Transcripts For CSPAN2 Representative Don Beyer Discusses U.S. Withdrawal From Paris Climate... 20170824

An august day maybe because its a cool august day what a fantastic turnout on capitol hill and that is due to the extraordinary lineup of people who will be presenting and talking and that brings you here. Five years ago maybe before five years ago the United Nations with the corporations of the United States and many countries around the world began to plan for the future of world Global Developments and it would apply not only to the least developed countries but equally university to the critical space and affairs and human rights for development in the best equipped countries including the United States. Out of that conversation became this extraordinary set of Sustainable Development goals to lead the way for all countries voluntarily to collaborate and how we will achieve the outcomes of those goals as set forth for the years 20152030. We are two years into this and already theres significant progress to talk about the build on the progress of the millennium the following goals that we are successful by focusing across the world the attention of agencies and focusing the attention of leaders in almost all countries, 196 nations, signed this opportunity for voluntary cooperation to carry us forward. Probably all of you are well familiar with that said will go further but i like paula to tell you about the association and id like to say we are extraordinarily honored for congressman buyer has been a great supporter of international engagement, Foreign Affairs and speaking well of the United Nations and serving as one of our leading ambassadors as well as now in the house of representatives. We are grateful that he is here on an august afternoon and our moderator is a colleague of mine for many years and doctor ingram who was an outstanding leader and one of the great experts on the process of the us congress on Foreign Affairs his work on International Development and modernization. They will be further introduced in time and let me introduce paula who is our executive director, working executive director, i am voluntary and she carries out this extraordinary work. Thank you for being here. [applause] good afternoon. I am delighted to see a full house. Thank you for hosting us this afternoon but for being a champion now more than ever we need champions in the u. S. Congress because the mission of you and and the usa is to educate and mobilize americans for a Strong Partnership and that partnership is more critical than ever before. With all the budget cuts that Foreign Affairs and fields are facing more than ever our efforts to educate our communities to support the work of the United Nations and its many specialized agencies. Today you will learn more about the global goals and in particular on Climate Change and why we need to be an active voice in your community. This is your community. If you have not yet joined the United Nations on the National Capital area i hope you will consider doing it because theres so much you can get out of that network and you can join committees and we spoke with many different issues such as security and Sustainable Development in human rights and an active group of Young Professionals and a yearround Model Un Program which we do with High School Students and we partner with several organizations and its wonderful for networking and for bringing these goals the local level. Thats what weve been doing it una over the last few years. This event is sponsored by our una and attainable committee which is led by patrick who is here and has been organized and led by a very active Committee Member who has been a pleasure to work with and i think for him for his tireless work and commitment. I want to take a few seconds to think cspan who is with us as well as nexus media life, youth collaboration and Foreign Affairs, Young Professionals Foreign Policy and also to our donors. Thank you so very much especially again to congressman buyer for his support. Its to his office that we celebrate every december human rights day and so we look forward to your active engagement in q a so we can make a difference. We are the largest. [inaudible] we have 180 chapters. Thank you so much. Without further ado let me now call on thomas. [applause] thank you paula for the warm introduction. Good afternoon everyone. On behalf of the Sustainable Development committee and the rest of the una chapter i like to personally welcome all of you to the United States capital. The Sustainable Development also known as the epic fiji with congress. My name is thomas and im a rising senior and a proud member of the una Sustainable Development committee and above all the event leaves. Before i start id like to think my parents for encouraging and guiding me to become the person i am today. And to all the dads out there today, happy fathers day. Id also like to think it individual for whom if i did not know i wouldnt have the courage and ability to organize and that individual is no one other than mr. Edward. He was a former president of you and ca and una usa. Id like to thank him for support and a virtually he can be here today. I met him in 2016 una usa life summit where he held a roundtable discussion on the goals. He went on to secure my position at the Committee Member of una because since as river High School Students to join such a Prestigious Organization i also recommended which is. [inaudible] by following his insight i had the opportunity to learn more and be here today to ask on behalf of. As a quick reminder for those present in the room, as paula said, were live on National Television thanks to cspan and their efforts to broadcasting the events. Were also streaming through nexus media life to help encourage and engage our Online Support of audiences. Please be sure to follow at una and at Sustainable Development throughout the afternoon on twitter. After the panel will take questions from our audience member and through the online media platform. Todays hashtags are Climate Action and congress. On this afternoon were here to talk about the sustainable goals which is Climate Action. According to the un Climate Change presents the single biggest threat to development and its widespread unprecedented effects to supposedly the most vulnerable. In april of 2016 under the us leadership Member States of the United Nations signed a historic pairs climate agreement an agreement that set the stage for in a agenda. However, things have changed in this President Trump decided to withdraw from pairs climate agreement on june 1st it is imperative for american leaders to reaffirm the leadership role that they must play on the International Stage and Climate Change. Congressman buyer isnt only my role model but fighting against global Climate Change. I first met him as a volunteer for this Campaign Years ago when he encouraged me to stay involved in not only policy but politics. I went on to serve as a Campaign Intern during his reelection campaign. Before being elected to virginia, corpsman buyers served as a twoterm Lieutenant Governor of the commonwealth of virginia, the president of Virginia State senate and most of portly, ambassador to switzerland under president obama. Before inviting congressman buyer up to deliver his speech let me briefly say that after the congress and speech will be followed by a conversation between huntsman buyer and mr. Ingram. He served at americas Global Leadership coalition and senior fellow for Global Economy and development at the brook institution but we are pleased to help congressman buyers to hear for the first member of progress to speak about the us role in the importance of the United Nations disable goals. Huntsman buyer will also provide a lawmakers perspective on the need for a strong us leadership on the United Nations and most importantly on Climate Action. With that, its my great honor and privilege to welcome device Ranking Member of the House Committee science, feet and technology and my mentor. [applause] that is now my favorite introduction of my whole life. I forget who said flattery wont kill you as long as you dont inhale it but thank you. The one thing he got right is he may not be the greatest champion but when i was running for office in 2014 the simplest promise i made was that i would be the strongest, clearest voice that i could be to combat Climate Change. Sometimes its not so much important to be the best but to try your hardest to do that. Thomas, thank you very much and he goes to Langley High School in mclean virginia which used to be the number oneschool in virginia and then they created Thomas Jefferson Magnet School and now its the number two high school. Im thrilled that he is a young person deeply involved in policy and in politics. When young people ask me how they can make a difference the simplest most honest answer is vote, please. In my primary in 2014 there were ten of us on the ballot in the average primary motor was a 62 yearold woman. I would be at the