Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — November 2023 Telephone Town Hall

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Speaker 1: you. welcome to tonight's interactive Telephone Town Hall

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. My name is Tim Andrews, your moderator, and during this call, we'll be taking questions live from constituents like you. If you'd like to ask a question, simply press *3 now to *3. You may also sign up for our newsletter by pressing *6

at

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): any time during the call but again this is an interactive telephone town hall if you'd like to ask a question simply press star three to ask your question or again star six if you'd like to subscribe to our newsletter also you can participate in today's event in spanish by pressing star zero on your telephone keypad right now with that i will turn it over to congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez

Speaker 3: congresswoman

Of

Speaker 4: course, thank you so so much and thank you for joining us here today. We're just very excited to be able

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): to host this town hall with all of you. In case you haven't noticed, especially if you're dialing in from home, we're doing a little bit of a new format today in an attempt to try to reach even more constituents. So we're doing a new tele town hall format and you know also feel free to let us know how that works out for you all as well back home so we're very excited about all of that and we thank you very very much for joining us here tonight and so this is our november town hall we're very excited once again to be connecting with each and every one of you and as always our monthly town halls

Speaker 6: are an opportunity for our constituents to be able to ask questions uh be able to directly access their member of congress and to have their voices

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): heard uh you know since we've last spoke and since we've had our last town hall a lot has transpired both both domestically in our city and around the world our last town hall occurred shortly before the horrifying events of october 7th and everything that and every day that has transpired since um and i want to make sure that we create you know some space for that and to also provide you an update on a lot of what i've been working on and what our team here has been working on as

well As we

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): all know, on October 7th, there was a horrific attack that Hamas had committed in Israel that

Speaker 6: targeted over 12,000 victims in Israel. Over 80% of those victims were innocent civilians. that were targeted, children, elderly people, innocent folks. And that precipitated additionally an enormous response by the Israeli government as well, where we have seen, in addition to the 1,200 lives lost and taken by Hamas on October 7th, We have also seen over 14,800

people

Speaker 6: Palestinian lives taken in the Gaza Strip due to the

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): massive bombardment campaign that has occurred since. Now, in terms of our position and what I, you know, how

our

Speaker 6: representation has engaged in this matter, immediately on October 7th, not only did we issue

a a

Speaker 6: condemnation of the hamas attacks but we've also called for an immediate bilateral ceasefire i was one of the original um co-sponsors of the ceasefire resolution in the u.s house of representatives calling for an end to both the bombardment and the release of hostages and what we have seen most recently is a hostage deal begin to be enacted

um

Speaker 6: Around two, you know, just over this weekend where we started to see a temporary ceasefire deal in exchange for hostages. And today we saw the release of several hostages by both Hamas and the Israeli government. Mostly women and children have been released by Hamas and young teenagers have been released by the Israeli government. Young Palestinian teenagers have been released by the Israeli government. Where our position is right now is that we want to advocate for the continuation of this ceasefire. I want to be very clear that

Speaker 7: that war crimes do not justify or constitute further war crimes

Speaker 6: And what we have seen has been just an enormous amount of bloodshed. And that is just simply the human toll of this is unacceptable. And we have continued to maintain that position, advance that position as we work to try to find a diplomatic solution to

what we

Speaker 6: all know to be an extraordinarily intractable and difficult situation. And so that is currently where we have

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): engaged. I have also engaged in asking questions around the deployment

of

Speaker 6: white phosphorus in Gaza. I have met with the families of Israeli hostages and advocated for their police. I've also borne witness myself to footage of both the Hamas attacks as well as many of the Palestinian lives that have been taken in this horrendous outbreak, most recent outbreak of violence. And

I

Speaker 6: think what is most important for all of us to really make sure that we center is the human toll and the human cost. There is no justification and there will never be justification for the targeting of innocent civilians. To me, that is a bright line. And it is one that I think is completely unjustifiable. And when we see this cost, when we see the human cost of what happened in the Hamas attacks, when we see the extraordinary human toll of this indiscriminate bombing campaign in Gaza, we must be able to see that this situation is unsustainable. And there is no clear solution that this violence leads to. And I think it's important for us to deeply understand that. And so

