Lots of hey malika. Lots of beautiful familiar faces. Lots of beautiful new faces. Welcome, everybody. Were just super excited. This is our monthly town hall so were really excited and of course, were on track. We havent skipped a single month so weve kept up with our promise the beginning of our term, one a month. This is our 9th town hall and many communities weve participated. In. Before we get started acknowledge everyone our staff thats worked so hard putting this together. Like to acknowledge them. Michelle, mabel, mary belle, daniel, noreen. There we go. And marcus, sorry, marcus is live streaming. Sorry, im forgetting everything. Okay. And we have Translation Services here today. So we have our American Sign Language interpreter here for anybody that needs it we also have the poly translation has not arrived. If you need it, feel free to raise your hand and our staff can make sure that you get the Translation Services available. That being said, hello, everyone. Hi. Hi. Good evening. Are we at evening . Yes. Okay. And michelle is going to kick us off. Michelle why dont you kick us off and well dive right into it. Hello, good evening, everyone. Hi, thank you all for coming today for our Community Town hall. Im Michelle Hernandez and im with the office of congresswoman ocasiocortez. We want to thank you all for coming today to discuss an important topic, which is antipoverty, and the congresswoman recently rolled out a legislative package called a just society. And its an ambitious and monume monumental antipoverty legislation and were excited to be talking about that today. Some quick acknowledgements, we want to thank mr. Gal with the library for sharing space with us tonight. We want to thank sylvia martin. Friends of the city library. Thank you for helping oust. And i wanted to thank issa and malika for their efforts. And recognize Michelle Dunstan who is the president of the tenants association. So were going to start with opening remarks from the congresswoman and shes going to walk us through the legislative package and after that our chief of staff joining us from d. C. , is going to talk about some of the specificities of the bill. And right before we get into that i want to discuss some ground, some community rules. So we want to recognize everyones voice thats in here. In order to do that, were going to keep a little bit of time so that we can hear as many voices as possible. Im going to point out to my colleague hear, mabel. Shes going to have a sign. Everyone is going to have around two minutes to present their questions or comments and mabel will be keeping us on text. And i want to recognize one mic, one voice. We all want to listen to the person speaking so again, create a respectable environment so we can have this discussion oh, and the last item, you received a q a clip, a slip. So if you have any questions, my colleagues noreen and marcus will be going around and collecting them. You can raise them and well go around, again, collecting them so that at the end ill pass ill be emceeing, ill pass the mic over to you and youll be able to ask your question. Without further ado, it is my honor to introduce the representative of new york 14, alexandria ocasiocortez. Awesome. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much. Hello again. So as michelle noted, one of the Major Updates that we have this month is that we introduced our next major sweeping suite of legislation known as the just society. And one of the things that we really wanted to talk about, its a package of about five bills and one resolution that attack some of the central core issues of poverty. Were talking about not just were talking how we pressure poverty. Were talking about housing. Were talking who we allow to be eligible for our social safety nets in america. Pro worker policy that protects working conditions and has and promotes pro worker policy like paid family leave, living wages, et cetera. And compels us to join the Global Community in an elevated commitment to working people. And so before i get into that very briefly, i just want to address kind of the news elephant in the room, one of the other things that happened is the house of representatives has decided to move forward with impeachment of the president of the United States. A and. [applause] and this was a major development. Some folks are saying finally. I certainly feel that way. I dont want to spend an enormous amount of time talking about impeachment, but if you have questions im happy to talk to you about it. Basically long story short, the president of the United States used the power of the United States government to attempt to extort a Foreign Government into creating a false or drumming up manufactured investigation into a political opponent. This is a violation of the constitution of the United States. It is an abuse of power. It is a betrayal of our country and he anyone who does Something Like that, i dont care if youre a democrat or a republican, if you abuse power and betray our country in that manner you must be impeached in order for us to protect our rule of law in our country. Thank you. And you know, pretty open and shut. And you know, again, if you have questions please reserve them for the end, but i feel like its a pretty open and closed situation, as many of you know ive advocated for impeachment for quite some time. This abuse of power has been going on for quite some time and i think for our community there are a lot of folks who are saying this is not a joyous moment, not a moment to celebrate, but i think its important to acknowledge this is a cathartic moment for many people in our community that have been the subject to the abuse of this administration for quite some time especially our Community New york 14 is. Immigrants, people of color, working class, weve had a lot to endure. Im not here to police your reaction to it because we all need to go through the process. Feel what you need to feel. Thats whats going on. Im going to move on because frankly, i think the whole thing is boring, he should have been impeached a long time ago, like im over it. Economic and Racial Justice in the United States of america and that is what this is about. Lets dive in. Do i have the clicker . Diane will use the clicker. What we are going to do, what the just society is, it is about basically what the Justice Society is, as a said its about five bills in one resolution that is really focused on antipoverty legislation and is focusing on establishing economic and Racial Justice, some of the core issues. Ill go through it quickly but its basically the first is a recognized. Poverty act which speaks to update the federal poverty line. Our current poverty line is 19 feet five spending patterns. What does any . Like requalification for everything is based on a measure that assumes one income earner in the home, one stayathome mother picketers include the cost of child care, healthcare or a ton of other things, or geographic costofliving, you know, really with the actual cost of living is in 2019. This fixes it. This directs the federal government established a new poverty line which we will talk about more. Me the second display to prosper out act which is a sweeping set of housing reforms to the attack country which includes a national cap on racing housing prices as well as some punishments for abusive landlords in the United States. The third is known as the embrace act and we also have all starto with mercy reentry t the mercy and reentry act allows us toal open all of our social safety nets and in settle discrimination on our social programs based on people who were formerly incarcerated. One reason we do that is because one of the number one reason for recidivism by mass incarceration is such a persistent problem is poverty. People come out, refused and we deny and we refuse to extend opportunities to folks, so then we create so much economic isolation in this country that people feel funneled right back into recidivism and where incarcerating the same over and over again. It in settle discrimination for the formerly incarcerated for social safety net, and embrace act were doing the same and piece of ts a legislation that in similar discrimination based on documentation status. Its a kind of next level piece of legislation and it is something people will say why would you do that . I believe we need to acknowledge the contributions immigrants make in america. If you contribute to our suicide i believe you should benefit from our society. The last is up with our workers act which creates, directs the federal government to great a score to score federal contractors on how good they are to their workers from predictable schedules to union participation, to worker cooperatives to paid family leave. Then it directs the federal government to spend that money with companies that are good to their workers. Last, directs the United States to finally ratify the u. N. Covenants on economic social ad cultural rights. We will dig into what that means later. We can move onto our next like real quick. We