polls all day and not see anyone under the age of 50. Thank you for being a great role model for your generation and the generation above you, too. Thanks for inviting me here. There are more people in this room than in the rest of the building. Youre probably seeing that its completely deserted and i feel spoiled because im a member of congress that lives closest to the capital and i even though im. [inaudible] im delighted to come back whenever one else is in texas, california and things like that. Im especially humbled that you asked me to talk about the un and Climate Change in i feel very connected first to the un and mike grandmother, clara buyer who was my role model was a part of the american delegation to organize the un and she served as our us representative to the ilo from 4557 when they involuntarily kicked her out of the department of labor and she then worked for usaid for the next 15 years until they kicked her out at age 82. For the women in the room in 1972, just before they kicked her out, she authored something called the perfume amendment which, as she went around the world visiting one of the country she noticed that usaid money was training and education was unequally spent on the men and the boys so the purse amendment says it has to be spent equally on men and women and is still part of the loss and one of the rate pieces of our pride. I was born in the free territory which is a guided nations protectorate from 1953 and my dad was over there as Us Army First and Second Lieutenant keeping the peace. Might United Nations protectorate doesnt exist anymore its amazing they let me serve in the u. S. Congress and that the family is from belgium, france, england, scotland, my oldest child was adopted from dublin, ireland and lots of connections and feeling connected to the rest of the world. I am a democrat, a left centered democrat and in the first term, maybe my proudest moment was being one of only 20 democrats to vote. Trade promotion authorities for president obama and was a very strong supporter of the Transpacific Partnership in the trade Investment Partnership with europe. Going back to brinton woods which is about the time i was born because if you look at the world today it is so different from the world in 1950 because of our International Efforts because of the usaid and the trade organizations around the world there is a great piece in the sunday papers. Two decades ago with i pulled out and read quickly and will read slowly just about i believe the number was 137 people every day lifted out of poverty since the year 2007. I had dinner with a bunch of Board Members from some Corporation Last night and what we were doing on the capitol hill to address poverty and the chairman of this corporation sit next to me said they just need to go work harder. Some fox news perspective on poverty and i said what about those under 37000 people that we been lifting out of poverty was that a matter of 137 people a days decided to work harder and its the policies and investments in the leaderships that we provide that makes all the difference. Also, when thoughts. As thomas mentioned i was a master to switzerland in the bilateral investor ambassador but there for other ambassadors in geneva. The permanent to the un, the human rights commission. [inaudible] the first thing i did when i got there was read the inspector generals report on my mission in burn which is very unkind to the previoUs Ambassador who was a rich texan. And very unkind to the ambassador permanent representative to the un was a rich texan in geneva, they had their own jets side by side. The problem was a two ambassadors hated each other and they were both Texas Republicans and they didnt get along in the embassies didnt get along either. I made and had the opportunity to meet betty king who is our Us Ambassador to the United Nations the first week and we hugged and kissed and decided we would be the opposite for the next four years and best friends and it made such an enormous difference to have the un and bilateral embassy working closely together. I bring that up because betty because there was a North Carolina senator whose name is now out of my head the people my age will remember who halted the confirmation of our ambassador to the un in new york for most of the second clinton term but betty was number two there and wrote the chief. She was a principal chief staff person and once again i feel connected to all of this. Then the Climate Change when you first get to congress they ask you what committees want to be on and i said ways in appropriations and energy and commerce and i got my seventh and eighth choices which were the Science Committee and the National Resource committee and they said sweet are the case of adversity and i love the committees i am on. They are incredibly relevant to the topic tonight and what is important to me. Science, space and Technology Committee is unfortunate and i know we are on cspan i want to add unlimited attacks but its widely known as the anti Science Committee. We have a chairman who doesnt believe that Climate Change is real or that its manmade or if it is there is nothing we can do about it. Our Climate Change hearings tend to be dominated by Climate Change deniers who prefer to call themselves skeptics and we hear about the measurements are wrong in the wa world is cooling and were predicting of ice age back in the 1970s and if we got rid of the fossil fuels it would it make a difference. Its a difficult committee to work on because of that. Im also on the National Resource committee which is different but its once again dominated by people who dont believe that Climate Change is real. The existential issue on that is the use of public lands and it basically is the one perspective is that all federal lands should be given back to the state to get as much gas and oil and minerals out as they possibly can. One of the big four recently, and in the lobby is a huge poster that shows the city of norfolk, virginia, and the looks at, its a graph and the graph is storm surges in norfolk, how often the city is submerged. Goes back from 1930 through today. You see the surges are higher every year and more frequent every year that what starts off as small little grass relatively spacious becomes very high graphs, very dense. If you extended all the way to 2050 just 33 is not norfolk is flooded every single day of the year. At our Climate Change hearing we had two or three weeks ago with generals and about sitters and professors, and the admiral moran the Norfolk Naval base, he told us that it is routine now in norfolk, virginia, beach that before you leave work in the morning you can check waves, the newspaper and rated to see which roads are open and have not been flooded because of the Climate Change and the sea surge and all that. The city itself is that 14inch Sea Level Rise in the last 20 years. I believe is the number. 14 inches of right. The 20 years maybe 255 but its an awful lot among the worst. So it obviously knows no borders. Borders. The big deal is a segment went to come together as a world. My wife and i went to cop15 in denmark in december of 2009. We were overage switchman i anyy about this is really important, lets go see. It was frightening because you had all these countries that are ready to act on Climate Change, and the big for Brick Companies led by india and china were saying consistently day after day you got rich by burning so much fossil fuel by disturbing so much Greenhouse Gases, and now you want us to come back and you are not doing anything. You have no leadership at all. For ten days that cop15 conference with on as the world spun farther and farther away from any kind of construction action on Climate Change, on the last two or three days barack obama who was a relatively tenmonth president , 11 month, flew in and saved it by putting together essentially a bunch of voluntary goals and sort of snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. But he was very frightening. The message that came through loud and clear is that if the u. S. Doesnt lead, no one else will. And if we dont lead and show our seriousness, why should anybody else really take this seriously and move forward . As a quick aside, im very proud of what obama did in the ages as president , despite virtually zero actions by congress. Nothing happened in the house, and the senate, or the house actually passed i capandtrade bill the first term that went nowhere in the city as investing in the second trip. Despite that, the u. S. Had the greatest improvement in diminished Greenhouse Gas emissions between 20082016 when he left. Im an automobile dealer, if any of you dont know that, you need a car come soon afterwards. We went from 19922008 with a corporate average fuel standard of 22 miles per gallon. It was never involved in clinton or in bush. Which meant every engineering progress made over those 16 years went into bigger, faster, stronger, you know, expeditions and things like that. Then obama came in and erased it