 Obviously the room is filled and I suppose there's some more people outside. I'm Congressman John Garamendi and I want to welcome you to this town hall. Resist with indivisible yoke. Okay. As I was coming here I was, you know, hands free, hands free phone and card to Patty. She's monitoring the flood issues in Walnut Grove and a few other places in my district and said, I've got one piece of advice. Talk long. I said, what's the definition of long? And she said, no more than five minutes. So, get your timers up. And all your signs go up and that's five minutes. Now, oh my god. Hey, one of the things about the sign you may want to keep in mind. If you agree, the TV camera back there is going to say, see disagree. So, what else have I learned over these years? You can show me disagree, but make sure the TV camera sets agree, okay? Okay, ready on the timer? Ready, set, five minutes. Okay, I'm going to give you a good count down. Okay, one, two, three, five minutes. Here we go. Best of times, worst of times. For the start of the worst of times. Donald Trump gets elected and he becomes president of the United States and all hell breaks loose. Think about what's happened in the last 23 days of this presidency. Yeah, first right off, right off we're going to repeal the Affordable Care Act and 20 to 30 million people will lose their insurance, but he has a terrific, wonderful plan. Must be a secret, because nobody has seen his plan. Major, major problem for California. California is successfully implemented. We're going to have to keep this in place. Point number two, he takes the National Security Council, which is a rather important thing of which are the principles. These are the top, the top intelligence, the top men and women that will make the decision about America's national security, about war, about peace, all of that. And he removes from the National Security Council principles, he removes the chief of the general, the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and the director of the National Intelligence. We know what Trump thinks about intelligence. He doesn't have it. So, he doesn't want it. So, he removes them and then what do you do? He puts Steve Baggin in their place. This man is a nat, is a white nationalist sympathizer. I'm not going to say he is, but he's certainly a sympathizer for the white national. And there is no room. There is no room in California. There is no room in America for that kind of attitude. You pick it. I'm going to pick this one. You may not know this, but there is a move afoot to seriously erode Medicare and Medi-Cal and Social Security. Legislation is already introduced. We're going to have to fight this fight again. This is both in Congress as well in the presidency. We can go on and on how what Trump has done. But the one thing that is critically important is that facts are critical. It is critical. Here's why. Decisions are made about factual situations. Intelligence information gathered from around the world. Other sources of information. If you make a decision based upon an alternative fact, it will be the wrong decision and it likely to be a disastrous decision. The facts are important for Congress. Watch out for Congress. Every day that we're on the floor there is a House resolution to eliminate one of the protections for your most important thing. Maybe it's a protection for your financial security. And so you eliminate the rule that makes your financial advisor responsible to you. It's the fiduciary rule. They're responsible for your well-being, not for their pocket money. That's the fiduciary rule. One of a dozen things that are going on in Congress. It goes on and on and on. Every week, three, four, five, six, protections. Protections for the environment. Streamed mountaintop removal in West Virginia. Gone. On the public lands for oil and gas really. Regulations to hold or to control methane that might be leaking from the oil or gas well. Gone. So methane just go ahead. No problem with methane into the atmosphere because after all, they don't believe in such things as climate change. All right, that's the worst of things. And there's a long, long list. We're talking about it, I'm sure, as we go into question and answer. The best of times occurred the day after the inaugural. What information said enough. We will not have it. We will not take it. We will stay in the streets. We'll stay in the auditoriums and we will not allow this nation to go down the path that they have directed. Thank you for those of you that are in the streets. My daughters were, my grandchildren were, Patty and I were in Washington DC for what was the most incredible march. I've ever seen a march to the Boston Commons in 1969 in the anti-war movement. We took our youngest daughter at the time in her carriage all the way from Harvard all the way down to Boston Commons. Yeah, there was a lot of energy, but there was not the kind of energy that America saw the day after Trump became president. Do not stop. The ladies saw it. She told me the disagreed sign because of that. Okay, time. How we do it? One more minute. I'd love you to do that to me. You'll be sorry. Okay, that's enough. We're going to the questions. We'll cover all this ground. Here's the rules of the game. Don't shout. I can see that the house lights are shorted in my eyes but I can see all of you. We're going to move around. We have microphones on both sides of the room and I'll kind of sweep around and we'll cover as many as we can. So Patty's second admonition to me. No more than five minutes. She'll be so happy with sport. Oh, I'm going to get a nice... Maybe it'll be good Valentine's Day. Okay, you've got the first question. Let's get a microphone over here. Stand up and pass the mic down. Where's the mic? You're not going to make it pass it across. Why can't you speak loudly? Is that good? Well, you can speak loudly. Okay, and I'll recognize the person. Don't steal the mic on the way. Rules of the game. Yes, go ahead. Who are you? Introduce yourself. Hold that microphone like you love it. It's on. Right up here. Okay, right up there. Glory Friedman, I live in town. I've written a couple letters lately you might have seen. Anyway, thank you so much for doing this town hall. I've been calling your office about what you're doing because I think while I'm losing to the Republicans if it's fair, but they seem to be pulling all kinds of shenanigans. For instance, the Supreme Court justice that Obama had was ours. And apparently the gerrymandering in Congress, actually the Democrats last time had the majority of votes. We should have had the House of Representatives. We do not. So they're finatling it and not to mention voter suppression. Is there anything under underworks to try to correct some of these things fundamentally? Yes, here, let's talk elections for a few moments and then yes, the answer to your question, what can we do? There are several things that are out there. First of all, the voter fraud that they're talking about, the three to five million. Here's the fact. The fact is that the real fraud is in those states that denied people the opportunity to vote. It's not about three to five million people. You go down through those voter suppression states. Ohio, okay, and right on through the whole list there's three to five million people that were unable to vote because of voter suppression. We're California. We're what we provide better opportunities here. We don't close down. I said better, not best. Okay, here we go. Finally, what do you want to do about the the way in which we elect people? Could become president. How about a national popular vote? Okay, here's what you can do. In fact, California and about 14 states, 14 states have already done that and what they we can have a national popular vote without changing the constitution. All you need is enough states that control 51% of the electoral college to agree that their electors will vote the national popular vote. And bingo, it'll happen. It will happen and there will be suppression process 270. Two-thirds already there. Already there. So we're looking at a few other states that would come come on board. California, New