Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — NY-14 Virtual Town Hall with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Thank you

Speaker 1 (lower-pitched voice): Good evening, New York 14. My name is Jeffrey Montoya, and I'm with the office of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you for joining our town hall. Just a few housekeeping

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the

Speaker 3: transcription. As a reminder to our speakers this evening, please speak slowly so our interpreters can interpret to the best of

their abilities. For today's

Speaker 1 (lower-pitched voice): Town Hall, we'll hear from the Congresswoman on the latest developments on Capitol Hill. Between the near shutdown, removal of the Speaker of the House of Representatives

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): our work on migrants in New York City, and a readout of the historic delegation the Congresswoman led to Latin America. Finally, we have some deadlines to flag for the community. We will then open it up for Q&A from

constituents. I would now like

Speaker 1 (lower-pitched voice): to turn it over to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez

Hello

Speaker 4: everybody. Hello, New York 14. This is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez here for our town hall, our regular town hall

Speaker 5: And we're so excited to be able to run through some of the latest developments in Washington, provide some critical updates, and let you all know what's been going on and give you the opportunity to ask a little bit more about it. You know, we have had a very crazy

week in Washington, if

Speaker 5: not a crazy couple of weeks in Washington. And so I'm going to cover with you briefly how we were able to avoid a government shutdown for now last weekend, how we have a continuing resolution that keeps the government spending at current levels and talk about what that presently means. So we have a couple of things I wanted to chat about, the shutdown, the speakers race, additionally, some local issues that we will also dive into. So we'll start very quickly as it pertains to some of the news around government shutdown that you may have heard about last week or so. Okay

The

Speaker 5: way that government funding works and how we normally fund the government to avoid a shutdown is that there are 12 core departments that essentially comprise the United States government when it comes to government funding. These are things like the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Interior goes on and on. And all of these bills and all of these different departments get funded, and that is how we're able to get our Social Security checks, get Title One funding for low income schools and more. And usually when we have each department get funded, they usually get funded and passed throughout the entire year. And so, for example, in the last couple of years, when Democrats have the House majority, we slowly just passed all of these government funding bills throughout the year. Then our bill, which may be slightly different from the Senate's bill, go into conference. The House and Senate hash out their differences. It goes to the president's desk. The president signs it and our government gets funded. And you usually don't hear too much about it because

It's a

Speaker 5: pretty standard procedure when it comes to our normal government processes. So you might hear about some of the changes that might happen, but rarely are we, is it normal to not fund the government, to miss some of these deadlines and to enter a shutdown. In fact, the only times that we've gone into shutdown in the last 30 years has

been

Speaker 5: coincidentally, happens to be when Republicans have the House majority. Shutdown has never been initiated in the last 30 years when Democrats have the majority. Anyways, all of that is

to say

Speaker 5: is that this year, under the Republican majority, Republicans fell very far behind, and they had been looking to make really significant cuts to the Social Security Administration, the Department of Education, and more. And of course, these are not cuts that Democrats support. And when you have a house, majority. Republicans, it would be typical for Republicans to pass that. They would have to negotiate with the Senate. They figure out their differences and it goes to the president. What happened a couple of weeks ago was something that was very interesting, which is that the Republican Party was fighting amongst themselves

So

Speaker 5: this was not actually a shutdown or a risk of shutdown that happened because the two parties couldn't come to an agreement. But it was because the Republican Party's extreme right wing really wanted and demanded some of these cuts. And they did not want any continuing resolution, any government funding to happen on a bipartisan basis. In fact, last Friday, the Republican Party passed what is known as a continuing resolution or CR. That's kind of like a temporary extension of government funding that had 30 percent cuts almost across the board in many different administrations. most Republicans voted for it, including our New York state Republicans as well. And so they tried to pass 30% cuts to the social security administration, 80% cuts to title one, low income schools, which are many of the schools in our community and others, but they weren't able

to pass that and

Speaker 5: they didn't have the votes to pass it. And so on Saturday, what they essentially did was pass a continuing resolution that essentially was a clean extension. And normally what happens with a vehicle like this is that you take whatever the current

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): government funding is and you say, okay, we're just gonna extend everything at its current level without any changes for X period of time. And while we sort out our differences

And

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that is what happened. On Saturday, we filed an extension of the current

Speaker 5: government funding levels for just 45 days so that federal workers can get their paychecks and the government can continue to be funded and can continue to function while folks over there settle out their differences