from 22 to 36 and all the manufacturers complained bitterly for a couple of weeks, and it quickly adapted to 36 miles a gallon. The landowners we sold land rovers we sold all which of four cylinders. Now they have political 45 and ultimately 55 miles per gallon. An enormous difference. He came in and looked at the federal government scrapes source of green a is gas emissis were fairly federal buildings. They made enormous investment in the infrastructure that throws it off. We were, despite no action by congress, one of the things i promised to be part of trying to fix when i got here, we came a long, long way. In switzerland it is just fascinating to get there. If you listen to people who say but i do want to be in one of those socialist countries countries with quality of life is so bad. Please laugh because the quality of life in switzerland is a tremendous. Their Carbon Footprint is onethird what ours is on a per capita basis. And yet they live longer than we do, in the popular we do, they are thinner. They just, youre really great lives. They found a way to do it with onethird the Carbon Footprint. So we have to have Global Leadership which is why it was tragic that President Trump has talked about pulling us out of Paris Agreement. Not a surprise. This is a guy who tweeted that Climate Change was a chinese hoax and its not real, and we have to end the war uncle and bring all the coal jobs back and think that a complete fantasies. We had 170 members of congress led by Brad Schneider out of illinois strongly support a House Resolution that called for the use to remain in the agreement. I sent a letter to Rex Tillerson back in early spring begging him to use every level gfs secretary of state to stay in the agreement. Because all of our lives the United States has been the leader in the economy, insecurity and fighting terrorism, and improving the environment and subtly different ways that the epa, and now in the most important of all, the existential issue of our century, we have given up leadership at a time when we are most needed, we are most absent. Tom friedman has written again and again about the economic, the job prospects of adapting to Climate Change, whether theres 30 more workers in the Solar Industry now than in the coalfields. One in every 15 new jobs in the u. S. Last Year Department of labor, the single greatest job category new category that need to be fulfilled was wind turbine engineer. If any of you are looking to recommend what you just need to do, they can kobe wind turbine engineers. And the whole world is going on without us. Use with the trade tpp, the Transpacific Partnership, article yesterday 27 countries are getting together with japan to do that we should have done and they will do it without us. And now this countries are saying, stepping forward to do on Climate Change and green energy with what we should be leaving and doing on. The world will go on without us and the states will go on without us. Ive been involved 44 years, you probably so following teslas lead which is terrific. Wonderful article ii weeks ago about Vermont Energy doing, stepping out and saying we are going to do everything we can to make the independent households and the companies of vermont as independent of the grid as we can make it, the opposite of utmost Energy Companies are doing, recognizing thats way to move forward. So were taking this exit ramp just when the intense commercial opportunities that adapting to paris would bring to everyone of us. And we lose our seat at the table. Our International Commitment to Climate Change, it isnt just Climate Change. Their summary of the things that we do with the other countries that we didnt sacrifice. You dont just have to read the president s transcripts of his conversations with the president of mexico or the Prime Minister of australia the other day. By china, india, israel, japan, european union, russia, iran, pope francis, everybody was part of paris. The only two countries that joined us in rejecting it, syria and nicaragua. Im not quite sure thats the company we want to be proud of keeping. And the Paris Agreement is probably the prime example of seeing how the Sustainable Development goals one through 17 are coming alive in public policy. Sdg 13 which is all about Climate Change, but also sustainable develop michael 17 which is committing to partnership and cooperation with the Global Community in order to solve world problems. 13 and 17. And in some ways abandoning 17 is maybe as important or more important than 13 because of all the other things we will not be able to lead with. David is a professor universe of california san diego and a coat, he said Just International credibility is essential not just to protecting the environment but also managing immigration, sharing intelligence, slowing the spread of Nuclear Weapons, avoiding pandemics, and a host of other things that Americans Care about. The rest of the world wont sit idly by as the country that traditionally has been the main supplier of Global Public goods creates a vacuum in leadership. Nature hates a vacuum. Climate change, got to be one of the nations greatest security threats here you want to be optimistic for a minute. We just passed the ndaa, National Defense authorization act, just before he got out at the end of june, end of july. Very important annual basis, and my friend bill foster, the only phd physicist in the congress was able to add an amendment in committee that said Climate Change is a National Security priority. And some bad folks tried to take it out on the house floor, and god bless, we had enough republicans along with the democrats to kill the attempt to take it out so it is now part of the National Defense authorization act, at least as it goes to the senate. Rising sea levels in norfolk i talked about but its also melting ice in arctic and all the different National Security things that now come up in the top of the northern hemisphere. Mosquito borne diseases, the drought in syria come rising temperatures. What we heard from the generals and admirals again and again is Climate Change will create so many internal security frictions and tensions that we are going to have to respond to. We are now part of a long piece, the last major war was 1945. Theres been Something Like 320 civil war since 1945 that are mostly caused by fight for resources that would be aggravated by Climate Change. Im very proud, the states are reacting. Im very proud of governor mcauliffe, our attorney general markarian. Virginia voted for states to step up and say even if the u. S. Is withdrawn for bears, virginia is not. I know over 1000 businesses and investors have said they will go along with it. Lots of people are committing to low carbon policies. 400 u. S. Cities have committed to cut carbon pollution. I promise you i will be the strongest advocate that i can be for staying in paris for regional in paris when the appropriate leadership is back in place. And to be as resolutely optimistic as we can be. I was thinking about machiavelli in, the prince wrote there are some diseases that are very difficult to recognize early on but easy to treat. And later they are easy to recognize and impossible to treat. That somewhere we are right now on Climate Change. The scientists, the report leaked today, again clearly point out how dangerous Climate Change is been for the rest of the world. We just have to get u. S. Leadership out there. The rest of the world will come along and follow our lead. I just at the moment pray that they dont follow our lead in pulling out of paris. I would love to take a question. Im so glad dr. Ingram is here to save me from the hard ones and answer the really good ones. So thank you very much for inviting me. [applause] microphones on . Good. Congressman beyer, thank you very much. A great introduction to this topic. My first question, first of all, let me welcome you to this meeting, the constituents got you must have a third of the room im guessing your constituents. I hope so. And my first question to you was going to be, how do you get to be, go from being a car salesman to being an internationalist and a believer in the sdgs and the u. N. , and you explain that to us. Its in your blood. And i grew up across the hall working for the Foreign Affairs committee, and my first exposure to the percy amendment, percy was a republican senator from illinois he was a very progressive member of the sena senate, and i followed the percy amendment and i went to asia. And what i came back with, what i saw there was that the women were doing the work in the fields. The men were in the villages, the coffee shops. The women were unloading the trucks of cement blocks, and the man, the driver was sitting on the curb watching. And that really socialize me to the importance of the percy amendment, of paying extra special attention to bringing women into the Development Process because basically many countries 50 of the population of the country was left out of the economic process. Im so please you know