justin last two months we have had 15 and thai women hold votes in congress with four specific votes to defund planned parenthood in 15 states attempt to defunded in their state and 17 state investigations in the last two months. The level of harassment is intense. Doing the math and i would close by basically and to talk about Womens Health issues for british important to highlight to the motive of folks who would act to define for restrict access to Womens Health care or to planned parenthood to focus on that underlying motive it isnt about Birth Control or education but he a different set of beliefs around access to abortion. You will acknowledge that the decision to have an abortion is personal and complex for women and doctors and families but isnt helpful necessary to go further them that purport talking about the complexity of a personal decision but not going so far terceira recognize people think this is a san or immoral is not necessary or helpful for code to be proactive especially prevention and findings you can do with garner own terms as the elected official you want to bring this up. Dont wait until your oust the be strong and proactive to talk about attacks Island Health care and to restrict access to services should be a dominant party for elected leaders the special with other urgent challenges. The fact we had 15 votes restricting access in the last two months think all the other stuff they have not done a taking care of of, it is outrageous. So lastly i will leave you with a plea to be the vocal supporters to be out front and the leaders on this issue. Were at a critical moment in this conversation of who will make these decisions. Within zero or politicians . As elected leaders you have a Critical Role to stand up for womens ability to make their own Reproductive Health decisions. I would encourage you to do that. A thank you so much. [applause] now we will take questions over 50 minutes. 15. Ion from minnesota. A terrific presentation and i hope we can see it all somewhere. For those that cannot write fast enough but to bring in another aspect of planned parenthood i know people gave me a dirty looks but i went to the head in minnesota said i almost joined the demonstration against you because i was so irritated that you were not participating in the Exchange Even though i am a total supporter of Reproductive Health i am actively working legislatively of lawandorder issues to facilitate donor request. One direction i thought we should go is to remove the official action. I dont know anything about it but weve moved the official action of planned parenthood but to make sure those were having abortions know that this is an option to facilitate the women to make the connection in themselves. Sorry i am the basic molecular biologists so i am very concerned about those issues. I am from wisconsin. Ill love planned parenthood i used to work for you iran wisconsin and. Hagen their real love your work. But it seems from my perspective this is about power, but taking away halt the services that women desperately the need to work or go to graduate school i am worried about making it about abortion i think of the extremists opposed Birth Control but day to go after the services because they think they should make these decisions to take away choices about our lives. And wanted to frame it bigger i think the abortion is the peace but to have the ability to make critical decisions and for the first presentation, does this motivate people to vote . We have massive corruption right now and for chalet walker is back in the states but to people vote on this . Is this an important critical thing to talk about . Maybe that is separate and it is a motivator . I totally agree it is about a larger issue of control was emphasizing the abortion peace because instead of engaging about a debate on that issue if they do the backhanded think that does not direct address that to make it about Something Else for our was trying to air dry attention to that but i agree there is a larger world view clash happening. The second question and deserves a much wonder answer, but rules and regulations are not what people are very devout but making ends meet to put food on the table. Addressing that concern is where you want to start reading touche decisions where they want to vote for to make the economy grow. And part of the argument is a system of government that is corrupt and we can address that to enforce the rules cover not necessarily put that on your campaign bumper sticker. [laughter] going back to the statement of the public can you explain why 75 percent favor i will be a voice free but only 25 percent say i will speak for you . Why is there that incredible difference that seemed to mean the same . Batted is a study that you can find in public with more detail on the strategy web site they just found i imagine the public response is what theyre willing to have their officials to but to speak for them they do not like that as much. State senator from washington and. One month ago had a planned parenthood clinic in washington were Washington State university is located are you seeing signs of this type of aggression occurring we seem to not have this much for a while but it is interesting is a and a town with a college campus. What you find out about College Students views are republicans reaching we had a lot of polling with young for orders. Young voters. Guess this is a and a craze