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): that is kind of where we are there. That is the latest development in that situation. And of course, if you have questions and if you have questions pertaining to that, feel free once again to follow up on that instruction, star three will help you get in line with that. So that's kind of one of the first major developments. Secondly, one of the other major developments since we've last spoken has been this continued

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): threat of a government shutdown, which we have been able to successfully

Speaker 6: avert twice, which, you know, I'm very happy to be able to announce some of that news. We had the

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): initial threat of a government shutdown back, I believe in September and then or in October. it's all kind of blending together at this point, I believe in September. And we were able to avert and file kind of a 30-day extension. If you all continue to hear about is the government going to shut down or not, one

of the

Speaker 6: reasons for that is because the current Republican majority keeps issuing these very small extensions

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): of funding that are quite short. And so that first extension was about

you

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): know 30 days a little bit longer than 30 days and that got us to November 17th or so and then that extension

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): on November 17th we were able to

Speaker 6: then file another government extension shortly before that date that takes us to January so we will

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): be encountering this issue once again in January this is something

that

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): we of course are and that i of course uh take very seriously we have thousands of federal workers in our community and these are folks that

Speaker 6: make everyday wages just like anybody else um we can't you know most of us are living paycheck to paycheck and the idea of missing a paycheck it means missing a car payment it means missing rent a mortgage whatever that may be and it's just not fair, it's not right for everyday people to get caught up in the political football of a government shutdown. And we've made that very, very clear to our Republican counterparts. And our hope is that we

will be

Speaker 6: able to secure some kind of

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): extension again in January. But we are okay through that time, through that season. And of course, come January, you will be hearing latest updates on that from us

Speaker 6: Again

And

Speaker 6: lastly, you know, one of the other major things that we want to be talking about is affordability. Of course, not just housing affordability, inflation, and making sure that we can support everyday people making ends meet. And to that end, we have been supporting as much as possible and advocating as much as possible for policies that can help stem inflation from going after a lot of corporate profiteering and a lot of that greed where folks are simply just driving

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): up the prices of goods, not because they have to, but because they want to

And

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): it

Speaker 6: passed their bottom line to also making sure that we're continuing to advocate for housing policies, both in the city and nationally, that can not only improve our public housing stock, but also release a lot of the warehoused housing that we are seeing in New York City. uh to add to our housing stock as well as allowing uh for more housing to be added to our market generally that is actually affordable to everyday working

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): class people um and so that's kind of a quick overview in terms of what we've got going on there um and to that end i think we can open it up to questions again uh feel free to hit

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): star three um to ask a question and we can kick off our town hall and i'm happy to take

and

Speaker 9 (higher-pitched voice): answer whatever inquiries you may have

thank you congresswoman

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): for that update and again this is an interactive telephone town hall star three if you'd like to ask a question live and remember you can press star six if you'd like to subscribe to our newsletter again that's star six uh we do have a couple of poll questions for you this evening and we'd like to start uh with our first poll question before we go to our first caller the first poll question do you support a bilateral ceasefire between

a

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): Israel and Hamas? Simply press one for yes, press two for no. Do you support a bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Hamas? Press one for yes, press two for no, and thanks so much for participating. Let's go to the Bronx. We have Josh on the line who pressed star three. Hi

Speaker 10: Josh. Thank you for calling in this evening. You're live with the Congresswoman. Hi

Josh. Can you hear us

Speaker 10: okay

Speaker 11: Yep. Can you hear me

Yes, sir. Go

Speaker 10: right ahead. Thank you

Okay

Speaker 11: perfect. Hi, Congresswoman. Can you hear me

Yeah, I can

Speaker 12: hear you. How's it going? Okay

Speaker 11: perfect. I'm good

How are

Speaker 11: you? I'm

good

Speaker 12: Thank you

I just wanted to make

Speaker 13 (lower-pitched voice): this quick, so I'm sure you have a lot

to get

Speaker 13 (lower-pitched voice): to, but I

wanted to

Speaker 13 (lower-pitched voice): know, what is the U.S. doing in terms of, honestly, I think the only way to fix the issue with

what's happening

Speaker 13 (lower-pitched voice): in Gaza, with Hamas, with Israel and everything like that

We

Speaker 13 (lower-pitched voice): have to defund

Speaker 14: Israel and send funding and aid to Gaza. There's no other way around that