will play this very quickly. It does more into what the suite of legislation is so we can all get, we can all dig into it more. [inaudible] we ran into some technical difficulties. Nevermind. Is it not hooked up to the speakers . Thats fine, we can close it out. We can close it out. This video thing, all things i just said, so dont dont worry about it. It is going to go into more detail but ill give because the some followup as well. As i said its five bills in one resolution and all of these are in the core tackling the core problems today. Its just the beginning. Its not the decisive in the product. Theres a lot more we need to go. Ill go one by one. So the first thing we talk about is that a just society recognizes and eradicate poverty. As i said this requires us tooc update the federal poverty line. We can go to the what this does is our first legislation requires us to update the federal poverty line including these things, the geographic cross variations. We will actually recognize living in new york city is much more expensive than living in other parts of the country. We can adapt our federal poverty line to adjust for that. The second is the cost of health care is not covered in our federal poverty line. They assume their healthcare costs dont exist. The third is what expenses related family, a. K. A. Childcare, is a huge one. Childcare needs. It also includes new necessities. In our federal poverty line relief that Internet Access is a new necessity in order for us to access opportunity. When including the cost of new necessities in the federal poverty line. The next iss the place to prospr act which is the housing legislation we were talking about. Next. The place to prosper act, has anyone heard of the sweeping housing legislation that was passed in this date this year . Kudos to all of our organizers. A lot of the inspiration from this is pursuing the state laws that, were picking them up and trying to apply some of those lessons to the federal level. Which is hardly a lot of our legislation should work from the bottom up. What this does is privations to protect tenants, a lot of our laws are not focusing on tenets. We are focusing on mortgages which is great. We need to protect working and middleclass families but i dont believe we have enough for tenets federally. It protects tenants. We want to improve the quality of our Housing Stock. We want to rein in corporate landlords and want to ensure housing is available and affordable to all. One of those provisions says if you are a landlord and cover a lot ofan Housing Stock and your document for abusing your tenets, you cannot get a mortgage to build more development at the get your act together. So thats a a huge part of our provision. The last, the embrace act, as i said before it in the federal discrimination of our social benefits based on documentation status. People say why should we do that . This is very controversial, et cetera. Immigrants pay taxes. All immigrants pay taxes, whether youre documented or undocumented. Immigrants pay for a public schools. They help contribute our society just like anybody else. If the building or can get away with not paying their taxes in reaping from public systems, and i think undocumented people should be recognized for the contribution to society ased we. [applause] we can go on. As i said, we set a just society is merciful and thats where the mercy of reentry act comes into play. What the mercy and reentry act does is so often someone becomes incarcerated. A lot of times for unjust reasons as weve seen the war on drugs, where people get incarcerated for ten, 15 years of selling something people are now making millions selling in california, colorado, et cetera. Once you get out there are a lot of federal programs with its medicare, medicaid, et cetera, where you get caught up in the system and you either outright denied or discriminate against because you already paid your debt to society, years ago, and what this does is it contributes to this pipeline of incarceration and going in and out of this system. When you create a state of economic desperation, that is the kind of environment where you begin to spread our system of mass incarceration. This does the same exact thing what says you cannot be discriminated against because you paid your debt toot society sometime ago. You fulfill that obligation. We should extend our social safety net to you as well. The uplift our workers act also assisted creates a lead score for all federal contractors in enormous amount of our budget and our federal spending goes to contractors where the government pays a private contractor to fulfill some kind of neat. Need. I believe the federal government is going to inject a lot of money into our economy. That money should be t going ino workers pockets and to help establish a just economy for everybody. What this does is it creates a worker from the score for federal contractors and it says we are going to put at the front of theo line for contracts if yu offer paid family leave, if you living wage to people, if you have a unionized workforce, if you are worker cooperative, and so on. The last one says a just society guarantees economic, social and cultural rights for all. About, i dont know, say in the 1970s the u. N. Put forth the u. N. Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights. 170 International Parties have ratified the covenant. The United States has not. We need to do this, and one of the reasons, one of the hunches i have as to why we have not ratified this is because it essentially codifies 21st century right scope the right to a dignified and safe workplace can write to an education, the right to health care and obviously we dont fulfill or satisfy all of those rights in the United States. La but i think its about time that we do because thats what advanced societies do. If we want to be, if you want to continue to say that the United States is a leader in the world, then we need to be a leader in the human condition. We need to be a leader in human rights and we need to be a. Leader in equality and equity and we need to be a leader in really creating a robust economic and socially just society. As i said, these are all the countries that have signed on to it but the United States has not. And thats it. [applause] now, given all that we does want to open the floor for questions. This legislation, so what we want to do is just front might any questions on this but we will open the fort of the have, and feel free to take it away. I think, nor rain are you michelle has some questions. If you have anymore, write them down on that slip and we will hand them over to you. Wonderful. Abdul, okay, the first question. And then harry graham. I do want to take a moment to acknowledge councilmember who is here in the back to thank you for joining us tonight. [applause] howre you doing, ms. Cortez . Im good. How are you . I finally met, we met in the bronx. I gave a question and you give a great engineer, to ask it again since were on camera. My question is concerning about the Democratic Party if the Democratic Party has been reaching out to lgbt concerned and immigration concerns as they should. But in recent years theres one group that has been left out,s are africanamericans. Africanamericans to some degree probably feel betrayed or used by the Democratic Party. When donald trump said what do you have to lose, a lot, they didnt vote for trump but decided say home. My question is how can you, your squad friends and meet people like me reach out to africanamericans, especiallyo show your just society which is been greatly explained . I i appreciate that. Thats an excellent question. Thank you, abdul. [applause] first of all i said it, i empathize about with the sentiment to understand why people say that. I expected a lot when im in d. C. , too. It feels sometimes like our votes and our support are taken for granted precisely because howls reliably democratic our community are. And this is representing a district that is a safe blue district. People say welcome you going to vote for stanley, we dont need to concern. As result a lot of times our concerns and to pursue for justice take a seat. A lot of times are concerns are placed at the last one because were not a swing seat. Have you what its like when we got the swing seats. Criminal justice, we kicked the can of that, on immigration justice which is also it is a black issue when we talk about patient, african immigrants, et cetera. We kick the can and issues of economic justice, voting reform. All of a sudden its controversial to talk about these things. I understand and empathize with that because people are saying we vote for the Democratic Party, why doesnt the Democratic Party vote for us . Why dont we center our concerns . That is why i get into trouble. [applause] that is why people say, people think she is a lightning rod on the left, a lightning rod on the right. R one of the reasons why we are quoteunquote controversial within the party is because we will say why do we have to wait for these things over