 Before we begin though, a couple of pieces we want to touch on here. So first off, you know, we want to open up with a land acknowledgement. So we want to start this meeting by acknowledging that those of us in Vermont are holding this gathering on unceded traditional lands of the Abenaki Nation, a tribe of the Wabanaki Confederacy that includes the Elbnu Abenaki in southern Vermont, the Nohagan Memphre Magog Band of the Kusuk in the Northeast Kingdom, the Abenaki Mississikoi of Swanton, and the Kausik Abenaki of the Endakina Territory of Vermont. And a little bit about VBSR, and I know you all, many of you have heard this many times before, but it certainly bears repeating that, you know, VBSR were a statewide organization that really strives in particular to create a business ethic in Vermont that recognizes the opportunity and the responsibility of the business community to set a high standard for protecting the natural human and economic environments of our citizens. We strive to create a just, sustainable, transformative economy, one that works for all Vermonters, and we advance that mission and try to bring that to fruition through education, through networking, and of course, public policy. And we generally frame that work around the triple bottom line of people, planet and prosperity. So being sure to be kind to your community members, to your employees, to your fellow human beings, take good care of your planet and be a good steward, and recognizing that if you do those things, you can also create a thriving economy and making sure to know and address that neither of these are mutually exclusive of one another. They are intersectional and work together in tandem. And then a couple of quick logistical details here. So throughout this process, for one, the workshop will be recorded, will be sending around a recording to participants and be posting it up on our website as well. But throughout this webinar, please feel free to participate using the chat or the Q&A feature of Zoom. We will make sure that we address as many questions as we can as they come in. We also thank you to those who pre-submitted questions as well. We're going to try and get through as many as we can, and we'll be sure to follow up with some helpful resources as well. So again, thank you for your participation from afar. And then finally, just a quick couple of flags for upcoming VBSR virtual workshops. We have an exciting policy forum on Vermont tax structure recommendations coming up on March 29th. And of course, to save the date for our big 31st annual conference on Thursday, May 20th. And then also please feel free to sign up for our Epic Education series. And this is an eight-part workshop series and become part of a learning cohort exploring all aspects of justice, equity, diversion, and inclusion. And this is put on by VBSR and our partners over at Abundant Sun. And then with that, I'm going to stop sharing my screen, and I will turn it over to Congressman Welch for a quick update, and then we can dive into Q&A. So welcome, Congressman. It's wonderful to see you again. Well, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate being with you. And I just want to express my gratitude to your organization and all the extraordinary businesses in Vermont that believe in the triple bottom line. You know, it's purposeful. You know, it's not enough to just want to make money at any expense. And the well-being of our state and the well-being of our economy and really the well-being of the mutual relationships among citizens of the state so depends on an acknowledgement that there has to be shared benefit and there has to be shared responsibility. And that's really what I see has been a leadership effort of the VBSR. And I remember back in the days when it was founded by a couple of wild people in business who actually thought doing business also meant you could do good for everyone and that there were mutual responsibilities we all had. So I just want to say thank you. And if ever we've seen the necessity of having that triple bottom line approach, it's been through this pandemic. You know, it's a once in a hundred year event. It was not brought on by anybody. None of us could dodge it. And, you know, it was just a year ago. It's so amazing what's happened in that year. But it was about a year ago right around now where I was in Washington and we had passed one of our first bills and it was a modest bill at that point to try to provide some money for testing. It was like a hundred million dollars. And on the way to the airport, I got a call, you know, it was American Airlines. So it was around 10 o'clock in the night and they said, Congressman, are you still planning on going to Vermont? And I said, yes, I am. And they said, well, as soon as you get here, we're ready to leave. I was the only person on that plane. I mean, it's just stunning when I think back. That was a year ago. And that was when it was just beginning and we weren't social distancing, but we were apprehensive and the news was coming in in New York. And just think about what we've been through in that year. You know, we've lost over 500,000 lives. And all of you who are on this call to have responsibilities for your enterprises in the economic well being of the citizens of our state and of our country. Obviously, we're incredibly threatened as well as the health of our citizens. And I'm just pretty proud of what we've done in Vermont. I think the governor and the legislature have done an extraordinary job taking this seriously and working together. I think our business community is rallied. And, you know, I think at the federal government level, especially in the very beginning where we had a bipartisan carousel package of a couple of almost a couple of trillion dollars that reflected the magnitude of the crisis all around the country. And it knew no partisan boundaries. This was affecting every single one of us in every place. But I just want to salute your organization. In our Vermont businesses and the impact's been disparate. You know, the service economy's been really rough. Some of the service economy like law firms and places where you can work at home and use the internet have done have done well. But this has been really stressful. And many of you on this phone are parents and you've had to contend with trying to