We're funding

Speaker 15: a

Speaker 14: genocide, and I'm not okay with that

Speaker 16: Yeah. No, I mean, I completely, completely understand your

Speaker 6: concern. And in fact, one of the things that I've been raising continually is that The nature of USAID to Israel and how unique it has been and the way that it, in my view, has potentially added to the unreal human costs of what we're seeing in Gaza

The

Speaker 6: United States does not condition its aid to Israel and not in the way that it does to nearly anyone in order to stop that aid or in order to make a second guess that aid. We are really risking writing a blank check for atrocity

And I

Speaker 6: do not believe that that is a responsible policy. We actually have laws. U.S

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): domestic laws that we must adhere to known as Leahy laws. And

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): what Leahy laws say, these are laws that are currently in the books in the United States, is saying that recipients, forces that are recipients of U.S. military aid

Speaker 6: cannot be engaging in gross human rights violations and if they are engaged in gross human rights violations then they then that aid must be either pulled reconsidered conditioned etc now in my view and i think in the view of many people uh in our community uh and i want to take a moment to also say that thousands of you all Thousands of constituents, confirmed constituents, have been calling into my office

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): calling for a ceasefire, calling for the conditioning of aid

So it's not

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): just my view, but this is also the view of our community, is that what we are witnessing

Speaker 6: is the gross violation of human rights in Gaza. And that is being done with U.S. military assistance

And so I

Speaker 6: think the point that you are raising is

is

Speaker 6: an important one. You know, to that end, I've been advocating very heavily for the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): conditioning of U.S. aid on human rights grounds. And the good news of that is that I do believe that that view is

Speaker 6: starting to gain traction and gain momentum. In recent weeks, we have seen discussions from members of the United States Senate. The Senate is generally a much

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): more conservative body and by conservative I mean slow-moving doesn't change positions very easily

We

Speaker 6: have seen a shift in advocacy from the United States Senate, as well as House members really starting to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): break the dam on this conversation around conditioning. And I cannot understate how significant that shift is. This has never really happened before. It's quite unprecedented in U.S. history for there to be any sort of conversation around conditioning for the protection of human rights

Speaker 6: when it comes to military aid to the Israeli government. And I think it marks an important shift. I also want to say that I think that

this is a view

Speaker 6: view that, you know, is often tried to be painted as extreme, but I don't think that it is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): I don't think that the American people want to see our public resources going to finance gross human rights violations. To be clear

Speaker 6: some of the latest estimates that we have seen, as I said at the top, is over 14,000 to 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in just about seven weeks. But when we look at at some of the latest estimates that have been released around the number of Hamas that may have been killed, we're only looking at perhaps one to 2,000. And so when we look at that ratio of innocent civilians killed

to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): combatants, it to me is patently unacceptable. And, you know, there are decisions that

the

Speaker 6: Israeli government has

you

Speaker 6: know, that they make as in their own sovereign body, but there are decisions that we as a country, as our own sovereign body must make. And to me, the responsible and rather the deployment

Speaker 6: how U.S. resources are being deployed is a very important element to this question and it is one that we plan to continue to raise in advance and we thank you. I thank you for raising it as well

Speaker 18: Congresswoman, on that

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): subject, of course, our first poll was around that issue as well. And the question was, do you support a bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Hamas? And 87% of your constituents do support that. 13% did not support that. Again, if you have a question this evening, you would like to ask the Congresswoman, simply press star 3. Okay. your telephone keypad and again if you'd like to join up for our newsletter simply press star six let's go to kelso and corona hi kelso thank you for holding you're live with the congresswoman

hello how you

Speaker 19: doing finally get to meet you my name is also it's a soft seat so yeah it's possible if i could squeeze two questions in and i know it's you know i'm but um the first one is is uh what's happened

Speaker 21: to dapa daca dreamers

what

Speaker 21: happened uh it was like the people who were abandoned ever since you know obama and mixed families are affected by you know uh you know not having one person not having status and the other ones having status is a it's a big mess the immigration

Speaker 22: system yes no i mean

Speaker 21: yeah no go ahead and the second question was about the labor the transport workers union local 100 and management working together

and

Speaker 21: corruption within the unions? Why

Speaker 23: can the workers be represented? Those are my two points. Okay, thank you. Thank