and over and over again, you know . Like James Baldwin he has this really epic clip worries in the interview and hes like my parents and my family were born waiting for our rights and they died waiting for our rights. I feel very so how long do you want me to wait . That is a very core part of the questions were dealing with today. I empathize as well. My family is from puerto rico. My grandfather was born without the ability to vote in federal elections. He died in the direct aftermath of Hurricane Maria without the ability to vote in federal elections. We will not wait. Like my friend, i Anna Pressley says, change cannot wait. We are at a point, we are at a breaking point in American Society within theam quality, wh inequality in Racial Justice and income come with inequality in outcomes. Were literally at the point where people at the brink of eviction or people are dying because i cantey afford their insulin, because their families that are caught up in the system of mass incarceration. We cannot wait to fix this problem anymore. What i think the Democratic Party can do that we can walk and chew gum at the same time, right . Like we can worry about swing district concerns and we can also sent to the concerns of the black community, of all sorts of committees that are deemed controversial. Because equal and equitable outcomes should not be controversial in the United States of america. They certainly shouldnt be in the Democratic Party. [applause] okay. I recently received a newsletter from your office that outlined your priorities, which included appropriation of amendments for an additional 20 million forut opiate treatment, and that was great but i have seen anything so far about alzheimers and related dementias. This is becoming a Public Health crisis. The People Living with t this disease is such a triple and soon there will only be people who have alzheimers or have had it themselves because someone is getting hit every 65 seconds. By the middle of the century the costs are projected to be 1 trillion with twothirds paid by medicare and medicaid and in that most people dont think about until that person affected, guess i wasnt into my mother was diagnosed back in 2013 but she was a new york City Employees so ship really good healthcare. However, the cost of putting o r in assisted systole was exorbitant. The money had not been saved, it wouldve been no wayot for me to take care of her. We had some pending legislation now and right now hoping as an advocate for all some association that you could cite on. I did speak to your d. C. Policy advisor a couple months ago right now it is bipartisan support. Can we just know youre going to pay more attention to alzheimers and way it is affecting people . It has a disproportionate impact on women and people of color. Both as caregivers and as the people are afflicted. Yes. Thank you so much. [applause] advocacy for your because there are so many issues went to tend to and so often the way we decide which ones do you in the giveandtake is director because someone in our Community Stood up and made the request just like you did right now. So i can tell you absolutely we will take a look at what, whichever legislation you bring up. I also want to take this moment to say this is why medicare for all is so important. Because not everyone is lucky enough to work for an employer that guarantees them healthcare. And even if you do work for an employer that gives you healthcare year after year that care is getting more expensive and the coverage is getting worse. Y this is why im such a huge problem of medicare for all, of which the late provisions bless you of which is the latest provisions now include provisions for longterm care. I cant even understate how important this shift is because first of all this is a big reason why i think theres a difference between a public option and medicare for all if we establish a public option, forprofit insurers will offset the most expensive customers into the public option and its going to create, it sets it up for financial crisis. With a medicare for all system it helps us to address this issue. Youre talking about exploding weights of alzheimers. I believe this is very tight a demographic shift in a country. We have a baby boomer generation, we have a more than a generation. If millennials and gen z, our job is to buy into medicare so we can keep it solvent and take care of our parents and grandparents. Medicare for alls is a huge ise and its a huge puzzle piece but also we need to do the research and make sure were continuing to have special accommodations for members of our community, especially those with all summers. Absolute. Ariel is my chief of staff and shes also been working as a legislative director up to this point. If you have any specific legislative concern you can always bring them to her at the end, so thank you. Alexander bernie sigler. What a name. [laughing] [inaudible] not present, okay. Thank you. Thank you for being here, councilwoman. My question for you is given that Climate Change is pressing issue that must be addressed, would you up with the construction of degeneration Nuclear Power plants . Thats an excellent question. I get asked about nuclear one of the things the top in the Green New Dealat is we face for the energy mix. For all this is about the logistics of that transition and what that mix looks like. It also succumb to the specific proposals. Like, where only putting this can what are the Environmental Concerns with this, but also what other subsidies involved . We allow that to be a conversation in the community. We dont take a hard stance yes or no. Its about the specific solution. Folks have also brought up that Nuclear Technology has changed a lot comes i think that is something to consider and have in the conversation. This is an ongoing debate. There are a lot of Environmental Concerns. As seaea levels rise we have Nuclear Facilities now that im frankly very concerned about like indian point. That should been shut down a long time ago. As sea levels rise its going to threaten the Structural Integrity of that facility went will have to forget what to do with that nuclear waste. That being said its a conversation we have. I am not an Energy Scientist and im not going to act like one. We know the science of Climate Change. We know that we need to get to 100 to 100 clean and Renewable Energy as quickly as possible. I think theres a whole set of conversations to be had there, but for now right now were just we just need to get like this Congress Just signed a Resolution Says we need to fix the problem to be controversial. We are tied to take a point along one step at a time and once we get to that place we will have that conversation. [applause] Charles Clark and michael coats. [inaudible] okay. Charles and michael, right . Okay. I live in the story you. Astoria my question is pretty multifaceted. Have epilepsy adequately face three surgeries, including orthopedic surgery which includes formants of recovery including four to six weeks in a sling. That means i categorically cannot work jobs that include a lot of heavy lifting. But even more tory the point it seem to be doing a lot of all the right things and know what is going to take a chance on me. I believe thats because a lot of the recruiters and hiring managers are pretty rigid and still have this mentality where they want the perfect quoteunquote candid and that some of it can be flexible with. I know that a federal job security is part of the Green New Deal and presumably a just society. Its something i support and something bernie has also honed in on. And aside from tuition free college, do you believe that we should be paid to go to college and not the other way around . And then, the academic credentials we get to advance their careers committed something could be done and if any public or private Higher Education official in the world hears this where they will actually pay me to go to the classes either online or on campus, that i cant thank you enough. But also, this is the next part, the cost of housing is ridiculous. But even when it offered a place as it was recently, for example, i got offered a studio 853 a month but the truly done because i wasnt actually on the lease. I mean, on as an occupant but i wasnt, you know, like the leaseholder, my dad was. I applied to it two years before as it was above my old job. But what do you suggest that i make for the best of come out of my Current Situation . Thank you. Thank thank you so much. You covered a lot of ground there. An but i think its important to acknowledge, like, this is why we propose all of these policies at once. Its not because im radical on education and im radical and criminal Justice Reform and radical and healthcare. Its because we recognize all of these situations are linked, and if you go this far in one area but then you halfstep another. Youre not improving a persons life. I will start with what our member your order to be but let me know if i skip anything. The first is the idea of a federal job security. I believe