[applause] fantastic. In a similar vein, one interactive activity, which is a lot on wednesday morning but everyone introduce yourself to two people you do not know. Your name, what you do, or what you hope to do. So everyone please, go for it. [chatter] getting your attention back might be harder than i anticipated. You can keep networking later. Ok. That was great. A little more ambitious than i thought. More of that to come, dont worry. Ore i hand over theoretically hand over the mic, i want to encourage you to do three things today. Emily to focus on expanding your perspective. Take in todays conversation as ways to learn more about different people. I want you to expand your networks and i want you to think about what we all have in common and what can i as individuals. If we can do that i think there is a lot of power to be had. Speaking candidly, i see an Amazing Group of powerful, motivated and creative women who are capable of really, really incredible things. Lets come together, lets collaborate with those who you agree with and importantly, those you dont. Importantly, lets look to where we all collectively want to go. And while were at it, lets make sure to have some fun. Introducein, let me lee dunn for some brief remarks. [applause] good morning women of washington. Google toexcited at be part of this event for the fourth year in a row. Our Washington Dc Office is headed by a woman. Our cfo is a woman. Women rule at google and in washington. I am excited to be here today. It was not just a president ial year. I work in the Elections Division at google where i sell advertisements to all different types of clinical entities, candidates. You can blame me if you saw too many ads online, because youre probably tired of them. No more, were done. We have 40 women filed to run for senate in the u. S. This year , which is a record. That is amazing. We should definitely be proud of what we women did this year. Four women won this year. Very exciting. The number of women who filed is a record for 2016. That is pretty cool. For the house, 272 women filed to run for the house this year. That is not a record. 2012 had 298. So, we have to work on that. Encourage women to run for office. We had eight women who were challengers in the house. We have more women coming to washington and more women support in washington. One thing we encourage our candidates and political clients this year to do is that we learned a big listen lesson in 2016. Do not make assumptions about voters. I urge you to not make assertions about women in this room, in this town, in different political parties, women who do Something Different from you. I hope we can all come together and support each other to make 2017 a really exciting year. Ads that we thought would resonate with women sometimes it up. Things blowing up did not appeal to soccer moms. I help you allow some of your assumptions to drop. Welcome, and thank you politico for welcome for letting google the part of this. [applause] alexis thank you lee and google. Now, without further a do we kick off our first town. I welcome anna palmer to the stage. Anna good morning, i am very excited to start our conversation this morning. I am the coauthor of politicos playbook. There is obviously a lot of raw emotions that have followed this election. There is a lot of processing that everyone has been doing here and across the country. The divisive electionyear, gender and treatment of women are in the spotlight. Were going to talk about women in washington, in congress, and women in 2017. Welcome. On the stage i have with me congresswoman Marsha Blackburn from tennessee. She is a member of the Trump Transition Team and has met with mr. Trump. We have Debbie Dingell from michigan. A very important state in the midwest. Im hoping to walk through a little of what happened they are in what democrats are looking at in the midwest. We have Elise Stefanik from new york. Just won reelection. She is the next generation of younger lawmakers. I look forward to talking with you about that. And senator Amy Klobuchar from minnesota. She actually just was named billed,r the most sponsored or cosponsors by a center. In a town where gridlock prevails most of the time, she has had a lot of success. Lets jump right into the conversation. I want to talk to you congresswoman about the trump transition. We are focused on all the minutia that is happening. Clinton pledged to have at least half of the cabinet the women. So far donald trump has had three. As u. S. Ambassador how important is it that you think women is are part of his cabinet . Marsha it is important but the most important thing we want to focus on 70 most wellqualified person for the job and making certain that those of us working on the transition are pushing forward qualified women to fill the roles. When you talk about breaking a Glass Ceiling you always have to talk about breaking the Glass Ceiling the right way so that it stays broken and clears the path for other women to come along behind you. That is a part of our focus. Also, these are such wellqualified women. They are going to serve our nation well. As mr. Trump moves forward i have no doubt that you are going to see other women at senior levels in his campaign. And in his administration. It is important to note that his campaign was managed by a female. She is going to be here later. Marsha i am delighted youre going to hear from her. She was the first woman to run a Republican Campaign and the first woman ever to win a national campaign. Has come in his businesses, appointed many women, and you will see that in the ministration. Been watchingall what is happening in trump tower. You have been there. What happens next . We all want to know. Marsha what happens next is the opportunity to visit with mr. Trump and to visit the meeting youre going to have. Mr. Trump and the Vice President was in my meeting along with steve bannon and rights previous. Reince priebus. Im a huge believer in the