Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — November Town Hall

good evening new york 14. my name is mabel cho i am a caseworker and field representative from the office of representative alexandria ocasio-cortez thank you for joining our monthly town hall just a few notes of housekeeping if you are logged onto the zoom platform please use the q a feature to submit your questions when you're asking your question please mention who you are and which neighborhood or city you're from alternatively you can email your questions to aoc.townhall mail.house or call 718-662-5970 our staff is available to support with any technical difficulties our team members will be monitoring the inbox and phone we are also live on congresswoman ocasio-cortez's facebook and youtube channel so please feel free to visit our respective facebook or youtube pages for the live stream closed captioning is being provided by all hands in motion if you click the link in the chat it will take you to a website where you can view the transcription if you require spanish translation please click the languages icon at the bottom of the zoom screen and choose spanish to access the spanish language audio feed please know you may also submit your question in spanish in a few short moments we'll hear an update from congresswoman ocasio-cortez following her remarks we'll open it up for q a from constituents after the q a there will be a press gaggle where members of the press can pose their questions now it is my honor to introduce the representative of new york's congressional 14th district congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez thank you so much mabel um families we're making sure they're trying to get as many languages and accommodations as possible um and for anyone who's trying to instruct or help someone access this town hall in spanish just click on the interpretation button right down here if you're in the zoom and you just click on spanish and it'll take you to the spanish language translation room um that being said thank you all so much uh for joining us here today in our monthly town hall um as we say and as i said at the beginning of last term i pledged to offer a at least once a month town hall to all of our constituents and i'm thrilled that we have been able to keep that promise even during covid and and during the transition to so much uh digital content which we're doing nowadays so thank you all so much for joining us we're extremely excited to be holding this town hall and this town hall is going to be a little bit uh different than our than our other ones uh for those of you who have tuned in to our other town halls they are usually centered on a theme so that we are able to ask questions and really dive into the specifics and the mechanics of each individual issue i still in our office still thoroughly intends to continue that practice as it has been extremely helpful and it's allowed our community to really dive in depth in many different issues but today we are doing a more general and all-encompassing town hall because i'm sure many of you have questions that may not fill in one specific bucket or another and so one of the things that we're taking a look at is is allowing the opportunity here today for you all to be able to ask and and discuss a wider range of issues kind of a a catch-up town hall or a general bucket town hall that we're going to be doing today um so that's what we're going to be uh kind of pursuing one thing that we wanted to do i wanted to start off today with some quick updates and remarks uh on where we're at right now and so i'll move on um to what we have going right here at the present moment with covid it's extremely important that our community is caught up on the current situation here both in new york city and in new york 14 our congressional district and so here is the latest update as many of you may have been seeing and may have seen kovid is in just an absolutely unprecedented resurgence throughout the entire country and sadly new york is no exception there are parts of our district that are now in the now deemed in the yellow zone for increases in covet cases those are primarily jackson heights elmhurst lafrax city and corona so if you are in around that area and even in surrounding areas like woodside i would just say to um to definitely exercise extreme caution in your daily actions and behaviors and frankly this doesn't just apply to our folks in the yellow zone this should apply to our entire district and our entire city and so that means if you are in the yellow zone however if you are in jackson heights elmhurst corona or lafrax city in our district here are the current areas of guidance that are right here on this screen one is uh houses of worship and communities of worship houses of worship now for now may remain open at 50 of maximum capacity again this is yellow zone guidance you may know or um or or may hear different guidance if it transitions to orange or red and there may be other communities that are already in orange or red but this is the guidance for our community houses of worship may remain open at 50 of maximum capacity secondly any gathering in general non-essential gatherings it says here must be limited to 25 people we just got revised guidance today that is actually lowering that so essential gatherings must now be limited to 10 people maximum for both indoor and outdoor settings and any individual who who encourages promotes or organizes mass gatherings may be fined to up to 15 000 per day again this is state guidance that we want to make sure that you all have this is um this is the guidance that's coming straight from the state thirdly all businesses in our yellow zones may remain open but they must follow covet 19 requirements for their specific sector so the same requirements that you saw as we were reopening as small businesses figured out if they were in that phase one phase two etc and you saw those specific requirements for your sector again you must adhere to them um the fourth area is dining and indoor and outdoor dining at the present moment is currently allowed there is a four person maximum per table again this is the state guidance um i would exercise elevated levels of caution personally you know if you can if if you have to dine out i would encourage opting to dine outdoors but again the state guidance is currently this and lastly when it comes to schools at the present moment the guidance today that we have in our office is that all new york city public schools and non-public schools may remain open testing guidance was issued for the state uh last month and um and those protocols should be adhered to and i think what's really important for our community and for all of us to understand is that we are in this together if we do not uh if if we do not pitch in and do our part to contain the virus it will grow out of control and we will find ourselves on the precipice of a potential shutdown situation if we don't do our part and so that is why this guidance is so incredibly important if you can please make sure that you are exercising you know just really increase um increased vigilance make sure that you're distancing don't you know don't get fatigued in your mask wearing please make sure that it covers your nose because if we start to get two lacks in this very very very delicate moment in the city we could end up right back to where we were and we do not want this to happen we want to avoid a shutdown as much as possible but with the virus starting to spin out of control if we don't do our part then we're going to end up back in that place so please take this guidance seriously please get tested regularly if you have any doubt at all please know that your ability to get tested has nothing to do with your current health insurance status if you are uninsured if you are undocumented you can get access to a covid19 test um no questions asked so um secondly you know this is this moves into our second part with our guidance the additional guidance from the state that we have again this is guidance from the state that restaurants bars and other sla license entities must close in-person service from 10 pm to 5 am indoor and outdoor gatherings at private residencies must be