this is a really exciting area of policy, because what a federal job script he does is it acts as a shock absorber for our economy. What it means is that there are a lot of jobs that pose a value to society that come at a loss for companies here so, for example, keeping our unities clean. How is that a profitable activity for corporation . Its not, but it is a valuable activity for our community. Theres a a whole lot of other examples of work like this and what a a federal jobs guarantee proposes is, is creating a class of employment that allows people, that has a guaranteed minimum. It essentially like a public option for jobs that guarantees a living wage, healthcare, and more. And then it forces companies to compete, to offer at least that much it establishes a base quality of work and then what happens is when the economy does poorly in people out of a job, then aco federal job skanky expands and as the economy improves, the lot of people on the federal job security mowers. It acts as a shock absorber for our economy anything to say faceting proposal so we dont just have to rely on social welfare programs. It adds to the mix of ways that we improve peoples lives will also investing in the skills and so on. I think its a great proposal and its been proposed by several economists, et cetera. Its something we deserve to explore. The second about tuition free public colleges and universities and should we pay people for going to college. [inaudible] yeah. One thing i did yesterday was i toured the percy job training at a pension programs, and our apprenticeship programs do pay people to learn. [inaudible] i think apprenticeships need to be added to way more fields than the historically have been, like just in the skilled trades, for example,. Yes, that something that was brought up. Our Job Partnership and Training Centers in brought to myen maritime college, thats when things they talk about. Right now we offer apprenticeships in carpentry, welding, other building trades, but even the folks in the school Offering Apprenticeships wereis saying that this is the future of, how we create working america, that we need to have apprenticeships for child care, teaching,th writing, et cetera. Thats one way people can transition into our economy without having to go for years without income which a lot of people cant afford when it comes to going to college. Once again the federal job security one of things to do say specifically, some of the policy proposals specifically accommodates not just to the people with disposable all people who need a flexible schedule, working parents, et cetera. I think that we are investigating a light of the solutions to what youre talking about but your Current Situation is a perfect example of why we need to make these adjustments in our economy. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible] if you want to open a case you can always open a case and we can investigate any idle programs for you. Thank you. Anyone else . Oh, hey. Is this on . My name is michael coach. I just was very involved in and nowlitics lately, im making the shifty federal. My question is sort of a scifi one any combination of two. I noticed in the Green New Deal that you have ideas for projects for Climate Change. I see monorails in all of the posters, and other interested in that technology because they go to tokyo a couple times of year antecedent in action. Tokyo is a very similar city to new york in terms of the coverage, and one of the ideas i was thinking about was we have a lot of trouble with the mta and are trained. Climate change is going to affect that andfl its going to flood the total essentially like it did with Hurricane Center we have a lot of debris falling from the nta stations. It will cost 350 million to replace. One of asking is sorry. Blindside concept. I did a sketch of the circle line in japan, applying it to queens. Im involved with trying to stop Sunnyside Yards but we can apply that to transportation, debuts the idea of a Green New Deal to have circle light around queens using monorails and its much cheaper than the nta. [applause] thank you. I just want to propose it and see what you think. No, thank you. Thank you soo much. I find this very inspiring because this was the whole point of us creating a Green New Deal resolution, is to elicit and to challenge us to think about what we can do as a society with public funds and public a infrastructure. One of the biggest problems we have is we dont even realize how much money we are spending because its all going to corporations, the military and the very rich. So the idea of us having tuition free public colleges feels impossible because we are not used to government working for us in these ways. But the government can work for us come if the government work for us half as much as it works for billionaires and corporations, our lives would bt transformed, in a very fundamental way. Wo [applause] andpr projects like these are exactly what the Green New Deal is asking us to imagine and to envision. Because it always blows my mind how we lived at our country lived through a time when we said, you know what . We are going to create an entire subterranean subway system inan the biggest metropolis in the country. We are going to build an entire fleet or rather an entire system of public schools. We are going to pursue projects that weve never been to before. We are going to go to the moon, electrify the country, fight for civil rights. At some point we stopped being that country. At some point we started to say, its too hard. Even though we all had already done it. So when he comes, for example, for the nta i believe it is being treated as though its already a lost cause. And i dont believe in that. I dont believe that anything is ever to broken to fix, and i dont believe that this country is to broken to fix. [applause] but someone would look at this and say youre crazy. But youre not crazy. Youre not crazy for thinking that we can be better, and you know, for so long weve talkedfo about this notion of american exceptionalism, that we are the best. This idea caused us to makeea investments that in many places, many areas made us the best. In other areas were not thet best. But in some areas, in research, and technology, infrastructure we were the best. But we cant rest on our laurels. Laurels. Because at this point we were come when you compare us to japan, compares to the Transportation Systems in japan, when you compares to the Healthcare Systems in norway and in the netherlands and in canada, were increasingly saying, we were once the best. I dont want to be that country. [applause]e]he when it comes to the Green New Deal people are like, and, of course, they come from this zerosum mentality. We will take away your hamburgers, take a airplanes, take we all these things. And really what this is asking us is, what are we going to make, not what i was going to take away. What are we going to establish . For everyone this is the green to do what ground planes, i get to you, Climate Change which threatens storms turbulence airplane grannies and airport closures will credit grant airs are soon and far worse than any sort of climate legislation as a what if we make for example, scientific investments into carbon airplanes and flights and things like that which i believe at some point hopefully will be able to create Second Technology but it takes thinking like this to do it, so thank you. [applause] im here because im a 9 11 First Responder and i have four different illnesses. I get a little emotional when i talk about it. I have ptsd from 9 11. Im here because, just started a 9 11 everything, freedom workers act which is [inaudible] it seemed like it was going to die in congress and nobody has picked it back up. And since you have taken over for him i would like to know if you will continue that . Also, im a haitian immigrant, and i work for law and order suv television show. Over 3 million in taxes, and ive been in this country for 51 years and i face deportation. Oh, myca god. First of all, first of all of like all of us to really acknowledge the contributions that paul, you said you [inaudible] that he is made to our country. [applause] hes showing me a photo of him at ground zero. So i want to thank you, i want to thank you for your service. [applause] that are so many aspects to your story that touch my core, and it is like why i do what im doing. Because when they hear the rhetoric of this president and when they had the rhetoric of so many people talking about immigrants and undocumented people, as though they are disposable and unworthy, i think of people like you and how wrong that is, how wrong it is for them to do that because youre right, you said you being at 51 years . So the fact that you have been here 51 years and have not been extended a path to citizenship means that we were wrong, not you were wrong. [applause] will. I dont want to mislead you. I came here legally with our brothers and sisters, mother. However, i get into some trouble when i was here and thats why you know, you