keep body and soul together and your enterprises together and help your kids with home learning. So thank you for all that you've done. Today, I guess we're going to be talking about the latest American rescue package. And I am so pleased that we passed it. It's, you know, one point nine trillion dollars. And we can go through it a little bit. I know, you know, the details from get off questions, but I'll be brief. But the bottom line here on this American rescue package. This helped folks everywhere, regardless of who they voted for. You voted for Trump. You voted for Biden. You were hurting and your enterprises needed help with the PPP. Your individual payrolls, your individuals with their incomes have been hammered. We needed money for the vaccine. I mean, the provisions in this legislation. Are about helping America, not about advancing a political agenda and the political agenda that this country faces to get back on feet, get back on our feet to deal with a once in a century event. And we're in a much better place than we were a year ago. You know, the vaccine is being deployed. And, you know, we can we're crossing the bridge to the other side and we can see it there. But there's two things that we have to do. One is we have to maintain our health vigilance until we're vaccinated and are safe. And and number two, we've got to maintain the support so that when we get to the other side, we're not leaving a lot of businesses. A lot of individuals on that bridge abandoned because they couldn't make it to the other side. So I want to get to questions and hear your comments. But, you know, the outline of the American Rescue Plan, in my understanding, this has significant support across the country by partisan, even though it was a partisan vote, regrettably, in Congress. Focuses on all the things that we need to focus on. First of all, the vaccine, you know, this is going to be a this is a federal government responsibility. We're getting that deployed. We're hopeful that by July 4th, everybody pretty much will be vaccinated. That is like essential. And Vermont's moving along on that and get your vaccine. Number two, it provides aid to individuals. You know, it's another the $1,400 check. Everybody comes $75,000 or less, faces out at 80,000. But a family of four can get $5,600. And believe me, most families really need that. Number three, it extends unemployment through September with that $300 supplement so that folks who are not able to find work are going to be able to pay the bills. Ford provides a lot of help for folks who are struggling with rent because we've got to keep people in. We don't want mass evictions. So there's support for that. It helps with the nutrition programs with a 15 percent supplement. And those those those nutrition programs have been a lifeline for our kids and many of our families, so it maintains that. It helps our schools and with funding to help them reopen and do it safely. It helps with rental assistance as well. But it also provides, as you know, about $1.3 billion to the state of Vermont and our municipalities. And there's a good deal of flexibility. And the goal there is to let the governor and our legislature make decisions upon what's best to benefit Vermonters and Vermont businesses in our economy to get back on its feet safely. And there's money that goes to our municipalities. So there's going to be an enormous responsibility on the part of our local leaders to use the funds that are going to be distributed through the American Rescue Act to our cities and towns around the state. And I am a big advocate of flexibility because I think that the state or the federal government can authorize the funds. But when it comes to making those micro decisions that give us the best chance, the best use and the best accountability of how that money is used, I think it's much better done in Montpelier and it's much better done in our local communities. So that's an overview. But it's been a very ambitious response at the federal level. And it's a response that's needed. I mean, this is a once in a hundred year event. And the devastation has been enormous. We've lost over 500,000 lives. We've had many others that have been seriously ill. Some who've recovered fine and quick and they're back to normal. But a lot of folks who've got lingering and long term injuries as a result of this. So I just want to end by pay my my ongoing respect to VBSR. You know, I think you all started when I was in the state Senate my first time around. But it was an early concept that that triple bottom line. And, you know, essentially that embodies, I think of Vermont ethic that, hey, we're all in this together. You know, summer farmers, summer small entrepreneurs, summer teachers, summer firefighters, but we're all doing our bit in our way to try to build a superman economy. But each of us, no matter what we have, has a responsibility for a triple bottom line. And the need that a enterprise has to make profit and it does is not the only obligation it has in your organization has so acknowledged that to the betterment of the the well-being of all of us as a state. So thank you so much for having me here. And I look forward to your questions and interactions with you over this next period of time. Thanks. Of course, congressman and I would be remiss if I didn't also say thank you. I think that, you know, the work of VBSR has always been an inspiration to me over the years and certainly in my position currently. But I'd also say a lot of that work isn't possible without impassioned legislators like yourselves to really bring that Vermont voice to Washington, D.C. So thank you as well. And I'm particularly excited to dive in here. I think you spoke to it well with just sort of this ongoing sense of incorporating community driven solutions. And I think that really embodies sort of our triple bottom line approach to business, but also to policymaking as well. So with that, first off, folks, again, I would encourage everyone to please feel free to punch in questions into the chat or the Q&A feature. But we also have a good portion of pre submitted ones. So I'll try to sort of sparsely distribute them. So please don't feel like you're at the end of the queue by punching them in now. We want to take them as they come in. But, you know, to that end, I wanted to dive into just