Speaker 9 (higher-pitched voice): you. Thank you so much, Kelso, for your questions. Really

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): appreciate it. You know, first at the top, you know, DACA and DAPA, when it comes to these issues, this is something that we continue to be pushing on. Our, you know, we have been continually advocating for not just the extension, but the

expansion

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): of DACA. We also have, we also, of course, have, I've also been pushing just for the full passage

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): of the DREAM Act in Congress. It is absolutely unacceptable that the DREAM

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): Act has been allowed to just squander in Congress. This was something that was introduced earlier

I

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): mean, over 20 years ago, and

Speaker 6: we have to be making sure that we're doing right by so many of

our

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): DACA recipients right now. I believe that currently the status of it is that as we advocate

for

Speaker 6: that expansion, that extension of DACA, there are court challenges that Republicans continue to mount against the DACA program

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): that, you know, are preventing and holding up the Biden administration from being able to do more. I can make sure that we get some more answers from our legislative team on some of the latest updates with respect to those core challenges and when we can hear back from them. I'm not sure if the current, I'm just trying to check here, I'm not sure if the current

If

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): DACA is going to be

Speaker 6: heard in the current round of Supreme Court cases, I need to make sure that

I have

Speaker 6: the latest data on that. If so, then we would hear about it from potentially around June of next year at the latest

But if

Speaker 6: they're not in this latest round that's working its way through the courts, then DACA. we want really want to make sure that we get some of those latest updates for you but this is definitely a top top issue for us and we're happy to continue to send you some additional information around that but i mean it's

it's It's

Speaker 6: awful what is happening in our community because of this. And it's not okay that so many DACA recipients are just hanging in the balance. Mixed status families are hanging in the balance

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): And we really want to make sure that we advocate

that

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): because to

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): just have all of this hanging in a court balance is just not it we can't live our lives like that people need

to be

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): able to work

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): jobs they need to be able to have a path to citizenship and once we're able to extend DACA at the end of the day DACA is still a band-aid this has to be enacted in law and immigration has not

You

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): know, I've been very disappointed about what has happened with immigration and that's why it's really important that, you know, that even when we talk on a party to party level, that we are electing and that we are making sure that we have Democrats that are strong champions on immigration because, listen, we've had Democratic majorities and you still have members of the Senate that won't pass certain things. You have our filibuster in the Senate that prevents things. We were able to pass the Dream and Promise Act in the House when we had the majority, but it wasn't. It

Speaker 6: just stalls in the Senate because of the filibuster, because what we've known is the 60 vote rule that a lot of Democratic senators don't want to change. And if we don't change the filibuster, we're not going to get

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): change. We're not going to get changes in immigration, in DACA and DREAM. We're also not going to get changes in in abortion rights, in civil rights and voting rights. We have to make sure that we

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): eliminate the filibuster. if we're going to have any hope at changing this. But in the short term, we really

want to

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): make sure that we continue to push the Biden administration once this court challenge gets suspended or once we get resolution on this court challenge that we continue to push President Biden on aggressive action for DACA recipients. I know it's not the best answer because we want to be able to have something much more concrete. Right now, it's tied up in the courts, but we'll be sure to continue to include in our newsletters any progress

Speaker 6: that we have on that issue. So that's on the first question. On your second question with the Transit Workers Union, you know, I think one of the things that we're

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): seeing right now is a real change. change in how rank and file are engaging in their unions. And I can't, you know, I can't speak to every single union individually, but what I can say is that we've got, you know, really amazing union movements that are

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): happening right now, where rank and file are really starting to transform and organize their unions from within. We just saw what happened with UAW, for example, the United Auto Workers just secured absolutely record, unbelievable historic contracts for their workers

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): We're talking about pay increases of 33% and other major accomplishments with their benefits. That happened. We had

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): that. We also had UPS that had amazing advances during the summer. That happened because rank and file movements within those unions have really transformed

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): engage their unions themselves and so I really think that we're starting to see this happen and more unions we're starting to see some of these more rank and file organizing happening even you know with teachers unions with nurses unions and and again you know union leadership that comes up to union elections