about it. Im old enough. Its a wonderful thing. And there are sort of two different pieces there. The one is the elevation of women, and i know thats one of the Sustainable Development goals, and incredibly important one. We come with Carolyn Maloney who is from the Upper East Side of new york, i had the second most educated Congressional District in the country thanks to all of you. She has the first. Weve been working together on congressional resolutions and changing regulations to get more women in corporate leadership. You find companies that more women on the boards and more women in the sea suites grow faster, have higher market caps, more profitable. And country that more women in leadership, once again have greater gps. Im the chief officer of something called the fair representation act which is among the other impacts should increase the number of women in congress by an enormous percentage by moving to multimember districts, or even both parties will have a huge incentive to put women on their slate, on the ticket. Which will both be very helpful. Also i went to Williams College which is a tiny little thing in western massachusetts, and the only graduate program they had there was in development economics. Its an economics major, the professor had was a Development Economist who would spend all of their summers in growing economies. And so that very much was the intellectual background that i was raised with. Very good. Before we get into the sdgs and Climate Change, im sure that that newspaper report that your reference to date is on everybodys mind. And for anybody who, theres a government report written by 13 Government Agencies based on thousands of studies which is according to the report the most solid documentation of a human influence on Climate Change. And theres an issue now as to whether or not the administration is going to release the report. Does your committee get access to unfiltered copy of it . What can you all do to make sure that we see the original report . The majority members of my committee make it access to it, if they ask for it. I dont think its routinely shared with us. One of the things that i was proud about incumbent, whether democrat democrat or republican lead, is when its transparent. Once again i think the Obama Administration did a very good job at transparency. And the fear right now, and hope its a needless fear but clear the people who leaked the report didnt think so, was that a very Important Initiative like this together by all these different agencies might never see the light of day, which is what it leaked. And thank goodness it is in the public sphere and we can now look at it and fully take it apart. Unfortunately, we are seeing so many people bail from no one, the epa because they feel noaa, in a position where the Administration Leadership is going to suppress their viewpoint or move them to a place where they are not relevant. I wish that were not true. Climate change, one of the things ive been arguing over yours is that Climate Change should not be a partisan issue. Should that be democratic as republicans or liberals against conservatives and it should not be matter of religious belief either. We should really get the science, looking at the facts together and making the best decisions that we can. You talked about the need for government leadership in Climate Change, internationally. You also talked about the fact that theres a lot going on at the local level and in corporations. Like yourself, im an optimist, and i see whats happening in the corporate community. Unlatch i took a look at the strategies and some of the large multinational corporations and i was struck by how many of them are embedding, some of the sdgs in strategy. There was one company i looked at that has committed to go Carbon Neutral by 2020. And in the process it saved 500 million on energy. And i look at that her i see wht corporations have done and the pledges the thousand corporation should mention that i see with the mayors and cities are doing. And i say to myself, okay, maybe its not that bad that we dont have the federal leadership. Maybe at the local level through corporations, through private citizens we are going to get 80 or 90 of where we wouldve been with strong federal leadership anyway. You say, but the leadership is very important. Where do you come out on this . We are going to get by okay the next three and half years and were going to make progress . Yes, i think we will continue to make progress in many ways but there are things we need to step back here clearly, i do want to be particularly partisan, but looking at the seven months, six months since the new president has come in, the major agendas of rolling back obama era regulations on clean air, clean water, labor, lots of things like that. It hasnt been a forward moving agenda. Its been a reversing. So that could hurt over the next three and half years but youre right, i think there are many of the pieces of our economy and culture, society that continues to move forward. I am a huge proponent of a carbon tax we need to price carbon appropriately. Im not alone. I was with the chairman or the ceo of ups last night who said thats part of our platform. Even though we drive all those brown trucks around we can stand a gas tax increase, especially if it goes to helping infrastructure and the like. Exxon mobil, bp, Rex Tillerson was for a carbon tax, lease when he is head of exxon mobil. And so there are very real things that we can do, appropriate price carbon and you get a very different reaction to Climate Change across the country. People adapt on vehicle miles traveled, where you live, the kind of cars they buy, the dishes they make about appliances in really important ways. Thats not going to happen at a local level. Well, im not aware of any member of Congress Getting elected on a platform of a carbon tax. You may be fairly unique. I was pretty clear in 2014 and that leads to my question, how do you talk to constituents about these issues . I know what you say when youre in norfolk because you told us that, and norfolk is a very sophisticated community. Not all of your communities are tied to the defense industry, to the Global Economy the way norfolk is. Youve got more world areas. What do you say when you are in more conservative neighborhoods, and what sort of questions or push back do you get . So i was Lieutenant Governor for agers like it has a statewide experience, being in the tobacco fields of the coalfield in the shenandoah valley. Right now i am very spoiled. In arlington, i was at the church and a joyous part of that i am. I had more members of Congressional Staff than anybody, more federal employees, more federal contract employees. I never need to talk down half an inch to the people that im talking about. Its wonderful because i can point out that a deeply believe best leaders are the ones who think longterm, not just about the next election but ten, 20, 50 years down the road. If we think longterm then Climate Change jumped right out as the biggest thing that we have to deal with. Also summary of the issues look differently when you think about them over a generation or two generations. Emigration, for example. Whos going to do the work if we dont its a meaningful and immigration reform. When you get to someplace, lets take the coalfields as an example which have been devastated, the coal jobs have largely gone away. Its a lot harder to talk about Climate Change but you still have to do it. I know that people like mark warner and tim kaine that has to camping in the coalfields, they dont pull any punches. They talk about the fact that Climate Change is real, affecting these families and that we have to find new ways forward. Part of it is the Obama Administration, despite its socalled war on coal, spent more money on new coal technology, smart call in the department of energy than any administration before it try to find ways to help these communities. With hal rogers who is a republican from the coalfields of each in kentucky, and to others, we were the lead sponsors of the reclaim act which was a matter of taking the fees to clean up old coal mines to rebuild the economys in these coal communities. It isnt either or. You can find ways to move forward. Is the jobs issue working and Climate Change . When you look at the investment that the Automobile Industry are incurring, do you look at the fact that in some areas the investment that is going in to wind and solar is being competitive with traditional doesnt work with constituents . Aas a potential for u. S. Competitiveness in the world. And it works best with constituents are places where those are happening. For example, if you go to kansas, oklahoma, those members of congress and those political leaders realize that the wind investments there have read a lot of jobs and a lot of revenue for them. The people in Northern Virginia dont care so much about those jobs but did you realize that theres a lot going on. These industries are growing really