limited to 10 people new rules these new rules will be effective this friday um so tomorrow at 10 pm um and again we have to get back if you um you know be mindful of your habits make sure that you're going back and that you've continued or or if you've kind of slacked off a little bit don't worry we won't tell anybody just get back to washing your hands very extensively and rigorously um 20 seconds please avoid touching your eyes nose and mouth if you can if it is available to you please consider getting your flu shot i just got mine in corona at our community health clinic plaza del sol they did a wonderful phenomenal job i can't speak i can't speak highly enough they also do their flu shots outside as well so you do not have to worry about staying indoors but get tested as well if you if you already got your flu shot or if for whatever reason that is not available to you um please make sure that you get tested particularly if you are you know if you feel like you have been exposed or if you have any question or doubt about your exposure get a test and there are plenty of testing options and that you that you can easily look up and again please be as rigorous as possible about wearing masks it is one of the most effective tools that we have but it's only effective if we can get at least 80 percent of our population wearing it properly that means above our nose and covering our mouth so um so that's the guidance that we have here and per the city recommendations you know i just read the state recommendations the city recommendations that we have is overall it's very difficult to say this but if you can please reconsider any potential holiday travel it could very much exacerbate the situation and please make sure that you are planning your holidays safely again keep in mind that guidance for gatherings um we there is no guarantee how long that this gathering cap will last because really you know it depends on how much we all buy into it and the longer it takes for us to all work together and meet that standard uh the longer we're going to have these you know these these safety provisions in place so um i know it's quite difficult a lot of us have been have gone a very long time without seeing family i have gone a very long time without seeing my family but um you know it one of the things one of the ideas that we're doing is that um we are circulating the same recipe and so we've all agreed to cook the same recipe and then share our meal over zoom so we're all eating the same meal um you know i i encourage each and every one of you to get creative and um and to celebrate to indeed make sure that you celebrate um but please do so safely um but yes please find creative ways to socially distant to socially distance through the holidays um and you know i it's um it's a very difficult time for all of us and particularly for those of us who you know have been impacted by by covid deeply in one way or another and and you know very sadly what we're hearing from many many health officials is that frankly the the pandemic has a very very real possibility um towards peaking this winter um more than we have seen ever before in the country and i do not say this or share this to make sure that anybody panics or anything like that but it is to add urgency um to our to you know it's to make sure that we are very urgent about taking safety precautions and going back to um to some of those safety protocols that we were taking before uh please please please take care of yourself take care of any um elders in your life any seniors in your life and please don't take any risks don't take any risks if you can try to be as safe as possible as we you know are experiencing this this national uptick and that is what makes the holiday travel advice come into play and because we are we are starting to see spikes and there are already some parts of the country that have maxed out on their hospital beds and and the more that we travel and the more that we think that we are an exception uh to this the the more trouble we'll be in and the harder it will be for the virus to contain itself so let's not let it get out of control and let's make sure that we are advising that whether you are in a yellow zone community or not please be as safe as possible that being said i think we want to move on to our general q a and so i'm happy to turn it over to mabel to help facilitate some of those questions thank you congresswoman ocasio-cortez for your powerful remarks now we will move on to the q a portion of our town hall as mentioned earlier consist constituents signed on to the zoom platform may submit your questions on the q a feature on our platform so please mention where you're from and what city and neighborhood you are from when you ask the question our members will be our team members will be assisting and answering questions remember you can submit your question in spanish also a reminder to the members of the press that after the q a there will be a press gaggle where you will be able to pose your questions so our our first question uh is from anthony who is a registered nurse living in jackson heights his question is a coven 19 vaccine will be available soon how do you plan to ensure new york's communities that are most at risk for poor health outcomes for example the homeless the incarcerated uninsured immigrant populations receive equitable access to distribution so i want to make one thing very very clear and that is that we are fighting to make sure that the vaccine is free this vaccine should be free to every single american and every single person in our country regardless of your status whether that's your insurance status your immigration status your financial status the only way that a that a tested and vetted and successful vaccine and can actually work is if we are it is if we get as many people um to to partake in it as possible so um i think one of the things that we should really focus on is to use our testing model almost as a model for vaccines um and that means that it is free to any person that um that needs one no questions asked you will be given a test and and it should be the same way with a vaccine and we are working to get that commitment um from as many we're working to to secure that commitment uh when a vaccine is ready and when it is um responsibly uh when it when it is responsibly ready to uh to administer and um and lastly you know when it comes to our frontline communities that have been hardest hit you know i i agree in that we lower both the financial barrier and we should lower the the structural barriers whether it is um the same and again we can we can use testing as a model for this um right now no matter your your history no matter your status you are able to walk into a community health clinic you're able to walk into any number of facilities no questions asked and receive a test and i do believe that we should be modeling our vaccines on that both in terms of of the financial model and the distribution model um so that is uh that is something that i can assure that the house democratic caucus um and and that the house of representatives in general is very very committed in making sure that we have an equitable distribution and one that is not financially out of reach thank you the next question is related for to the affordable care act and it's from james and queens yes what is the current status of the aca with this new justice in the supreme court so so uh right now and i believe uh the argument started two days ago um on november 10th uh hearings and arguments were currently being heard in the supreme court but we do not know what the final ruling is now with the most recent appointment to the supreme court uh if i am not mistaken amy coney barrett is hearing this case um and she will if i'm again if i am not mistaken i have have a vote on this case and so again there is no um there's no telling what uh what may or may not happen but because the arguments are currently being heard right now and we have no additional information at the moment but um this is why it it you know this is why i have long felt so passionately about passing more comprehensive health care legislation and it's why i personally support medicare for all because you know we