I

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): have to respect that boundary, but I also want to really encourage folks that are in a union that, you know, feel like, you know, that feel like they want to be more involved and see changes to press for that. Because what we're seeing in and to engage, you know, to engage in their unions, because what we saw with UAW and what we saw with UPS was a direct result of that rank and file really. starting to dive into their unions and support, you know, and these getting engaged in these elections. We have UAW President Sean Fein, UPS President Sean O'Brien, the Shans as they're called. They are new leadership elected by a new movement of rank and file, really starting to engage in their unions. And they felt that pressure uh to deliver on historic record-breaking contracts because of this new resurgence uh of of their rank and file saying you know we want more and so i would just say you know for anyone that feels that way to

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): engage that way politically

you

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): know, with your elected officials, but also in your unions or in your tenant association or really in any kind

Speaker 9 (higher-pitched voice): of democratic institution that you're a part of where you get to elect your leadership to really engage and to talk to your other

your

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): fellow rank and file, your fellow tenants, your fellow, you know, residents and say, hey, how can we help support and advocate for the

Speaker 24: changes that we want here

If you'd like

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): to join in this evening and ask a question of the Congresswoman, simply press *3 on your telephone keypad and *6 will get you signed up for our newsletter. We appreciate your participation this evening. Our next call

Speaker 25: Congresswoman, comes from the Bronx. We have Jerrell on the line. Hi, Jerrell. Thank you

for holding. Hello

Speaker 26: How are you

I'm well

Speaker 27: How are you, Jerrell

I'm

Speaker 28: fine, AOC. Thank you for

taking my

Speaker 28: call. I just have a quick question

I

Speaker 28: would like to know, is there any chance

in the

Speaker 29: near future that Congress or the Senate or the House, the houses of Congress, are they working on a agreement

so we can

Speaker 29: stop having this debt ceiling conversation every couple months to a year

Yeah, okay

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): so this is an excellent, excellent question. Um, you know, I think

there's

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): something that's in the balance here. Here's what I can say. Is that conversation happening? Yes. Um, and however, I want to also be clear about some

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): of the incentives that are, that keep making this happen. Um, and not to get into the tip for tat here or anything like that, but I do think it's important to say that this is something that is very unique. to Republican majorities in the house specifically, this is actually a house problem. So when you say Congress, the Senate, or the house, one of the things that I think is important for to kind of lay down is that this

is an

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): issue that is mostly in originates in the house. And that is because all of the major spending bills originate in the house. And so the House tends to be kind of the first, the square one or the square zero for this. Now, the reason that we do see this kind of get weaponized is because when and why we mostly see Republicans weaponize this, and again, I'm not saying this to score points, but for some data here, Virtually every government shutdown in the last 30 years has happened when Republicans have taken over the House. And it's because they use the threat of this as leverage to try to extract concessions from the president at a given point in time. And so we saw that happen with the debt limit earlier this year. Now, when Democrats are in charge, even listen, even when Trump was president, when Democrats had the House, we never held the debt limit

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): hostage because it's wrong. It's a it's the wrong thing to do. It hurts people and it hurts our whole

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): country. It threatens the entire U.S. economy. It doesn't matter if you're red or blue or purple or whatever

It

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): hurts everybody

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): to hold the debt limit hostage. It hurts the entire country. It hurts everybody when we hold

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): government shutdowns hostage

And so

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that's why Democrats don't do it. Even if, you know, you have a Republican president

Speaker 6: and, you know

you

Speaker 6: know, people think you can kind of squeeze something out. It's just not worth hurting everyday people to score a political point. Now, Republicans have made a, the current Republican majority

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): has made a different calculation. And so what they did is that they did hold the debt limit hostage earlier this year. And what they got, you know, by holding the entire US economy hostage, they were, they extracted certain things from Biden. uh who does not want to see everyday people get hurt um and so for example the student loan repayments those getting restarted happened um because republicans held the debt limit hostage we saw some cuts um to food assistance programs um because republicans demanded that as well you know things like that and The reason we're in this