of arson attacks over the last two months recently another one in california sennar seeing increased attacks on the Health Centers. With the rhetoric and focus and hateful speech and plants itself to those attacks but in terms of pulling polling and all have been a pain to choose tour at this moment but our student organizing presence has skyrocketed in the last several years with the strong student chapters on 260 campuses around the country of planned parenthood generation they are fired up and ready to go organizing their campuses and communities and it has been incredibly inspiring to see that outpouring of support. I will speak to the information on younger people. The college age said is often too small to look bad in and of itself public at millenials. We do know as much as antia planned parenthood there will try to see a movement of young for people moving against planned parenthood and choices not reported by any polling data there is still support with millenials as with all age groups for funding planned parenthood to give them access to health care and Birth Control to keep abortion safe and legal. Youre not seeing and the trend among and the age group. So does the issues are closer ties to family Economic Security or is the new anchor man who are more engaged in a way that helps us. Not to say older men are against it but it is less motivating less of our rally cry but for millenials and they see the connection between womens access to health care and Economic Security so if anything i believe the opposite is more true. Senator from new jersey. I have a slightly parochial view that you left new jersey out. After a six year fight since the governor took over was the first governor to redlined out of our budget money for planned parenthood we continue the fight and we will win when we get a democratic governor in two years so please give us a color on that map. [applause] thank you. North carolina. We have had an incredibly tough year a brutal session where in the last long session that ended 4 50 a. M. The day before yesterday yesterday, and todays ago . One of the final debates was on fetal tissue. Someone mentioned how young men are getting more involved and the goodness. The majority of the debate was coming from older men. The drama was coming from older republican men and i was really of farm to to see the women in the house, the republican women who would take this up. One example that was incredible a woman said if they were to find a cure, her husband has parkinsons. If there were to find a cure she were not accepted for her husband if it had come from experiments with fetal tissue. I want to do know how would you turn that message around . The fact that she could take that on your gore and to make your husbands medical decisions for him . I was embarrassed to see red stayed North Carolina we were just defunded and part of the problem was a misunderstanding that it was Medicaid Eligibility at best and not specific funding we lost 130,000 in our budget that went shoot to programs. It had to do with teaching the scientific medical accurate Sex Education and they are gone now there will have to find donors but the messaging is so important and what not do talk about. Thank you for all you do. I will say one thing to that. Thank you for all the work in North Carolina. My goodness you are in the middle of it. More of us day reassurance but you are dealing with the extremist hutu not even and represent the every day voters within their party. Where you have the most extreme republicans taken now because it is said j. Small loud vocal minority of those representing them in body that. So for your average republican voter there much more of line with comprehensive Sex Education for our Family Planning and funding and getting back on track away from the distractions and. Those people do not represent a large constituency and Public Opinion is on your side. I am from vermont. By training i am a social worker we have a parttime legislatures of i am still the director of an organization that provides family and Child Services for cry consider myself a lifelong child advocate. I find it fascinating despite what the data shows the support for children who are homeless, waiting to be adopted is so high. I wonder about the pivot the you care so much about these unborn children by yet you do nothing to make sure these kids get a fair chance in life. And i would also like to say one templates and framework that you presented is brilliant it looks like it will be very helpful when theres trouble thinking about issues one thing about planned parenthood, i worked at an agency that does adoption work and we get more referrals from planned parenthood right now than any other community organizations. Thank you. Does planned parenthood along with any other social service or unemployed in that service, do you actively promote Voter Registration at your facilities . It seems that is the target demographic. Second business acting as a monolithic entity is there a way to message to put the wedge between Small Business and corporation . And they are funded by the aga corporations big corporations. And the Health Centers to have order registration forms available and do the drives that are nonpartisan edits appropriate. And also out in the community and i agree it is important. With the question with business you raise an excellent point that voters draw a very important distinction