are we are at such a delicate point with the aca and it very well may be with a 6-3 supreme court if that does not change um that we may have a court that dismantles much of our health care policy and our access to health care in the united states and so that is why we have to make sure that we continue to push and counter on the legislative front to make sure that we pass policy that guarantees health care as a human right to all people in the united states our next question is a census-related question john h prince jr from parkchester asks will there be an opportunity to correct what is perceived to be an undercount in 2021 before they start the redistricting process this is an incredible question so thank you for asking it mr prince um we we have to investigate the actual rollout and execution of the 2020 census and um there's some there there's some good news and some bad news the bad news is that you know and this should be no secret to anyone the trump administration worked very very hard to make the census as difficult as possible for communities like ours they were playing games with this citizenship question which eventually was tossed out but the insistence on it and the messaging around it and the intimidation around it really prompted a lot of our communities to feel that the census was not trustworthy and um and as a consequence many people did not fill out the census um because they were scared that they would be attacked for their status even though uh the citizenship question was able to be tossed out and secondly there were constant changes um in administration of the census uh there were there were transitions to digital questionnaires some communities were being mailed their their paper censuses on a different uh timeline and um and we also had the shortened count period um shortened to october i believe and that's about a month shorter than many people were anticipating so we had a shorter timeline with a more difficult process and a lot of confusion and intimidation about what questions were going to be asked and what would happen if you didn't answer those questions so there are absolutely um plenty of concerns about how the census was administered and the potential for an undercount that's the bad news the good news is that we worked very very hard to overcome a lot of those obstacles and i am you know i'm one thing that i think is um is good is that good news is that the city the state and ourselves here in our community invested over time where the federal government did not and we were actually able to match our 2010 census count um julie menon of the new york city census bureau um reported that successful result i can't help but wonder what our census count would have been if we didn't have those obstacles and also had that enormous investment and so even then you know even with that number being um our reporting number being able to match our reporting number in 2010 um i still believe that that the potential for an undercount is absolutely there given all of those previously stated variables and so um what we are looking into is is how the census was administered and whether it was administered ethically and we are currently going to try to investigate any large-scale or systemic um injustices in the administration of the 2020 census and you know we have to see where that investigation takes us and we have to see where where the facts lie um but there is you know potential i believe as as as a member who sits on the oversight committee uh in the house i believe that that you know there may be a potential if we find something very deep and very systemic uh to see if there's any way that we can make up for those inequities but again we have to let these investigations fare out and see where they go next we have a question from cambrie cruz who is the owner of qed and astoria queens they say my theater art space has been closed since march with zero indication of when we will be able to reopen with no metrics provided meanwhile my full rent utilities annual business license fees etc are all due what can be done to relieve rent for small businesses particularly those businesses which have not been able to reopen in any capacity thank you for your service and representation and of course and um and i'm just i'm just so so incredibly sorry i just want to say that um to start in what uh i mean it's just a terrible situation and um in our city the some of the venues that have been have been rather some of the businesses that have been hit hardest have been our venues um you know restaurants and and many small businesses while we aren't back by any means to a hundred percent or to where things were and at least some of many of our restaurants are able to open with um social distancing standards in place and with outdoor dining but our many of our venues our theaters etc have been completely shut down since since march and um and it's been extremely frustrating in the house trying to champion both rent and mortgage relief to everyone that needs it in the country and allowing it allowing the you know allowing the power of the fed to cover many of those losses and to have um to have that be obstructed and by a republican senate has been has been devastating it's been devastating for not just our community but it's been devastating for the entire country and um and it's just shocking that even even for the most selfish senator who wants to help their own state uh we aren't able you know they they aren't able to find a way to support rent and mortgage uh relief and cancellation and um and so anyways i i think that one of the things that's going to be really important is to make sure that we that we aim for that i do believe that the federal government has the ability to back uh rent relief and mortgage relief for those folks that need it especially for our small landlords that have been also quite challenged with tenants whether they are small landlords for businesses or small landlords for mom and pops um we have to make sure that we cover uh mortgage relief and that we cover rent relief because it is simply unsustainable for um for businesses and individuals to have just a huge balloon payment um due in six or eight months and uh we want even less for for businesses to move out or um or you know vacate especially locally owned ones especially beloved institutions like qed and and so you know one of the things that i can pledge to you is that we're working extremely hard to make sure that we get um a rent relief and essentially a rent and mortgage bailout for both small businesses and um and families in in very desperate need and now with our new president-elect the opportunities for that are are opening up greatly and we will also have to see where where the senate lies as well our next question comes from r.l from pelham gardens the question is can you give us any updates on the stimulus i can't stress enough how much the march stimulus meant to us not only as individuals but as small business operators the trickle up effects can't cannot be stressed enough thank you sorry i'm my seat's falling here um so we've been i have um championed um uh monthly stimulus payments um to folks in the country and everyone that needs it since the pandemic has started um i was really really hoping that we were going to be able to cut a deal before the election and it seemed for a while there that we were on that path on that negotiating path between both um both nancy pelosi and and the current white house to be able to negotiate a second stimulus check um and it it you know we thought it was going to happen and at the very last minute the rug was pulled out from under us and now we are in a very dangerous moment where president trump is has no interest in helping the american people um his urgency behind passing a stimulus uh prior to the election was i would say entirely predicated on on his re-election and um and now that the election is over it seems as though he has no urgency um to help everyone in this country and mitch mcconnell is very much in the same boat um and i hate to be saying these words right now um it is it's unacceptable and so many of our families are in need of this check and i believe that families should be getting monthly monthly