quickly. On the sdgs, what strikes me about this new set of global goals is the mdg is, the Millennium Development goals, were basically a set of specific goals designed to get donors to provide more for assistance to developing countries. The sdgs are much different. They are universal, theyre supposed to apply to all countries and theres very little focus in the sdgs on donor assistance. Theres a lot of focus on generating revenues in chile in countries on domestic resource mobilization and on the role of the private sector. To what extent is there or is there not any attention in the congress to the sdgs and appreciation and awareness that theyrthey are supposed to applo america, and in some ways they apply to the america, nature and spirit, and the fact that it will bring the private sector in to help them to achieve these goals. So you got me stumped. I honestly can say that in the 31 months at a dinner i bettered anybody mention Sustainable Development goals. Im not on the Foreign Affairs committee so perhaps they do there, and im not on appropriation so perhaps it comes up in those conversations. Writing the committees that i am on and in the general debate on the floor ive never heard anyone mention. I think thats telling, and i think thats a charge to this audience. Because its clear that members of congress are not hearing from their constituents, are not hearing from the advocacy groups about the Sustainable Development goals, and before he turned to the audience to join this conversation, and let me say that this is being live streamed as you know and the recent questions from outside this room. Advised this group of policy activists, some of whom are political activists, how they could be involved in bringing the role of the sdgs to the congress, to the executive branch and to their fellow americans. So i live in a rural dispose policy and political, and as does, as Thomas Minchin earlier on, and i deeply believe that the political is typically the ignored piece. Which means that to the extent that you can get involved, and again on a completely nonpartisan basis, with your members of congress in the states where you live to talk about sustainable deponent goals really makes a difference. Most of us spend an amazing that a time going from meeting to meeting to meeting, but when something comes up and talks to us about a given issue we get educated. We cant possibly know everything ahead of time. Theres a wonderful woman who is about fourfoot 11, annabel fisher, lives in alexandria, virginia, every time i see are adding that she has another thing i have to go do. She usually has a piece of paper with it filled out and have to go back and figure out why this is wrong for thats wrong. And an educated because of it. A second piece of that is my staff and i will probably take 1220 meetings a day in the office, and they will schedule me whenever he can, and so i end up learning locks and lots about things that i didnt otherwise know about. We had a visit yesterday with some people from dialysis clinics talking about a people that are on renal disease have seven other comorbidity factors, what can be gained by common case management, all these things. If folks here came and called on every one of the 535 members of congress one by one to talk about the Sustainable Development goals, they would be a lot smarter. I was try to think, if you had a poll right now, and audible of the 535 members, just take the house, 435 commits a helmet, the helmet of you have heard of the Sustainable Development goals in answer honestly. I dont want to get some meat would be but it could be a pretty small number. But i do for an upgrade when youre visited the whole crew, it could be a very high percent. My wife is calling. [laughing] i recognize in the ring. [laughing] if shes washing this maybe we will take the first question from your wife as to when you will be home. Thats right. Wears a dinner . The floor is open. I assume there is a microphone. You make the hard decisions. Please stand up and introduce yourself. Marcus da silva, constituents and fall city and a work for a company thank you for you and your family session of service. My question to you is, how do we in the private sector Work Together with members of congress in both the house and the senate to change the narrative around Climate Change and Sustainable Development goals . From one of International Compliance to one more of job creation and Economic Opportunity both in terms of Sustainable Energy and infrastructure and poverty combatant . Your question holds the answer to it also because if you look and say, im speculating, but i think from original position, why is there so much opposition or skepticism about Climate Change in the United States . Most of it is driven by economics. Theres a lot more skepticism in the coal fields than there is here. Theres a lot more skepticism in wyoming with the big coal basin, or louisiana with her drunk all the stuff out of the oil in the gulf. They look and say if Climate Change is real im unemployed. This community is devastated. So to the extent we can rebuild and economic based around green energy, around adaption to Climate Change, we can make it a lot easier for people to move away from an incorrect reading of the science but a correct reading would devastate them. Somebody said the other day, told me the other day, the climate skeptics have everything at stake, you cant just blow them off and say believe in science. Because they are scared. Thank you very much. I moved from geneva, so just one comment about switchman. Im sure you know very well that both process, give an idea in switzerland if you get 100,000 person, it will be protested i dont think you could in america. My comment about america is that information and education at local level. I have very good opinions for another thing. We launched last week a big project, unesco, with the chinese with the library of congress to help local areas, over 70 countries to get involved through knowledge, culture, heritage and natural heritage. And one of the objectives is to support, to enable Sustainable Development goals. Because last april at the World Bank Annual meetings, a study confirmed over 90 of the large corporations dont know of the almost two years what to do with Sustainable Development goals. And also big government, last month in new york, rather discouraging. So i do not think that will change. I do not think that the approach, lets have donald trump for or against, the issue is bring it at personal and local level, inform, educate people and they are serious to manage their Cultural Heritage and natural charities. In that respect america is still part, so america is needed more than ever. When i started in your 2000 my project, my task force, unesco, i did not find confidence anywhere as i found here with the smithsonian institution. The knowledge is here. The entrepreneur spirit is little bit tired, fatigued in america but innovation, its in america. So its up to you. Go to your local people. Educate them and they will challenge you. You will see the resources are in america beyond federal government picks up bring local into life and you succeed. Still america is the best. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for your perspective. He talked about switchman having initiative and referendum, like california and places like that. One of the interesting factoids is more than half of the referenda in World History have been held in switzerland. My name is chuck woolery, former chair of United Nations council. I want to say what you said, george, about the advocacy capacity assistant in u. S. I started my work on global issues or goals back in 1980. President ial Commission Commission on world hunger. I have to say that your role as a citizen is so much more powerful than your vote. I encourage you to do that. What i wanted to hear is question the assertion that Climate Change is the greatest national scree threat to development that my experience in the una council of organizations with hundreds of, about 100 nonprofits working together all of different issues was each computer with different come on different campaigns, different issues. To the degree in computer was the degree that didnt Work Together. And if there is a nuclear event, Climate Change is not going to be a problem. If there is a pandemic, Climate Change is not going to be a problem. So what id like to do is, the genius from my perspective of the Sustainable Development goals is a comprehensive approach that it takes to address all of the various issues that we face. And unless we do it in a comprehensive way in the context of our own National Security, then we will fail as we did with the childrens goals, the millennium develop goals and the world hunger goals back in the 1980s. I want to challenge that perspective that we do need to have a comprehensive approach, particularly in the idea of human rights. Protecting human rights is a justice issue. Thats really the issue. Until we do that all of