York are already on board. You had a question shouted out. Campaign reform. Another piece of the puzzle. Citizens united. Disasterous one. It has opened up for dark money. Millions of dollars flowing in. Secret, who knows who they are. A general public doesn't know who they are. This is important. This is really important because when people know who's giving money and who's receiving money, they can then make a decision based upon that. And it's a very, very important fact. What can we do? I'm afraid we're going to be stuck for a while. I was convinced that if Hillary were to win there would be a shift on a five to four decision on citizens united to a four to five decision. And that would take citizens united out of it. There are things that can't be done. Different states are doing it. There is a one of those repeals in Congress. It's underway today to repeal that little check off in your tax reform that provides money for presidential campaigns which actually hasn't been used in the last three elections. Okay, I'm going to go to this side of the room. Right there in the gray passing microphone. No, that's not gray. What color is that? Purple. It is purple. Okay, pass that microphone down. Here we go. Okay. Hi, I'm Susan Brown and... Stand up Susan. Thank you for coming. I'm Susan Brown. I called it up to remember what it was like before Roe v. Wade. And I want to know what him would be done. Not to talk too much. It's like a little television camera. He's a good life actor. Keep that in mind. Okay, what to do about Roe v. Wade? It's a Supreme Court decision and it is at risk. I don't think there's any doubt about it. How much would it be eroded? We don't know. We don't know what this new presidential nominee will do. It's not clear. I guess this is a hope. I have a real no opinion and I don't know the answer. I would hope that when this issue begins to mature, as it will in some case, it will work its way up to the Supreme Court. The American public will rise up as you did the day after the election and demonstrate and make it clear that this isn't just about Planned Parenthood. It's certainly an issue and that's become the focus. But there's far more to this than Planned Parenthood. And so this is one in which I think the street's going to have to talk. So I decide, yes, the inlady there. Candle. We're going to try to get a microphone. Just pass it up. You know, kind of like the UC Berkeley rolling up days. Some of you remember those things. Davis is so set back. They don't roll people up. I know, Wasley. I want to know what you and the rest of the California caucus specifically are doing regarding ice rates and immigration. Yes, of course I will and of course I have. The California caucus, you must be referring to the Democrats in the California caucus. Because if it is the Republicans, they're on the other side of this issue. I agree with you, but I also think there's some economic issues that the Republicans are going to have to face. Very, very serious. Here's the thing, ice rates and all the rest. They've gone on for a long time. They're going to continue to go on. That's part of what the administration has the power of doing. They will have the money to do it. Republicans will appropriate whatever money ice needs to do whatever rates they want to do. Again, so how can we deal with it? The California Democratic caucus has already spoken loudly on this. Various letters to the Department of Homeland Security to make it clear that we do not believe it's proper. This is going to come to a confrontation, not a physical confrontation, but certainly a political and quite possibly a legal confrontation. As various cities in various ways become sanctuary cities and the federal government pushes back, Trump is made clear. He's going to try to cut off the money. If you've been paying attention to Texas recently, the Texas governor cut off money to Austria. Thank you. So this is going to be a political confrontation. Obviously, there's been some public confrontations that have gone on street confrontations. They may continue in various parts of the nation. In Congress, it's a matter of putting pressure wherever we can, but the Republicans control Congress. They control the Senate and obviously they have the White House and they're like, I was telling any horse, any people here that are in the horses and all that, don't ever let the horse get a bit in the teeth. You lose control of it. So in that way, yes. I told you earlier that there's some pretty serious issues going on with regard to Oracle Dam. Those of you that are in the U.P. Senate, Marysville area, you may want to go home right now. They have issued an evacuation for U.P. and so on. The basic problem is that the emergency spillway may fail. So it's pretty serious. Yuba City, so can you kind of get out of this situation we have available? A few moments about, as I walked in the door, there was a, the staff has been on this all, I don't know, last week. As far as we can follow this, the emergency spillway, well first of all, this spillway had a problem. You've seen the photos and all of that. It's a real serious problem and the dam rose to a level where the emergency spillway was being used. The emergency spillway may fail and that may release a significant amount of water down the Feather River and so the Marysville, Yuba City areas and surrounding areas are jeopardized. We'll see what happens as well about the best of them. If you are fearful, we don't have time to do it. So, Patty and I spent a lot of time talking. We've been married 51 and a half years now and so we're kind of insane except when I veer one way or the other and get off the road. And she said, we have spent over half a billion dollars on the Twin Tunnels to no good effect and quite possibly to a very serious environmental problem for the Delta. What if that money were spent on shoring up our levies or maybe doing a better study of the order of the animals. Okay, let's continue on. Moving across, we had one there. The center. But you're a handsome fellow, but that's a beautiful leaf. So we're going to go to the handsome fellow. Sorry. Okay, pass the microphone over here. Good afternoon sir. It's on. All right. Hello. Hello. There you go. All right, good evening sir. My question is regarding health care. I'm with health care for all in Yolk County and how realistic would it be to expect, if at all, an alternative to the Affordable Care Act before 2018? Or is it even a possibility? This is the Affordable Care Act. It's part of the repeal and replace. Is that what you're going with this question? So what's the replacement? There are about six Republican plans that have been put forth. But just pass that back. That lady's going to have a heart attack or she doesn't have a heart attack. So there are about six plans. None of them work. None of those plans work. I'm coming to that. I'm coming to that. Here's, here's the, let me, let me finish this and then we can talk about what alternatives there might be. None of the plans work. The first thing that the Republican Congress and Senate did was to pass a reconciliation bill that told the Ways and Means Committee and the Finance Committee and the Senate to repeal the taxes that support the Affordable Care Act. Now if they do that, there is nothing that will work. It is a $20 billion hit to the state of California. The expansion, the Medicare, Medicaid, MediCal, expansion is $16 billion and then the Affordable Care Act subsidies are about another $4 billion or so. Now, there's no way you can replace when the money is gone. Period. It isn't going to happen. So we'll see if, we'll see if they take that first step. The House is going, well, wait, wait, wait, maybe that's a problem if we repeal the taxes. The Senate is driving forward. The Senate Chairman of the Finance Committee driving forward on repealing the taxes. We'll see what happens here. The replacements that they talked about are said, six different plans. None of them work even if you have the tax money available to you because of the inconsistencies in their logic. They talk, the President says, everybody's going to have insurance. Good. How are you going to