I think it started back in 2003. I was running our Family Business, and we were anticipating selling it, and i actually assisted the former new york state assemblyman with his campaign, but i also assisted his opponent because i was running a newspaper, and i was selling advertising to anyone and everyone that i could sell to because our typical customer were the locally owned and operated businesses, and many of them were being displaced and going out of business by some of the big box storeses and big chain stores. So i turned to politics and was looking for every avenue to raise our advertising revenue, really is what was going on. And the assemblyman won his race, he asked me if i would be his chief of staff, and i said, well, i dont have time to do that. You could be legal counsel. At the time, my father had Catastrophic Health issues, he was in a wheelchair living across the street, he was a Supreme Court justice, but he was working full time. My mother had Serious Health issues, and i was caring for them, running our Family Business and raising my son as a single mother. So the idea of taking on another obligation was really something i didnt think i could do. He said, no, i think youre a natural, and we can work out, you know, your issues. But i think youd be a great asset to my team. So i joined in 2003, and i worked with him for about six years. And then when he retired in 2010, i ran for the assembly in new york state, and i challenged and defeated our republican chairman in a primary. So i was running against the establishment from day one. And then in 201 we 2012 we went through reapportioning, and they created the longest district in the state of new york just for me. I actually had a lot of democratic support, believe it or not. And so i was able to win a primary and a general election to retain that seat. Which was very difficult, because the district was so long. It was almost twice as long as the district that i now have in congress. And so i felt new york state was just getting really frustrating, although id like to think that i really stood out as a member and fought corruption. I stood out as an independent voice. I was the first person to call for the resignation of corrupt speaker Sheldon Silver whos now facing a jail sentence. I also stood up against the former Senate Majority leader who was a republican and really took a position against corruption and really tried to stand for, you know, the middle class and the citizens that i represented in my district. So i just got on this mission of really trying to do the right thing because, quite honestly, i got tired of politicians saying they were going to stand for something and not do it in albany. So i took on the battle in washington because i kind of felt the same way about a lot of the washington politicians. And so i ran and challenged our former congressman in 2014 in a primary. I lost by a very narrow margin, much to my surprise. I was somethinged, actually, because i kind of threw my name in there at the last minute, and i had very little, if no funding against one of the wealthiest members of congress. He spent over 3 million. I had about 180,000, mostly my own money with a very grassroots team, and i was just shocked at the result. So i wasnt sure if i was ever going to run again, but i ended up running in 2016, i faced enormous opposition from the republican establishment, had to win a primary in a threeway with over 3 million spent against me again, and i only raised, you know, not much more than i had raised in 2014, so i really was like this is ridiculous, but i ended up winning that by almost ten points. So on to the general election, i faced another threeway against to selffunding, literally, i mean, both worth at least 100 million each. Much to my surprise, they spent almost 12 million combined against me, and i was still able to pull it out. For me, its really just trying to do the right thing for my constituents. Ive never run as if i wanted to get reelected, ive always run where im trying to do the right thing. I dont know if it comes to my mother or my father, the Brutal Honesty of my mother and my fathers determination to find the positive in a lot of things. Just, its just cell phone me to really try to do that. And so here i am, you know . Be who knows if im a onetermer, i dont know. You are here. Yes. Where are you serving . What committees . I serve on the Financial Services committee, and the reason i sought that committee for a couple reasons. Number one, i have a history before i ran our Family Business, i was a bank attorney. I represented a number of banks and Financial Institutions in my area. I think its a really important industry to give access to credit and banking for especially our Small Business community. And as a Small Business owner, im acutely aware of those needs. And as our business struggles and what remains of our business we sold our Newspaper Division which i ran in 2004. But we still have a pharmaceutical Packaging Company that was started 70 years a ago, and we want to, you know, were one of the very few manufacturers left in the state of new york especially in my district. I mean, so many people are left. And we want to try to make new york a better place to do business. We know the Small Business community is where the good jobs are being found, and actually in the end create more jobs than some of the bigger concerns that are getting benefits of subsidies and government, government funding just to stay in new york. Part of the symptoms, the cronyism, the paytoplay schemes that kind of plagued new york as my time in the state assembly and fighting that, its