between corporations and Small Business. I could talk for days on the importance to differentiate. And the slide that a show with the and it is not about proving, it is important to assert these protections for workers are not at the expense that the stability of Small Business but meant to support though work force that helps Small Business and three found that argument that many policies level the Playing Field because Small Businesses are feeling squeezed by the tax breaks corporations get by the margins they can claim and having a harder time competing so if anything that the information and david shared on cl benefits makes it more difficult so to take that on and make it clear these are to support middleclass families and you are asking just with the fairness to make sure that they pay their fair share it is very important. The Research Shows how important that is and two examples the worst part is day past a couple different measures that were Corporate Tax solutions with the Small Business coalition that was crucial to the messaging. The other example is from my home state of colorado called the keep jobs and colorado at trying to help state businesses get and the advantage of contracts so those tax dollars create jobs in your own state. It is exciting to have this discussion and. We will have to more. [laughter] okay. Im sorry we have time for one question but the panel will come to this side to answer when we are done. I am sorry. State senator from colorado. Two weeks ago the center is purer with the east its annual Property Data and one thing that was unique at the same time theyre released their percentages not just based on the guidelines but the supplemental poverty measure. So how we frame the issue of economic opportunity, does the polling shows there is a way to a couple of anchorage the idea of specific targets of Poverty Reduction . In oregon there has been some success to get the Business Community more engaged and the Business Council has something that is the Task Force Working on Poverty Reduction. So how do we frame the conversation so we could use the word Poverty Reduction because i think there is a disconnect and then are you targeting of Business Community getting a sense of they could be more engaged that the poverty still is not moving and there is a tremendous amount of families that are considered the working poor. They play by the rules but still live paycheck to paycheck. There is a lot there but thank you. I do show that incredibly economic fact that the one out of four children are born into poverty we know that we can do better at that. Ever also recommend the more we use language it is inclusive like hard working families, ordinary americans or to separate the zero working for or middleclass if you can include more people the strunc area will be. But i do think the businesses of a crucial part of the conversation will so. But it goes up to affordable childcare, its a longterm care, access, access to Higher Education and job training. It has a broad application here. We just we need to keep the program moving. Can we have a quick round of applause for a panel . Is moderay congressman Keith Ellison. We will have an incredible panel next and then get you to the most important break, which is lunch. My name is roger coyle. There we go. I am actually here into roles, 1st and foremost year as the board chair of six. So i would like to thank you very much. And i would like to, at this moment, recognize our board. Many board. Many of you are involved in nonprofit organizations, many in there own campaigns. Obviously this organization obviously this organization would not have been able to be created and thriving without its board. We have can sunshine who is not here, andrea you met earlier this morning, naomi, from the nea commanders and , afl richard trumka, and if i could have a special note for our founder who is here at this table, just a round of applause. [applause] you know, i think like a lot of folks, joel rogers has been fighting on these issues, an academic at the university, has founded to Many Organizations to list. This is his 3rd attempt at rowling state legislators and will be the one that succeeds and we would not be here without joel. One more round of applause. [applause] as i mentioned, i am here into roles. Someroles. Some of you may no the other reason i am here is that i am a former kansas state legislator. There are any americans in kansas, about ten of us, and i now live in new york, so now there are nine. But i see my friend for my old state run. One of the reasons why i am so passionate and honored to be the board chair is im one of you. I have lived this life, no what its like comeau was elected at age 31 were just recently been married for working in washington dc, nick and i were working together. I decided the idea. And im sure likes of you, can i actually run for office and when . And then put on top point thatof that that i happen to be from wichita, kansas and indianamerican. Ii thought with a lot of encouragement for some of the folks in this room that i could make that difference that all of your making. I went back to wichita in a district where democrats were a thirdparty. At the Community Level and the state legislative level you work across the aisle when possible, get issues done and work on things that matter to people. I have never felt more connected to my committee them when im serving in the state