do it? Oh. And so they don't have a plan on how they're going to carry it out. They're talking about selling insurance across state lines. That doesn't solve anything. It doesn't solve anything. I was an insurance commissioner. I'm telling you what it would do is to open Californians and other men and women across this nation to buy really ratty insurance. Insurance does not like that you get benefits paid and the benefit package is going to be horrible. So you have a standard across the nation. So what to do? If we're able to maintain the Affordable Care Act, then we look to improve the Affordable Care Act and there are different ways you can improve it. There are problems that exist in the drug issues. We ought to be able to negotiate for the purchase of drugs for the medical Medicare and for the exchanges. This is something that, by the way, do you know why we can't? 2002, part D, Medicare, part D. In that negotiation, Pharma was able to add a little clause that said the federal government cannot negotiate the price of the drugs. They got to be a taker. And so it's been there since 2002. Now you know I'm coming to that. Now we're working with the Affordable Care Act here. One thing we can do with the Affordable Care Act to make it better is to put in place the public option. When the Affordable Care Act passed, when it passed the House of Representatives, it had a public option. Now that moves us, that would take care of a lot of the issues in those states where there is only one provider, that one insurer, rather. So that's the problem. So you can put the public option back in place. It doesn't cost any more money, but it provides a huge pool where the risk is spread across thousands or perhaps millions of people. The second thing, I forgot the third thing. Okay, we'll come back to it. I'll remember it a few months. Let's continue along. We'll move it? Yes, you've got the microphone. Before the question, if you have the silent clipboard, please finish signing in and pass it to the next person on the road. Thank you. Okay, here we go. Congressman Coravanti, thank you for this tongue-hold event. My name is Joanna. I'm a resident of Davis. Think that microphone is your boyfriend. My question has to do with democratic complacency. This complacency, by the way, is why the Republicans very easily stole the Supreme Court nomination. A few points to make about this. Eight years ago, how would that, how would the Republicans have reacted if Obama did not release his tax returns? We would have literally been a swamp. I mean, look at his entire cabinet nominees. Why are we hearing little to nothing about the hypocrisy in the train of promises? What are Democrats doing about this? Is Trump's disastrous Yemen rate the new Bengali? Tell that to Democrats because we, they're not saying anything about the top elite US Navy SEAL Ryan Owens. The death of 23 civilians and 19 million and a 19 million aircraft was destroyed due to a land, a crash. About this from a broken John McCain, then from any Democrats. Why are back there top psychologists from respectful universities like Johns Hopkins are coming out and telling us there's a big problem here? I'm sure you've probably heard of the term malignant narcissism. It's a bit. Okay, one more point and then we'll answer those questions. We're going to share although I suspect other people have some of the similar points. One more point and then we'll try to go through those. Okay, so I love social media. I'm sure we all do. But the problem with social media is that we as Americans have short-term memory now. There is just so much constant flow of information that we forget what's happening. So we want to know, we want you to be vocal. We want all our Democratic senators and congressmen to be vocal. To demand change every day, 20% and we want you to be in the press. We want you to be in the press. Wonderful. Thank you very much. Okay, here we go. Your last point is the one that is overwhelming the news cycle. And that is the constant changes, the constant tweets, all of what is going on in the Senate with the appointments and Trump constantly dominating the news. The word is the oxygen is sucked out of the room. And you said it so very, very well. Our heads are spinning with the next thing that's going to happen. You wake up early in the morning so that you are able, well on the West Coast, so the five o'clock tweet occurs about eight o'clock. Oh no, three o'clock in the morning. So all of us are just overloaded and the press and the media also. If you look carefully, you will find that senators, Elizabeth Warren on the floor, that was very good. Members of the Senate, as they go through the hearing process for the nominees. All of that is, it's out there, but it is not capturing the top of the news. And that's because Trump is a master magician at dominating the news. He's done that. I'm not going to get into, I've got my own opinions about his mental stability. And there are plenty of things that people have said and have written and it's all out there. It's going to play itself out. The problem is it's extraordinarily dangerous. It's extraordinarily dangerous. Not only dangerous in public policy, which were most of the issues you've talked about, but it's also extraordinarily dangerous in the national security. You mentioned the Yemen situation. I said publicly in a news program that he wanted to put a trophy on the wall. And he went ahead before it was ready to go. That's the kind of danger that could occur. And so I had spoke earlier, facts are important. You cannot and should never ignore a factual situation. Do not, and this is, I said this on the floor directly and I was admonished by the speaker of the house. Don't talk directly to the president. Talk to the speaker who then talks to the president. I said, I'm sorry, but Mr. Speaker, the president ought to know. Yes. Okay. It is a very, very serious problem. Now go down through your list. The cabinet that has been selected is precisely the opposite of what Trump promised he would bring to Washington. Exactly the opposite. He railed about Wall Street and Hillary until through the whole campaign. And then he appoints four Wall Street barons. Four of them. Three from Golden Sacks and a fourth. Didn't train the swamp. He put a plug in the swamp as riser. During the women's march in Washington there was the most important sign of all. It was, I think that has a better cabinet. This is a real serious problem. You go down through those men and women that are in the cabinet and every one of them, as the Congress reveals the protections for environment, the protections for educational, anti-discrimination protections, protections on financing, protections on Wall Street. Guaranteed before this next year is over they will figure out how to eliminate the consumer financial protection organization. And Wall Street will run free again. It is a very serious problem. They're stacking up all of the problems that will once again result in what nearly brought into place an international disaster in 2008. It's all coming back. The protections are being eroded. What you, here's what, what are you going to do? There are certain things you can do in the House of Representatives. I didn't mention one of the issues that the House and the Senate have put on the President's dex is the repeal of a regulation protection, if you will, that requires the Social Security Administration to notify the national database for gun purchases of people that are on Social Security and have severe mental impairment and receiving supplemental Social Security disability. They've eliminated that. So the protections are being eroded. So how can we fight back? We do the best we can. We're organized in the House of Representatives. The Senate is organized trying to alert the public. Take a look at my Facebook. Every week we're going to have a weekly roll call of the things that the House is doing below the radar street. Nobody knows about it because it's the oxygen is sucked away by Trump and his tweets. So pay attention. Let me finish here. Here's what you can do and you're doing it and you've got to get your neighbors to do it and get your friend in Toledo to do it and get your mama in upstate New Jersey Albany to do it. You got to pay attention. You got to get past the blizzard of constant tweets and you've got to hone down on what is happening. Don't become psychotic, which you can do listening to all this stuff but you've got to be paid attention. You've got to organize. Obviously the Indivisible Movement is part of that. 18 months away from the next election in which the opportunity to change Congress and the Senate exists. 