a few questions here and what I'll do. So folks who don't know, you're able to punch these in here, but we'll be sure to just sort of address them as they come in anyway. So I want to kick off a question with Katie over at law since Finest Liquids. So she asks, since hospitality is such an important part of Vermont's economy and so many small businesses have either already closed or are struggling, will service workers be prioritized for vaccines that we can open up in a more safe and effective way? Well, as you know, the governor is making the priority list for the vaccine. You know, our job to federal level is to get the vaccines back to pay for the vaccines and to make them widely available. And the vaccines are getting rolled out at a very, very high rate now. It's it's close to two million a day. But the priority of who gets the vaccine is a local decision. So that question I know is really important. And I know the governor just made a recent modification where we were going essentially in age bands. And that has some merit to it because, broadly speaking, the older folks are more vulnerable than the younger folks. So we've been moving through it that way. But obviously, frontline workers like teachers, like people in grocery stores, they're being exposed to a much greater degree of risk, I think, than I am sitting in my home doing a Zoom call. But it is a governor's decision and bottom line here. And my sense is that we're making real progress here in Vermont. And the hope is that we'll get those vaccines in our arms in the next two months. Much appreciated, Congressman. And I want to, I guess, follow up on that. So we have another question in our chat here. Just sort of how do you feel, I guess, broadly, are you feeling good about Vermont's rollout of the vaccinations, feeling optimistic going forward? You know, in Canada, I'm really proud of Vermont. You know, I think the governor and the legislature and our health care leaders have done a great job on this. It's been, you know, straightforward. These are the facts. This is what we've got to do. It's it's it's been candid. And in frankly, you know, Vermont's got one of the best records, if not the best record in the in the country with respect to containment. I mean, this is a virulent, virulent disease that spreads really easily. And, you know, I commend the governor for getting on this early for the health commissioner, Dr. Levine, for speaking candidly and plainly. And I think what that helped us do is enlist what ultimately is really the most essential component. And that is civic buy-in. You know, from business leaders, from our school boards. And even with all of that, we're seeing, you know, the cases are still higher than we want in Vermont. But we're getting on the other side. And actually my worry now is more that people out of exhaustion, you know, and just being tired of being careful. Right when we've got that vaccine being distributed and we're close to getting that herd immunity that we need, we'll get impatient. And I feel somewhat guilty, you know, I mean, it's not bad. I live on a dirt road and I can go out and I went skiing yesterday and I didn't run into anybody across country skiing. So it's a little easier for me, but if you're home, you're younger, you've got kids, you know, be patient, you got to hang in. But I'm impressed with what Vermont and Vermont have done. I certainly appreciate that Congressman and definitely empathize when it comes to the sense of pandemic fatigue whilst also balancing that with the duty to be good to ourselves and to our fellow members as well. Well, well spoken. I do want to address another question here that we had. I think this speaks, you know, generally to the benefits of the rescue package to citizens everywhere. And I think that this is a particularly very, a very poignant issue in particular and that was lost in the previous discussion, previous package was, what about benefits in particular for refugees and asylum applicants that live in Vermont? Are there any particular programs coming down from the federal level or do we expect that to be another state discussion? Well, I think that's a state discussion. You know, that gets fraught in Congress, as you know, we do have benefits for folks with green cards, but that's a brutal issue in Washington. As you know, Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders and I are all strong advocates of comprehensive immigration reform. Donald Trump wasn't, a lot of folks in his party weren't. But what I fought for and we were successful in getting Bernie and Patrick and I was a good deal of flexibility. So there's money coming back, you know, 1.3 billion to Vermont and our local communities get money as well with some flexibility. So that is gonna allow us to tailor that some of that response to those particular needs and have that debate at the state level. So my hope is that we'll be able to help folks who need that help. Much appreciated there Congressman. And I would note last year we went through a similar process when it came to just dispersing stimulus payments and making sure that those were being done justly and equitably. So certainly look forward to working with you and working with the members of the legislature to make sure that we can do that again. And I definitely appreciate that, that flexibility is absolutely key having navigated the CRF guidance from last year. That was a real bear. So I have to thank you all for that very, very much. And then another question we have coming down here. Again, looking at, so what will Vermont be doing to help Vermont farmers and more specifically looking for that monetary support to make sure that farms can be financially viable and profitable going forward? Well, you know, as you know, there was some aid that got to our farmers and helped in the CARES package, less so in this one. But you know, there's two issues with our farms. One is how are they impacted by the emergency and the CARES money did provide some supplemental payments. But number two is I think many of you know there's a real crisis with the price of milk and fluctuating price of milk being less than the cost of the production. And that has a lot of reasons behind it, but it's why I've always been a strong advocate of supply management, which is similar to the Canadian system where you