checks especially especially working class families especially families um that you know aren't wealthy which is the vast majority of families in our country and um and right now there's just no urgency on the republican side um but before the election mitch mcconnell had indicated that he wouldn't do anything and um and so right now we have one out of our three current bodies that are interested in passing um a second covid relief package it seems as though house democrats are pushing for it we continue to re-vote for secondary stimulus packages that include second third checks and um they they you know it it just doesn't go anywhere in the senate and um and one of the tricky issues in particular is that at least in the negotiating position prior to the election um the only thing that republicans would negotiate it for potentially is to completely waive liability from all corporations and like a large corporate liability waiver now the reason that this is so dangerous is because um this liability waiver is essentially a waiver that will allow big businesses to put workers and allow them to expose covid um to their workers and not face any retribution or lawsuits afterwards and um and that is extremely dangerous um and you know that was an area where the speaker of the house uh had put her foot down um because a 1200 check um you know they're trying to make people choose between their life and um and the present desperate moment that we're all in and it's criminal and it's wrong and and you know it is my hope that um mitch mcconnell is able to find some sort of urgency or desire to make sure that we can get stimulus checks out to everybody but you know if it was up to me and what i have co-sponsored legislation to do is to co-sponsor monthly stimulus checks to working families across the country thank you the next question is congresswoman ocasio-cortez we are counting on you to hold the biden harris administration accountable on bold progressive initiatives including climate change what is your plan of action for doing this the future of the species depend on urgent major action thank you so so much um for your question and thank you for your urgency um because you're right you know i think um even in some of the hubbub going on this week i've had people kind of call in and say hey are you okay you've been really kind of taking it from a party um and what i've kind of been sharing actually is that i feel very centered and at peace because this is what you all sent me to congress to do you all sent me to congress not to just beat up on republicans all day as fun as that can be but you all sent me to congress to hold all our institutions accountable and to hold a lot of the brokenness um of washington to account and that includes the democratic party and um and for two years it has felt as though we haven't been able to hold our own party to account because of the larger looming and existential threat that donald trump presented to our democracy and now we are starting to to shift we have had our election and i think i don't know who expected me to stop working and stop holding people accountable just because democrats are in charge but they were sorely mistaken and um and so to your question how do we hold any administration including this upcoming administration accountable to climate change and what is our plan um as many of you know i am an inside outside organizer and uh perhaps that is why sometimes some folks in the democratic caucus get uh a little upset at the bullhorn that we've developed but that's because we need to have urgent action on climate change um but i do think that we're starting off with very good news one is that um vice rather i shouldn't i can't even say vice president anymore our president-elect um which is wonderful to say our president-elect joe biden invited uh invited me to have a seat at the table this summer as we developed our unity our unity task force policy plans and right there in the task force uh both the president's team and our team agreed to a plan was it entirely his plan to begin with no was it entirely my plan to begin with also no but what we were able to do was expand uh president-elect biden's climate plan by orders of magnitude and we really made it drastically on better and on a scale where we are actually starting to do something um to stem the impacts of climate change and so now we have this agreement um vice president i mean president-elect biden has already agreed to this course of action he has adopted and endorsed this course of action and that is step one and it is a very significant step it means that we have now have agreement on numbers on scale on carbon drawdown goals on plenty of other goals as well including environmental justice goals and now the task that we have is to hold them accountable to this agreement and make sure that uh president-elect biden keeps his word and in terms of how i plan to do that um as some may or may not have seen i have been vocal about the transition of into this administration and we have to make sure that we push for and encourage and um and really you know cheer on and campaign for a cabinet that will allow joe biden to keep his word with these policies that we have all agreed on particularly the ones on climate and so we are very much encouraging those picks uh we are not kind of allowing this to just be a quiet closed door process um but we are advancing our preferences and making our requests known and um and it is extraordinarily important that we do so um this is usually been the period of time where wall street and lobbyists kind of flood the gates and try to come in and back down the door and we cannot allow that to happen again you know in my assessment i think that's a big part of what happened in 2008 um and it it set up for the disappointing wall street bailouts that could have been structured better towards working people and so i would say that if you want to help in that process um then one way that you can help is by also using your voice you know it matters and such a core part of what we have done and what we have said has been about um has been about reassuring you all how important your voice actually is and um sometimes i think your voice is just as important as mine because for you to speak as an everyday citizen of this country and you have nothing to kind of gain you have accept i mean you have nothing to gain except you know a better world and a better community and so um i encourage you to also speak up and use your voice and and and say what you know what you want but right now we are focused on a transition that will appoint individuals that will ensure that vice president-elect biden keeps his word on the unity task force thank you the next question is do you think there will be a peaceful transfer of presidency with the attitude trump is demonstrating well you know this is um this is a huge question and when we talk about peaceful um we have to really break down what that means um and to me i already believe that president trump is already stoking um the flames of violence as he has done um for several years you know we saw we saw even with the with the ballot counts that were happening in philadelphia his rhetoric and his attacks on our institutions and our systems inspired very likely inspired a group of what seems like domestic terrorists to attempt to attack where ballots were being counted in philadelphia and that attack thankfully was um was intercepted and interrupted um by you know by by public servants in our country um but there is no doubt in my mind that he has incited violence and the longer he continues to deny reality the more he is going to disrupt our society and um that's just the fact that's just the fact of the matter um i am extremely extremely disturbed um and concerned by the um by the wave of dismissals that we have seen in and and resignations that we have seen um in defense in the department of homeland security um and frankly just all across the administration it is extremely concerning um we are trying to get as much information as possible um about this wave of dismissals but it is not an encouraging sign and right now the house minority leader kevin mccarthy doesn't seem to want to acknowledge the