know what . To me that doesnt matter. That doesnt matter to me. Because you have clearly given everything of yourself to our country, body and soul. This year one of the bright spots that weve had this year is that we get past the 9 11 victims fund. We finally got that through, that there is much more work to do. So if my predecessor had picked up a piece of legislation that you see where dropping the ball on, i think he might were today that we will pick it up, and unhappy state a look at that. [applause] im happy to take a look at that. When peopleeed talk about immigrants in this country, we need to tell your story. Because i am tired of people acting w as though we are a merciless nation that is willing to throw people away because you make less than a certain amount of money, because you lack a certain piece of paper. I believe in human dignity. I dont care what your status is. I dont care what your past is. The only way that we improve as a society is by giving people the opportunity to give. And when you do take care of each other and we need to have a commitment to take care of you. O we also do a lot of work on casebycase immigration cases. So while we can work on passing this legislation, i want you to connect with marcus or michelle or marybelle so we can take up your case personally. We have kept families together. [applause] i want to let some people know that if you know anybody, if you are in this realm or if you know anybody that is carrying this burden come to let them know that our office is here to help you. Just yesterday i met with a constituent who has been here for 29 years, and hes been going regularly and faithfully to his ice check and spirit he has no problem, no history, nothing. He walked in and ice detained him and putting in a Detention Center for deportation. He has three children ranging from 11 up to his eldest, imagine in his 20s, his wife was here, and that experience alone is traumatizing. That low grade, you know, its like if you ever lived without Health Insurance and you walk out the door every morning and youre like, i hope nothing happens to me today. Theres some people that walked out the front door in the morning thinking that, whether its because you have an issue with your documentation and you walk at the door and you say i hope nothing happens to me with our immigration system. Or you are uninsured and you walk out the door you say i hope nothing happens to me, that makes me need to go to hospital today. Are you walk out the door andnd you say i hope i dont get fired from my job because of xyz reasons or because im not educated enough and i cant afd to go to college. When we have that level of anxiety and theres a lot of it, it only creates chaos. It doesnt help us feel safe or secure. But yesterday we were able to celebrate theat fact that we reunited a family, so our constituent was arrested, taken into ice. He was brought to the airport and were able to get it out, working with our community partners. [applause] weve been able to getto constituents on a casebycase basis, the work authorizations. We been able to work with pro bono lawyers inrk our community thatit are finding wait a second you could dig up some details of the case, he changes the outcome of the case. So if you can i ask you to open a case with the office and we will see t what we can do for yu and will do everything we can for you. [applause] i know i only have two back minutes, but before i get to my question i just want you thank you for a place to prosper act where youre going to rein in corporate landlords and i hope sometimes send in the road i read in newark at times headline thatat kushner was the first one they got. Thats right, amen. [applause] my question, ive to read it. In the beginning you in the forefront with other house members for the impeachment of trump. And i read and i dont to into fox news, i read that there was some grievances between you and a few others with the House Speaker nancy pelosi. So now is a very serious and important time because weve got to get this madman trump impeached. And i think if there are any grievances or discrepancies that you may have im sorry, i have to speak okay. That you may have with speaker i think they should be kept behind close doors and dont let fox news have access to that because they created division and we dont need that at this time. We need the democrats united so we can get this guy out of office. Absolutely. It was a rhetorical question. Candidate . Absolutely. No, thank you. Thank you for that. [applause] i think the way we always talk about it is, we talk about it and what they call the Democratic Caucus, the Democratic Caucus is basically all of the democrats in the house of representatives. We literally get together in a room much like this one once a week andwe we have our doubts le a family. We closed the door, let anybody in. At that we talk about it. Like ayb family we are going disagree with each other. Were going to get into our tests, have disagreements and how we want to do things. But we do not want toll fundamentally disagree on our goals, honor outcomes. Ll we all want to move towards justice. To all want to move towards economic prosperity. Towe all want to root out the dp rot of corruption in this administration, frankly. I can tell you that while i am proud to have the independence of my seat, i am not funded by corporations and funded by grassroots and directly accountable to that community so that means i will be speaking truth to power within the party from time to time. Assure you that in this moment there is nothing that is going to shake the unity of the Democratic Party in impeaching the president of the United States. [applause] thank you. And thats what theyre scared of, by the way. [laughing] because fox will make up these, act like there is be, and i assure you on this, there aint. Wheres the beef . Right, you all had it. [laughing] surely from eightcent of Queens County and there was a constituent who wrote a a noten this sheet of paper, if thats okay. [inaudible] okay. Here we go. Thank you so much. Im so honored to be in your presence and your team. Im honored you are here. Thank you so much. So my question is regarding of course hiv aids efforts, and so given the Current Administration plan to tackle hiv aids, how do you see the distribution of funds affecting our community in new york, queens . Because we need to Work Together with a different sectors. This is not a biological disease. This is a social disease. And so how will, or are you or will your team up us to support ending the epidemic . Absolutely, thank you for asking this question. This is another area where we actually had a fairly high, bright spot this year, it was in the area of hiv aids treatment, prevention, et cetera. You are completely right that hiv aids is not just a biological disease. It is a social disease and it intersects with so many different issues. One area where i can give you an immediate win that weve had this year is that i sit on the Oversight Committee of congress, and we brought in the ceo of this Pharmaceutical Company called gilead, and what we found out was that gilead was charging 2000 a month in the United States for prep, for medication that helps people prevent theio transmission of hiv aids. If youre charging someone even a city 2000 a month to keep someone from spreading a disease, if they cant afford that, where does that leave the rest of us . We brought them in and heres what we found is that there charging over 2000 a month for prep, but who paid to develop prep . We found that the public did. That through the cdc, the cdc,cd rather, the cdc or the nih, the nih funded Critical Research that established, that identified the beginnings of what became prep. And gilead simply picked it up and start selling it for 2000 a month. What we paid for. This doesnt just happen w with happens with a lot of other medications. Ly so not only did we find that gilead did this, that only did we find that the public is actually entitled to, if not a royalty, its entitled to the patent for prep, but we brought them in and i asked him this is funny, youre charging 2000 in the United States because joe youre charging 68. And so sometimes we have multiple tools as legislators, and the bully pulpit is one of them. Because you do not like to be exposed. And so sometimes we passed laws to force things to happen but sometimes we can use the bully pulpit to expose with happen to the public and they will change their behavior. What they found is that gilead is going after that hearing gilead announced or right before or after that hearing come right before i dont know. They knew this was coming, and the announced that they are going to make prep generic a year earlier than they were anticipating, which is next year. After our hearing. So after hearing the announced that theyre going to send prep generic. We have it went on prep but theyre still so much to go from research to Public Policy that is backed by Public Health research, because hiv is also like us it is a social disease. When