these other separate issues are going to fail, thats my prediction. Thats a valuable perspective, thank you very much. I came to politics worried about the threat of nuclear war about windows 10,000 warheads aimed at the soviet union and vice versa. Now those things have been reduced by a factor of 85 . They are still very real. And as you say, a couple of Nuclear Weapons changes your perspective on everything. Thank you, congressman. My name is christopher benewah. Im a staffer for the democratic with Stinger Missiles Program Assistant for i have too may jobs representing here right now also my mom wants to thank you for her role vote. Thank your mother for me. Appreciative. And i appreciate your anecdote speak about norfolk because im president of United Nations site at Old Dominion University and in order to get to my club sometimes if the rains also that im walking through campus and there are fish going to the campus. So very weird. I question, this morning nikki haley on the today show was supporting President Trump stance on pulling out of the cop21 agreement. And the development there would not benefit u. S. Businesses, but she said that just because were pulling out of this agreement doesnt mean we do not believe in Climate Change. I was wondering if you had an opinion on whether or not we can still develop sustainably in the way that goes with the agreements and while leaving the rest of the countries as we essentially would while keeping the American People business interests in mind . Thank you. Yes, and no. If they cant look at a question, its a competent answer. Yes, as was said i think we can continue continued before but will not move forward in the Global Leadership role that we would have if we stayed in paris. I think as a businessperson, i think the magic that whether we stay in Something Like the Paris Agreement, cop21, whether its good for business profits on the right metric to be using. Theres a lot of other ways that businesses will adapt, can survive. My favorite business book is who moved the cheese . Its different every year. No matter what business youre in. [inaudible] i havent even read it. So the answer is yes, and no but we will be a lot better. Im glad Ambassador Haley says Climate Change is real and had to adapt to the more in the Trump Administration who have the perspective that this is something we have to deal with gives me greater hope, rather than epa administrator pruitt or the president. People on the hoax side. Hey, my name is liam pembroke, i missed even at williams and an intern in representative kathys office. What role do you think we as students can play in helping to encourage, you know, if i development both domestically and abroad . Often we feel people dismiss our voices because of our youth. I was wondering how you think that we can amplify our voices and yours in finding a solution to the problems we face . You guys are doing a great job already. We were talking before we broke about how the millennials and younger are so much more understanding and committed to these issues, that as you go older and take over and we move off to past year, we will be in a much better position. I dont have any statistical evidence to back it up. I know it very few people under the age of 30 that doubly Climate Change issue and we need to adapter right away. That is a personal threat to them and to the future. Its folks more like my age who for whom Climate Change wasnt even part of the lexicon for the first 35 of her life who are a lot more skeptical. And by the way, as a number of the wonderful people here have mentioned, your advocacy does change a lot of things. So whether youre working in a nonprofit or just work on a camping knocking on doors, and anything in between, all that makes a difference and changes things. I almost never quote charles krauthammer, but hes written a couple of essays recently about how despite our president s erratic leadership there are a lot of other institutions in our society that are pushing back that are trying to keep the car on the road. I think we have a few lysed in questions from twitter. Whats twitter . [laughing] good afternoon. My name is michelle and i work with International Economic Department Counsel and im also a member of you and aca. Heres a question we got on twitter not too long ago. Without president ial leadership, how can congress, so society and so forth best the best sdg agenda in the u. S. . We get the same question asked a lot of different ways. Congress its a little difficult right now in the sense that the republicans control the house, the senate and the white house. In the interim i think we should look to Republican Leaders in the house and the senate. And royce who is republican chair of the Foreign Service, Foreign Relations committee, people like Lindsey Graham on the senate side, and asked him to be champions for the sdgs. Certainly we can introduce a lot of resolutions and even bills on the democratic side, but without Republican Leadership they would just disappear. They are fiveminute comments and don. Civil society we talked about the many, many Different Things that you can do. I forget what the number of Environmental Ngos in the country is but its in the tens of thousands alone. That can lift us up. By the way, going back half an hour, educating the move is of course to what the Sustainable Development goals are is a great first step. And if not, the numbers, at least their staff, they educate the members. Thank you. And then heres another when we got from one of our online viewers. It says it seems that goal 17 is imperative for governments to meet goal 13. I especially see incredible partnerships forming that simultaneously address refugee needs, energy needs, and impacts Climate Change. If the Paris Agreement can spur action among parties as varied as the u. N. Refugee agency, Ikea Foundation and the cutting government to build a solar array to power a refugee camp, what can the u. S. Government and our legislators do now to partner on goal 13 targets and continue to lead the world in humanitarian response . All this despite trumps decision to abandon the Paris Agreement. [laughing] a good piece of that would come from the executive branch. Usaid, state, people looking for those partnerships, things like what did you with the jordanian government. The simplest thing that we could do at the federal level would be to raise our commitment to the money that we invest in International Development. I still believe we are the largest commitment in the world, but as a percentage of our gdp where some in the middle of the pack. Remember, in europe i believe it was 2 of gdp that was the goal for International Development, or two tenths of 1 . 7,. 7. In switzerland, liechtenstein complacently that we always look at the. 7. I dont know what the u. S. Is bubut i dont think its anywhee near. 7. So that would be a very simple step forward. The interesting thing is the president skinny budget which did things like a limit the National Endowment for the arts regiments, broadcasting, et cetera, et cetera, none of that is real, that the appropriate is, democrat and republican in congress are much more protective of a strong federal government and the president skinny budget. In fact, the budget he sent down that were in right now cut in h by x billion dollars, and the appropriators, democratic and republican bumped it up by 6 billion instead. What we di need do is try to tae that. 2 to close to. 7 and that would great the resources to do a lot of the kind of things that our twitter questioner had asked about. Thank you. I think we have time for a few more questions. Im a Carbon Neutrality fell at the university of california, so i have kind of a local advocate lens. This is not intended to be antiparis at all, but has the notion been considered that because the contributions to paris are voluntary that is pulling out and causing International Outrage in a wide range of fears be considered a positive overall for Climate Action . Well, maybe. There are some studies that show more americans learned about pairs because we pulled out that date if we had stayed in. So perhaps. Theres something to be gained by that come just. More education is always better, the more people know. Its pretty cool, i didnt know there were Carbon Neutrality fellows. Thats a great title. Im bill, retired Foreign Service officer. He is Congress Going to permit the total discharge of the department of state and the Foreign Service . No, but theres a lot the Congress Wont be able to do. Clearly, the trump recommendations of the skinny budget for the 31 or 28 cutbacks in state department usaid budget, those will not, they will be cut somewhat but not nearly that much. Maybe not at all. One of the things that i perceived and im not on the Appropriations Committee, is that the appropriators of both parties are intentionally protected and committed to programs that they been working with for decades. And believe in them and know about the programs in great depth. What we