the results of our of our free elections and it is selfish it is weak it is reprehensible because what all of these individuals are doing by not acknowledging the results of our election is that they are putting their selfish interests once again ahead of our country and it is sad to see how deep um this cowardice goes and that there doesn't seem to be many republicans anywhere that will stand up to president trump on anything and it seems as though they're just waiting until he comes after them to say something and it's quite sad and i think that it is unbecoming um and it is a weakness of character that no person um should have if they seek to serve this country thank you the next uh question is congratulations on winning a second term what are your plans for the next two years for your district thank you thank you and um and i'm so excited to be able to talk about this you know we are um we are really really uh burrowing in on some major areas um that we want to move forward on um what is wonderful is that we've spent the last two years or so drafting many pieces of legislation that now have a fighting chance of being enacted in this upcoming term and so you know to describe some of the work that we've introduced in this term and some of the things that i'm looking forward to us getting a hearing on or having a fighting chance um you know very early on we presented the loan shark prevention act which would cap interest rates from credit cards and other predatory lenders at 15 so essentially making usury illegal in the united states um and uh allowing and really making sure that people just aren't getting um fleeced frankly to an unethical degree with interest rates that are just simply unacceptable and wrong and so our loan shark prevention act that we had introduced caps interest rates at 15 um another piece of legislation that we had introduced was to recalculate the poverty line in the united states and basically to recognize real poverty and what that does is that it will allow a lot more people to access assistance the current poverty line is still based on a formula that takes the minimum caloric requirements of food requirements times three and just take that number and you multiply it by 3 and that is essentially the poverty the calculated poverty line in the united states it does not include the cost of child care it does not include the cost of of modern utilities it does it assumes that you have um it assumes that you have a a a stay-at-home spouse essentially um that not only does full-time child care but also cooks your meals etc um so we have a um so we have that um i'm looking forward to making sure that we expand healthcare a great deal in this country you know president-elect biden does not agree with medicare for all but i do believe that we can work with this administration to at the very least dramatically reduce the enrollment rate um for medicare to make sure that we invest in medicare deeply that we expand um social security that we allow cola the cost of living adjustments to be generous and to be reflective of true costs of living and and that we actually restore the ability for people to get back up on their feet especially now and especially during this time and of course you know i think the most urgent uh matter of business is making sure that our district's priorities are included in any coving package um that comes up especially after a vice president of president-elect biden is um is is seated and so um all of this is is extremely important of course we've got the green new deal on deck and i deeply look forward to making sure that we um that we really truly jump start um yeah that we really truly jump start our um our investments in climate and that includes you know a two trillion dollar climate plan that was agreed to uh by president-elect biden and that includes disproportionate or not disproportionate but includes um includes investments in disproportionately impacted communities which includes ours you know we have east elmhurst and many of our families are that that is absolutely a frontline community many of the emissions that come off from a laguardia airport flow right over that community of east elmhurst many people believe and and um have called it called areas and pockets um cancer alley etc or um cancer boulevard there's so many um kind of euphemisms um throughout the country and it's indicative of how uh how much we have you know we have a toxic uh superfund site um right here you know by by where sunnyside yards is and and i think it's um is it is absolutely imperative that we that we not only decarbonize but that we also really take a look at the communities that are disproportionately impacted and i'm i'm happy to say that we have early uh indications from a biden administration to help to help us address those issues thank you the next question is from ugly from pelham parkway many people are losing their homes or being evicted due to not being able to afford their mortgage or rent because of the virus are there any steps being taken to combat this such as people getting a loan from the government to pay their rents so um if i'm not mistaken me but we currently the eviction order is currently in place here um in in the state of new york correct okay yes so i just want to make sure i know we have these like deadlines that had kind of been extended so the eviction moratorium is still in place in the state of new york so step number one is that if you know someone who is being harassed or whose landlord is trying to evict them know that that is illegal and make sure that you call your city council member that you call our office we'd be happy to connect them um to the appropriate authority but it is not legal to evict in the state of new york right now due to the pandemic and so if you know someone that is that is being subject to that it is um it is it is not legal and it is um and it will not be uh legal i anticipate uh for some time as we enter the winter um and so there is currently an eviction moratorium in place that eviction moratorium has not been lifted and so if there is someone that is trying to subvert or um or push people out in the middle of a pandemic um that must be brought to our attention um because it is not in accordance with the law secondly uh uh in terms of um mortgages you know again i believe that we need to have a mortgage bailout on a federal level um so that people are not contending with these enormous balloon payments um and losing their homes and it it these were issues that we have kind of brought up even in the march cares act um these were extremely important issues and um and we have to make sure because you know frankly this the state does not have the piggy bank to do that the federal government does the federal government does have the power to um protect people from foreclosure and by um by allowing these mortgages to to and taking on a lot of the liability of these missed payments with these mortgages and um i i cannot stress enough and i want you all to know that i will be pounding down the door of both both uh the democratic house and the biden administration to make sure that many of these benefits and many of these things that we are fighting for are also retroactive so it's not just that oh you know we're gonna get something um right now and this is going to be the rule moving forward but that we're going to try to get as much retroactive assistance um because right now what the trump administration did was that it it balanced this pandemic on the backs of you guys they've it's balanced the pandemic on the backs of working people and everyday families and said we're not going to do anything about rents we're not going to do anything about mortgages you all figure it out it is not up to the american people to to figure out how we're going to move through the devastating impacts of a pandemic that is why we have a government and that is why we elect people um like myself or any other representative to figure it out and so i believe that we need to take back a lot of that liability that was put in on working families over the last six seven eight months and and we need to make sure as much of these benefits are as retroactive as possible um and so those are the