we talk with hiv we need to talk about homelessness crisis. When we talk with hiv we need to talk to drug opioid addiction, we need to talk about the social stigmas that are put against the Lgbtq Community and also anyone that contracts hiv. So we have a lot of work to do. This president mentioned goals around hiv. You know, so long as his goals are constructed, like i will pitch in. Im going to not work with them just because of his name. I will double check his work. [laughing] but im not strictly partisan in that way but i do think that hiv is a disease that can be painted in a generation precisely because it is a social disease but we need to work on the social conditions, and those social conditions are a direct result of Public Policy. Thank you. [applause] alexandria, on cspan one, two and 33 youre my favorite superstar. Thank you. [applause] for bob from the bronx come from norwood originally. Okayi dont know if im, what you would do with the least a rehearsal. Thank you. And all honesty, again, if i may come ies just asking about h. R. 4088, just quickly. It sorry. It allows for the direct access of funds oil and chemical taxes rather than rely on congress to appropriate funding from the general revenue. There is already six cosponsors, brats you know them, like jerry conley of virginia, Jerry Mcinerney in california, terri sewell from alabama, raul i believe his name is, from arizona, yes. Matt called right fromri pennsylvania, and the wonderful i met her once, Eleanor Holmes norton. She situs. Im not sure the term but this just faded out in 95, and to me again within my two minutes, some adults on your front lawn and leave it there and forces you to clean up, i mean, that is the antithesis of promoting the general where pharaoh king summoned to literally pay for their own cleanup so our funds, our general funds goes back to us rather than to someone else who should be paying for the own mass. Yes, thank you. Anyway, h. R. 4088, please consider it. If this isnt on the Green New Deal and the just society can i dont know what else would be. For sure. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. [applause] we can definitely circle back and take a look at it. As you said, its h. R. 4088, so sometimes, so sometimes the thousands a piece of legislation. If you receive it werepi not in Something Like why isnt she on this . Just bring up to us. Sometimes like literally theres just so many. Weve always, we are most responsive to our constituents so thank you for bringing it up. We will make sure we circle back on it. [inaudible] i want to give them the credit. Fibers. Congressman blumenauer is greater if you ever meet him he will give you a little bicycle and because hes very passionate about that issue. [inaudible] great. We will definitely circle back and take a look b ats it i do k that you also get at a very critical issue which is the companies and the corporations that are responsible for most of our environmental problems also need to be heldbl accountable ad be part of the solution to our environmental o problems. This happens over and over again, whether it was deepwater horizon, remember like ten yeart ago it dont all of that oil into the gulf of mexico. The public paid for a lot of that, and its not, this happens over and over again, where they make a mess and the public if they make a mess and we get cancer. It all dumps into our public systems. When it comes to Climate Change, exxon mobil new. Exxon mobil new before even the federal government new that burning fossil fuels werekn goig to create this issue. They put money into deceiving the public and legislators about this issue, and now in one generation the majority of our Carbon Emissions that aremi imperiling our planet right now have come since the First Episode of seinfeld. And about 85 of our Carbon Emissions have all happened since world war ii. So we got it in about one or two generations and now we have one generation to bring us back from the brink. And its going to take a real big reckoning with our and the fossil fuel industry. Because if you think wall street is powerful, the fossil it is like wall street, much of wall street is predicated on the profits in funding of fossil fuels, oil, natural gas, all gas, et cetera. People want to talk about the role of money in politics. Who here has heard of the Koch Brothers . I do and has heard of the Koch Brothers, brothers, brother. Right, there is one now. Heres the thing. But he knows those guys come right . There to toys for basically owning and republican in the United States senate, but when they get their money, they are an oil dynasty. And so yeah, i mean, and so this, i mean, we have to step back and acknowledge how bad inequality has become in America Today that we can name specific families that own ourur democray right now. Our society tells us everything about america and our economy and you can call it capitalism or plutocracy. Dont care what you call it, that is the state of our economy today. And that is all of it in a nutshell, the we can say which family owns the senate and which house owns Public Policy tells us there is something wrong in our democracy. And so. [applause] they are the ones who dump the money into fox news, who dump the money literally there is a guy that owns the new york post, that owns, an individual owns that which shouldnt be a surprise when the new york post, no offense if there are any of those folks in here, journalists are great but look at the institutions and the money and the direction in the framing. Who they attack are the people attacking and challenging their hold on power. And so particularly when fox news becomes the 24 7 squad networks that tells me we are doing a good job. If we are making the right people mad. And that to me, i also want to say how appreciative i am about community, understanding is that, seeing through it, knowing where to call bs and recognize that truth, our community didnt recognize it. Our community with easily duped and i wouldnt be able to have a seat in congress. I want to extend that to you all as well. Thanks. [applause] next question i am afraid i wont be called on. I totally oppose it. I read the transcript of the conversation trump had with galinsky. There was no quid pro quo but joe biden did do that and bragged about withholding 1 billion from ukraine if they didnt fire the prosecutor in this case. There seems i concur with the president that there is a cool ongoing and it is directed. It comes from london, the british house of lords said the special relationship between the us and britain would not survive a second term of trump. Pelosi didnt support impeachment until she met with mark carney, head of the bank of england. I will stop when my two minutes are up. Its okay. One thing i want to say is show the respect process because very often when we disrespect process the people who are disrespected by that process are marginalized and i want to name that. I dont want to silence your concern. Im not here to say we will listen to people we agree with. I want to name that. I will take this question and then come back and respond to what you have to say. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much. I only have 2 minutes to ask my question but i dont know if you remember this but at Jackson Heights i told you you would be on Stephen Colbert and you laughed at me. I did nobody knew who you were. I am so glad that happened. A more lighthearted question than impeachment. I want to ask, i work at best buy and am passionate about technology and the Green New Deal is important to you then Innovation Technology should be too so i wanted to ask, Net Neutrality is important to me and before you were a representative, jeep i was trying to dismantle it and trump with the only two companies which are trying to merge right now stood against that and it was tmobile and sprint and they said they would guarantee Net Neutrality and that is important that there isnt a monopoly on our free speech because that is what it has evolved to so i wanted to ask why is rashida tlaib, why are you and why is the squad against the merger even though they are one of the biggest innovators in Net Neutrality and i have one more question after this. Thank you for asking this, very good question. I commend any company that stands up for Net Neutrality. The tmobile sprint merger, tmobile, by not opposing by being for Net Neutrality, doing the right thing in doing that. This is not about opposing the merger or approving a merger as rewarding good behavior. This merger with an antitrust problem, when we hear about too big to fail, telecommunication is an area where there is something known as natural monopoly and i remember in the 90s, sometimes these companies okay. There is, this is an area where there is always push and pull because it will naturally move towards larger and larger networks. One of the problems we have is the concentration of wealth and the concentration of power among corporations. So for example in the case of Net Neutrality, you all out both of these folks to