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): issue right now, actually, and this is where we can get to some of the hope, I think

in

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): your, in the answer to your question, is that that debt limit deal that they did with those, you know, having those extractions, even though we don't agree with them, and we oppose them, the deal was made, and that was earlier this year. Now that deal has to be enacted through the what is known as the government appropriation. So when the government shuts down, it's because we didn't pass this appropriation, a given appropriations bill. And so the deal was that Biden was gonna give on that and they were gonna pre-agree on the appropriations levels. And so Republicans said, we agree to this level if you give us some of that. And so Biden gave some of those concessions And why we are in the situation now is because now it is time for Republicans to actually sign and pass the bill that they said they were going to pass. And now they don't want to do it, even though they already agreed to it

So

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): they already said

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): we're going to do this. We agree to the spending level. And now when it's time to cut the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): cut the check, they're saying, well, I don't think so. I don't want to do this. And that is actually why we are at this risk of this shutdown. So there's two possibilities to come from this. You know, the first thing that had happened, which the first thing that happened is something known as a CR, a continuing resolution, is to just keep the levels at where they currently are at. And that's what we did in, you know, that's what we did earlier this fall. That is also why Kevin McCarthy got kicked out by his own party as speaker because there's this kind of rebellious side that just doesn't want to keep to their word. And so he got kicked out. But the pain of that, you know, this country went over a month without a speaker

Now

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): we have a new speaker, Mike Johnson. He also passed a CR. Now, the difference is that Kevin McCarthy got kicked out for his CR, but Mike Johnson, when he did the same thing, he did not get kicked out. And so, you know, there's two ways that this can go, maybe three ways that this can go. The first way is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that January comes and we get a CR again. And we're able to maybe lock in something longer term Thank you. that can maybe get us through the end of the year. And then we'll see how the midterm elections go. And if Democrats are in the majority again, then we don't have to worry about this for two years. And this is just not gonna be an issue for about two years. So that's option A. Option B

is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that Republicans go back to where they were at and they say they stomp their feet and they don't try to adhere to the agreement and they force a government shutdown. I actually think that that is less likely. And I think the reason for that is because they went through so much political pain in all of these shutdown threats and with kicking out the speaker. Republicans right now

have

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): yet to prove that they can govern and that creates real political pressure and I think if they shut down the government in January they they know that they will prove to the entire country that they can't govern they already have proven that they haven't really passed any significant legislation since taking over the majority they spend

all their

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): time arguing about gas stoves and trying to like invent impeachments and stuff like that so they're they're they're broadcasting to everybody that they can't govern. But they are actually, I think, kind of self-aware about that and they want to be taken seriously

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): So I do think that in January, if I had to place bets now, now everything can change. But if I had to place bets now, I

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

are very

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): disincentivized to actually follow through with a shutdown. So we'll see what it is. So that's option B is a shutdown, but I don't think they'll go for it, at least as of now. And then option

C is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): to

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): actually enact their deal with the president that they said that they made. And if they enact that deal with the president, then it will likely go through the end of the year, and we don't have to hear about that. So that's like the short-term broadcast. Now, in terms of the longer-term situation question that you raised, where you said, can we just

cut a

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): deal where we don't even have to have this conversation every couple months to a year. That is also a conversation

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that is happening. However, to me, you know, I think that is happening mostly with Democrats and maybe a couple of Republicans who um, that see that this is just not healthy. It's not good for anybody. It's not good for them. It's not good for us. It's not good for everyday people. Um, and you know how we would go about that. I think would, there's a couple of ways. One is that there could be automatic debt limit raises that get triggered with certain other pieces of legislation so that it's not a standalone alone vote that we can use to, that people can use to, you

know, hold our

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): economy hostage. And there are other forms of legislation that we are looking at. But at the end of the day, I am in complete agreement with you. We

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): are the only modern developed country that does this. The

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): United States is the only developed economy that does this continued debt limit piecemeal raising that happens. Most other countries it's either automatic or they have raised the debt limit so much that they don't have to keep returning to it in what feels like every five minutes to raise it. And it's also not politicized and politically weaponized in other countries the way that

it is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): in the United States because it's just not good. It's not good for

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): the country. It's not

you know

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): Even if you are a person that feels that government spending is completely out of control and that we need to rein it in, the way that we debate that is when we actually debate our appropriations, when we debate how much we're spending on each program. That's where we have that conversation. The reason that the debt limit

is not

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): where we have that conversation is because the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): debt limit is about paying for what we've already voted for. It's about actually paying for the money that's already gotten out the door, which is why you don't hold it hostage, because it throws the entire economy into chaos. And