things that that um we'll be fighting for i do believe that the biden administration um truly takes this pandemic seriously i believe that they understand the severity of not just the medical crisis of the the actual issue of the virus i'm i i am confident that that they don't just see this as a biological issue but that they also see this as one of the most devastating developments and economically and one of the most devastating economic events that we have had since the great depression i anticipate that they will govern as such i can assure you that i will push them to govern as such um because it's not fair it's not right it's completely dehumanizing and it is morally wrong how this government has um has handled this pandemic thank you next is i am a constituent from astoria woodside 11103. anti-semitic hate crimes are rising in new york will you commit to the meetings with jewish groups that were discussed at the beginning of your first term american jews appreciate and support the work you are doing and would feel safer knowing they have your support and representation as part of your progressive active and diverse base thank you of course thank you so so much for this question i'm happy to meet with these organizations you know for context we prioritize um me and i prioritize uh meeting with our constituents and constituents and requests from our district and so um i am happy to say that and i'm proud to say that i have met with jewish organizations and jewish communities throughout our term but those organizations have been from new york's 14th congressional district now with the organizations that said that they have not been able to meet um they were organizations from outside of our district which is why those meetings were deprioritized and in our first term um with just the sim just the volume of requests that we got from our district um i had to put our community first um but that being said um i i can i absolutely am um am looking forward to in my second term meeting with some of those groups just outside of our district including the ones that uh you brought up and um and you know that's the first order of business but the second order uh of business that you have brought up is um is the absolute surge in anti-semitic uh hate crimes um in not just new york city but across the country and it is disgusting it is wrong and it is um just part of a very disturbing increase in hate crimes um that we have seen in this administration and we are going to have to get back to a place of healing and what i mourn is that this kind of hatred as we all know is very easy to to let out of the box um but it is so much more difficult to put back in and so we're going to have to do an extraordinary amount of work um to make sure that we fight back against against anti-semitism along with many other hate crimes and surges and hate crimes that we've been seeing but particularly what we've seen throughout the city and and uh with with anti-semitism in particular and so um so i i i know that um you know that and i i hope you all consider me a partner in that um i'm i'm actually um meeting with some some more jewish leaders in our community tomorrow actually um and i'm greatly looking forward uh looking forward to that um and we'll also we also are um celebrating the 100th anniversary of the um jackson heights jewish community center um right here and so we're we're actually um uh going to be i'm going to be reading a congressional commendation um in the center's honor uh i believe in in just a few weeks or perhaps just a few days uh when we reconvene and so i'm deeply looking forward to reading that commendation in in into the congressional record and taking some of those initial steps to make sure that we build our community and are there for our our jewish neighbors and family the next question is from shane who lives in woodside queens yes does president-elect biden have a plan to help the children separated from their families at the border thanks for everything you do so um thank you for this question um and i can also tell you as um as your member of congress um that sits on the oversight committee of the um of the house of representatives that we and i will not stop working until we get justice for each and every one of those children and these families um we are committed to reuniting every single family that we can um but i will not say that it is going to be easy um and i cannot promise that it will be easy i cannot promise that it will be simple but i can promise that we will um that we are going to do absolutely everything in our power in our capacity to reunite these kids the trump administration not only to to communicate how severe this problem is the trump administration not only separated these children but ice and cbp in many cases did not accurately document their parents when they separated them and ice and cbp did not accurately preserve the records um of every single one of these parents after they separated them from their children and ice and cbp deported a lot of these children's parents while keeping their children here and in what i believe is state-sanctioned kidnapping and um i also believe that child separation at our border will be remembered as one of the most heinous heinous acts of any administration that we have seen in modern history it was a large mass scale human rights violation and the destruction and the potential destruction of records makes it even more heinous i think about these kids a lot and um you know as many of you know i i went to the border last year i was in these facilities myself and um the trauma that went on is unspeakable and the conditions that these people were held in are unthinkable and the violence that they were subjected to is um un-american and um the thing about justice in this situation is that we can't just reunite these kids we have to do as much as we can to try to repair harm done and i think that is also going to require us perhaps um creating an an expedited path to citizenship for these families or perhaps um we have to consider guaranteeing health care um to these families at least to them to start after the enormous amount of trauma and psychological damage um and and physical damage i mean this administration it we are starting to see early we we already have whistleblowing reports that they performed non-consensual hysterectomies on women um and so justice is uh going to be a struggle because how do you make that right how do you make that right and you can't you can't make that right um but we can do everything that we can to try and to get close and i can promise each and every one of you all especially as a member that sits on a committee of jurisdiction should i be re-granted that committee which i hope i will that committee of jurisdiction moving forward that i will not let this go thank you next is i'm in your district in east elmhurst and i have a general question about the house and why did we lose so many seats and what needs to be done to get them back next term so you know of course the loss of the house majority is just extraordinarily upsetting to all of us um it's upsetting to all of us who who are invested in having a democratic majority so that we can expand health care so that we can raise wages so that we can um protect working people um and it's also personally very difficult um because to lose these people you know many of them are my colleagues and i'm proud to call many of them my friends and the idea that they may not be returning next term is very or that they aren't uh returning next term is extremely difficult um both just a personal and a policy and a political level um why did we lose these seats it's very early to tell um and i usually i i don't think that there's any one reason why um any person loses an election i usually tend to think that it's um compounding reasons unless of course that member you know if there's some scandal or revelation but usually it's not any one reason why um why given candidate loses an election um and so i can't say this is why or that is why but i at least think that we can point to um to some contributing factors and again we won't know for sure until we have a lot more data in until um the results are not only certified but