For

Speaker 5: context, in our community, we have over 5,000 federal workers. We have LaGuardia Airport in our community. In the larger, broader context of New York City, our airport workers, our military service members, and many others are federal employees. And if we shut down the government, and if the government shuts down, then the first people that miss a paycheck can be our government workers and our federal workers. And there's no reason or rationale that everyday ordinary people would have to suffer in the event because of a political squabble. And that's normally why a CR happens and is extended. And it's always been very important, at least to us, to try to avoid a government shutdown, because it's just not fair and just not right to

Speaker 9: put people in the middle

of that. All

Speaker 5: of that is to

say, is

Speaker 5: that on Saturday we were able to achieve a 45-day extension, but the way that we did that was with Democrats and Republicans working together. In fact, more Democrats voted to keep the government open than Republicans did on

Speaker 10: Saturday. And that set up a series of events that

Speaker 5: basically led to what we see this week. which was the removal of the Speaker of the House. Now, I want to be very clear that this removal was not particularly because Democrats worked with Republicans. This was, I think, a long time coming because of a series of agreements that the former Speaker had essentially agreed to. In January of this year, the Speaker of the House and the Republican Majority Party agreed to change the underlying rules of the House of Representatives. And there's always been something known as a motion to vacate. And this has almost been like an emergency response

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): Smash the glass in case something happens and something

Speaker 5: in extreme emergency around the speaker of the of the house occurs and the speaker must be removed. This is typically a very high threshold. In order to implement a motion to vacate historically, you must essentially have huge, huge droves

of members of

Speaker 5: the House of Representatives to remove the speaker. And this is precisely because this is such a serious measure that removal is not something that should be politicized or weaponized. However, in January, that was our take. And in January of this year, however, the Republican Party disagreed. And they changed the underlying House rules to allow just one member to file a motion to vacate. And if just one member initiates a motion to vacate, then within 48 hours, the House of Representatives must cast a vote. And if that vote yields yes on the motion to vacate, then the speaker is consequently removed. Now, in January, every single Democrat voted against changing that rule. We said this is not only a large break from precedent, but it's probably not good for you all to set this precedent for yourselves. And every single Democrat voted against this rule change. However, every single Republican voted for it and When Republicans have the House majority and when they have control of the House, when every single Republican votes for something, it will happen. That is the nature of a majority. And so the Speaker of the House and the Republican Party insisted on a one person motion to vacate while they were in the majority. And that is what was implemented

And

Speaker 5: almost this entire year, the Speaker of the House has been quite beholden to this extremist wing of the party because this motion to vacate that he adopted and approved had been kind of looming over his head

Now, on

Speaker 5: top of that, we've also seen a series of destabilizing moves within the institution of the Speaker of the House. The current speaker or the former speaker, Kevin

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): McCarthy, he is. voted to overturn the results of the U.S. presidential election. Additionally, he held the entire U.S. economy hostage earlier this year, and he, by refusing to raise the U.S. debt limit to pay for spending that he himself

Speaker 5: had already approved of, and also that the House had already voted on. having a debt limit separate from our budgets is a very strange and bizarre archaic mechanism that does not exist in most countries. And so Kevin McCarthy, by holding the entire U.S. economy hostage in March, struck a deal with President Biden. And that's in that deal, that's one of the reasons why we have student loan repayments that are restarting, and in addition to cuts to certain critical services. And regardless of whether we agree with that or not, I'm vehemently against, I was vehemently against it and voted against it. But whether we agree with that or not, at the end of the day, that is the deal that was struck to keep the U.S. government open. Now, President Biden has upheld his end of the deal. He has exacted and executed those concessions that

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): were made. issued unfairly, but that were issued in order

Speaker 5: to keep the government open. And one of the problems is that Kevin McCarthy has not. And so Biden gave his end of the deal. And in this most recent CR, Kevin McCarthy said, never mind

Speaker 10: And this has created

Speaker 5: a situation that has largely become untenable. And so on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, one of the members of the Republican caucus filed a motion to vacate. Now, I want to be very clear that pretty much never in the history of the institution has one political party voted for the other party's speaker. Democrats do not elect Republican speakers and Republicans have never elected Democratic

Speaker 11: speakers. This is almost a foundational part of the institution

Speaker 12: And in fact, it's part of having a

Speaker 5: party majority. If Republicans are elected in the majority, it is up to Republicans to elect a Republican speaker. And when Democrats are in the majority, it is up to Democrats to elect a Democratic speaker

And what

Speaker 5: happened this week was that Republicans cast this vote. Kevin McCarthy exhibited extraordinary confidence that he would win this vote