18 months. So wait a minute. We're moving, we're moving. Okay, okay. I'm going to take the lady in the back and then we'll look at those things again. Right there. Stand up so they can, there you go. Hold up, wait. Wait, man. Nope, you're going to have to have the microphone. I can't hear you. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Thank you Congressman. And any given year? Just like you're going to talk to your children when they're very messing the house up. There are 400,000 foster youth in our nation's foster care system. Anywhere from 50 to 90% of the people who are being trafficked in our nation right now are related in some shape or form to our social services system. Child welfare, juvenile justice, and also the foster care system itself. Many of the children who are going into this life are doing so out of hunger and because they're not being protected by our communities. Once they are in this life, the FBI says that they only have a life expectancy of only seven more years. Beyond just giving federal grants to county programs, how, what kind of concerted effort will there be from our government to protect our society's most vulnerable youth? This is going to be dealt with at these four different levels. The Congress of the United States is extraordinarily conservative. They are determined to reduce federal funding for social programs. It's going to happen. They've got the House, they've got the Senate, and they've got a program to significantly reduce a whole series of programs that exist across the nation to deal with that issue and a host of others. So the likelihood, high probability, is that there will be less federal money available for a variety of programs. They're going beyond, well, they're going beyond cutting the budget for the EPA by two-thirds. They're also a major movement to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency. Similarly for much of the education, much of the education program, Betsy DeVos, we know where she's coming from, we know what she wants to do, will she be able to do it? She'll have the backing of Congress. She'll have the backing of the Senate and the President, and the repeal of regulations that prevent her from doing it. It's a tough time. This is going to be a very, very difficult period. But this is the big B-U-T. But Congress is up for election, 435 of us, in 18 months. And so, when my colleague, Tom McLeathock, has his second town hall, I suspect it will be even bigger than the first town hall. The second most powerful person in the House of Representatives is a California. You know, Kevin McCarthy represents Kern County. Nearly half of his total constituents are on MediCal, and he is the leader to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the taxes, and MediCal. What should his constituents think of him? Shame on him. Well, there you go. Yes, there are demonstrations almost daily in Kevin McCarthy's outside his office. And so it is, and so it is. If you want to deal with these things, you're going to have to do what has been done over the last two and a half weeks. And that is, you've got to have your voice loud and clear. Specifically, to deal with your issues here. Okay, that's really not right for us. So just, I'll be with you in a moment. I want to deal with what this lady has so very, very properly put before us. There isn't likely to be much help from the federal government on normal federal programs. It's going to fall to the state, the county, and to organizations which I suspect you belong to. The state of California is very, very good on these issues. The legislature, the governor, they want to deal with these issues. And when voices such as yours are speaking out, making the problem clear, and communicating to those men and women that are in the California legislature, you've got some excellent people representing you from this county. I don't know if Dodd is here and Cecilia's here. Oh, there you are. Since you're an assembly member, you could be the nameslaw. So fortunately, you have excellent representatives here. They heard you. And I'm afraid it's going to have to come from the from the state and the county. I see a couple of your supervisors down here. We'll introduce all in a few moments. Okay, I have to continue on. We're going to go up against... We'll be with you in a minute. Just hang on. We're going to do this nice rotation around. We're going to bounce off what I consider to be the right wall. You consider it to be the left wall. And you've got a microphone. Yes, I do have a microphone. Hi, my name is Caroline Nagan Webb. I'm a PhD student at UC Davis. I study geology and hydrology. And I just wanted to ask... Hydrology? Yes. Why are you here? We care about the environment. If we care about reducing climate change, why have we not outlawed capos, otherwise known as factory farms? They're polluting the water supply. They're causing 20 percent of greenhouse gases. And they're getting rid of indigenous species in our state. Why have we done nothing about this? And it's the easiest thing to do to combat global warming. Okay, cracking is not going to be eliminated at the federal level for four years, unless the president doesn't survive four years in office. So again, it's not... We need to be real about this and we need... And I said earlier, you have to understand the facts. Otherwise you'll make the wrong decision. The federal government, I spoke earlier about the Congress of the United States has already passed a house resolution. It's over in the Senate that removes the ability of the Department of Interior to control methane emissions from oil and gas wells on your land, on the public land. And so directly to your point, whether it's fracking or any other mechanism of drawing the oil and gas out of the ground, methane leaks will not be required to be casted. And so that methane is just going to leak out. It is a major problem, not just in fracking, but in much of the oil and gas industry. And on our public land, now, okay, we're going to... I'm going to move on beyond this one. California has regulations in the state of California. Some people think they're not strong enough. I'm sure they're going to be reviewed. Okay, I'm going to fall all the way over to the right of the left wall. Were you the one that was shouting? Who lets the person over here that was shouting? Okay, we're going to take this young lady. We're going to take this young lady first. Go ahead. My question is on abortion. Could you talk louder? My question is on abortion. I was wondering if you think that Trump will be able to change the abortion law and if he does, will you be doing anything about it? The question was on abortion. Is Trump going to change the abortion law? The Supreme Court might. And this is where the new appointee from the Supreme Court becomes really, really important. We'll see what happens. They could. And this was the question of Roe v. Roy early on. And that is the national protection. Will Congress take action? Possibly they will. There's been an effort in every, all the seven years I've been there, to provide restrictions. Usually it's found in the appropriation bill. As that appropriation bill is moved along, those restrictions were eliminated. There are restrictions already in law about abortion and abortion funding. They've been there, the Hyde Amendment being the most notorious. Another thing that happened, another regulation, protection, was the, what do they call it? The, thank you. That's now, that rule is back in place. So anyway, that's an international issue. You got to watch it. They control it. And they have said very clearly, the Planned Parenthood is kind of the focal