merge all of a sudden you have one Company SupportingNet Neutrality whereas Net Neutrality can be one area of competition between members of this area so i oppose the merger on antitrust grounds. Im concerned about corporations merging too much. We see this with viacom, comcast and all these things. It is funny because a lot of people are like they will say she is a democratic socialist, we believe in the free market, meanwhile they want corporations to become our government and consolidate in huge massive into these. I oppose the merger based on antitrust grounds because we need to have separate actors in this market but you bring up excellent points and i want to reiterate a commitment to Net Neutrality and in our measurement of the poverty line we talk about internet as a new necessity and there has been a lot of damage ajit pae has done because he was a former verizon lobbyist. They put foxes in the henhouse in every part of government and he is the wolf in charge of the telecommunications henhouse. We disagree on grounds of antitrust and on Corporate Power but it is not because we disagree with Net Neutrality. [applause] open up for more questions. I am a palestinian american a very proud of that and never apologize for that and very hard for me to not apologize for that for the past couple years so this very important question doesnt have to do with palestine directly but i do see on twitter in the news a lot of things going on in china. Dont know if im pronouncing it correctly but i feel like if we are going to so blatantly say that we stand by the Jewish Community and never let the holocaust happen or stand with the Japanese Community or the Asian Community has never led interment caps happen why we not doing the same for muslims and why is it i always see muslim news sources, this is a global issue, if what is the tax right now everybody will be a fact in the future. Absolutely, thank you for bringing visibility to that, you are 100 right. Have we joined . We have joined letters talking about this issue but what you are talking about is exactly correct. We need to amplify visibility around this issue. We are doing work joining that is, filing congressional inquiries, and it is no secret how i feel about it. Their organs are being sold on the black market and that is disgusting. The reports coming out of these camps are shocking so i think you are right that this is an issue we need to draw a lot more attention to. It is truly horrifying. We are working on the congressional side but only big part of it pushes a commitment to amplifying that. So more people i really appreciate that. I did say i would address over here that question. What i would say and encourage people to do, you and i have different takes on this issue. I am not going to try to tell you you are wrong or anything like that. Im going to invite everyone to lead the transcript and come to your conclusion. To me, when someone says i need you to do me a favor. That favor is to investigate a political opponent and you connect that person to your personal attorney, a domestic attorney general. That to me is a crime. We may disagree and that is totally fine, but that is why i invite our constituents, read it yourself, come to your own conclusion. I have heard from our community. A bunch of nazis in power in ukraine. The United States under obama ran a coup in ukraine with people in swastikas. I invite everyone to be investigated. I would invite everyone to look into it. We can all come to our conclusions. As the congresswoman for this district i heard loud and clear from the majority of our constituents where we stand on this issue and my job is to follow that in good and full faith. [applause] thank you for being here. First time in my life a politician like yourself caught my attention. I want to exercise my vote and i will exercise my vote and participating eventually to vote on behalf of someone like yourself. Sometimes you will be a leader of this country. You are protecting our families and our community. I am a banker by trade and i do mortgage and finance and it is impossible for anyone to qualify for a loan. There is no saving ability. The cost of medication is so high. How come whenever they are doing questions for president no one addresses why we have to wait 20, 40 years to lower the cost of medication when other countries is 80 cheaper . You are preaching to the choir here because i think you are completely right. It is such a condemnation of our system that it is controversial to believe that all people should be entitled to the right to healthcare in the United States. To me it is actually pretty heartbreaking because i grew up in a very, i would say, patriotic family. Firstgeneration, i am puerto rican so it is complicated. I grew up and my parents always, you know, talked to me about the american dream. They always talked to me about how incredible and blessed we are to live in the United States of america and we are. That is why it breaks my heart that we are always talking about what we are not capable of and meanwhile, everybody else is doing it. Canada guarantees its people healthcare. The uk has the National Health service. All of these countries that are developed know that in order to be an advanced society you need to guarantee people healthcare. We have not earned the right to call ourselves an advanced country if we dont do that. It shouldnt be controversial to say we need to do things weve never done before because that is what it means. Not 20 years from now. That is why we need you. We need an inventory of housing. People working hard dont have the saving ability because it is too expensive. We need someone like yourself to put a voice in congress and be able to have what everybody is looking for. I appreciate that. It is also why it is not just on be or a few people. We need to elect a lot more people in being committed to this because i for one am tired of us operating in a political system where people do things out of fear, they are scared what they are going to lose or do things because they are scared what people will say about them. We need to operate more out of our convictions because we are always operating from a place of fear. If i do this am i going to lose the election . Am i going to do this am i going to be less powerful than we were before . We have to stop operating out of fear and stop operating out of elections and start operating out of principle. That is not really what politics does. But it is something we can encourage as people who demand accountability in our system. [applause] these are the last two questions with after this the congresswoman will present some Closing Remarks and if you are interested in greeting the congresswoman, maybe taking a picture, please line up in the middle and we will create a line so you can do so. The last two questions are from laura lie grant and neck call maxilly. We are not going to be here much longer because of the Climate Crisis. We only have a few months left. I love that you support the green deal but getting rid of fossil fuel is not going to solve the problem fast enough. A swedish professor says we can eat dead people but that is not fast enough so i think your next Campaign Slogan has to be this, we got to start eating babies. We dont have enough time. There is too much co2. All of you are pollutant, too much co2. We have to start now. Please, youre so great, so happy you support the green deal but it is not enough. Even if we bomb russia we have too many people, too much pollution. We have to get rid of the babies. That is the big problem. It is not enough. We need to eat the babies. We will go ahead. No, no, no. I think one of the things that is important to us is we need to treat the Climate Crisis with the urgency it does present. Luckily we have more than a few months. We need to hit net 0 in several years. I think we all need to understand there are a lot of solutions we have that we can pursue it if we act in a positive way there is space for help. We are never beyond hope. [applause] reporter thank you so much for your message of hope for all the work that you do. And what you stand for in the government right now. I myself am a granddaughter of someone who passed away from alzheimers so thank you for your question. She had alzheimers for ten years. Fortunately we were able to get the money to take care of her and her needs. Also my cousin is in federal prison and i want to thank you for the just society bill that you just represented. My question to you for all us Young Millennials in our 20s and 30s and just starting out from college, what can we do not just on social media, look at your platform and what you have accomplished but what can we do in actions outside of social media that can help you . We know it is a lot of work you are doing and all areas of government and all the things we brought up today in this townhall meeting but what can we do to help you and your platform to thrive and help change this government . Really great question. One of the things that i think is best to do is it