He

Speaker 5: told everyone to bring it on. He said that he did not need to negotiate with Democrats. He did not ask Democrats for votes. He did not indicate in any single way, shape, or form that he would need Democratic votes. And so the vote happened. And the votes that Kevin McCarthy had publicly suggested that he had did not... follow through within his Republican caucus. And when that happens, that means he lost the motion to vacate and he was removed as Speaker of the House. This is the first time that this has ever happened in U.S. history. The last time a motion

Speaker 12: to vacate even occurred was over 100 years ago. And that motion, I believe, failed

And

Speaker 5: so this is the first time in U.S. history that a Speaker of the House has been removed and vacated. This also means that the line of succession to the presidency has a hole in it. Usually the line of succession is the president. If the president cannot serve his duties, it's the vice president. And after the vice president, it's the speaker of the house. Currently, there is no elected speaker of the house. There is there's kind of a placeholder known as a speaker pro tempore, but a

speaker

Speaker 5: pro tempore does not qualify to be able to serve in the line of succession. And so right now we have the president, the vice president, the gap, and then in what goes after that gap is the current head of the Senate, the eldest serving member of the Senate in the majority, which is Senator Patty Murray. And so that is the current situation that we are in. The House Republican caucus is in a bit of chaos right now. They have the responsibility of nominating their party speaker. Democrats, we will be I will be going back to Washington on Tuesday and Democrats will nominate their nominee for speaker, which in our case is fellow New Yorker Representative Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. And

you know

Speaker 5: On Tuesday, at least it's currently scheduled, that on Tuesday, they're going to

be the

Speaker 5: nominating conference meetings. So Republicans will put forward and select their conference nominee, the name that they're going to submit to the House floor. And then Democrats are going to select their name that they're gonna submit to the House floor. We know who that Democrat is going to be. We do not yet know who that Republican is going to be. Until then there is an interim speaker, that interim speaker really

Speaker 13: cannot

Speaker 14: let's see, the interim speaker

Speaker 5: can only really do kind of clerical duties, they cannot bring any legislation to the floor, we cannot vote on any bills, we cannot do anything until we select a new speaker. And currently the one individual that by far has the most votes on the floor

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): is Democrat Hakeem Jeffries. And now he has about two hundred and twelve Democratic votes. However, you have to get 218 or so in order to clinch the speakership. And so

We

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): don't know who the Republican nominee is one

Speaker 5: viable option is that if somewhere between six or seven, six to eight, you know, more moderate district Republicans, I won't say moderate Republicans, but moderate districts, Republicans join the Democratic caucus. That is one way we can end through this. There could be a coalition candidate, but we are in a standstill, and the clock is ticking during this standstill, because we have that 45-day government funding extension. The government was only authorized to be funded for 45 days starting last Saturday. we've lost a week on this, we will likely lose another week next week because Republicans have not determined who their leadership is going to be. And so the clock is slowly ticking on that. We have about mid-November, I believe November 15th or so, is when this clock runs out. I do not anticipate that given all of this

pandemic

Speaker 5: chaos over there that Republicans will be able to pass those 12 departmental bills that I discussed earlier. But

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): one option that is on the table is a second continuing resolution, just like the one that we just passed that gave us a 45-day extension. Continuing resolutions can last as long

Speaker 5: as, you know, almost as long as we want them to within a congressional term, but that is our plan. current dilemma and that's currently where we are at in terms of the speakership. I also want to provide a quick update on the migration situation in New York City. Last time we spoke, I had indicated that I have been fighting alongside other members of the New York Democratic or rather

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): the New York congressional delegation to secure something known as TPS for Venezuelan migrants. Now, the vast majority

Speaker 5: of migrants or the largest group of migrants that have been arriving in New York City over the last several years have come from Venezuela. We've discussed some of the reasons

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): why, including the contributions that U.S. sanctions, broad-based U.S. sanctions, have been playing in destabilizing the Venezuelan economy, which

is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): really putting a lot of poor and working

Speaker 15: families into poverty and destitution and forcing them to flee to other

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): countries, not just the United States, but also Colombia, Chile and more. And

so in

Speaker 5: addition to that's kind of an aside, but one of the key things that we've also been talking about with respect to those migrants that are here is in

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): order to ease the strain on our shelter systems and public systems, they have to

Speaker 5: be able to work. And asylum seekers that have come to the United States historically have not been allowed to work. And so they're not allowed to work. They are not allowed to sustain themselves. And so they're forced to remain in our shelters and forced to rely on our public systems, even when they don't want to. In fact, when I visited when I have visited our shelter system several times and every time I speak to these folks, the number one thing