point of it, but it's much, much broader than that. Somebody back there kept hollering, and I want to make sure that they had the chance to get a microphone. So they don't have to holler. Okay? Are you the one? Okay. Who are you? Introduce yourself and tell us what your issue is. Could you kind of hold that thing close to your lips and speak louder? Didn't I just hold it up close to your lips? It's working, but it's very electional microphone. There you go. Okay. Hello. My cousin is Woody Guthrie, the composer of This Land is Your Land. Pastors of Plenty, Portee. So I, I really, I'm really worried about the refugees and the immigrants. My former husband, my former husband is Steve Magnini. He's written a lot about Muslims. He's a reporter at the Sacramento Games. He covers the election in South Africa. So, so here's what I, so here's, I'm really concerned about the immigrants and the refugees. Some of the most brilliant minds in our countries are Muslims and come from many other countries, cultures, I'm not done yet. So, so, okay. And also, I'd like to know, I'd like to know if you have ever, have you ever explored the pyramids of Mexico? How well do you know Mexico? I really want to know that. Well, the answer to your question, and I'm not sure what the relevance is, but I'm going to answer it. The answer is yes, all the way to the top, about 20 years ago. Which pyramids have you visited? Okay, let me, let me take on your question. I think your question really has to do with immigration and the immigration ban that, that truck in whatever, it was last Friday, Friday a week ago. That immigration ban and visa ban and travel ban. Okay, calm down. We're going to get this, we're going to get this thing. Let me just cover this issue as completely as it needs to be covered. It was wrong in many different ways. First of all, in my view, and I believe in the court's view, both the federal court in Seattle as well as the Ninth Circuit, they saw this as a religious ban on Muslims. And that is both unconstitutional and it is clearly on America. That's the issue that was, I think, one of the principal issues that the court saw and stopped the implementation of the ban. There are a host of other issues that are associated with this ban. First of all, it is depriving America, as you correctly said, of extraordinarily important people. I don't have the numbers that are given to me by the university here, the number of students, the number of scholars and professors that were unable to travel as a result of the ban. Now the ban is lifted and presumably those students, professors, and scholars have come back or now in the United States. However, nonetheless it was done. Green card. These are people that are in the United States legally. They've been processed and so on all here. The question of national security, there is a vetting process that's already underway for all of the refugees that come from these countries. Is the vetting process sufficient? Well history would say over the years, it would say yes, it is sufficient. There has been no. In the last, I think it's 15 years, maybe as much as 20 years, no terrorist incident by any of the refugees from these countries. Now it's not to say there couldn't be, but that's to say that the vetting process has worked. Is it sufficient? Look at it. Check it out. If you think it is not, if Trump thinks it is not, if he thinks there's some problem with the vetting process, fix it. And make sure the vetting process is sufficient. Now let me continue here. The rest of the story is that that ban was interpreted throughout the Muslim world and really the rest of the world as being a very serious attack on Islam everywhere. And it is the best recruiting tool that ISIS has had perhaps the last three or four years. And it is being used today as a recruiting tool for ISIS. It was wrong in every way. Now, the rest of the story is that Trump will in the next couple of days issue a new order. Now hopefully, although there's some doubt giving this man's record, hopefully he will be more careful and will not tread the same road that he has already tread. If he does, then all of the trouble that he has had, all of the legal issues, all of the pushback from the public, will reoccur. We'll see what happens. We'll see if he's a fast learner or it doesn't learn at all. Okay, I'm going to come to the front of the room and take you. Okay, the microphone disappeared. Bring the microphone back down. Stand up, I repeat your question. Going back to the microphone. Yeah, you're going to need a microphone. I think it only right to immediately inform the ACLU if and when anyone in our area gets deported to make sure there's good cause for deportation and to uh deportation, sorry, and to ensure that those deported are allowed time to get some affairs in order. They need legal representation as soon as possible. How do you plan to address this issue? Should it become known in our area? And what are your thoughts on this? How can we as citizens assist you? The the sanctuary city issue is predominant in California and quite probably California will become a sanctuary state. So most of the cities have procedures. They have procedures in place dealing with uh the ICE uh dealing with apprehensions and also dealing with the way in which the police, the sheriff, work with or not ICE. Those procedures vary across the state. They certainly vary across the nation but there's a significant pushback from the general public and certainly from many many cities across the nation and and in California. Uh what I can do and have been trying to do for perhaps 20 years now both here in the state when I was lieutenant governor and in Congress is to promote a comprehensive immigration reform so that these issues can be dealt with rationally and whatever until there is a comprehensive reform and I'll try to explain very quickly what is entailed in that. Uh this is not going to be handled well because it is often a one-off situation individuals and so forth. So start. We've got a board. We're not going to build a wall. We've built I don't know half the wall is already built. It's not going to stop anybody. Dig tunnels, get a longer ladder, and most people don't get here that way anyway. The second thing is don't waste your money there. Don't waste your money there. A comprehensive reform involves the following. Realize the fact that we've got 10, 12 million undocumented people in the United States most of whom in fact almost all of them are working, have families, they have children that are born here who are citizens and we need to regularize that situation and by regularize I mean recognize they're here. Proper papers and a path into and out of the country if they care to do so. The path towards citizenship for those. Get this done. Secondly, we need to recognize that there needs to be certain programs where people where the labor market does not provide sufficient number of workers, ag labor is one, H1B visas is another area. These are areas that we need to consider. We've done this for years. It needs to be done properly. Proper labor studies is our shortage of labor. Doesn't make sense that we invite people in temporarily or for a longer period of time. Thirdly, we need to e-verify. This is a very simple process. Check the social security number against the database. It's e-verified and employer is responsible. Responsible for making sure that they're hiring somebody that has the proper papers. Obviously that doesn't work until you do the whole thing. And finally, we do need border security. Not offense, but a wise implementation of controlling our ports, controlling our borders, and all the rest. Those are two things. That is a comprehensive plan. I probably left out a couple of the elements. Until we do that, this issue is not going to get resolved. Okay, we're going to go all the way to the, would you like one? Okay, get the microphone for this gentleman. Hold on, Robert. I know you're excited, but now you've got the microphone. My name is Robert Beauchamp, and I'm a little worker here. Down. And Mike, what I would like to know, when you come to the Supreme Court nomination, you should not vote for