Speaker 30: I don't even think that the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): Republicans who oftentimes threaten the debt limit even understand the ramifications of what they are

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): doing. Because once you have to go into debt limit, once you have to go into those random cuts. It's like, who

gets a

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): social security check gets cut randomized, people's pensions get cut randomized, people's, you know, things that people don't even understand, core systems, our infrastructure, they start to blinker at random. It's not like there's a line and certain programs get cut first. And so, It's important to communicate the fire that these people are playing with, and I do think that

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): there is absolutely an appetite to try to come to a more permanent solution to this, but I do think it's going to take most likely a Democratic majority in the House

Speaker 31: and the Senate

C

Speaker 25: Congresswoman, our next caller is Bolkis from Astoria. Hi, Bolkis. Thank you for your patience. You're live with

the Congresswoman.: Thank

Speaker 32: you. I really appreciate you supporting the ceasefire resolution, and I just wanted to know, like, what progress there's been within the Democratic

Speaker 33: Party to gain more support for the resolution as well as what can everyday constituents... like us do to continue to support more Democrats

to sign on

Speaker 33: Thank

Speaker 34: you. - No, of course, well, first of all, thank

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): you for raising this. Thank you for expressing your position on this. You know, I want to also be clear about how powerful

that is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): constituent engagement. I think a lot of times people say, oh

you know, you

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): know, what difference is it going to make if I call my member of Congress or what difference will it make if I ask a question at a town hall or if I write a letter or whatever it may be. And a lot of times people will say, oh, you know, it makes no difference or some people are just set in their ways and that's what and that's like all that there is. I can't express enough how incorrect that is. I think a lot of My sneaking suspicion from what I observe is that a lot of members of Congress who are struggling with an issue or feeling political pressure on an issue, they will appear very staunch in their position until one day it just changes. And we are starting to see that. When we first introduced the ceasefire resolution was first introduced in the House, it only had 13 co-signers. And basically all the people in Congress that were calling for a ceasefire were those

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): 13 members. And so there's two things to track here, the signers onto the resolution and also the number of members of Congress that have called for a ceasefire. In the beginning, the number was the same for both

of those

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): things. And that was just 13 out

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): of 435 people. And out of, you know, 212 Democrats in the House of Representatives. Now, if we fast forward to today, I believe we're at about 47, almost 50 members of Congress out of 212 Democrats. And I cannot state enough that. how significant of a shift that is. I know that that number may not seem huge, but first of all, 13 out of 212 is nothing. It is truly nothing. It's very little, but 50 is now, you now have a major fraction. you have now it's 25

Speaker 6: or

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): so of the Democratic Party that is calling for a ceasefire. That now is a political force to be reckoned with and we are seeing that number grow every single day. So I want

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): to say first of all it is important and it does make an impact and

it It

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): feels like it is not for a long time until all of a sudden you start seeing a member come out and break. And I want to say that the nature of the Democrats that we are seeing

come out

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): in favor of a ceasefire has also significantly changed

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): These are not just progressives. These are not just conservatives. These are not just people with deep connection to what is going on. We have seen the first Jewish members of Congress. Representative Becca Ballant of Vermont is the first Jewish member of Congress that came out in support of a ceasefire. We are also seeing much more moderate and conservative elements of the Democratic Party

We

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): have seen

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): representatives from swing seats that just barely won their seats now starting to come out in favor of a ceasefire. So all of this activism is making this a political, tenable and a politically normalized position. So I want to encourage people. individuals who are you know making that call or perhaps if you haven't made that call yet to please do so so on one on one side of the equation there's tipping people who have there's tipping people

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): who have not yet come out for one to come out for one but I also want to say that it is still important to call your member even if they have come out for a ceasefire if they have come out And if you want for a ceasefire, urge them to sign on to the resolution. That's one way to do things. But

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): also, I also wanna say how all of your all calls have affected me and my representation, because there's two elements here. The

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): first is whether you come out

for a

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): position or not, that's the first position. But then secondly, how strongly

you come out you

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): can come out for that position, how confident a member can be in coming out for that position also really