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that they say

is, I just

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): want to work. Just let me work and let me get on my feet and let me provide for my kids. And on the other end of that equation, one of the other things that we hear from a lot of industries in the city

Speaker 5: and across the state of New York is let us hire them, especially the agricultural industry, the hospitality industry. They say we really need New Yorkers. We have and we really need these new New Yorkers

And

Speaker 5: we really need to be able to hire these folks because we have not been able to fill this labor need up until this point. And so we have folks that want to hire, we have folks that want to work, but the federal

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): government was kind of putting up a lot of red tape and wasn't allowing people to

work. And

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): so I've been pushing alongside the New York congressional delegation for over a year to make sure that we secured something known as TPS or temporary protected status for Venezuelans and not only Venezuelans, but folks from many other countries as well. And just last month, after pushing and pushing and pushing Biden administration on this, we finally had a breakthrough

And we

Speaker 5: were able to secure temporary protected status for Venezuelan asylum seekers here

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): in the United States. And that has been a major boon for the current situation. That means over or about years. Half a million asylum seekers will now be able to get on a pathway to be allowed to work, which will hopefully really reduce the strain on our systems and also help us fill our economic needs that we have in the city. Leading up to that, I led a delegation alongside Congressman Espaillat of members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus so we could get members everywhere from California to Illinois and Massachusetts to New York City to take a look at our system. And they actually were very impressed with some of the things that they

saw. So

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that's what we got there on that one. And then during August, one of the things that I did was I led one of the first ever, if not the first ever, all Spanish speaking U.S. congressional delegation to a South American CODEL, a South American delegation. And there we met with the presidential administration's

Speaker 5: of President Lula of Brazil. I also met with President Gabi Boric of Chile, as well as

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): President Petro of Colombia. And during that congressional delegation, we were able to engage in really serious diplomatic conversations regarding climate, protection of the Amazon, acknowledgement of the U.S. role in the 1973 Chilean coup and figuring out how we can fight against forces that are undermining democracy across Latin America and with respect to Colombia we also engaged additionally on discussions around climate as well as U.S. drug war policy and how we can continue to support peace efforts in the country. It was a profoundly helpful trip

to As

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): well as the fact that we connected with U.S. embassy teams and our ambassadors

Speaker 5: in the region to help figure out how we can start addressing some of the root causes of the migrant crisis. Because in my opinion and in my view, no matter what

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): we do around enforcement and deterrence, etc. The core of the problem is the fact that millions of people are pouring out of countries and being displaced in the first place. And we will continue

Speaker 5: to have challenges with respect to migration if we continue to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): support policies that drive displacement and mass migration in the first place. A lot of these people, are not coming for normal reasons. They are being displaced from their homes. And one of the best immigration and asylum seeking solutions is to make sure that people don't have to be refugees in the first place. And it's an important, point for us to reassess how the U.S. engages in Latin America and support stability in the region and peace in the region and economic dignity in the region so that we don't have to be overwhelmed and that our neighbors don't have to be overwhelmed either in terms of the actual numbers. The United States has about half a million Venezuelan immigrants within our borders, but Colombia has taken two to three million compared to the 500,000 that are currently in the United States. And so I hope that gives a little bit of a scale in terms of how we all need to come together as a hemisphere to support policies that make people not want to leave and flee their homes in the first place. And at the end of the day, the more that we do that, the more

Speaker 5: we'll be able to support what everybody wants to do. And then on the other end, when people do come to support

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): pathways to citizenship, make it easier to be documented, because we have an enormous economic need, as well as enormous cultural need in the United States. There are states that have extremely xenophobic and anti-immigrant policies

Speaker 5: and in fact, Because they have those policies while they are in a labor shortage, they are rolling back child labor laws in some of these states because they are so desperate for a healthy

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): economy where people can work. But what is happening is that children are getting sick. harmed, there are reports of deaths in certain facilities, and that is simply not an acceptable answer to our solution. We have to be able to put these two pieces together while also supporting stability and dignity abroad. And I think that if we're able to aggressively pursue that solution while also... continuing to push for immigration reform, justice for our DACA recipients, a path to citizenship for the undocumented that have established their lives here, then we can make significant progress in a way that helps everyone in this country

And so

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): with

Woman 16: that, we will pursue and follow up on some reminders for you all in the community. First thing that I would say is if you have