try to match supply and demand in where you have appreciation about the importance of local production in agriculture for environmental reasons and health safety reasons. So there continues to be some support here for ag, including the payroll protection plan, but that's really modest because it's a pretty small payroll on most of our farms. So we're not solving the ongoing crisis in the low price of dairy that has to come up in order to sustain our farms, but there in the two pack, the several packages that we have, there was some supplemental relief that has been somewhat helpful to the dairy industry, which you know, I say that with great modesty because as all of us know, if you go on a dairy farm, you're meeting the hardest working people doing the toughest job with a smile, but in pretty very rough economic circumstances. Well said, Congressman, and from my perspective too, I would just say that just as we have worked on trying to do triage for the many sectors that Vermont houses within our business community, we have also found sort of it's exposing sort of the, I guess like the soft underbelly of certain sectors and some of the underlying issues that have posed such significant challenges to them are our farmers included. So I appreciate that. So while we're doing triage, we're also trying to diagnose some underlying issues as well and try to build back better for the long term. So greatly appreciate that. And actually in a similar vein of sort of looking ahead and trying to address not only issues of equity, but also family building. I got a question from Jennifer Green with the Burlington Electric Department who asked to please talk about the stimulus package and its perspective role to reduce childhood poverty by half for one year. How will this impact the long-term economic health and wellbeing of the country beyond year one and how will reducing child poverty play out over the longer term? Well, thank you so much for that. One of the provisions in this is something that many people have been advocating and struggling for. And it's essentially a social security type of payment to families with young children. So in this legislation, the childcare tax credit for kids five and under is $3,600 a year. And the plan is to have that paid in monthly installments at 300 bucks. And just think about that for a family. And by the way, this support for kids was something advocated by Senator Romney. He had a different approach on how to do it, but there was some significant bipartisan support for this concept that we got incorporated. So kids from five down or their family's gonna get $300 a month and from six to 17 or be $250 a month. And that is gonna reduce childhood poverty by about 50% and just think about that. It's a recognition that, hey, if you're raising kids and you're low income, you actually need a little help. And also by the way, when you get that little help, it's really making it more possible for some people who men are women, but particularly women as we know, wanna get in the labor force, they've got a little bit of latitude to do it. So this is a major, major transformation with the increase in the child care tax credit. And it is part of this package that is gonna expire in a year, but it's in the tax code. And I think there's a really good chance that we'll be able to sustain this after the pandemic because this is something that we need obviously in the pandemic, but we always need it. Families need some support. Most European countries, I'm not sure everybody in this call is well aware, does have this kind of support for kids. So this by estimates is gonna reduce childhood poverty by about 40 to 50%. Just think what a difference it makes for a child getting started where there's a little bit of economic security because of this legislation. So no guarantee after a year, but I think there's gonna be an enormous amount of political support when that are back to find a way to continue to finance that in the future. And I certainly am committed to that. Of course, we share in your optimism and your commitment there as well, Congressman. From our perspective, we recognize that access to affordable, high quality child care is, it's not only sort of a moral imperative and recognizing that it's an equity issue in terms of disproportionate responsibilities being delegated to our female business owners and employees, but also just that it's an economic imperative as well and seeing this as being- Well, you know, I appreciate you saying that and I'm gonna interrupt to compliment VBSR. I really do. You know, I was around when you guys got started and it was so refreshing to have folks from the business community who had a point of view about the triple bottom line and really advocated for it. And I'm not gonna over compliment you that it was because you were generous. I think you understood that if we make a stronger, better society, your potential to make a better company and a more profitable company would ride along with that. You know, so I'm really admiring what you did, but I'm not gonna give you too much compliments, all right? Yeah, it's really important. So, you know, I thank you for that advocacy and your organization is playing such an important role in the Vermont economy and community. Of course. And again, we can't compliment you enough as well, Congressman, you're gonna, I'm gonna blush, good thing I have a red shirt on. And I would actually, I wanna ask one question. So this is kind of a follow-up one or added piece here. Wanted to get your support for free school meals for children in particular. This is a question I'm kind of combining two other questions we've gotten here, but wanted to get your take on that as well. Well, you know, I favorite, what's happened is that more and more schools are providing more and more income eligible meals to more and more students. And there's a couple of things. First of all, if all kids are eating together and it's just part of what the school routine is, and obviously it has to be properly funded, I think it creates a better social situation and it obviously diminishes the stigma of who's getting the free meal, who isn't, who's poor, who isn't. So I favor that as a goal. I mean, I think that, and actually I think communal eating is an important part of education. You know, you're with your friends, you're