University of nevada are participating, welcome and thank you for joining us. The video is being recorded and will be posted for video later. I have always been very interested in the issue that we will focus on tonight, that is diversity and Public Service. And i spent most of my career working in the political trenches looking around and seen a lack of representation it always struck me on the political side and the policy side and tonight we are thrilled to be joined by senator cortez masto to talk about these issues she is well versed in them and spent her career fightingg for issues and for members of underrepresented communities, the first latina ever in the United States senate up until a few minutes ago reportedly being considered for the Vice President to be running mate on joe bidens ticket. But were excited to dig deep into these issues, here is how its going to work, those of you participating on zoom, you will see at the bottom of your screen a q a button, click on that to start typing in your question, you can populate them with your questions now, keep an eye on the chat as well and at a certain point we will let you know when you can ask your question halfway through the program and once we select you in your question, get ready we will pitch on camera so make sure you look your best. So with that i think thats all the housekeeping and senator cortez masto you, welcome to Public Service. Thank you, im excited to be here with all of you and look forward to our conversation. I want to talk are little bit about policy and pipeline and i want to talk about politics. Lets start tonight actually by talking about you and tell us about your own path into Public Service and what inspired you and what the call was for you personally into Public Service. I probably did not realize at the time that i came toye appreciate as i got older, my father was my mother was always actively engaged in the community and Civic Engagement on the political side of it. This is not a couple like any couplel struggling when they first get together, my father was a parking attendant at the casino and my sister and i were little and my mother was a bookkeeper for a title company. And they were always involved and engaged in making sure around the dinner table we were talking about social issues, policy issues, what was happening in the community and at the time, as we got older and my parents made sure that my sister and i graduated from college is in my household it was not a question if we go to college, it was you were going to go to college and then you can decide what you want to do but as we grew up, my father continued and my mother continue to grow in their profession and my mother went on to be county commissioner in clark county for about 16 years and that really was an opening and then my sister to understand what it means for Good Government, what it means to give back in your community and what it means to listen to your neighbors in your Community Members about the challenges theyou are facing and working together you can solve the problems and then he went on to be over the Commission Authority and the many of you know what happens in vegas stays in vegas, that was part of the marketing team, he was the president ceo. Not only is it a success storyry when i talk about it, my father was mexicanamerican and grew up in new mexico and at a young age wass bough brought to las vegass parents, my grandmother was born and raised in las vegas and my grandfather crossed the rio grande as a young man, serving our country and our military and became a United States citizen. So it really was a story of trying to come to country, do right, work hard, play by the rules and your family can succeed. Thats what myht parents did. All the while my father never forgot where he came from and my mother as well who help them get there, thats what my sister and i learned growing up, even though i fought it, i went to unr and graduated from the university of nevada reno but i went to law school nevada, it just felt natural for me too get back into Public Policy and the legal aspects of it and being involved in the community. I believe in Good Government and working with one another to solve problems and that is why i do today and if you asked me why was in college and where id want to be i would say no, bute it was a natural path for me. And thats why i truly believe i do what i do today because a group with my parents and i sell the benefits of it, thats my passion and thats what motivates me, solving problems in the community and figuring out how we work on this together, i dont think compromise is a bad word, we come together for that reason to figure out where we can focus on policies for all i of us working together to compromise, thats a little bit of my background and what i do today. Im going to come back to your background and the conversation. Your election is not just historic being the first latina ever elected but you have really used your platform to fight for plversity and underrepresented communities on a whole host of issues. I know youre also a soft ballplayeri salt toss a Softball Team right now. Why does it matter to have more diversity in Public Policy and Public Service. It is so important, heres why, if we are going to pass laws in this country that really address the issues that we are dealing with or trying to solve a problem that we are dealing with, we need that diversity around the table when were making those decisions, when were crafting that legislation or those laws. Otherwise people will be left out, that is what it means to me and thats why i realized my election was historic and thats great to make history but the most important part, i can be at the table and have a seat there when were