Speaker 5: flood damage, please call 311 to report any flood damage that you see in your neighborhood. I also want to make sure that we get the word out

that

Speaker 5: there is currently a storm watch as well going on right now. It is not as bad as what we saw last week, but there is still a storm watch that is happening. So please make sure that you take any preventative measures, move things off the ground if you are exposed to any potential

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): flooding. Again, this is not currently predicted to be as bad as what we saw last week, but I wanted and to make sure that

I

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): was able to amplify that for you all. So that storm watch is between tonight through tomorrow. So make sure that you keep an eye out as well. In addition to that, today our office and our team were distributing flood

Speaker 5: barriers throughout the community. We distributed

I have

Speaker 5: to follow up. I don't want to say the wrong number, but we distributed a bunch of flood barriers today. So thank you so

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): much to Angela and everyone on our staff for doing that. But you can reach out to our office as well as there are some city council members that are also distributing some flood barriers as well. assembly members. So take a look at your council member or assembly members or state senators' social media to see if they're hosting any distributions. And also we might be able to get you some upon request as well. There is a limited supply. So please make sure that you reserve those for folks, you know, if you are ground level or have been affected by flooding

Speaker 5: to get those flood barriers

We also

Woman 16: have a Congressional App Challenge for any of our high schoolers out there that like to design or do some tech work. We've

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): had amazing Congressional App Challenge submissions before. It is a great opportunity to whip something up and submit it to this national challenge. It's really great for people. college applications, and it's a really, really wonderful opportunity, so definitely look into the Congressional App Challenge, and on top of that, our Service Academy nomination deadline, the overall Service Academy nomination deadline is on November 1st, so is the Congressional App Challenge, those are folks who are interested in applying to the U.S. Service Academies, That is the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, West Point, Air Force, Naval Academy, Arlington, etc. And those are the service academies. So people sometimes will choose to elect to go to those institutions. They are colleges and they are also military service academies. So if you are interested in applying, if that is part of your plan, that deadline to seek a nomination, which is required, is November 1st. And you can submit

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): those applications to my office. And I think that's all. Thank you so much

Thank you for your remarks

Speaker 18: Congresswoman. We will now move to the Q&A portion of our town hall. As mentioned earlier, those

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): signed on via the Zoom platform may use the Q&A feature to submit your questions. Please, please mention what neighborhood you are from as we will to prioritize New York 14 constituents. Okay. Jennifer Torres from Hunts Point asks: "I can see the disparity between the Hunts Point community and others in the borough when it comes to access to quality and healthy food choices. Our neighborhood only has two major supermarkets who price gouge whenever they can. I live

in a

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): supermarket wasteland. What can we do to be able to have better shopping

Speaker 20: choices in our community

Thank you so

Speaker 21 (higher-pitched voice): much

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): Jennifer, for your question. It is incredibly important. And health disparities and

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): health inequity is a major issue that we're always trying to tackle in our community. It's something that the Bronx in particular has long had encountered inequalities around and it's something that's been very important to us. In fact, earlier this year, we've been looking for dramatic expansions to an investment in the Hunts Point produce market. And our hope is that those investments in that market will also make it easier for the fresh goods in that market to be able to be sustained and distributed locally

In

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): terms of federal programming around this, the USDA, that's the US Department of Agriculture is currently has a healthy food financing initiative. And what the goal of that healthy food financing initiative is, is to provide business assistance, loans, grants as well. to help improve access to fresh foods. And right now, what we're doing is that we are working in D.C., especially under the upcoming agricultural, the agricultural bill, but in many others as well, to support expanding that program so that we can maintain new grocery stores in our neighborhood, and especially those neighborhoods that are food deserts and don't have access to fresh foods. Yeah. Now, we have challenges with that in our Republican majority, but it is something that we're continually trying to elevate as well as working with our city and state partners to address. But the food disparity and health disparities are really are very real

And a

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): lot of the causes are very structural. And so part of what we're trying to do is really increase the financial incentives to keep grocery stores open and to make sure that

Speaker 12: those folks who want to open them can open them in neighborhoods where they are most

needed. - Tania Smith from

Speaker 22: Co-op City asks, "Are you in agreement with congestion

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): pricing and

Speaker 23: why

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): Isn't it another tax in the outer boroughs? In my area, public transportation is not the best, and our concerns are not answered. Thank

Speaker 21 (higher-pitched voice): you so much for the question. Now, I think when it comes to congestion pricing