is not just about helping me because im part of a larger grassroots movement. Im here because a Critical Mass of people have demanded justice in the criminal justice system, environmental justice, education, etc. One of the best things you can do is find that issue that has touched your life that you are most passionate about. You dont have to read for it, usually related experience informs what that should be for you. I started this whole thing because the issue that touched my life was Early Childhood education. When i was a kid, my parents, i was born in the bronx and my parents felt they had to pack up our whole lives it moved to another zip code so i would have a chance and so i grew up and moved back to the bronx because we i didnt want i didnt want the next generation to make the choice my parents made. I dont believe a childs steps to be determined by their zip code. Education and Early Childhood education became a passion of mine and eventually through a series of circumstances is what brought me here. I think that one of the best things you can do is dive into areas that directly impact your life. If youre being impacted in an urgent way by housing, join a housing organization, join a tenant organization, work with the justice for all coalition etc. The best thing you can do is start organized back here in our own backyard and that bill is all the way up. And i would hope around election time i would have the privilege and honor of asking you for your support because i believe i have to fight for it every time. The best thing that you can do is work around alzheimers as our neighbor did right here, lean in to work on incarceration, lean in to work around housing, the environment, we dont all have to be the masters of everything. Sometimes the best path is to lean into the things that have touched our lives. For me it was early target education, for you it may be Something Else but the best thing you can do to help this movement is an organizer of people. Thank you. [applause] i want to give you absolutely. Thank you. [applause] i am so glad to meet you. They are not very from the time you were elected. I am from sherwood village, the president of this i see you on tv but never hear you and we are in the neighborhood. Thank you for coming and i am glad to be here and i listen to all my sister died in england from dementia. In my church, we have an Outreach Program for people incarcerated. I head up the community, to the people who incarcerated their children at christmas time, give them presence. And so everything here is to my heart. In the building that i live in, everything in that place. How we get our internet, it is all one spectrum. It is verizon and verizon can come in. Im a retired Senior Citizen paying 147 a month so i dont know is there anything anybody can do . I had a meeting with the manager today and he is telling me it is the same all around. I dont think so. Because my friend in springfield garden is only paying 80 a month because she has a house and a choice. Why do i have to pay 147 a month . You bring up an excellent question. First of all i do have to say that we have been in the community a lot. I dont mean that to negate your experience but that being said there is almost 1 Million People in our district. We are out and about but i am glad i am having this facetoface with you right now and i hope to have more in the future. What i will say, this is one of the reasons we oppose the tmobile sprint merger. This outcome you are experiencing right now we just have a handful of these cable providers or telecommunication providers in our backyard. Depending on where you are you have maybe two. In my neck of the woods, it is verizon or what is cablevision now . Optima. It is verizon and optima. In some places it is spectrum, comcast, all of these are all stacked up against each other or on top of each other and one of the reasons these services are so expensive is there is a lack of competition in the area. We have to check your individual scenario to see if theres something you can qualify for that could help us bring your costs down. It is a similar thing. Some of these services are far too expensive for vulnerable populations. We have to check on your specific situation and figure out what building you live in and what neighborhood etc. See if there is something we can do for you. It is really expensive and that is part of the cost of living that is pricing out our entire community at this was part of a larger story that new york city, when people are talking about if anybody grew up here, they know that the whole city transformed. In some ways for better but in other ways we are getting completely priced out and my opinion is that this placement is not a form of community development. And a lot of times what we do is say we are improving the community and investing in the community and our we are doing is taking everyone in the community, booting them out and importing people already making more money that can already support a Higher Quality of living and asking after we improved everyones income. That is like not how i am interested in doing this. When people talk about amazon they want to continue making this a controversy. Im not sorry about the gift that we took. [applause] talking about jobs jobs jobs, where did that number come from . Where did that 25,000 jobs number come from. It came from amazon. And first of all were those jobs for us . And also we have a little bit of a natural experiment here because they were trying to put hq 2. With hq number one go . The other one went ironically right in the backyard of washington dc in virginia. What we found is they didnt build it here. They did build it there. They are moving forward with building it there. They are not done with it and rents have gone up 20 or cost and failed and things like that. It is skyrocketing. Our community, this is a displacement strategy and displacement approach to, quote, development. My approach is we dont invest in buildings, we invest in people. If we are not investing in the people what is the point of investing in the buildings the we cant afford to live in them . That is it on that. [applause] i think that was our last question so we are going to wrap up as michelle and noreen talked about. Change we have a lot here. We are going roe by row. Okay. I will start over here. Thank you all again so very much for coming. We really appreciate it. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] everyone please sit down and we will organize. Mike check, mike check, hello. We have a process for pictures that makes the most sense, if everyone just sits down and what i am going to do like a church us or, come in and form from here. Does that make sense . If you are waiting for a photo take a seat. We will have everyone make sure they get their picture. So everyone sit down. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] all right, thank you so much. All right. Is everyone seated . You tell me when we are ready. [inaudible conversations] one, 2, 3 and one, 2, three. 123. All right. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] 123, 123, perfect. One second. All right. Thank you. It doesnt go. These are my kids. Here we go. 123 and 123. [inaudible conversations] ready . 123 and 123. Perfect. Thank you, good to see you. Thank you for coming. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] thank you for coming, thank you. Are you to gather . 123123. Cspans campaign 2020 coverage continues as donald trump host to keep America Great again rally in minneapolis, minnesota live thursday at 8 00 pm eastern on cspan. Watch anytime on cspan. Org and listen free wherever you are using the free cspan radio apps. A look at live coverage on cspan2. At 12 45 eastern a discussion on Russia Ukraine relations in the role of the west. A former assistant secretary of state in the george w. Bush administration will participate. Later today irish ambassador to the us Daniel Mulhall and others discuss brexit and the future of us uk relations live at 3 40 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Both events i live on cspan. Org or you can listen to the free cspan radio apps. The house will be in order. For 40 years cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy evens from washington dc and around the country so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. A federal Appeals Court upheld the repeal of the obama administrations Net Neutrality which barred Internet Provider from bari Internet Access. The court ruled states can set their own rules. Up next a discussion on what that means for Internet Users and next steps by congress. The Congressional Internet Caucus Academy hosted this event. It lasts about an hour. [inaudible conversations] we are going to get started if everyone could take a seat. Welcome to this lunch panel title the Dc Circuit Court rule on Net Neutrality, what now, which is hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy in conjunction with the caucus itself. I am the legislative director for one of the cochairs