cant change is what suggested tillerson is doing little by little by not filling positions, by essentially just through attrition. I met with one of my econ officers last night who has just come back from overseas, and he said, little by little what you find embassy by him as he is just through attrition they are hollowing them out. We objected very strongly to the notion last week that stated by most loading that they would take the commitment to democracy and the justice and state departments mission, which is back to your comments about human rights is the core of everything. You strip away, that was the great contribution. Jimmy carter made us of the think is a bad things i think at the very top was with brzezinski, this commitment of the u. S. To lead on human rights. Rights. It would be a terrible thing to retreat on that. Its going to be bad because we dont have the leadership committed to diplomacy as, with soft power, hard power, smart power as the centerpiece over american leadership. But the budget application will not be as bad as the skinny budget. Thanthank you very much. Im one of your constituents. Well, im very pleased to see this young man here, although he is from an elite high school. The thing is that una has had a great program, a model u. N. Program. In fact, has been trying to get children involved in understanding what the u. N. Does. But mainly its in elite high schools, so most of the children, what we try to do because i belong to the sorority that works with una, we try to go to the innercity schools, to go to schools where children were not aware, and having worked with those people for a long time, children know practically nothing about the United Nations. I think one of the places we have to really begin is when kids are young to try to, these College Students are working on the subject, but but i talk to people in my church who say the u. N. Is just talk, you know, and these are people you would think would be much more involved. But i think we will have to do a Big Education program in the United States and maybe we can find no not to our present Education Sector im sure, but we should do a great job with trying to educate the children who are young about what the United Nations does. Thats a very good point and thats, United Nations in Civic Education in general. [inaudible] thats great. And in defense of langley has go, it is a Public High School. It is an elite Public High School though. I go to Langley High School. You talked a lot about in your speech about how the cycle of under one administration, Democratic Administration we do not climate registration and then under the next administration they would have accused it what you think the best way as a congressman to end the cycle and enact permanent legislation against Climate Change . Well, so the short term du jour tory perspective is for democrats to take back the house and the senate in 2018 and elect a democratic president in 2020. I do think though, i was much impressed, Ruth Bader Ginsburg said recently that the symbol of america shouldnt be the eagle, it should be the pendulum. Because we swing back and forth. This gentleman talked about his time in geneva. I learned many things in my four years in switzerland but the one i treasure most is a commitment to shared power, this concordance in german with case and sees. In swiss, they have no head is typically country and world who doesnt have a head of state. They have a seven person council but when i was there as five different Political Parties of that seven from the right Peoples Party to the left social democrats. Now its down to four i think that everything done by consensus. So i cant personally swear to this anecdote but heard when paul ryan was mr. Speaker that neither he nor nancy pelosi had ever had a what i won conversation and all the years that they had served together. And so what you have is the absence of shared power. Im in charge, therefore, straight partyline vote. One of the problems with the Affordable Care act which am committed to buy not a single republican voted for it. When things arent on a strict part on basis you get the swings back and forth. Anything we can do culturally to move to an idea of shared power will be a lot better off. I magically be fair representation act which was trying to get away from singlemember districts, plurality voting. If you get really bored, look at the fairvote. Org. It changes way we did like members of congress to get people instead of going for the extremes in the primaries, running for the centers and the general election and get people interested in working together across party lines. Thank you. My name is matt. Ive been part of the tim time n your district and the other half in coal country in colorado but i want i will ask you about coal. I will ask you about a balancing act. Because one National Goal for the United States is obvious our budget and having somewhat of a balanced budget and the other goal is the Sustainable Development goals. How do you balance the two of those and what do you see . Thank you for asking your question about budget. We never talk about that up here. Interestingly, most of the Tea Party Folks were elected in 2010, there are two centerpieces of the argument was they hated obamacare and that they were desperately worried about the size of our public debt, which is something to worry about. And yet the budget that the House Republicans presented, i i forget how many trillions it added to the debt the next ten years, the democratic budget wasnt any better. The same number. Without doing a whole trim on the federal budget, the challenge there are entitle ent. Its not what we spent on development aid. I think the budget as all 70 of medicare, medicaid, so selected images and interest on the day. That will be 100 in all of our lifetimes. The debate is whether its 2024 or 2032 but its coming. The other 30 have this debate any of the 15 is everything else. Twotenths of 1 , the state department, epa, education, energy, on and on and on. Its incredibly difficult to balance the budget of that 50 to get to do things like get rid of the nea and the i neh which still make a difference, a drop in a bucket that you have to some of get your arms round the entitlement issue. Social security, medicare, medicaid. That doesnt conflict with moving from. 2 to. 7 in terms of our commitment to international aid. Thats what we did. It would be a lot easier to do. Getting our arms about entitlement thats a different political question. Its easy to the ideas, people come forward with simpsonbowles, which was a major step forward, but everyone was afraid to vote for it because of the shortterm political implications, the next election. My name is nicholas rubio. Talking about Climate Action, energy is usually the main thing, but waste is also becoming an increasing issue. I am very concerned about plastic and how much plastic we currently use. So to effectively tackle the threats of Climate Change we would also need to change our lifestyle. How can we, example like plastic, target Something Like that come like we do with our fuel efficiency, for example . I guess first look at the california example. I believe its california that ban plastic bags, and therefore been congressional push back strike to private other states from doing the same thing. But looking, what you can do with either state laws or local regulations, even congressional law, that her waist and a deficiency forward we should do it. One of my favorite small examples is steve chu who is our nobel prizewinning secretary of energy, phd physicist, at top 15 he made a little speech where he talked about desktop modems and doubt this is 2009 and how that all through off heat i dont know what the exact, im not an electrical engineer, the average whatever but he said it was equivalent to one year to move from, i will make up the number, but a relative scale is the same. From ten amps to one amp was enough to power an automobile fleet for a year in the United States. And over the years you have seen as you change and desktop modems, even the spirit of desktop modems. As part of that. So anywhere we can look for big and small savings we should. An interesting piece that Lindsey Graham had written a couple of years ago in the fight over the carbon tax that said where we are today with the political votes not there to get Carbon Pricing it made be just as many fold to spend an equal amount of money on Energy Efficiency innovations. A lot of the great work that is going on that often times people dont see, so i wanted to see if you had anything youre particularly proud of that congress has acted on, whether it comes to Sustainable Development or any of the segs you are particularly proud of. Maybe for everybody that lives in the eight district, please vote for me. Tip oneills first rule of politics. When he ran for councilman, whatever, and came home and the lady next door was brushing her porch and he thanked her for voting for her and she says she didnt vote for him