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): it's all about the design of congestion pricing. I think it's very important that, you know, for me, there are certain principles that I am in agreement with. I think... one of the major parts of congestion pricing is when it comes to commuters from out of state that are coming into New York City and Manhattan using our infrastructure, but not contributing

Speaker 5: to our public taxes. I think I am in support of congestion pricing. However, I also want to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): note that we have long said that we want to make sure that congestion pricing does not amplify environmental injustices and also can address existing inequities with our local communities in the Bronx and Queens. Lately there has been some conversation about some of the ways that congestion pricing could roll out. I believe the Transit Workers Alliance, you know, the funds for congestion pricing are originally supposed to invest in public transit so that public transit can both be more frequent and expanded into places that are transit deserts

I

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): think that's the right way to go about it. I think making sure that we don't harm already underserved communities is a critical and important priority in support for congestion pricing. And so for me, it's all about the design and making sure that we are not harming our existing communities. And so we're currently monitoring the situation. Again, I believe on the base idea That if you are coming from out of state and using our infrastructure, then a congestion price is appropriate. And and I think that that the folks who are using the roads most heavily, you know, pay a congestion toll. But at the same time, we want to make sure that those are not accelerating environmental injustices in the Bronx. and that we aren't making

Speaker 24: it regressive and more difficult for communities that have already been most impacted. Blake

Volker from

Speaker 3: Astoria asks, "Now that there is no speaker, are we looking at a

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): shutdown in November? Should I start figuring out how to lower some of my expenses so I have some money on the side to help them if it starts to get untenable

Woman 16: Well, you know, again, I am so sorry that we even have to have this

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): conversation. It is not something that should even be a reality. And frankly, as you know, has not been a reality recently. Of course, there was a government shutdown during the Trump administration, but in the last several years, there haven't been. It just simply has not been an issue. Now, in terms of saying will there or won't there be a shutdown in November, I unfortunately cannot give you a guarantee either way, because, as you noted, of this speakership debacle. Now, our hope and we are fighting tooth and nail, just like we fought tooth and nail last Saturday to avoid a shutdown. But at the end of the day, we cannot avoid a shutdown without Republicans and without Republican, the Republican ability to vote

use

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): their majority to help us avoid a shutdown and so what I would personally say would would be to prepare for the fact that this is a possibility now the vast majority of government shutdowns have not lasted a long period of time in fact the largest bulk of them have been about a week but once again during the Trump administration That precedent was broken, and that shutdown had lasted about 35 days. It was the longest one in American history. I, of course, do not anticipate that. We hope that that would never happen again. But I have to be completely honest and say I cannot guarantee that there will not be one, unfortunately

because

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): Democrats don't have the votes to keep it open right now. We need Republicans to

Speaker 15: meet us in the middle and make sure that we can get paychecks to people

John Schwamm

Speaker 3: from City Island asks, I think all residents of the East Bronx would like to see the

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): roadways of Pelham Bay Park and its Hutchison River Parkway access roads upgraded to state and federal department of transportation standards, including the needed flood mitigation on park roads

Is

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): it possible to use federal coastal resiliency funds to accelerate this

It's an

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): excellent, it's a really excellent question. It's certainly something when it comes to coastal resiliency that we've been looking into with respect to, projects like

Speaker 5: Orchard Beach and other areas around Pelham Bay Park. We have examined some of the the federal opportunities there. We do have significant community outreach to us around flooding. And I'm just taking a look at some notes here. We do have had some significant community outreach when it comes

to the

Speaker 5: flooding on Shore Road. specifically, and so I want to thank you

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): all for engaging us on this issue because government can only be responsive when people speak up and reach out. And so we've had a lot of people reaching out to us about the flooding on Shore Road, and we've actually coordinated with the city and the state to start identifying some potential federal grants such as the Surface Transportation Block Grant. And so that has been one of the main vehicles that we have already begun to identify to help fix the flooding in some of these areas. And I'll repeat that again. It is the surface transportation block grant that we've identified that we're now starting to work with the city and state to see if we can secure and what we can secure for

people

Speaker 5: Shore road and some of those surrounding areas as well. Coastal resilience grants do tend to be

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): more environmental protection measures. So that is a little less road focused. Those tend to be around shoring up more natural land. and preventing erosion when we do see some of that flooding. And flood resiliency grants focus on buildings. So flood resiliency is buildings, coastal resilience is general wildland, and surface transportation is I think what we can hone in on and what we're already starting to explore when it comes to helping out and upgrading our roads, which are absolutely in need of a lot of investment and help. And so if we're able to secure that funding, the work is usually completed by the state and the city. So we get the money and the city and the state deploy it. And it depends on the jurisdiction as well. So those entities will be responsible for applying the funding for the funding and we can support the city

of the state

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): And we've already started in supporting the city and state in applying for those