talking, you're doing the things that we do when we have a communal meal. So I support it. That's wonderful here, Congressman. I would know as a child who actually benefited from many of the existing programs that really hits close to home. So thank you. Also, I guess in keeping of the vein of the people aspect, I guess of our in prosperity really of taking good care of one's employees and running people first workplaces, I've gotten a couple of questions here on this. So I'm gonna combine the two. The previous iteration of this plan included a $15 minimum wage. Could you speak to your support or opposition to that? And also, do you see a path forward in adopting a federal minimum, $15 minimum wage going forward? Well, number one, I supported and we passed it in the house. We had the votes there and we got it done. Now, the reason we passed it in the house and didn't pass in the Senate as we were able to do it with a majority vote and we had basically all the Democrats on board and a few Republicans in the Senate, it was not considered as eligible to be in the reconciliation process. And that's arcane, but bottom line is the reconciliation only required 50 votes plus the vice president, whereas if it's not in reconciliation, it requires 60 votes and we don't have 60 votes in the Senate. So the answer to your question is yes, I support it, I did support it. As you know, it's phased in, okay? Over several years, it's not tomorrow you wake up and it's $15 an hour. And the real challenge for us is in the Senate. And as you know, Senator Sanders and the Budget Committee is a big champion and Senator Leahy is the strong supporter, but they're gonna have to navigate it over there to figure out how to deal with the filibuster. And as you know, there's a lot of questions about whether the filibuster should be abolished. And frankly, I think it should be. The filibuster has been largely used recently, essentially to restrict voting and deny civil rights. And I don't like that. I appreciate that Congressman. And as you know, we of course know, recognize you've been a steadfast champion for that. I always just try to be sensitive when it comes to bill specific. So much appreciated there. And we certainly echo your support for a $15 minimum wage and look forward again to working with you and members of the Vermont legislature as well. We had some progress on that last year and look forward to continuing to move the ball forward in that push for an equitable and livable wage and livable jobs in general. I wanted to delve. There's a couple of other more specific questions here. So I have one from Meredith Roberts who had asked for the last year, the crisis standard of care had been used, which allows for the lowering of some nursing standards such as the reuse of PPE multiple times rather than single use. And this puts more nurses at risk. So is there a particular end in sight for the use of the crisis plan? And when might the normal standards resume an adequate PPE be in place? I don't know the answer to that. I mean, obviously the urgency of the emergency. And then of course we had a real supply chain issue. A lot of the PPE came from China and we put ourselves in a very vulnerable situation where we didn't have our own manufacturing capacity. So the urgency of the situation meant a reduction in standards. And I would certainly wanna get back to the safest possible standards as soon as we possibly can. And I really appreciate how our frontline workers, it's amazing. And we should all pause a moment here because all of us are so aware of how infectious COVID is. And we're all being told and we're complying about social distancing. If we're fortunate, we actually can work from home. But think about those folks who can't. The grocery clerks, the folks in nursing homes, they've gotta like walk into harm's way every single day. So I'm all forgetting them, the maximum protections that they need to be safe and to feel safe. So I just wanna express my gratitude. But when we'll get through this, I don't know, but I know that there's been a lot more promotion of being self-sustaining and independent with respect to the production of our own PPE here. You remember in the beginning of this pandemic, of course the origin was a was in China and we got our PPE from China. Well, they use the PPE when we started needing it. So I appreciate that concern. And God bless our frontline workers. Thank you. Couldn't have said it better myself, Congressman. You know, a couple of pieces first off, thank you for your reminder. I always appreciate when folks say, I don't know, that's a perfectly acceptable answer and an honest one night. Again, really just appreciate your reminder generally. And for addressing sort of the spectrum of privilege when it comes to whether one can work remotely from afar or whether one needs to work in person and really sort of take on many of those risks. So certainly echo appreciation and gratitude to our frontline workers, to our healthcare workers overall and appreciate the question from Meredith as well. So as we look ahead here, I wanna sort of break off into questions that I guess look at sort of creative usages and spending of these dollars that we have coming into the state level because I think there's a lot of opportunities here, not solely just for recovery, but also for the sake of again, rebuilding a just equitable and green economy in the wake of COVID-19. So I'll address a few of them as they come in here too and a few of our pre-submitted questions as well. So the first one comes from Leslie Nulti who's with Mansfield Community Fiber. She asks, will the new federal legislation enable states to use federal dollars for broadband loan programs or will it restrict the funding to grants? You know, I'm not sure about that. Final hurray for my office is on, so we'll get back to you but there's about, you know, there's money in there for broadband that would be deployed by the states and whether it's loans or grants, I mean, that would be grants, but we'll check on the loan and get back to you. One thing, and just on broadband, first of all, I wanna thank so many from honors and working in the local communities to bring broadband to their communities. But I was the, I am the head of the rural broadband caucus in Congress and it's a bipartisan group, but before the