house. At the same time i dont know how many of you have discovered when you got to the legislature and got your equipment and your staff assignment and your broken down chair in the always renovated part of the auxiliary building of the State Capitol were obviously in the minority caucus and the resources of the State Capitol. People from washington would call and say hows it going. Thank you. You know that im her staff. You realize that. The daily challenges of being a legislature, i want you to no are baked into the dna of this organization, but i know from firsthand experience what its like. I remember him telling a joke yesterday, if you remember the 2008 campaign, they criticized then sen. Obama saying we need your archives from your time in the state senate. And he is what will you have my doubts receipts. What we go through and how important it is and frankly how overlooked this is. When i moved to new york, proud new yorker now. Gustavo was making a great point to senator shaheen and he said, i fight for important things and gosh knows we need reform in albany and can do a lot in the blue states to make them much more progressive. He said, i respect those of you andin the purple states in the red states. These challenges are national, but these are fights that are on the front lines for those of you are really challenging areas and districts. You know how tough it is and how important an organization like six is. I am baffled by the notion that i could have been found washington dc, taken to the white house to my shown all this information, the Information Exchange is still going on here. I think this is exactly what he would have liked, this intellectual policy social curmudgeons that are needed for the Progressive Movement. I just want to tell one very quick anecdote. We have on the floor one of the most Important Campaign finance reform bills excuse me, Voting Rights bills important in a negative way. A negative way. This would have banned doortodoor Voter Registration, the 2,007 legislative session. I read it and had someone in our caucus who said we usually that these things go and governor sibelius vetoes them. I understand we are a little beatendown, but we can do better command i started texting my friend at the Brennan Center who started giving me legislative analysis because at least the Kansas Legislature had not banned the internet yet. So just them could go and read the bill, and he was texting me talking points and telling me analysis of the bill. I, of course, read it myself and we had an exchange and were able to beat that bill by one vote. I thought, this shouldnt be because i havent have a friend from law school whose cell phone number i have. Andi have. And that anecdote has stuck in my head of the sticking is that we need that why you are all here today. I suspect you are hungry for information. When bills are coming on the fly. Who is voting on that you are busy and constituents are calling, that is the essence of life, to give you that safety net and to give you that connectivity so that you can be a better legislator and we can get great ideas going around the country. We need to get to our panel. I will remind you of one factoid, this president , longest he has served in a Public Office and still in the state senate in illinois. He was going to be president for eight years. His time in the state legislature is obviously a very formative experience for our president right now which only validates all of the work that your doing in your committee. With that i want to introduce our incredible dynamic moderator for this next panel. I dont think we could have anybody better than congressman Keith Ellison from minnesota. Come on out. As you know, he is not only a former member of the state legislature minnesota, he is in his 5th turns in congress. Aa trailblazer, path breaker, and he will introduce our great panel. Good morning, my state legislatures. You guys sound good, awesome, fantastic. Thank roger for that nice intro. Here is the thing. You might be thinking to yourself what is a member of congress doing at the state legislators meeting . I dont know, maybe because you draw the districts that we run in maybe another reason, you set the qualifications for the voters we asked to vote for us. Let me tell you how have we depend on you. In 2012 Congressional Democrats actually one 1. 5 million more votes for republicans and yet we are in the minority because they gerrymandered many of you guys very important states. Thats about we need to Work Together. The silos are dangerous, ruinous, literally killing us. If we could find a way to Work Together more cohesively we would do great things for the american people, no doubt about it. I hear from reliable sources this is the largest gathering of progressive state legislators in history im going on that one . [applause] yeah. And at this large gathering im not bragging or anything like that. Weve had republican governors, weve been governors, weve been in the minority commode a lot of things. The progressives, what progressives getting together and saying we have a set of ideas that we believe in and want to help make the top topflight agenda, good things happen. Thanks to the work of these guys in minnesota, you know my me talking a little bit about my own state, we got to minnesota state, the minnesotathe minnesota progressive legislators get cnn posted agenda they raise tax on the wealthy and balance