Speaker 25: funds

Robert

Speaker 26: Moreira of College Point asks, what is going on with the migrants being placed within your

Speaker 27: district, specifically College

Woman 16: Point? Thank you for the question, Robert. Currently, there

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): are several shelters in the district spanning. And again, the district goes, it expands, it spans across two boroughs. We've got the Bronx, we've got parts of the Bronx, and then we've got parts of Queens. So there are several shelters in within that larger area. And there are two respite centers, respite centers are kind of like these large centers where there are some cots. People can rest while they seek shelter and seek placement as well. The site in College Point, St. Agnes, is a respite center, and that is operated by the New York City Emergency Management, and it will actually close at the end of the month on October 31st. We hear that the city may have plans to turn

it

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): into a school, but we have to wait for any of those things to be made official. But again, there's currently a respite center in College Point that will be closing at the end of the month. Additionally, the city has moved to limit shelter stays for single men to 30 days. This is pretty consistent, at least when it comes to the data around single men The majority of asylum seekers who are single men are usually in and out of our system in less than 30 days that we have seen. But no one wants to see people sleeping in cots in these small congregate settings like these. I've been in them that think of them almost as like a large gym or a large space. And there are just those. that you see that are there and people just bring whatever it is, whatever belongings that they have, a blanket, a bag, and it is just a place to put their head down for the night and have protection from the elements as they try to figure out their application and their path forward. And our hope is that the half a million TPS designations that we were successful in opening up can help people more quickly get on their feet

Alexis Sussman of

Speaker 28: Elmhurst asks, what is the

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): future for any aid for student loans, not only for federal student loans assistance, but also for private student loans

So

Speaker 29: student loans

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): Massive developments happening this week. I will start on the first aspect of this, which is what we've seen is that we've got federal student loan payments that have restarted this month, October

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): 1st. And I want to be very clear, if you've missed that deadline right now, that was the first payment deadline. There will not be credit reporting for 12 months. Actually, I think it's actually closer to 15 months. So if you've missed a payment, as these payments go online, your credit score will not be dinged if you miss a payment. This is to help people get back on board

if

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): your payment is really high, there are currently new programs that have rolled out called the save program. And we've linked to some of these things on social media. And we have information about this. And the save program, if you make $15 an hour Or if you also make other income thresholds, your student loan payment could be brought down to zero. So I would definitely look into that if you need to, even though your your payment will not be dinged on your credit. If you miss it, interest does start accruing at that date, October 1st. So I would definitely look into that and make sure that you have that assured up as for the future

of

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): student loan cancellation. This week, President Biden announced an additional $9 billion in student loan cancellation. There are also other student loan cancellation programs from public student loan forgiveness and public service loan forgiveness to teacher loan forgiveness, disability loan forgiveness, given us certain fraud situations, loan forgiveness, That we've also uploaded information about that I encourage you all to explore and research. And now moving forward, forward, President Biden and the administration, we've been working with them. And after the Supreme Court overturned student loan forgiveness, what we examined and what we sought was to find another way to pursue student loan cancellation that does not

exist

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): conflict with the specific law that the Supreme Court pointed out in their ruling, which is the Heroes Act. We want to cancel it through the Higher Education Act. And so right now, President Biden and the administration, along with ourselves, have been pushing the administration on rulemaking to announce additional loan forgiveness. During that rulemaking period

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): that might take about five. I'd say 10 months or so from around now. And so I do

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): believe that we're going to hear more about student loan forgiveness over the next year or so. But we don't have the specific details from the administration yet. As soon as we get those details from the administration, we will absolutely keep folks updated. To your question, however, these are all federal programs because that is what is under federal jurisdiction. That is what the government is able to do is, especially on the presidential administration level, is able to work. They have jurisdiction. They have control over government. public and publicly subsidized student loans, federal student loans. As for private student loans, that is much more challenging for the president's administration to be able to address because they aren't under federal jurisdiction. Those are private companies. And so as far as those go, that would likely need perhaps some sort of legislative fix or some sort of consumer protection action in terms of being a watchdog on any potential bad actors. And we're happy to go and see what we can find out in terms of options on private loans, which are, again, a bit more challenging to regulate than federal