because he never asked her. So please vote. One thing we should be proud of is that while i mex that my science Space Technology committee is not very bipartisan. The way opposite. The Foreign Affairs committee in the house is very bipartisan. The democratic, the republican, work real together and get a lot of pieces of legislation out of it that are not partisan. I think theyre both very committed to development. So thats a really good thing. On one of the stgs is on womens health, and im very proud of the fact nat not only did we pass the Affordable Care act but so far we have defended teen progress nancy are at an alltime low, the number of abortions is the lowest eest since roe v. Wade, and the rate of health care increase is the smallers. Have to look at it piece by piece. Theres an enormous different philosophies how to deal with poverty, but even paul reince interested in taking the 40 American American children medicaid and finding ways to lift them out of poverty. Strategies are different. Tactics are different. But the commitment is real. An opportunity to lobby you and everybody here, and it picks up on the issue of National Security that you raised. I think the Development Community is coming behind you that one of the greatest threats and challenges to Global Development is fake fragility. And within a few years, 50 of the poverty in the world is going be in fragile states, and these are states that are not able to protect their citizens, cant believe deliver services. Theres little political legitimacy, and the development in Foreign Policy community have not come up with very effective strategies for how you help countries get out of fragility. And we in the Development Community have been approaching this as a development issue. Were finally learning and paying attention, its a political issue. Its an issue of safety and security. Theres legislation being drafted now by a coalition of ngos working with members of the house to develop to require the administration to develop a strategy, a policy, a more coherent approach. I would say this is probably the most important thing the congress could do for stg16, and so when that comes to the congress and you see that, ill make sure those people bring it to your attention and you can talk to your colleagues on the house Foreign Affairs committee. That would be great. If that im not allowed to end this session and thank you. Somebody else is going to do this, but this has been a real pleasure to deal with you. Thank you for your strong commitment to Climate Change, to the sfgs and the u. S. Leadership in the world. [applause] thank you again, once again to mr. George ingram and represent don beyer. We sincerely appreciate your time today and i hope our audience members in the room and shows online enjoyed the conversation. Before i formally close the program, id like to take this time to make a few quick thank yous. First of all to our executive director, mr. Paula bolin and her team of tireless Program Assistants, especially tiffany mon roy for continuing to support is every step of the way. Also to our event lead, thomas liu, for conceptualizing and leading this event and cspan providing coverage to the sponsors in the program, to our friends from the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, also to my fellow Committee Members who are instrumental in helping behind the scenes, and also a special thank you to mr. Brett blair and Chris Hopkins from the youth collaboration on foreign afays. They focus on leading discussions on Foreign Affairs and theyre also one of our new partners in helping to promote. So id like to give them to opportunity to say a few words to promote his organization. Brett . [applause] thank you. Good evening. Congressman beyer, mr. Ingram, im brett blair and im the executive director of thing you collaboration on Foreign Affairs. Im joined by self team members includes christopher, conrad, thomas, timo, and jay. I would also like to give a special thanks for patrick for allowing to us speck. The youth collaboration is a revolutionary moment. The first Foreign Policy think thang priced of high school and College Students. 60 strong and growing. Young people dont have a say in the Foreign Policy process. This void we understand were the ones inheriting this world as it is left to us. As tomorrows leaders we hope our generation can play a crucial role in shaping todays policy. This is the motion that sparked the organization and we aspire to grasp the attention of policymakers and the world. Thank you for your time. [applause] so, thank you again, brett. In closing i have a few thoughts to relate to you. Id like to reiterate the word that representative doh r don beyer said on the importance of keeping our International Commitment to global Climate Change. By elects to withdraw from the paris accordses one re risk of losing a seat the table and let other players set pry earths which may not be in favor of the United States and abroad. Furthermore, as alluded by representative don beyer the environmental challenges we face today do not take into account our National Borders has he high lighted across the United States and the world. Thus resolving this challenges with require Global Action from each and one of you today, online, and earn else on the planet. Today i challenge you to make the commitment by getting involved with the United Nations association of the United States of america. Unausa. Join our chapter here in washington, dc to become more involved in engages in our common shared interest to champion for affordable clean energy, building and develop sustainable cities and communities, clean water and san nation, and so much more. As the chair of the committee i am truly humbled to lead such a dynamic and passionate group of students and professionals and people from all walks of life who are dedicated to making a positive difference here and our community beyond. We work to actively assist and support strong u. S. U. N. Partnership to increase knowledge,ed advocacy, community engagement. Today i invite you to join my committee as we work to address and solve these issues. They wont be resolved overnight, tomorrow, next week, next month, or even next year, but with your help im ever more confident we can and will fight light change with or without the United States participation on the climate accords. Thank you very much and have a great afternoon. [applause] wed like to present certificates of appreciation for to our participants. [applause] thank you very much. Cspans voice from the road. At the National Conference of state Legislature Summit in boston, asking attendees what is the most important issue to your state. What is really important to our state is that washington makes sure we maintain healthcare for the poor, the elderly and the infirm. We have to make sure if we replace obamacare, we replace it with something smart and reasonable. An issue that we really are struggling with right now is property tax, and because of the vast increase in real estate property, particularly in our rural areas, our Rural Farmers are struggling to deal with a high property tax. How to balance that with the property tax and the needs for our schools, among. Im on the Appropriations Committee and thats an issue we dealing with, balancing out and making he can quibble the property tax. The most important issue facing our constituents today is unfortunately the opioid crisis. Children are the collateral damage. One day theyll need therapy to explain how the lost education, family members and lost other loved ones. Basically were talking bat neglect issue. We need more money and need a declaration of emergency. Thank you. Seems to me the most important issue facing our state is the partisanship that keeps us from making any progress. I do not believe in putting allegiance to a party over my oath of office to the people, and if we can leave the d and the r outside the building and ill show show up at louisianans theres no issue we cant tackle and defeat. Thats my take on it. One of our issues is to make sure that the medical cannabis bill will have representation of women. This will be addressed in the 2018 legislative session. Voices from the road. On cspan. This week on cspan, tonight at 8 00, with the budget as something for congress to handle well look at pending proposals for the federal budget. And friday, a profile interview with agriculture secretary sonny perdue. My political history was, i tell people when i was born in 1946 in perry, georgia, they stamped democrat on your birth certificate. I made a political decision, called truth in advertising in 1998, to change parties and became a republican. Followed by a conversation with black hat and def confounder jeff moss. There were no jobs in Information Security for any of us. Only people doing security were people in the military or maybe banks. So this is really a hobby. Well, at the Internet Group and there were jobs and people putting thursday ongoing and money at risk, all of a sudden