something id like to find ways as a Financial Services member to try to make it more viable again to bring our Small Businesses back. And before the interview, i mentioned to you we once had some of the great businesses. Ibm was founded in my district. Ge had a huge presence. Griffiths air force base which had offshoots of many different industries, the textile industry was really well known along the erie canal and upstate new york. Oneida limited was founded in new york state, and one of the things i showed you cruz flat ware, two former oneida employees who are entrepreneurial started liberty tabletop, and they actually produce the only flatwear made in the United States right in my district. And, of course, we would love for the president to use that as the white house, you know, white house silver. But were still working on that. And i actually would like to make sure that everyone understands that there is the ability for industry to come back to new york. We make things really well. The United States is still the best producer of all goods and services in the world, and wed like to make sure we continue on that mission. I think that, you know, President Trump is someone whos talked about how important it is to rebuild jobs, to bring back that spirit of entrepreneurship and also just the good working men and women we have in our areas whether theyre in the military, whether theyre producing goods and services, whether theyre firemen, police, we have such a great work force that we want to bring them back to new york where weve seen such close call losses in terms of population, industry. Thats part of what my mission is. I love to go into my district every week be find people that are making things and contributing to our community. So its been really exciting and thats part of the part that gets me excited about being a member. And, you know, Financial Services gives us the ability to bring back financing and the give us the credit that we need to keep those jobs coming back. Another company is remington. Yes. Remington arms is the oldest continuously running manufacturing facility in new york state. Though, you know, they produce guns, obviously, for the military, for sportsmen and also for personal protection. They were founded in new york, and wed like to keep them there. Theyre had some setbacks here and there. We just recently have heard of some layoffs because the economy is down, but we also have a very negative viewpoint from our governor and from some in new york about the second amendment, so we want to make sure that we advocate for our second amendment. The other company that i thought id mention is Revere Copper and brass. Revere is also one of the original companies founded none other than paul revere. And that Company Still exists in rome, new york, and really good friend of mine is the ceo. And hes done it for a number of years. He has huge pride in america, really supports bringing jobs back to our communities, and they do fabulous work and have pretty good sized business right in rome, new york. So we do have a lot going on in our district, we just want to continue to grow it and present our great assets. What are your legislative priorities . Right now we would like to see some kind of change in obamacare. Obviously, we would like to repeal it, wed like to the replace it with a consumerdriven model and something that really helps our working middle class but also protects the most needy and also protects the seniors who have lost a lot of resources and funding because of the rating of medicare to provide funding for the aca. We also have huge Medicaid Expansion in new york state, so we have to be cognizant of that. We have to make sure we protect everyone. So im hoping that were going to continue to work on and amend the process thats going on in washington right now on the health care debate. Im glad were debating it. Ive been putting out on my Facebook Page and all over copies of the bill so people can read it before we vote on it. Also a plain language explanation of each provision, because sometimes im a lawyer, but for a nonlawyer to read it, its a little more challenging. So weve done everything we can to make sure the public knows. And i remain undecided about where im going to go with the bill right now. Thats a priority. Also would like to roll back some of the provisions of doddfrank that have hurt our Banking System and hurt the ability of our Community Banks to lend. Those are things that, you know, really working on, those are some of our legislative priorities. You mentioned your father. Yeah. New york state Supreme Court justice. Right. John tenney. What did he or did he influence your going to law school or your interest in law . And you said he, his passion for doing things the right way, making the right choices. What did he tell to you . How did he inspire you . Yeah. My father was somebody who was a really interesting person. He grew up in total poverty in new jersey. There were nine members of his family. He was the first to go to college. Their father was stricken with polio when he was, you know, this is the story they tell me. We always have to say were not sure how true it is. He had some kind of debilitating disease. One uncle says its polio, one says its another which is kind of like my grandfather was born in ireland, i know that for sure. Nonetheless, he was unable to work, and he had sort of some Cottage Industry growing chickens and raising chickens in the house while they were growing up. Needless to say, we didnt have chicken in our house when my father no more chicken. Anyway, he was just a really unspiring guy, someone