addressing legislation that i know impacts people in my community and at the same time part of my responsibility is opening that door wider in bringing more people in more diversity. But it really starts that we will pass laws and if her gonna focus on Public Policy that impacts all of us, then we need to have the diversity in, the room making those decisions. It is very simple, this is what i always thought were getting government, if we are actually going to do right by our constituents while working in government, the government and the people that work in government should really near a constituency they represent. Because that way you understandn the issues, you can understand and be empathetic about what youre dealing with in bringing those issues to the table when youre trying to find solutions and let me take whats crazy about all of this, when i got to the senate, you can count on two hands and under 2022 women that were in the United States senate, think of this, over 200 year history of the United States senate, there were only ever 50 women in the United States senate, i know that because i was number 50. This is why this is so crazy. The idea that people are passing laws and legislation and its an elite group that are trying to address the issues that matter to me as a woman but matter to so many communities of color, so many of our communities that are being discriminated against, how do we expect them to addressie e. Ssues that is what this is about, making sure were opening the door and have the responsibility to make sure we bring people with us and bring the diversity. The kobe crisis in one of the most important time of the examples of this, weve seen all the data of how the minority communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected, not just on a Public Health aside but they are real, you put a spotlight on the structural disparity in healthcare and economic with communities of color, im wondering if you can talk about that a little bit about the real policy challenges there and what being a womans color, what perspective you bring to the conversation figuring out how to move forward. Is starts with the data, you just talked about it, now weow have data and we know but we dia not have the data initially and we did not actually ask for the data and we do not demand, that is demographic or whatever we us from collecting in the very beginning. Governofederal government does o enough collection of that data to be so specific so we can ensure that were bringing resources to everyone equally. That is the challenge still at the federal level including some of our state level government as well. But we know down during the pandemic that its going to be beautifully diverse data and you dont think about the 3 Million People but a third of the population are latinos, we have one of the Fastest GrowingAsian AmericanPacific Islander population, a strong and robust a africanamerican population, 23 tribal communities throughout the state and it is just beautifully diverse. What i was seeing and talking with our experts, some members of the Minority Community are hit by the pandemic in particular what we know now in nevada is the Latino Community was getting hardhit meaning we were seen more numbers of covid19 diagnosis, not in the Healthcare Access to that community, not enough education to make sure the Community Members know what they can do to protect themselves into once we got the data, we can Work Together at t the state level, local level and federal level to figure out how do we educate, how do we get the resources where they need to be in the hotspot and how do we make sure were communicating as you know in her Asian American communities and latino communities has a language barrier. You have to be able to make sure youre connecting an understanding and not beyond the barriers to bring the resources into the community. For me, not only as a woman of color coming from a mexicanamerican father, my mother is Italian American but working in the community and realizing a language barrier and realizing the lack of access to healthcare, the lack of access to really clean air and clean water and some of our neighborhoods are lowincome and there a challenge already, we have to recognize that to be able to fight to get the resources to where they need to go. Because we have the data at the federal level, i have advocated with my colleagues that the resources to addressvo the pandemic get into the communities, how do we do that, we find withers local clinics and withers local areas like in southern nevada, the market is one place where a lot of latino shop young get them to them and talk to them so they are educated on these issues. I will tell you, every time that we think that we make one step forward in addressing any type of discrimination or a barrier to getting access to healthcare or any type of relief to individuals, somebody will come along and try to take it away and we have that happening right now literally, it astounds me that this administration in it took years to tear down the barriers for discrimination around housing, healthcare, education and now this administration has rolled back the regulations and unfortunately more of the ability to discriminate and let me give you an example, right now just out today where we know under the Affordable Care act, the secretary of health and Human Services in the middle of the pandemic decides to rewrite the regulation under the Affordable Care act and rollback the discriminatory laws that we put in place, antidiscriminatory to protect individuals. That means that certain individuals now will be discriminated against and not at the healthcare by the Affordable Care act. Women, lgbtq, people color, view of the language