the state budget, invented they didnt invent. Invent. I wish we did. They invested in allday kindergarten and preschool. They froze tuition for public colleges and as you know tuition was galloping a double digits. I love dreamers to be eligible. In the year before a year before the fighting off fighting off a constitutional amendment which will be voted on at the ballot to try to tell a grown person who they should get married to or not. Like an adult person cannot decide who they want to be married to. Because somebody else believes make that decision for someone else. I tried to put it on the ballot. And we beat them at the ballot box. That is worth of the plug. And not only to minnesota l me say we just beat you at the ballot box but now that we are in the majority are going to make love to law. [applause] and that is because one of the precious you guys had was dont overreach, dont overreach. Grown adults that is overreach . Is not my business. Right . They did that improving that when you went anyway, let me just say you will hear from some aspiring state legislators, people doing amazing, phenomenal things. Two of them will be from what we call blue states. And both are critically important because the folks in the blue state are going to tell you, when you get your hands on the reins of power, do not punk out. He all gave me the mic. You know how i am. And when you are in the red, red, when you do have a red state and you fighting uphill battles there are things you can do. Now just our mailing it in. And there are folks appear to talk to you about that. Last word, we believe we are the park congressional legislative wing of the Progressive Movement commenced trying to work with the Progressive Partners all across this country so that we can help out just when elections but when the debate. Right . When the debate. We should have broadly shared prosperity in this country. Everybody, no matter everybody, no matter who you are, what, you are, where you were born, should have aa right to rise as high as your talent can let you. You should not be stopped by somebody. And we also believe the better days, the best days in this nation i had of us if it would just been together and include everybody. And now let me introduce you to majority leader Jennifer Williamson of the oregon house of representatives who will talk to you about some things that they havent doing. It is with the degree of sadness where forward. So many of us have seen similar tragedies across the country. Shooting deaths of four people are more across the nation. So welcome to the panel. Let me also introduce representative jessica hack north dakota. Doing some great things. Thank you for being here today and for your great work. Work. Assistant majority leader gary holder winfield of the connecticut senate. I think youve got some friends around here. I have been making the most of their majority. Senator Vincent Shaheen South Carolina state senate who did some really, i just want to say, so very impressed with you guys yanking down that odious, nasty, ugly, a strangers symbol. And it takes a lot of guts. We dontguts. We fully appreciate that effort. With that, why dont we start out with Jennifer Williamson of oregon. Come on up here. Thank you, everyone. Im super excited to be here to talk about what weve done in oregon. This minutes of 24 hours at home. And we all have our heads down doing some things, talk about what we were doing that people watching. And so once we adjourned in july and pull their heads up we made a laundry list of the things we did, and its really long. So im going to read it, and then im going to tell you how we got theyre because that is the more important story about what happened in oregon. A lot of these possibly past philosophy have been trying to pass for a long time. We have paid sick leave statewide, Retirement Program for every working oregonian, band the box so that people with criminal records have a chance of the job. We pass a statewide ban on please profiling and set up a program to collect information on what kind of policing was happening in our communities. We passed a statewide ban were statewide policy on body cameras for police which bans facial recognition technology. We expanded background checks for all private gun sales command we prohibited the sale of guns to domestic abusers. We now have Free Community college for Oregon High School graduates. [applause] we have a Clean Fuel Program to lower carbon emissions, and this is despite the oil industry coming in and giving our little state everything they had. It was really an epic battle. We passed a phaseout of toxic chemicals in kids products. Then a representative here has blood, sweat, and tears into this bill, the chief cosponsor at least a couple four sessions. And so again, fierce lobbying by the chemical industry, the toy industry, the personal care product industry, every industry that puts chemicals in the things that kids have shown up in salem, oregon. We had a major expansion for Birth Control. Now your insurance must over 12 months of Birth Control of time. And now pharmacist can prescribe Birth Control. We expanded our justice reinvestment program, and the unique thing is it we will save 600 million over ten years. Wewe wont have to build prisons which is fantastic in and of itself but we require that state funds go directly to communitybased nonprofit victim services. [applause] we reformed our