Speaker 30: loans. Patricia

from

Speaker 26: Parkchester asks, "Why are you against building a border

wall?" -

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): Excellent question. Thank you, Patricia. One of the things that we have seen from the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): data, now border walls have been built, not just under the previous administration, but they've been built for decades, frankly. And what we largely see is that our issue

with these walls

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): is that they are actually not very strong deterrents What they do do is drive a lot of people into the most rural areas who then often pass away or succumb to the elements. This is a humanitarian crisis. And moreover

one of

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): the things that we're seeing is that the largest concerns, the things that people try to avoid most when it comes to building a wall are things like the importation of dangerous substances like fentanyl, for example. But Actually, the vast majority of fentanyl is going through the existing checkpoints and they're being imported by Americans. And so many of the primary issues that people are trying to address with a wall are not actually addressed by a wall. It doesn't actually solve our problems and doesn't solve the problems that people claim that building a wall would solve. Now, what does help are investments

in

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): in science, technology. And what helps the most is an immigration system that does not incentivize people coming by foot. One of the reasons why we are having this issue in the first place is because existing U.S. policy deeply incentivizes a lot of people

Speaker 12: to come by land and to come by

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): foot. And a lot of these people would prefer

to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): and use other modes of transportation and other modes of access. And so I think our primary priority is to have, is to reform our immigration system, update our visa system, and also allow people to apply for asylum and be able to be initially approved

a

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): lot, the way our current system operates is that it forces people to show up at ports of entry in person on land in order to apply. And so we want to be able, of course, to preserve the right to do that. Seeking asylum is a human right. But also we want to expand people's ability to do that as well. And so for me, I think it's just that we can take those resources and use them much more effectively to actually solve the problem. In addition to the fact that there's actually an enormous amount of environmental damage done as well. There are migratory species, there are so many other issues, as well as U.S. citizens who live on the border, their homes. can be damaged. There can be eminent domain issues. People live there. Land crosses there. And these are also people's homes, too. And so even just logistically, financially, it's not a viable solution. It's also extremely

Speaker 12: expensive, requires a huge amount of maintenance, and is often ineffective

Carlos

Speaker 31: from Corona is asking, "Our street vendors are still

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): out of work. "It has been two months since they were out of work "because most of them were displaced by the NYPD. "I would like to know if the government or the city "is working on a solution for our street vendors. "Many of them do not have working papers "to access a regular job. "They're essential for our economy and social environment. "We want a solution because this is not only "affecting their out income, "but also the future of

their

Speaker 21 (higher-pitched voice): children." Thank you so much for this question. It's cuts to a really important issue

Speaker 5: First and foremost, one of the things that we need to do is lean on the city to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): expand the amount of street vendor permits that are allowed. Our city has not increased the level of permits

the level of the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): number of people that we legally allow to operate food businesses or sell things in a sanctioned way in a very, very long, long time. And so the number is extremely low. And that forces a lot of people to operate without licenses that they are qualified to have and that they would be happy to have if they were available

So

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): we have been very supportive of raising the number of licenses, but I actually do have an update specifically around the Corona Plaza situation. We have been working very closely with the street vendors project in addition to the borough president and local elected officials like Assemblywoman Jennifer Gonzalez Rojas, Catalina Cruz and more. And what the borough president stated today or yesterday was that he's going to start really pushing for this in a significant way right now. As some of you may know, there is a NYCFC, the soccer stadium that some folks are trying to build out and will its point. The borough president recently said that he will not authorize that to continue until tomorrow. the city provides a solution for vendors and for Corona Plaza. And so our hope is that that will create enough political pressure to get the city to allow people to be permitted, to operate their business in a way that is sustainable and healthy for everybody in the entire community, Corona Plaza has historically been one of the top culinary destinations in the world. And that is because of our immigrant community. We wanna make sure that people can operate it in a way that is healthy, happy, above board and supports our local families

Thank you

Speaker 32: Congresswoman for your responses. Unfortunately, we've run out

of

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): time. Thank you so much to our constituents for asking these questions

You

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): can always contact our office by calling [phone redacted], Representative Ocasio-Cortez

Thank you so much to

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): our constituents for joining us. Your engagement

is what

Speaker 19 (lower-pitched voice): allows us to continue to fight for you in Congress. I also want to thank our transcribers John Trujillo and Wendy Buer. Thank you to our interpreters Anis Velasquez, Currey, Ruben Martinez, Beth Zarif, and Lisa Dennett. Again, you can always contact our offices

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): by calling [phone redacted]. Have

a good

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): evening, everyone

Thank you

Speaker 33: everyone