studied and and you know many of those results are are in the process of certification but they have not been studied and and so all of that is just a a disclaimer to say that this is not the end all or be all um but i have some thoughts that i've shared over the last week um to consternation but um listen the fact of the matter is if we don't get better we're not going to get better and and getting better requires honest and blunt assessment if we're not honest with ourselves about our failings then how can we correct them and so um you know in my opinion there are very tangible ways in which the democratic party can be better and i think a lot of that has to do with our organizing and i believe frankly that our community is a model for the country and people may roll their eyes and they may say oh those are just a bunch of liberals in a deep blue district they have nothing to offer um anybody else but i disagree first of all i think that there is a deep misunderstanding of our community in our district um prior to my election many people from our from you know previous representation many people would have thought that our district was highly moderate um and that it was much more conservative than what it actually was based on how um you know you know previous administrations and previous seats had but our community is a community of organizers and and it's not like this granola hippie college town as you all know we don't have a college in our district and i think perhaps because of my age people think that i represent i don't know a college town or or uc berkeley or something but um but we know that queens and the bronx are intensely working class hard-working um diverse communities and a lot of the work that has to be done has to be on championing our policy and having a clear message and not running away um from who we are and what we believe in and every member in every district is very different um even you know people also lose different races for different reasons um but i do think that we can be much much better um in our messaging in our mechanisms in who we invest in and uh really looking at how we even run these campaigns because as many of you know there are some campaigns that are excellently executed and other campaigns that aren't and um and i think we have a lot of room for growth there thank you so next we have our last question uh and congresswoman may you also offer some closing remarks so that we can end this part of the program so the next question is from lauren and she's 14 years old she asks many people have different definition when it comes to defunding the police what is your opinion and plan on that matter thank you for all your work and the hope you give me for the future thank you so so much for asking this question and um i'm always so thrilled when we have young people joining our town halls um so here's what i think um first of all you know it's important for us to understand where these decisions are made right and so there's much to be made about how defunding the police has been an electoral issue but defunding the police is not up to congress defunding the police is up to city and states city governments and states and so you know even when we talk about defunding the police being a campaign issue in congressional races it also means that there was a very fundamental lack of political education that had gone on but to answer your question what i think it means to me is that i believe that the path towards justice is a long arc and that it happens in steps and i believe that this call for me personally is a step to build a world where we are safe in more than one way and that safety is not just um an officer with a badge and a gun but that safety is also a mental health worker that shows up when you're in crisis safety is making sure that you are not evicted from your apartment um in the middle of a pandemic safety is making sure that when you go to school you have all the resources that you need and that the school down the block has all the resources that they need to [Music] so that we don't start to develop coping mechanisms that ultimately hurt our communities at large and so what does defund mean to me um and for me as an elected official by the way this term is about this whole conversation is about me listening so this term defund when my constituents and my community is out in the street heartbroken over far too many people who have been killed um due to police violence and when my community is coming out and saying and demanding this it's my job to listen and so what i think in this term and in terms of the steps that we have to make towards justice is that we need to invest a lot more in those other kinds of safety um because and again this is a city issue but it is one that that i'm i'm free to be honest in my opinions about although i don't have a vote over um is that our our budget is too high we have a six billion dollar nypd budget that goes up to 11 billion dollars when you include other other you know nypd related expenses and that is more than our city spends on housing health care and one other critically important issue combined and and i think that it is becoming a bit sometimes these investments get to a point where they become a self-fulfilling prophecy where you know not even three years ago did we have a six billion dollar police budget not even five years ago did we have a six billion dollar police budget and um and i have to admit that it's quite saddening that in this national conversation um it seems as though to many people and so the way this conversation is playing out is that defunding schools has become more has been seen as a matter of course but defunding the police in order to fund other um other areas is you know is has people going apoplectic um i think this is right now in this in its current step of justice i think that this is about a budgetary shift um and that budgetary shift was presented um and we have not made that shift yet and we need to make that shift we need to have counselors instead of cops um you know in having such a heavy presence in some of our schools so that our kids and our young people just get just get used to being policed from a very very young age um and i don't think that that's healthy and this is not to say or disparage the work and the community building work and the changes that many people have made in our efforts towards public safety but i think it is to say that we need to stop being so reactive to the cries that we are hearing from the communities that are being killed and we have to listen to it and um and we don't have control you know it's not my job to control activists um it's my job to listen to the community and that is that is the current interpretation of what um of what i've i've heard um and how those those policy demands have been solidified and um and i will continue to listen to our community um at because i'm sure that um i'm sure that that conversation will evolve as all conversations do over time uh we would like to offer one correction and that is related to the eviction moratorium note that the state's tenant safe paper act and it's only limited to residential tenants if they are suffering financial hardship during the covet 19 public health emergency please see the chat box below for links to resources for tenants okay so uh next we're moving on to the press gaggle if you're a reporter and you would like to ask questions please click on the q a icon at the bottom of the screen and state your name and outlet in the question field reporters who are selected will be unmuted so they can ask the question to the congresswoman directly thank you so we have um aaron durkin who would like to ask a question there can you hear me yeah okay great um i'm just wondering um as you know uh max rose uh conceded today so uh nicole mellitakis uh will be joining the delegation as the only republican in the city delegation um you know she she focused a bit of her campaign on going after you i'm just wondering you know what you what impact do you think her win is going to have in the delegation have you spoken to her at all and sort of what's your reaction to her winning um i i have not yet spoken to her you know and i think um i'll be remiss