pandemic, we were pounding our colleagues with the argument that all America, rural America needed broadband and they'd listened politely, but they weren't all on board. Well, the pandemic has changed that because you can't get healthcare, you can't not only do your homework, you can't go to school, many of us can't work unless we have access to high speed internet and it's universal and what I've seen in Congress is that that is now accepted, that this is not a discretionary deal and we're at the point in Congress where our Congress was in the 1930s when we started rural electrification and it was a decision that was more recognizing the social necessity rather than the business opportunity. We had to have all America wired for electricity, now we have to have all of America wired. And in the next infrastructure bill, I'm working with Congressman Clyburn on this issue. On broadband, I just introduced the $80 billion plan last week that we expect will be part of an infrastructure bill to get that money out to help deploy broadband. What we have in Vermont is a jumpstart because it's one thing to have a public policy from Washington where we wanna wire all of America, but then the wiring actually has to be done here, it has to be done locally, it has to be done in the Northeast Kingdom, it has to be done in Bennington County in the circumstances, geographic and the challenges vary. So it ultimately requires very good focused local leadership to get that wire into that last home on that long dirt road. But I'm seeing there be a consensus in Congress to get that done. And it's a universally urgent need, whether you're in Blue State, Vermont or Red State, Oklahoma, you need that and your citizens need it. So I see it as essential that the support in Congress is really there on both sides of the aisle and then the local leadership is really gonna be what is so essential for us to get that line in that wire in that house on that dirt road all throughout the state. We couldn't agree more there. And I would just say is just having spoken with many of our members in some of our more rural districts, the challenges that a lack of access to broadband presents, not just for our businesses themselves, their ability to operate remotely or just do business from the comfort of their homes actually in their places at work, they're brick and mortar store fronts, but also just from a personal perspective to it being able to connect with one another to use telemedicine to receive an education too. There's a lot of layers of equity. Exactly. We've gotta have, it's a necessity. It's like electricity. And there has to be a public policy to help us get it because just the profit motive is not gonna get it done. Exactly that profit, that profit model, I think again, coming back, we come back to the triple bottom line of recognizing that you can put people first and still maintain a solid prosperous economy. So I appreciate the call for more of an intentional approach to this kind of work to make sure that when we do it, we do it well and we do it with the future in mind as well. So thank you for that. I wanna pivot over, I guess this is somewhat in the same vein, because from our perspective, broadband deployment is also immensely helpful within the context of climate as well and trying to reduce things like vehicle miles traveled, cut back on Vermonters can use to their offices when they can. So this question here comes in particular from, and sorry, I'm having a little bit of technical difficulties about Billy Connolly with Vanguard Renewables who asks, given the swift comprehensive action that's needed to effectively address our most challenging environmental issues, what will you be doing to bring forward, to bring forward thinking climate and resource protections actions that are being effectively implemented and modeled in Vermont? And he names a couple of examples here, the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Universal Recycling Law. What are you doing to bring those policies to your New England colleagues and to Congress at large? Oh, thank you. This is the fun part of my job. Okay, it's so much fun to poach the good policies that we have here in Vermont and bring them down to my colleagues in DC. You know, I serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee and of course I was a major part of the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill that passed a number of years ago in the House but didn't quite make it in the Senate, much to the regret of the climate but that was going to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. And now our goals are much more urgent and much more ambitious. So I'm all in on that. My focus on the energy side has been on the energy efficiency where we can achieve 40% of the carbon emission reductions that we need, okay? And I'm part of the sustainable economic energy caucus which is all about renewable energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. And I shamelessly take the ideas that you come up with or be under consideration in Montpelier and bring them to Washington. So I'm all in on this. And by the way, things are changing on the attitude and I first went to Congress. A lot of my colleagues reacted with apprehension even on the democratic side when many of us were advocating in ambitious agenda on climate change. And the reason they did is understandable but not sustainable. And the understandable reason was they had an economy that was based on carbon fuels and they were fearful of the economic consequences and the job loss consequences. And I think, you know, by the way I think we have to take that seriously. And I'm going to give a story. I went to coal country. I have a colleague from West Virginia and I asked him if I could go down there and visit. And we went into a mine. I went down a thousand feet and then we got on one of those coal carriers and went four and a half miles in. And it was a lesson to me because you know what? I love the people I met. The coal miners, I was down in that seam of coal with them, you know, a thousand feet under the earth. And I was with them for several hours and then we came out and had lunch. They work hard. I mean, they're like our dairy farmers. They work so hard. And they didn't cause climate change, okay? These are folks who grew up in a community