 Man was it pretty flying in here and the Flight was almost on time You can't do better than that. Can you hear me all okay? But I Now myself and I were looking out the window and say It is it is nice to be home. It's nice to be home in a day like today and There's still some foliage Which was we left at the height of foliage We used to glad to see something so here And it's good to be home. It's good to be home and give some with good news the they finally past the bipartisan infrastructure bills many of you talked to me about it in In August when we first wrote it Or actually began right in July and the involvement of the Senate Appropriations Committee Getting both Republicans and Democrats to work together on it One of the things now that the house is finally past what they said it past months ago we can talk about infrastructure and Know it's not the old days when Infrastructure men only bridges highways roads and rails We will invest in those and Vermont will invest heavily We have other needs like climate resiliency broadband and renewable energy The What I've heard from all over the state is I've traveled around the state in the last Few months a number of people told me how badly they were hurt during pandemic because of the lack of high-speed quality internet when you've got kids or a Going to school remotely your business is being done remotely your jobs are and you can't get it Well, I've made sure that there's an initial hundred million dollars for Vermont $100 million for Vermont to upgrade internet. There'll be more coming Once the FCC updates its maps we're going to have some very significant Investments in climate resiliency initiatives Pay for insulation electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which would be helpful. I noticed that There's a Restaurant of the red hand right near where we live in in middle sex and there are always people pulled up to the Charging station there, but we have to have in many many other places We need new water and wastewater infrastructure around the state. I hear from Leaders in these different communities how much that's needed We need to improve the systems. We have to protect our waterways our lack of water infrastructure limits the building of new housing and rural Vermont we need housing in rural Vermont and we've got to make sure the water is there So what we've done Is made sure there's three hundred and fifty million dollars for Vermont To invest in water and wastewater and we have another of our natural infrastructure An additional 40 million dollars for the work to protect and clean up Lake Champlain That is something that has always been a top priority of mine since I began the Lake Champlain program a decades ago and You can imagine I did make sure that was in there, but that provides drinking water for about 145,000 people State our size. That's a lot and it underpins the economy of the Champlain Valley And many of you are with me in Highgate I Hear a few weeks ago. We talked about the needs to improve and upgrade Highgate. I had the secretary Travel to Vermont to see what we needed She said that we get the money. It will be done. Well, there's a hundred and seventy million dollars To build completely new ports of entry at Highgate Another hundred and fifteen million to upgrade the other ports of entry and Those of us who are used to going back and forth To Canada it looks like that day will be back here. It'll be nice Now we need these and The there's been some impasses we have another bill Reconciliation bill with this one. I was concerned. I was concerned when it was held up earlier because people wanted even more things we seem to be having saying that The Perfect was going to be the enemy of the good now. We've gotten the very good and will work on the next bill Which will add to it. I I know how Excited everybody is and it's an example Certainly what we did with the Appropriations Committee. We can get Republicans and Democrats to come together same thing happened in the house and Maybe Indicates where we can and certainly should go and the way the Senate was when I first came there Any question? No, okay? Right so we go lunch That was a joke We're the key opposition and also, you know, the biggest question Oh, no, what we what we pass in this infrastructure bill is very realistic it's paid for But it's also thick of the Tickets even a small state like Vermont the thousands of jobs They're going to be created from that. He's a decent paying job It's going to improve our infrastructure and consider what the alternative is the alternative is to have our waterways our water Supplies roads and bridges deteriorate and it costs twice as much to fix them up It's like doing repairs around your house is cheaper to the repairs first and try to rebuild later Anything else Saying that it shouldn't stand being cared up with the social spending Well, they took that position Way back months ago when we passed the infrastructure bill in the in the Senate I said at that time that was a mistake That's saying we're gonna Let the perfect be the enemy of the good. They're still negotiating What's going to be in that reconciliation bill? I know it's under Sanders and others are working on that But I wanted to make sure the appropriations were there and I wanted to get this going I wish they had not held it up because I think a lot of these contracts Could have been issued we could have been putting people to work long before now And but at least it's done and I applaud those Democrats and Republicans who came together in the House representative to pass it. Let's uh, I'm a pragmatist I can talk about all kinds of ideological Ideological things that I'd like to have and I would like to have But I also believe in getting things done the cleanup of Lake Champlain Everybody said that's crazy to think you could do that when I started but now we've done it and and continue it It shows it can be done and I've done this with Areas of criminal law. Well, I'll give you one example Where you You have to forge for it. It takes a while. You can't do it all at once Remember when I was chairman of the senate agriculture committee Marcel and I spent time with farmers here in Vermont oftentimes sitting around the kitchen table talking about How great it'd be if we had standards for organic farming And I pushed for that The then chairman of the senate agriculture committee said it would be a Crunchy granola thing that my words not his His words I couldn't say here And then I became chairman and we got it through in a bipartisan way. You know what that Nutty granola is that's over a 55 billion dollar industry And it's been two or three years to do it And when I do it piece by piece pretty good done. I mean I look I look at getting things done. You can talk about things or you can get them done I just like getting them done And as far as getting things done, I did promise I saw it take her lunch so anything else Oh Good. Thank you No Of course you can't I believe in the first amendment Somewhat Any Further along in in your decision process of whether you'll uh seek reelection where where do you stand with that? Well, the uh, I received a couple polls that said I could easily get reelected and I certainly appreciate the governor saying the republican governor saying he's support me, but I'll talk about that It's an appropriate point You'll be invited Okay, thank you