classaction lawsuit that when corporate wrongdoers injure oregonians they dont get to keep the funds they dont distribute. We were one of the handful of states where they get to keep the money they were not able to pass up to the people that the injured, so we change that. Conversion therapy to protect kids. [applause] butbut i think the thing that we have not talked all that much about but is the absolute game changer we passed in oregon is automatic Voter Registration. So you may no oregonians have voted by mail. Only voted by mail since then. In the hand of every registered voter. Be in the hand of every eligible voter. This law when you change your address it changes the voting rule. We think that 300,000 additional hundred thousand additional voters will be added by the next election. And i know i dont have to tell this crowd, but women, people of color, people of poverty will be enrolled as voters and that is a big deal. So how to bedo we do it . That is the more Important Message morgan. Voter outreach and election work, and we get together. We get together and said we have got to do this altogether. If we are going to be the only state to increase majorities in both the house and senate are going to have to stick together. With our fair shot coalition. The rural organizing project,project, they all sit around this table and signon. Everyone of those organizations said the exact same thing. And so because of that we told voters why they should vote for us, our partners told voters why they should vote for us, and we didnt always have going to do. And that list is the list that we told voters if you like this we will deliver on, and we did. This is thelesson for the organization and all of us leaders, making sure that voters understand what they are going to get because when they elect progressive legislators their lives are better and you have to tell them that and everyone has to be saying the same thing. When we did that in oregon we have 18 Democratic Senators out of 30 and 35 state reps out of 50, so we increase our majority in an election where most people did not. Thank you. [applause] representative jessica, are you ready . I dont now how north dakota is going to follow oregon. When you think of progressive politics generally you dont think of the state of north dakota. Typically it does not come to mind. A deep red state, wonderful state to live in comeau we have had our challenges and a couplethe couple successes that i am excited to tell you about. In the 2013 legislative session we were disappointed when a person had ballot was passed and sent to remove the people. It took away endoflife decisions, in vitro, and womens reproductive rights. Spearheaded byrights. Spearheaded by a state senator from bismarck and a state representative in fargo. Going into the 2014 election we had to defeat this measure and try to make gains in the legislature. The work we do in between sessions is very critical and north dakota because we need for it is every other year. The organizing found a couple of amazing candidates who worked incredibly hard and the one. Senator aaron potvin this year, please stand. She actually picked up a seat in the north Dakota Senate in 2014. So in north dakota and 2014 we made legislative gains. One in each house. House. This led into a proactive agenda around family and womens issues. Not only do we have a Stronger Bench but we decided as a cock is working together to provide a proactive agenda around these issues. And he was the 1st elected in 2012 as the 1st openly gay legislator north dakota. So the three of us worked on a maternity paternity policy. Started with a much more progressive bill on the senate and rep. Oshea and i worked in the house on another less progressive but still step forward and we ended up with six weeks of paid leave for mothers and fathers of birth or adopted children and up to 12 weeks to care for a child, parent, or spouse for state employees are paid. [applause] big steps. It was a big step forward considering only mothers who had given birth were allowed paid leave prior to that session. They also passed a host of proactive legislation. Pregnancy workplace accommodations, funding for Sexual Assault nurse examiners to ensure that rape victims receive the care they need, and we change the conversation around progressive issues and made a proactive rather than reactive. They also passed the antidiscrimination bill in the senate. This bill provided protections for the lg bt community so that they could not be fired or evicted from their love, and north dakota was the 1st date in 2009 the past that out of the chamber. In a died and change the conversations. Then we elected a couple morea couple more progressives and change the senate back we got it back. Another success we had was believe it or not north dakota has medicaid expansion. [applause] yes, we do. And sometimes a strategy that we have is the let them fight with themselves. Inin the north dakota house not a democrat governments anything on in the past. So that is how we did that. Also, we had a corporation following measures one of the code is the only state that doesnt allow corporations to come in and purchase land for farming which is passed the legislature. It is important to no your tools and was referred back to the ballot. So the people get a chance to vote on it in june. It is important to no your tools and what you have accessible. Maybe there is another