where that's with jobs where their dad did it, their grandfather did it. And when I came back, I was advocating, you know, for Waxman-Markey but also that we have significant money in there for the desecration and disruption that happened in coal country if we were successful in moving off of fossil fuels. And it was a wonderful experience for me just to see these hard-working people who would be affected by the policy change. But to realize that we have to include that and acknowledge it and help there to be a transition because these are good, good people. And now I'm finding in Congress so many more are recognizing that the coal industry has got all kinds of challenges, including economic, you know, and it's not just that there's a move by citizens to get to a cleaner economy. But I want us to have an inclusive approach here where, yes, we all need a carbon-free economy but in that transition, we've got to help each other along the way. So that's kind of how I'm approaching it. And I'm trying to work in ways where we can bring people along because they know we need to change but we have to acknowledge that this can have impacts on people that it's not their fault, you know, those coal miners it's not their fault that we're in this situation. It's not all of us really. So this is an area of intense interest and activity on my part. That's well said, Congressman. You know, just to build off that point, I think there's a ton of, I think, or I'm immensely, immensely pleased to see sort of this change when it comes to the dialogue around climate action to not only put that focus on environmental conservation and preservation which is immensely important but also to speak to how climate action can actually have definitive economic benefits, job-creating benefits. Exactly. We help ensure a just transition within the state of Vermont. That's right. And given that we have billions of dollars flowing out of the state each year in fossil fuel spending, I'm very optimistic that as far as moving us toward a more decarbonized economy, we can help keep dollars flowing here locally. Lucy, I think, you know, that's a great point you make. I mean, why do we want to send all this money to Texas and to Saudi Arabia? You know, if the more we can keep here, the better, you're exactly right. Well, hey, you're just a crafty business person. Very true. Much appreciated there, Congressman Welch. Let me see. Well, this one's actually one building off of that point because I think, you know, we continue to be DSR and many of our partners in the Act on Climate Vermont Coalition and the community writ large, we continue to push for deployment of more renewable energy resources within the state of Vermont. So this question in particular comes from Jeffrey Phillips with Sustainability Solutions LLC. He asks, how do you propose overcoming some of the resistance to more wind energy production in Vermont in particular? You know, that's a Vermont issue. I mean, it really is. This is not a federal because the issue on wind in Vermont is the siting in the ridgelines, as you know. And so it's not a federal approach here. You know, wind deployment is, and that's really the answer. This is something that has to be addressed in Vermont because the siting issues are all local decisions, not federal ones. You know, that's really the issue. You know, there's every place that there is a wind proposal. The developers there have to contend with the local response. And that's true with any kind of development. So I appreciate the question, but the answer has to come from Vermont on that one, not from the federal government. We can support wind. We can support wind policy, and I do. But when the particular siting questions come up, it's obviously a local issue. You know, we do our best to, I guess to think globally and act locally and acting locally is really what we do best here at BBSR, but certainly want to see those benefits come out globally too. In this same vein of things, I have a question here from Jesse Beck. Will there be any federal initiatives for a carbon tax or carbon fees? You know, I don't know that there will be, the reason, I mean, I've supported, okay? So this is not an issue for me, but the practical impediments to getting the votes are really, really tough, okay? And how do you design it in a way where people have confidence that it's not going to be a punitive tax, the money will actually go back to consumers and payers, particularly lower income folks. So there's a lot of us who've supported it. You know, it's a market signal about the societal cost of carbon emissions that just get not reflected in the actual price. So there's an immense market logic to that approach. There's immense pushback from folks, well, two reasons. One is from folks who are in favor of carbon fuels, but there's another in apprehension about whether the design would result in the money actually getting back, which is the goal of any kind of carbon tax that I've seen with credibility that it goes back to folks and doesn't penalize them. But that's a tough, that's right now, I don't think we have the votes for the carbon tax. I appreciate that perspective, Congressman, especially because we are an organization that typically we wanna see, especially your point on the investments and where these dollars can go. VBSR has a rich history of engaging in other programs, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative being a good example of sort of cap. I usually try to stay away from carbon tax and move toward cap and invest. Or programs, I think in particular, that really they draw funding down from fossil fuel expenditures, but they drive that money into creating more innovation within our clean energy, our clean transportation, and also to help to drive benefits directly to Vermonters who need it most in particular, I'm thinking of our rural communities are low end. That's a good point. We're so rural that if we could move to electric vehicles that are affordable, Vermonters would love to do it, but if Vermonters are dependent, low income Vermonters, middle income Vermonters would be dependent on the gas powered vehicles because we haven't really transformed ourselves into electric electrification. That's gonna hit them hard. So, I've been a big supporter of the continuation and expansion of the tax credit for