tenants and priorities of Organizational Leadership and 70 in the right queue leadership is having the right person in the right queue. You look at someones strength. As you look at Organizational Leadership you want to make certain that the members of your team have complementary skill sets so that everyone has the chance to excel. That is what we want for our it is how mr. Trump is pulling his staff together. Anna are you yourself interested in it . Marsha it is something we will talk about. I like being where i am here it i like the legislative branch and have enjoyed that. We will see. Anna all right, tbd. I want to start with you, senator. As a democrat in the minority, the republicans have taken control of all three branches. How can you view your role as tried to get things done, but also pushing back to nature democrats have a voice . I will admit that i thought maybe in my mind we would have someone else speaking at some point. That did not happen. This is democracy. I have always believed to have a smooth transition of power and our job is to go to washington to represent our constituents as best we can. To me that means two things. One is to find Common Ground where we can find it. Certainly the president elects first words were about infrastructure. I care a lot about having that bridge fall down in the middle of the summer near my house. Other role, clearly did the democrats we are going to have check and balance on power. Anytime you have the executive branch and both houses of congress controlled by one party you would not want some group group to be a balance and a check. It is also possible will have alliances with republicans in the house and senate on things where there might be disagreements with the administration. Or congress will take the lead on a bipartisan basis. Mcconnell,by senator that is a great example of that with the transportation bill. I think there is going to be a lot of action going on. Election, soange people are going to expect to not just there and do nothing. That cannot happen and i do not think it will happen. Anna theres been a lot of cool by koombaya moments. Republicans have put a waiver in the spending bill where if it does not pass, the government shuts down on friday. Do you think hold the line on the waiver or do you think were going to have a funding bill and everyone will get out of town . Amy i think there is an argument people are making that you could easily do it next year when there is a time to have a hearing and do everything at the same time. Im not certain how all the negotiations will hold out. There are a number of people in our caucus that are open to his nominations. It really has not been about that. There has been a case made that this is not the process that should be used. It should be next year when he is now hitting. The other thing that is much more dominating and our discussions is economics. The coal miners from West Virginia and virginia, pennsylvania, whose pensions are ending. The senator has basically put a stop on bills until we get something done because of words we have are not just on the president elect but also from some republicans that they want to assist these coal miners. That is an interesting fact. That has been dominating things. Working people who have gotten screwed up through the system, screwed by the system, through no fault of their own. Nna in the sand is on the coal miners versus general madison . Amy it is all in the negotiations. There is an argument you could do the waiver or whatever you want to call it. But certainly have not been standing up saying we will never do that. Anna i want to take it to the entire panel. Statistics about how many women were running. In a lot of peoples minds, the number of women in Congress Stays roughly the same, about 20 . Where the questions i would ask women in congress, do you think we have hit a wall . Stagnation, the High Water Mark for women will be 20 . Do you think there should be more . I want to agree on something marsha said which is that we need to appoint and elect women that are qualified for the job. So, i was obviously very was, ininted, like amy the outcome of this election. When i was not supporting Hillary Clinton because she was a woman. I was supporting her because i thought he was the most qualified for the job. Now i am moving forward and we knew need to do that. I do not think women are stagnant. Women, we each have to figure out how we support women. , when i i say this got elected everyone said to me you are not a spouse anymore. I ended up one day very frustrated and i did not know i was speaking and i gave a speech the connected with people more than anyone. People tell me im not a spouse well, i am. No one else is doing the Grocery Shopping or the dry cleaning. That is what makes us better and more real. We are program we are problem solvers. Sometimes we do not like the ugliness of running. To have to the raise the money. Our job is to help women continue to do all that multitasking but also be a voice at the table for real people across the country. One thing this election was about was that people want real people at the table. They are tired of partisan bickering. They want to see something get done. So no, we are going to see more women. My instagram every week as the price of milk, eggs, and bread. 2. 