have a you can take. I encourage you to go to training this afternoon at 130 for the breakout, governing of the progressives. So even in north dakota we can do it. Now your strategy. And find the right candidates to work hard and be proactive. So even in deep red north dakota things can be done. Keep your chin up and keep fighting. Thank you. [applause] good morning. I am here to talk about connecticut. Connecticut is a blue state that does not always operate like it is a state. You know, i was originally supposed to be talking about what we do with our budget. The governor presented a budget that was meant to bring in social services. The legislature put a lot of the stuff that we want to see back into the budget. Or so having a fire right now. When i 1st showed up shut up as progressive states. Im somewhat of a contrarian. And i thought that was the wrong approach. They somehow got me on the board of progressive states. Me involved in helping to do something about this organization that was saying now. As i sit here i hear about the economy and how it affects people, and i hear about a lot of issues, but there are some things missing in the conversation. It is a group ofa group of people that i dont think connect to this conversation we are having. It is about them. I want to recognize that i have a delegation here as well. Senator may fluctuate came in, and i want to mention something i think is important to be able to put progressive policy. They came in. That change the way the conversation happened. I want to mention that there are group of people here who are trying to be normalized and they are from have a voice. John, are you in the room . Stand up so that people can see you. They are important because they are talking about something that can change your politics. And so we have craig cadet, robin porter who is new, she knew, she replaced the when i moved to the senate. These two bills are about peoples existence, the attraction we have with police, the conversation we are having nationally. But you would imagine that in a blue state like connecticut you would not have had the war that we had and so when Police Interact with people and pull out there gun and use deadly force a beautifully should not be investigating themselves and the prosecutor should not be investigating. We had a war to say that communities, the majority and minority meaning over 50 pey is black and brown, maybe we should do something about with the police force looks like. Exactly qualified or at least equally qualified to get the job. That was not acceptable. How do this . Second chance access, pearls and pardons should be expedited. I think thats a progressive way of thinking command we have this thing called school drug zones. If you are in possession of narcotics or if you are selling them, usually it does not actually apply but is used to get you to plea bargain, but it affects communities differently. For years i have beeni have been working on trying to get rid of these school drug zones. We have another statute in connecticut which says that if you deal to a minor you get the penalty. It would not catch communities like the one i represent. But its not just republicans that are opposed. A lot of us are. Some people use the title progressive. We have progressive. We havent fighting that. In this year our governor decided he was going to jump on board full force or at least kind of. When we talked about the part on progression he was there, and i am poor the government for that. You go through a process. The 1st time it is a misdemeanor. The 2nd time to be referring to drug treatment. The 3rd and 4th time can be a class a felony. But this is because we have a conversation going on in this country that we did not have going on for colleges the harrowing conversation. For a. For a long time the marijuana, crack, things that are associated with certain communities were not dealt with the way that we just decided to deal with it, and im going to wrap up the one thingthe one thing i want to say is that we did not deal with the problem. The problem is that people with the health issues, we should have been there the whole time. The problem is the people we dont imagine being the good people, dealing, who still devastate communities by putting them in jail and ripping up the economy. We have done a lot of good things,things, but we have to somewhat change the lens we half. Because of the campaign we have some of those voices. A great job. Thank you. [applause] thank you. I am from the incredibly wonderful historically rich, friendly and often very troubled state of South Carolina, a place that i am intensely proud of. Thosethose of you who spent time in the south know, change is difficult. I sometimes say that inertia is the most powerful force in my state. A very emotional year for those of us. Going to share with you some observations about a couple of changes that we saw and understand that change in the south is often coupled with tragedy. It is often coupled with tragedy. In the winter of 2015 sessions run from january to june, my senate seat and other downs decided to make body camera legislation a priority. We met with serious resistance to my little action, and the bills welding committee. In april of 2015 a man by the name of walter scott was shot and killed in north charleston, South Carolina. The reaction initially was that there had been some resistance in the officer that had to