electric vehicles because we wanna stand up that industry and we wanna do it both for carbon, to reduce carbon, but you know what? That's a very, very good market. It's a very good place to create a lot of jobs and why don't we want America to be ahead in that technology in China? So I see the tax credit that I've been a champion of the $7,500 tax credit is something that's a really good economic incentive so that people have an affordable choice when they're deciding to get an electrical car. Exactly, exactly. And I think you've spoken well to the fact that we've sort of failed to really quantify this social cost of carbon, but at the same time, the benefits of clean energy, clean transportation are abundant and fairly well documented at that. So appreciate those comments and we're feeling pretty optimistic here in Vermont and also nationally as well. I know we're nearing the top of the hour. I've got maybe one more question that I think we can get to that's a little broader and then I think maybe just leave some room for closing remarks as well. So this one speaks, I guess, more to a long-term challenge that Vermont has with respect to retention and an aging population demographics and a need, a desire, a want to attract more diverse constituencies to our state but also to keep Vermont families here in the state as well. So this question comes through from one of our guests here. Is there any project or program to support youth and to make sure that they get more opportunity and careers to develop in Vermont instead of letting them move to another state to look for better lives and better jobs? Well, you know, that's a state issue. I mean, it's an incredibly important issue, okay? And a couple of things. Number one, this is where I think our state colleges are really important and our technical schools are really important. The Vermonters who grew up and learn a trade can make good money being a plumber or an electrician. They tend to stay. The other is we're seeing a lot as a result of this pandemic, a lot of interest in Vermont and it's a good news, bad news situation because we have a lot of folks coming up here and they're buying homes and in some cases they'll probably bring in their business with them as long as we have good high-speed internet. The downside is it's driving up real estate prices, making it tougher in working-class Vermonters, okay? So we've got to have a housing policy that helps accommodate this. But it's really important that we make this state as affordable as we possibly can and the things that the legislature does are really going to be really quite important in that. And I think with the stimulus money that's coming in, you know, it's $1.3 billion that's going to the state and our communities are going to get some money. But I was a big advocate and I know Bernie and Patrick have been as well for flexibility and how that money is used. So there is really a very major debate to be had in Montpelier with the governor and the legislature about how we best utilize this money. And obviously some of it is just pure survival from COVID. We got to get through it. But how we deploy that money so that we build back better, you know, the used President Biden's phrase, but it's a common sense phrase that anybody in business would readily accept, you know? We had a loss and we got to come back. How are we going to do it? So we're going to be stronger, more resilient. That's an ongoing discussion where, you know, it's not like I have hope the answer, but that's the right question. And I think there's some significant opportunity for Vermont basically be drawing on the strength of our civic society. And part of the strength of that is this BBSR. I mean, it really is. There's a lot of younger people are getting into business and sure they don't want to make money, but that's not all they want. They want a good life. They want to have a sense of confidence at what they're doing is good for the community. They want to have a sense that there's a solidarity with the folks who work in the enterprise. So, you know, you guys are playing a major role in this because the culture that you represent is inclusive. It's positive. It's affirmative. It's respecting people. It's respecting the environment. It's respecting our obligation to the future as well as the present. So those can be my closing remarks. I have been a long time admirer of the work you do in the advocacy that you have on behalf of what I think are wonderful Vermont values of sustainability and mutual respect. Well, thank you, Congressman, for those kind words. And I think you spoke and well to sort of the intersectionality of the issues that we cover and again to circle back on that triple bottom line that people, planet and prosperity, they work in tandem just as we strive to create a more welcoming, diverse and prosperous Vermont. We also need to make sure that we have systems in place to make sure that affordability is not a major challenge for everyday Vermonters or for our businesses also to make sure that we're being good stewards to our planet, good stewards to our communities. And again, just creating a just transformative economy. So with that, I recognize that we're at the top of the hour here and I apologize to folks that we didn't get to all the questions but I would note we have them recorded saved and we'll be following up and I'll also pass along some resources and contact information for the Congress's office and for ours as well. And let me just say, we can do this again. I mean, you guys played a very, very important role in Vermont. I mean, you have enterprises, people work there, you provide service and you provide products. But there's a cultural richness that's essential to the Vermont tradition and you are custodians of that. You're nurturing it. And it's my view, it's really essential for the wellbeing of Vermont that the ethics of VBSR are broad and supported and inculcated. So thank you. We do our best, but again, that work is not possible without fantastic legislators like yourselves and without fantastic and passionate members as well like folks tuning in to today's event. So with that, again, thank you. Thank you so much, Congress and Welch. Thank you so much to our participants who joined us here today and we will be in touch. So stay safe, stay healthy and stay tuned.