any of them, because we'll better off with an eight and eight. Tell the Senate the same. Well, you've got to pass it on, right? Sorry. Okay, so the other thing would be about gerrymandering. And how can the, how can the Democrat be as loosely as Republican in gerrymandering all the districts in our favor rather than theirs? Very good questions. I noticed from the response of the audience, I don't get to vote on any of the nominations, Supreme Court or any of the cabinet nominations. There'll be about, I don't know, more than 1200 that'll come through the Senate over the next several months. I don't get to vote on any of them. Do I get to speak out on? Oh yeah, I do, and I do. Okay, I'm going to take this up right now. Here. Every Tuesday night, hang on, every Tuesday night when we're in session, most every Tuesday night, I do a special order out. And it's on C-SPAN. If you're not watching, you would, you're missing all of the answers to the questions that you've had here. You want me to speak out, I do it on the floor of the House of Representatives for an hour. I invite my colleagues to join us and we talk about these sets of issues. We spent most of the previous years talking about how to grow the economy, how to provide jobs coming up in 2008 and 2009, how to grow the economy, make it in America, rebuilding the manufacturing and so forth. So keep your eye on C-SPAN. Our Facebook will tell you when we're up and we have e-newsletters and the like. So I do speak on the floor of the House, well, to the entire nation that cares to watch C-SPAN. Now, what to do? You're doing it. You're doing it. Our two senators, I don't want to get going down this road too far. I believe our two senators have heard from Californians that they do not want the senators to vote for any of these nominees. My big concern is the lack of transparency, lack of facts, why, what connections are with Russia. Okay. If I could do it, I would do it. Okay. You think you're frustrated. Let me join your extremely yelling about my frustration on this one. The Benghazi hearings went on ad nauseam. I don't know, nine, 13 different hearings to explore something that was known. Facts fight at the outset. Jason Chavis, the chairman, the chairman of the Oversight Committee held a town hall. You all seen it, I suspect. Judging from your booze. And he was booed off the stage on viscish. He is hearing from his constituent. This is Utah. This is not Davis, California. This is Utah. And he was booed off the stage. It is the responsibility of the House to investigate. And my view is there is serious problems that need investigation. I mean really serious investigation. Now I want to complete this one. Thank you. You've read the Constitution. And you shouted out emoluments clause. A new word that we're learning to pronounce. Emoluments. There is a group of us, about 12 in the House of Representatives, and one of the 12, that is working on the issues of transparency. The issues of conflict of interest and emoluments. And there has been a lawsuit filed. You're probably aware of this. That is in the courts. The lawyers feel that they have standing. This is not a government. This is a private civil action to enforce the emoluments clause of the Constitution. We will see where it goes. They believe they have standing. It is in the South District Federal Court in New York City. And so we'll see what happens to it. If they have standing, if they have standing, then the first thing they're going to do is discover. And what are they, what are they going to do? They're going to do a request for discovery. And, and, and, and, and. Now, that's transparency. You cannot, I'll take this one. I cannot, we cannot count on the Republican House of Representatives to do their job on this. So, it's likely to come about with this private lawsuit. Now, I'm sorry. Who did you say? Yep, you're right. Congress, the Democrats in Congress can request anything. But, however, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and we have. We have. There are letters that we have sent to the speaker through others. And on that issue, tax returns, hearings, specific hearings, I wrote a letter to the chairman and the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, of which I'm a member, to do a hearing on the Yemen grade. Hopefully the chairman of the committee will do that. It's in his hands. Understand this. They control everything. Let me finish this in volume, it's critically important. All of you want to have transparency, all of you want to have information, I want the same. If this discovery holds, then we'll see where it goes. If the standing holds says it's going to be discovery, it actually turns into other things. Including, I received invitations to events that are going on in Washington. I received an invitation, a nice card about that big, from the government of Kuwait, to attend their National Day celebration sometime late this month, at the grand ballroom of the Trump International Hotel. Now, my constitutional lawyer over here will say, take up the emoluments clause, if you've not read it, you should, it says anything, it says anything. No one can, no one can, excuse me, the president and I, cannot receive anything of value from a foreign, okay, prince, government. Anyway, we'll see what happens, so this is really important, yes. Hi, Jerry Curry. Hi Jerry. Hi, your constituents should know this, but Senator Feinstein has voted 50% of the time with Trump. Congressman Thompson has voted 8% of the time, and Gary Middick has voted zero. They're going to move as fast as we can, yes, take this young man. He said, I should be listening, and I just listened to a brilliant person. She said, I should pick the next speaker, and the microphone will go to that speaker and be ready to go, okay, you're next, you're next. My name is Henry Burke, and my question is about the ongoing DNC chairs. So, currently, the chair of the DNC, it's up in a couple of weeks, they're going to determine it, and as far as I know, you have not endorsed either candidate. So, many of the party, including Bernie Sanders and Senate Minority Leader Schumer, have endorsed Keith Ellison because of his record of winning elections, his progressive values, but especially because he has promised to stand against lobbyist influence over the DNC, something Secretary Perez has been unwilling to oppose. Given this and the increasing voter fear of corporate influence in the political realm, will you support Keith Ellison for chair of the DNC? Come there, calm down, if you have your turn. This is about a month away, I think if I'm looking at the calendar correctly, and between now and then, I will make a decision. The information that you have and other information is very, very important in this process. This is going to be a very important, a very, very important thing, and I'll tell you what I think the DNC ought to do. This is my question for both candidates. The DNC is not going to spend a great deal of time or be successful making policy, but there's one thing the DNC can do, and this deals with the issue of gerrymandering, which has been, I think, two or three of you have brought up. It's extremely difficult for the Democrats to take back the house because of gerrymandering in about 20 states where it is almost impossible for a Democrat to win. They have gerrymandered in such a way as to make it highly likely that a Republican candidate is going to win in those districts. And there's been lawsuits about this and those of you that follow it. I want the next DNC chairman to focus on this issue. Focus on those two states where gerrymandering has made it impossible for the Democrats to win and select a gubernatorial candidate, support that gubernatorial candidate, and run an initiative similar to what California has. Well, you have a citizen's election, a citizen's permission, laying out an election. There are two people that are going to run that election. This is the 2018 election. Governor, side by side with an initiative to end gerrymandering in those states. I think that's our best shot, and that's what I want them to do. And when both of them answer my questions on this, I'll give