99. [laughter] [applause] republicans have led in terms of democrats in terms of getting women to run for office or getting them elected. How do you talk to people that are thinking about this. You are now going to be a second term i have played a leading role in helping women run. Congresswoman diane black chair our women engage in program and we have successfully gotten two women elected in this class. We need to do better. When you stated that you do do you think 20 is the High Water Mark . Absolutely not. We look at millennial women, the majority of College Graduates are women. Women are breaking down Glass Ceilings on a daily basis. I see that in my p a group. In my class of i see that in my pier group. My class of 2014, you own walters, and in my experience i had one of the most hotly contested primaries in the country in 2014. A lot of the bad invite i received was you need to be like a typical congressional candidate a male, age 60. I obviously am not that. Instead of running away from the unique qualities that i brought to the table, i leaned into the fact that i was young, a specifically young woman. That resonated with all voters across party lines, which is why i think in 2014 and in my experience, 2016, we were able to do well at the polls. Anna you talked about the hurdles for getting women to run. With you have a family, a lot of responsibilities, asking people for money is uncomfortable for everybody. Do you think the negative tone this campaign in general was the most negative i have ever seen. You think that will be a hurdle for women to raise their hand and say im going to take this step and be a candidate . I think it is more difficult because a lot of women i have talked to do not necessarily like that. It is one of the top things you hear. That they are going to get attacked. First of all, i look at the facts. On election night, i was pretty shocked. Admin night i got a text from my daughter and it said, mom, what do we do now . As a mom i thought, where is she . You need to leave right now. And she goes, no, mom, i meant the country. [laughter] day,i told her the next when we finally got to talk, she said she was crying and she cannot talk that night. The next day when i told her was, number one, i went through losses john kerry, al gore. [laughter] then i was also able to talk about women who had one in the election. The four new women in the senate, were now up to 21. Including three women of color, which is a big deal. Duckworth my that is a big deal in addition women there. Then you have the fact that these women were energized through the Clinton Campaign. Gettingrs new people involved. About her what that atmosphere they have to find something they love to do, then they can deal with whatever atmosphere they are in. The mistakes we sometimes make, Everyone Wants to get involved in the president ial. Atting involved in running local job for school board for helping people on those campaigns i started with a city councilmember. I read his campaign in minnesota. I learned how you had to get people out at the precincts and do all that. He won and six months later he took a job in florida. But the point is i got that experience on a Small Campaign where i could have more authority and be in charge. I think that is the piece of it. Just to work for change and work to change some of these campaignfinance laws which have allowed for more outside money and negativity. Any broughte things up is so important and that is those that are coming along at the local level, the state level, then will choose to raise their hand and run for a congressional or a senate seat. Many times, women have been hesitant to do that because there has not been the opportunity to build that network. A partye when i was chairman and someone would come to me want to run, i would say, who are your natural constituency . Maybe they would not really know. They had the desire but they did not have that Fundraising Network or they did not have a large volunteer group around them. Decade, thenext next decade of women will have that local and state experience will enable and empower them to move forward at a federal level. I think we are going to see not i thinktle increments, youre going to see some big leaps and bounds in the number of women serving at the federal level. Anna senator, the dean of the women in the senate is retiring. What is the mood like in terms of the bipartisanship . Are they starting to come together, is there an effort to come together . Amy we have already have one of our bipartisan dinners. Malever talk about the senators. [laughter] anna except for here, let us do what happens. Night, berger said last we actually had a as barbara said last night, she was saying how the group will continue beyond her. That is a sign of true leadership, of course. Out of that group has come people that have worked together and that is what has been important. Whether it is Susan Collins and myself leading the effort when we had to shut down, to bring together 14 people to come up with an idea how to end it. Whether it is the work patty murray did on the changes to the education law that has been long waiting to be done. Didher it is the work betty with senator roberts on the farm bill. We have had a lot of women demonstrating leadership on both sides. Senator michalski put together a bill focus on Energy Efficiency that we would love to get done by the end of this year. We have had moments of leadership where people have come together. In fact, im going to have to leave early today because if i do not be there to be the Ranking Member on the time warner at t hearing, women will not rule. There will be a blank seat. Anna i know you need to run so im going to ask you one more question. You talk about all this bipartisanship. When piece of advice could you give to the women here were going to be coming into a divided washington, a partisan washington next year . What is the secret to your success . Amy it is to keep being optimistic about our country. I was just this weekend with about 300 Air National Guard people that had come back from all over the place. South korea and from croatia and other places. Families andheir how we are all focused on who said what and what you know got out and what video is showing you just think that whole time they were serving our country. The advice is to try to have that mindset. You go into this for a reason. Is not just a game. We have huge challenges for people in this country, whether to make sure they have a decent job for women to be treated fairly. Some really exciting opportunities. We are governing from crisis anymore. We a