if i if i didn't honor max rose's service in congress just he was just an incredible colleague and he and i drove each other crazy but we were also good friends um so i just kind of start off with that um you know i'm i'm not sure you know she's um if she made a big deal about me i certainly didn't hear it so i'm sure that wasn't uh you know something that she did in her community or her district um i wish her well uh next we have bridget bolman with roll call there you go hello thank you very much um congresswoman i wanted to follow up on the question earlier in the town hall about democrats losing house seats um you mentioned there's more the party can do on organizing and i was curious if you've talked to any of the d-trip chair candidates about this if you've decided who you're going to support for tea trip chair and if you have had any conversations about how the party can organize better moving forward um you know i i i have had um some conversations with some of those folks that are interested in um taking over uh d-trip um and uh one one candidate um coming right here from our state sean patrick maloney um so i've i've had some very early conversations um i am encouraged um that there has been some interest um since i've you know communicated some of those weaknesses that i've seen and so you know i think in a shift for the caucus um there's some listening going on which i think is very encouraging um i have not um i have not formally supported uh any candidate yet but um but i am encouraged in that in that overall shift thank you sorry just to follow up on that really quickly um you said you had some conversations have you talked to both congressman cardin us and congressman maloney about this i've i've talked to congressman maloney on a one-on-one level and i was on a congressional hispanic caucus call where as a caucus congressman cardenas also had a conversation and we kind of addressed each other's concerns next we have hunter walker with yahoo hey congresswoman how are you thanks thanks so much for doing the gaggle this is my first zoom gaggle welcome i saw last night you had tweeted um about the news about ron clayne and you said it was quote good news and then encouraging choice that he was uh you know tapped to be biden's chief of staff um i'm wondering what what makes you feel that way what do you find encouraging about him um and then also do you have any insight um into who they might name as a climate czar and who you might like to see in that position yeah um well you know i think one of the reasons why it's encouraging is you know and i'll i will be very frank in my analysis per usual and we'll see if this gets me in trouble but i don't know um but i think for folks my age in particular that came of age um during the obama administration my very first vote that i ever cast was for barack obama i was 18 years old and i think what many how many young people experience that moment as is you know this incredibly inspiring um movement that it took to elect um president obama and um and i think what had happened was that there was this very quick shift after a successful election which was this huge dumping of cold water which happened during that transition period and and there very much tends to be a tension between corporate and lobbyist influence and um and grassroots leadership and also just kind of straightforward um less influence you know less wall street influenced um selections and i think we saw kind of an era where a lot of um folks who worked in administration's past and folks from you know citibank and wall street kind of flooded uh the transition period and i think for a lot of people our age we saw how much that limited um the political imagination and possibilities of um of an administration that we had voted for for the political administration uh imagination and possibility and so i think um the reason why ronald klein is such an encouraging pick is that a lot of people who are dealing and very scared from having seen that happen once is scared of it happening again and and there is a tension as there is with every administration by the way regardless of party um between these more wall street lobbyist-driven picks and more grounded in experience not just grassroots or progressive picks even but but picks that are less colored by the influence of wall street and so i believe that ronald claim is a pick um that is encouraging because um i don't i i think that he is extraordinarily competent and he led our country through the oh from the through the ebola crisis and he has led through many different political crises he is um he is not an an ideologue um which is not to say you know it's not to say that he's he's an ideologue in either in either end but i think that people are encouraged because i think um he'll listen like in in an authentic way and that is a quality that runs pretty short um in washington and to have a listener and to have someone whose case you feel will be authentically heard is very encouraging um to many people and i think that's also why he was such a profoundly unifying pick and you had folks across the spectrum um finding that pick encouraging um as for a a kind of a climate pick um we you know we're still you know i i don't have um a particular name in mind but i think there have been some grassroots organizations that have put forward some really great names on climate um you know i i i think there's there's quite a few um and um and i do believe that uh president-elect biden um it takes this issue very seriously and um and i'm i'm looking forward to kind of working among some of those very qualified names put forward thanks very much of course so the last question to wrap up the press gaggle is from alexander navarian from yahoo thank you congresswoman um i just i want to get your sense of the influence of wall street and how destructive that could be potentially for the biden administration because there have there are a lot of big tech and big law folks on those transition teams and i just wonder how concerning that is to you at this point um about big tech or or yeah like big tech and big law having people on those transitions i've been talking to justice dems today and others and you know they're concerned that agencies like omb yeah um could be really kind of taken over by those and um i don't have to tell you how important they are yeah yeah well you know i i absolutely think that there are some that there are large concerns um i'm very concerned about the role that uber executives would play um in this administration after we saw what happened in california with prop 22 um and you know not all big tech and not all of these tech figures are the same but what i am going to be looking for and what i am concerned about are picks from big tech that will pose an incredible incredibly damaging role in labor rights and and impact on labor our district here new york 14 we are a district of cab drivers which includes yellow cab medallion drivers and app drivers and you know these app companies have made very public that they want to roll back um the labor protections that they successfully did in california and bring that nationwide so i'm very concerned about that with respect to labor i am extremely concerned about the influence of big tech in antitrust um and the and the administration's positioning with antitrust because many of our problems that we have right now is because we have monopolies we have monopolies and um and there's a huge effort from big tech to just try to pull the wool over our eyes and um and make it seem as though they aren't a monopoly but many of them are and many of them are engaged in um in in behavior that i think should absolutely be subject to um to antitrust uh action and um i am extraordinarily concerned about uh a potential damaging role that they could play to working people but there aren't any specific picks yet i haven't you know dug into this um super closely yet so um that's but that is something i will be keeping an eye out for thank you so much congresswoman for your insight tonight and uh this wraps up our program thank you everyone at home for spending time with us tonight and i wish everyone a happy and safe thanksgiving thank you see you all next mon