 I now have the very distinct pleasure of letting you know how Brooklyn represents. That's how we do. We set it up like that. The gentleman I'm going to introduce next is personal to me. I lived in a state and in a city where although marijuana had been decriminalized since 1977, young men who could have been my son, one of which who was, were stopped and frisked, were put in jail, got their DNA collected, records so they couldn't go to school, they couldn't live in federal housing. That ain't right. That's not what democracy looks like. That's right. That's my cousin. That's my cousin. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democratic congressman who represents the 8th District, which is to say Crown Heights in the house. Since he was in the New York State Assembly and he's moved on to Congress he's most recently in the wake of the horrific death of Eric Killing. I should say Killing. He didn't die. He was killed. Eric Garner has introduced legislation to the excessive use of force prevention act of 2015 that will make it illegal to deploy a choke hold under federal civil rights laws. It's my honor to let you know how we do when we come from Brooklyn. Welcome, Hakeem Jeffries. Good morning, everyone. It's an honor and a privilege to be here. Let me first just thank Asha for that very generous introduction. You know, when she's in the building it's clear that Brooklyn is in the house. And so we're thankful for her and of course the Ethan for his leadership, the drug policy alliance has done such a tremendous job in pushing forward looking, progressive, sensible, evidence-based policies into the forefront of our discussion. And of course to share the stage with Earl Blumenauer who's been a tremendous advocate for sensible drug policy for ending the reckless war on marijuana and he's one of the best Dress Mom members of the United States Congress as well. So we're thankful for him. In the time that I have, it's been such a wonderful opportunity to serve in the United States Congress at a moment where things are finally coming together as it relates to ending or failed war on drugs. We know that when Richard Nixon publicly declared drugs public enemy number one in 1971, since that moment we've been embarking on a regressive and reckless crusade under the banner of a war on drugs. And 44 years later we find ourselves here in 2015 and the only thing we've succeeded in doing is wasting time, wasting energy, wasting resources, ruining countless lives, succeeding in creating a prison industrial complex, pushing forward mass incarceration, creating a situation that here in the United States we've got the largest incarceration rate in the world. It's time to end the failed war on drugs once and for all. It's not American. And so we're here at this great moment. Abraham Lincoln about 150 years ago once asked the question publicly, how do we create a more perfect union? And he of course asked that question at a time when the Civil War was raging, threatening to tear this country apart. And we know since that moment, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, we've made tremendous progress in America, we've come a long way, we still have a long way to go. And I'm thankful that increasingly if you were to ask that question about a more perfect union, Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives, members of the House and members of the Senate have increasingly said, we've got to fix our broken criminal justice system. We've got to end mass incarceration. We've got to terminate this failed war on drugs. And so yesterday I was pleased that as part of the judiciary committee, we moved out a bill, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2015, that is a step in the right direction, rolling back some of the mandatory minimums that have shackled and ruined so many lives. We also have made retroactive the relief that was provided in 2010 when the Congress reduced the disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1. By the way, it should be eliminated altogether. But that was progress because we know there's no pharmacological difference. I just love using that word. I can't spell it, but I know what it means. But it wasn't made retroactive. And so thousands of people are still in federal prison right now. Our bill will make it retroactive and give thousands of people the relief that they deserve so they can see liberty. So it's progress that we're making. But we still have a long way to go. And so as I get ready to take my seat, I'll just make the note. Harriet Tugman, one of my favorites in American history. I said American history. She had a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. That's a bad sister. She freed herself and then she went back down south an additional 19 times and freed more than 200 black slaves. But they asked Harriet Tugman at the end of her life about her heroism and she was dismissive. And she said I could have freed more if they only knew that they were slaves. Sometimes what holds us back is just self-doubt. But you're on the right track. You're on the right side. You've got the right policy. Don't ever doubt yourself. We're going to change America and end the failed war on drugs. Once and for all, God bless you. Onward and upward. Great people on our side. Hakim Shafiq.