barrier, if youre out of luck, that to me is why when we fight and pass legislation, we have to be vigilant around it to make sure that we are constantly talking about these issues because even though you may pass a law that addresses discrimination and ive tried to eliminate housing issues and thats been rolled back on this administration as well. We have to find it again, it is a constant awareness of whats going on to ensure they bring those resources everywhere. Just a reminder, and the Georgetown Community and the other university you can submit your questions to the q a at the bottom of your screen at any point during the program. Feel free to start submitting them. We could have the same conversation about a whole host of issues, Climate Change, one on isone i want to focus given Current Events in the criminal justicece and when you look at the tragic death in minnesota were very different circumstances but where it took months for prosecutors to Pay Attention to what is happened and in that case the disparity once again are tragically evident. Youre a federal prosecutor, talk about the challenges in the diversity and positions of the power and Public Service that can help address them. I think thats why its so important we bring the diversity at all levels. I know as a h prosecutor one of the things that we looked in our state in particular the attorney general is a prison system, what was going on, why is there a disproportionate share of minority and people of color into the prison system, what was happening and what can we do to bring change and so we looked at at the state level of changing some of our laws to address what we were seeing the disproportion and people of color in our prison system wasnt enough, no, more needs to be done, what youre seeing across the country, this is completely outrageous and you have a man of color they cant jog down the street or woman sleeping in her bed or what we just all recently in minnesota, it is outrageous and it requires an mandate justice and at the same time it also mandates us all, not to sit back and say there it goes again, there happens again, demand change, we need a paradigm shift, we need this change and we need to recognize its happening and figure out what were going to do about it. But we all collectively no longer just sit back, wee have o say and do and demand the change, yes we want good jobs and we dont want to stop the discrimination but we have to work collectively at all levels to address it. I think that is why for everybody who is watching, no matter what field you work in, you bring that with you, you bring the sense of change in the sense of diversity and justice with you. That will help make the change as well, i always felt that way no matter what job that i held, it is important that we carry the responsibility with you and treat people equally withh respect, tolerance and we call it out when we see it, but as a country we unfortunately have so much more to do. It does not help that we have a man in the white house that thinks its okay to discriminate and call people out and this language in the highest office of the land and there is no room for hateful discrimination in the white house from the president of the United States it was supposed to represent the best of us and all of us, thats what we expect and thats what we demand, i dont see that now in this white house and to me that change starts in november quite honestly. Barack obamas election was fairly historic but racism is ongoing. And you hear criticism of him from the black community that did not go far enough. Lyim wondering if an unfair criticism, not just with him but as a person of color and do you feel under pressure from the communities you represent, do you feel that people are judged differently or theres Higher Expectations for you . And dealing with these a challenges . Thats a great question, i never looked at it from that perspective because the only thing i know that is true to me im a woman and ive dealt with aem for my perspective as woman in a mexicanamerican woman, an italianamerican woman and what i dealtom with throught my career. I will say this and this is what i say to so many people when i talk with them, particularly when im talking to people of color, i dont know what its like to stand in your shoes and you dont know what its like t stand in line but if we stand together, we can be a force to make change. Thats what its about, its about listening and understanding, education around the issue that are impacting our community and let me give you an example of this, i worked my career around Domestic Violence trafficking, reducing women entering violence against women and children. I know as a woman what ive had to deal with around this issue, but i also know as a man that does not think about it from the perspective as i do as a woman. I as a woman no that im very cautious when im walking to my car parking lotas at night becae im concerned about being attacked or raped or murdered or harassed, the man does not have the same concern. What our obligation is as a woman to educate, like a dude my husband is to educate them what its like in my shoes to understand what i live with everyday so now they can have a better understanding and together we can work to make change. I think thats what it comes down to is often we jump to demanding more from and in result and we forget the education, we forget to make people understand what it is we are dealing with and how we come along to the process. I think im not saying everybody is open to it but theres so many people that want to be educated and want to be there with us. A part of what ive always done with the piece of education, it gets discounted often, but it always starts with the educati