you an answer. Because that's what I want them to do. Okay. There's a gentleman over here that wants to say hello. Oh, there you are. You're there first. He's next. You don't need a mic. You're going to need a microphone. Go ahead. He just turned it off. There you go. My name is Beth Robbins. I don't want to ask about climate change, because I think if we don't get climate change stuff, we're all the stuff. If we don't get the climate change issues and the rest of these issues are going to become moves. And so, there is in-house climate solutions pockets. This is 24 members, 12 Republican, 12 Democrats. There have been several Republicans that have joined this caucus since Trump's election, which indicates there is some division within the Republican Party. And they are currently looking for more members. You have to have a Republican before you can join as a Democrat. There is currently a waiting list starting four amongst Democrats who want to get on to this caucus. I'm wondering, are you on that list or are you willing to commit to joining that list? I'm going to take this a different direction. But I'll come back and answer your question. There are caucuses on caucuses on caucuses. There are more caucuses than there are, well, there's a lot of you in this room, but let's just say there are more caucuses and you can spend your entire life just joining up to a caucus. The real question is what are you doing? What are you doing? And my experience on this goes back 30 years. 30 years I've been dealing with this issue of climate change and the effect of it on all of us. Specifically, when I was the Deputy Secretary, number two in the United States Department of Interior, President Clinton sent a memo over and said, John, I want you in the White House on XYZ date, two o'clock in the afternoon. The deputies, Rich Rominger, myself, from Treasury, Commerce, Department of Defense, and two other agencies were there. And he said, in two years, the Kyoto Conference will take place. Which is 18 months. 18 months, the Kyoto Conference will take place. You, this group, will prepare the American agenda for the Kyoto Conference. I was responsible for the USGS, Geological Survey Parks, Fish and Wildlife Service, Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and Indian Affairs. And we put together an estimate of what climate change would do to America. This was 1997, 1998, that period of time. It's happening. We said we're going to have severe weather patterns, very changeable weather patterns. We're going to see a change in the plant life. We're going to see a change in the ability of species to survive in this climate change. We laid it all out. I worked on it before this, and I'm continuing to work on it. I am absolutely certain that I must spend a great deal of my time not joining a caucus where it may or may not be useful, but rather engaging in this debate everywhere we go. It is critically important, critically important to California. Okay, now, where can we go with this? What can be done now? A very interesting thing happened last week, and I'm sure all of you are aware of it. Four leaders, Republican leaders, former secretaries of state, and chief of staffs in Republican presidential offices spoke in Washington, D.C., and they said, we must deal with this. We must deal with this. And a carbon tax refundable to the American citizens is the best way to deal with it. Now, that's a very interesting development. Now, the Citizens Climate Lobby, and I suspect there may be one or two of you here in this room, have been talking about this for a long time. That meeting and that speech that they gave in Washington this last week opened my eyes and I'm going, things are changing. Things are changing. I'm trying to remember the names of all the folks that were there. Some of you may have helped me if you followed it and we'll get it down, but it happened. And so what we're beginning, what hopefully we're seeing is a major crack in the Republican Party on this issue. The Democratic Party has been very clear to deal with this issue. We'll see what happens here in the months ahead. Okay, okay. This may give you a better opportunity because I wasn't able to hear you. All right. I'm going to follow up on the very... You want me to introduce yourself? My name is Richard Seaman, lifelong Democrat here in New York. Thank you. About, go back to the Ellison-Paris choice. I would say this, I loved your response. You're right. We need to deal with Jeremy. It's a complicated process, an idea, as you probably know. What's a simpler idea? I'm sure I absolutely would bet if I had a farm, my farm, my life that Bernie will be there. So maybe you'll have two to choose from. But what's the difference? What made Bernie? Bernie was made by policy. He had a policy issue that was forefront. And that was we haven't done enough against Wall Street, the Democratic Party hasn't dealt with income at all. Inequality, that needs to be our number one issue. And we don't hear the Washington Post and the Postalist bill that decides the things that most people know about. Oh, a lot of white guys and older white guys voted for Trump. The other biggest issue on there which showed how the vote went, people want to change and our party did not get... Thank you very much for this question. You're next. You're next. We're going to get the microphone. Hi. Hello. My name is Anush Choudhuryan and I agree with most of how you've been voting lately. So thank you. I have a quick request and I have a question. My first request is that I am a member of the LGBTQIA community and I really want to request that you please refrain from using heteronormative languages like describing the microphone as a boyfriend for when a woman is... My apologies to you. Thank you. I appreciate that. My question is we've heard a lot about how President Trump is planning to threaten California economically and I'm wondering since we are the sixth largest economy in the world what are you and our other representatives and what can we all do to turn that around and also turn the economic thumb screws on the Trump administration? Several things. Some of which you'd like to do, I'd like to do, but really isn't going to work well. We're not going to succeed from the union. I know, I know. But here's the thing about all of these issues that are coming down and there's dozens of them. We're simply going to have to be the blue wall if you would allow me to use that here in California and speak loudly, be organized, be clear. For those members of Congress that don't see it the way apparently this room sees it, there are town hall meetings, there are ways you can get in touch with myself and other members of Congress and you should do so. Write us, write them, email, phone, demonstrate all of those are legitimate. I'm not talking about violence, you've got to send a message. Now I want to be clear here. The House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans and the Republicans in the House of Representatives are largely controlled by what is called the freedom or the Tea Party faction. It is a very conservative house. That's the reality. And the reality is it's 18 months to the next election. Now we're not in a political campaign form here. We're a way I would go into details about what you could do. But you certainly have the right to communicate with your member of Congress and with other members of Congress and you need to reach out to people across the country who you know, organizations. And apparently you belong to a national organization. Good, don't keep quiet. Get up and do the communications. In all of the forms, avoid violence. Avoid it because it turns people against you. Okay, wait a minute. I've got to pick somebody. I've got a lady behind you. I'm going to move to pick the lady. She just passed it to the gentleman. You're next. Congressman, thank you for your leadership on our issues. My name is Bobby Lamber. I'm an engineer by profession. I'm joined by my friend Sunit. He's a doctor by profession. And my issue is green cards, employment based and family based. There are serious backlogs because not more than 7% of the total green cards go to