who never had anything and never cared to chase dollars. He just wanted to provide for our family, and he was really a person that carried about doing the right thing and having integrity. And i think he was known for that as a judge. He was also very strong and always said to me, you know, never be a victim, always try, you know, fight the battle, you know . Be willing to lose in order to make sure youre standing for the right thing. So i think thats something with me, ive never really feared failure or losing, ive always looked at it as a learning experience. The victim hood thing, i notice that it can hurt people when they it holds them back when theyre worried about focusing on what the negatives are. And aye always been inspired by Holocaust Survivors because theyre so amazingly inspirational. They focus on the people that are helping them, and they focus on the positives, not the people who are hurting them or shooting at them. And i find that my father was poor, and i think that was an inspiration for me. Although ive always lived my life thinking about if im going to be living somewhere, you know, eating cat food somewhere. Im always worried about that, so im always very careful about making sure that i take care of myself and my family. I think thats part of why i stayed in utica, to take care of my parents, i wanted my son to be close to his father and my parents and our families. So those things were important to me. I got job offers all over the place, but i thought it was more important to stay with my family, to support my Family Business, to support our community. And, you know, i had a lot of great opportunities and a lot of privileges, and im really honored by them, you know . Its been ive been very grateful. Congresswoman, thank you very much for telling our viewers a little bit about yours. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks. Today the Senate Judiciary committee will meet to discuss some of the nominations pending before that committee. Those include judge neil gorsuch, Supreme Court nominee, rod rosenstein, nominated to be Deputy Attorney general, and rachel brand who is the president s choice for associate attorney general. You can watch the meeting live at noon eastern here on cspan2. Tonight on the communicators, we visit the state of the net conference and speak with matt lira, Senior Adviser to House Majority leader kevin mccarthy, and lior div, ceo and cofounder of cyberreason about how congress and companies are addressing questions about privacy and cybersecurity. The disruption by technology is so fundamentally challenging our entire economy, and government has no choice but to reflect that reality. And it will. Weve been through this i mean, i dont think weve been through it at quite this scale, but we have been through this before in our democracy. Our democracy was created in an agrarian society, and it survived and thrived and, in fact, i would argue in a lot of ways improved upon itself as we went into an industrial society. And we are at that same kind of Inflection Point today between sort of an industrial economy and maybe an information economy, however you want to phrase it, that creates an amazing opportunity to not just survive as a democracy, but to create, you know, a more perfect union. I believe that the cybersecurity agenda in general is a super, super important agenda that need to be pushed. And the reason is that cybersecurity is not a problem that it was have in technology and then it will be gone. Cybersecurity is a problem that its here to stay. Watch the communicators tonight at eight eastern on cspan2. Cspans voices from the road. We recently visited 17 historically black colleges and universities asking students what issue would you Like Congress or the administration to address in the first 100 days. Hello, my name is maya, and i am a student at North Carolina central university, and i would love for trump to grassen an grasp an understanding in that although we didnt all vote for him, we are all represented by him. I would like him to work on developing and maintaining relationships with those countries over the year as our commander in chief. Thank you. Hi, what id like to see for the first 100 days of the Trump Administration is just taking care of our schools, better education, Free Education for the schools. Id also like to see in the first 100 days better medicare, expanded obamacare. So as a student and as a black man, i would like to see that. Hello, my name is [inaudible] im a senior p. R. Major, Graphic Design minor here at howard university, and in the first 100 days of trumps presidency, i would like for him and congress to address the issues with federal funding towards womens services, because that affects people like myself and other middle class and definitely lower class people. Hi. My name is michael. Im a junior here at jcsu, and for the first 100 days i believe that trump should improve his immigration policy. I mean, for one, the muslim ban is i dont agree with the muslim ban because, for one, i have a friend who is muslim and so not all muslims are terrorists x. Be as for the wall policy, i dont think its going to work either. I do believe that illegal immigration shouldnt, like, its an issue and all, but building a wall isnt going to help. My name ismy yakker Im Communications major, im a junior here at [inaudible] and my message is to president donald trumpment i know a lot of president s, i know a lot of candidates make a lot of promises, but i would actually like him to lower the rate of unemployment. Voices from the road on cspan
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