a specific country. So especially people from India and China who are populist countries working at a rate of 30, 40, 50 years maybe. I have been waiting for 10 years now. Some of us will probably die in the backlogs. This has some serious side effects as well. This is causing American worker displacement because employees prefer to hire people from the backlog. It is also killing diversity at the workplace because employees keep bringing people foreign workers from the specific region. There's a specific bill in the house. It's HR 392. It's been reintroduced last time in 2011 and passed the house with 39 yes words. It's a bill by Rex Zollofrin. She has been our champion. So today my request is your leadership on the bill to get behind the bill, request to have your post on to the bill and get it done. Thank you so much. It's HR 392. Okay. My team just has the bill. We'll take a look at it when I get back. Early tomorrow morning. Don't you like that Southwest flight to Washington? Yes. 6.30 in the morning. And the United flight will come back on pretty soon. So I'm going to be leaving early tomorrow morning. I'll take a look at that bill first thing in the morning. You're next. We've covered the issue of immigration and green cars and so forth. We'll check this bill out. Thank you. The young man in the blue shirt. I guess that's blue. Just told you a question for a second. I should have done this early on. This community in this area is represented by some extraordinary individuals who are very, very capable. Whoa. Cecilia Curry was here. I knew her Curry was here. She left a few moments ago. She's your assembly member. God was here a few minutes ago. Maybe he's still here. But he's your senator. Rob Davis, where are you, Rob? I know you saw him earlier. There you are, Rob. I supervise you on sailors here. There you are. I told this fellow a while ago. Rich Romiger, I don't know if you're here, but there we are. It makes a difference. It makes a big difference when you have men and women in key positions in government. Rich Romiger, his knowledge of agriculture, particularly his knowledge of California together with Ellen and his wife, did an extraordinary job in Washington, D.C., dealing with the climate change issue, the forestry issues, and it went on and on and on. The Tahoe summit with Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the joy that I had was to work with him when he was deputy secretary and I was also so rich. It's been a good trip, huh? It's been a really good trip. Thank you for being here. There may be others here if you're around. Okay, you got the next question and you're the follower. So get the microphone to her and go for it. My name is Will and I'm a student at Davis High School right over there, which means pretty soon I'm going to be off to college. Just last month, the University of California proposed to raise its tuition, which would make it a lot harder for people like me and people who are even less fortunate who struggle to pay for their education. Meanwhile, only seven months ago in the Democratic primary, 51% of Davis voters voted for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. And he championed free public college tuition for everyone. I firmly believe that a free public college education is absolutely vital if we're going to remain competitive with the rest of the industrialized world where many countries such as Germany and even less first world countries like Slovenia have free education. So my question to you is that as a representative of the city and of the district and of the state do you support and will you fight for universal college education tuition free? Yes. Let me tell you how this can be done. Life's about choices. Right? Life's about choices. All of us, every day we make a choice. Sometimes a big monumental choices. We'll get married, we won't get married, we'll go to school, we won't go to school, we'll drive at 55. In a 30 mile an hour zone, we make choices. I make choices on behalf of you. I'm your representative. I'm doing a whole lot more. Some 780,000. Straight out across eight counties. 200 miles of the Sacramento River Valley. I make choices. I'm on the Armed Services Committee. And on that Armed Services Committee I'm on a subcommittee called Strategic Arms. Which means nuclear weapons. We are in the first quarter of a trillion dollar rebuilding of our entire nuclear weapons system. All of the bombs. All of the delivery systems. Submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, new stealth bombers. On and on. A trillion dollars in the next 25 years. We make choices. And I'm telling you what my choice is. Don't do it. It is extraordinarily dangerous. It's extremely dangerous. It's not just about the disagreements with Russia or China. It's about the nature of these new weapons systems. They're stealthy. They're fast. Everything we learn during the Cold War and you're too young to know much about that. But I can tell your parents know about it and a few others in this room know about it. There was a understanding that developed over the 50 year period. of the Cold War. The rules of the game do not apply to these new weapons. And therefore it's dangerous. And we've got a president that I don't know, somebody over here said no may not be clear about how he makes decisions. So we must be very, very aware. We don't need, in my view, to spend a trillion dollars on this. We would be better and you made the argument perfectly clear. We'd be better educating all of our children in the very best possible way. We promised all of you that you could get back to the television shows for the evening. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. My name is Pasha Walker. I'm from the TQQ Plus Plus Plus community. More importantly, my son, Skyler Michaels' painting is hanging in your yellow county office. He's 18 years old. I remember as a kid when we did duck and cover. I want my 18 year old to make it all the way through his entire life. You talk about nuclear weapons. I'm not quite as a social worker. I'm not going to diagnose a president from afar, but it's very apparent we have someone who is impulsive and capable. I realize that impeachment is a long process. I realize that you can tell me that there's not a lot you can do. But I want to know to save our lives, because all the things that we brought up today that are so important won't matter if we all die in a nuclear war. So what are you and all your colleagues, including the Republicans that are hiding right now, going to do to try and get this man and Steve Bannon and the people practicing your demonstration. Here's and maybe it's the time for us to end. We are in a period of enormous uncertainty. Every rule of the road that has sustained us within our country all of the advancements that we've been made in your community in the civil rights community in the voting rights in the environmental communities in the issues the civil rights issues the environmental issues voting rights issues to go down through the list health care advancements, the HCA the advancements of 20 million people now have insurance is it the very best? No but it's a whole lot better than not having insurance. The clinics have been established in my district. There's seven clinic operations in my district. 34 clinics most of which didn't exist before the Affordable Care Act. They're available to people. We've made great a difference. So what can I do? I can do what you're doing. I can stand firm I can stand clear about where I am on issues and what we need to do as Americans. We need to reclaim the high ground here. We need to reclaim the values of this nation. Democracy now! There are our issues and we cannot be silent we cannot be silent as I said the worst of times the day this man won the election and then the day he was inaugurated for all the reasons that I see happening the best of times the day after the inauguration when my three-year-old granddaughter carried a sign and she together with her five-year-old sister knew what they were doing and I believe you knew what you were doing and you got to continue. Thank you so very, very much Thank you so very, very much