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): matters. If I feel like the enthusiasm or the given support for a position is tepid, it limits how much I am able to come out and advocate for the interests of her district because I have to make sure that I'm in constant and communication with you all that I'm trying to represent the views of our community. And so oftentimes in the past, especially when it comes to this issue, there actually has not been a high level of engagement or advocacy

But

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): when it comes to this time around and when it comes to ceasefire, there's been a much more elevated level of constituent engagement. And that helps me feel more confident walking into these rooms and saying, this is how this is not just how I feel. This is not just my point of view, but this is where people are at. And we can't

do

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that from Twitter. I can't do that from, you know, Instagram. I can, the most reliable information that I have is when you all email and call as constituents. And, um, and it's really powerful and not just on this issue, but in every

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): issue. And so even for people who, who have signed on to a resolution or who have come out for a ceasefire, continuing

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): to engage in those elected officials is important because you can help shape the way that their advocacy shows up behind closed doors. The more confident they feel that they are representing the views of their constituents, the more confidently they can come out and try to move in favor of a position

And so What

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): I've also been able to do in addition to signing on to the ceasefire resolution, I worked with Congress members McCollum and Pocan to co-author a letter to the Biden administration also reiterating and doubling down on a call for a ceasefire on the basis of children's rights. and through that advocacy, we were able to add on about an additional 10 members of Congress on the official record, calling for a ceasefire directly to the Biden administration. And shortly after that letter was released, we started to see kind of a dam break with many other members of Congress come out in favor. And so

you

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): know, in terms of that, I would highly encourage continued advocacy. I would highly encourage, you know, doing so, continuing to organize. And we also, I also think it's been very important to have that organizing happen in our community. We have a lot of community organizations um that have really engaged in that advocacy and i think it's important to to to continue to do that to deepen that um and to also see you know there are going to be major decisions uh that come up and so there's the issue of ceasefire but there are also going to be other decisions that we're going to have to make and they are going to be decisions that i am

Speaker 6: going to rely on you all as my constituents for counsel on when it comes to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): the potential conditioning of U.S. military aid to Israel, you know, and having that being conditioned on human rights, et cetera. These are unprecedented and very difficult positions to take. And I think a lot of people have read the news. There's no shortage of, frankly, political threats that go around for people in taking positions or not. And so I'm also engaging not just in ceasefire, but engaging

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): in these larger policy questions to also feel free to call my office

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): and to call offices of any elected officials that you have

is

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): very, very important to that end, you know, and I, this is a very difficult conversation

Speaker 6: and I want to also just be respectful to that end. There's an enormous amount of trauma attenuated with this issue

Speaker 35: and

you know, It

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): also ties very deeply into fears around Islamophobia showing up at home, anti-Semitism showing up here at home. And it is so important to reiterate when it comes to this issue that people, that the people affected by an issue are not their governments. And we have seen an explosion in Islamophobia, we've seen an explosion in anti-Semitic violence and targeting. And my primary

Speaker 35: responsibility is to all of our constituents and to the people of this city. And we have to make sure that we are protecting each other in order to navigate this issue as we move forward

We appreciate

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): all the questions coming in tonight and for you joining us for this telephone town hall with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Before we get to our next question, we do have another poll question we'd like to ask and to get your feedback on. What federal issues matter the most to you? Press 1 for immigration, press 2 for housing affordability, press 3 for health care, press 4 for reproductive rights, press 5 for climate, press 6 for inflation, press 7 for public safety, press 8 for job creation, or press 9 for foreign policy. And again, we appreciate your participation and your opinions and all your phone calls this evening. Simply press star 3 to ask a question. We have Evelyn from the Bronx on the line. Hi, Evelyn. Thank you for holding and joining us this evening

Speaker 37: Hi, thank you for taking my call, Senator, and good evening. My question is about the immigrants coming across the border and being bused to not only New York, but other big states within the United States

What is

Speaker 37: being done to screen the people that are coming across that border and instead

Speaker 38: of just letting everybody come in as a free-for-all, I understand you have some people that are coming for sanctuary, which is safety. You have some people that

Speaker 37: may be coming for the American dream. But, I

mean, all I

Speaker 37: can speak on is New York. We're busting at the seams

Where are

Speaker 37: all these

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): people going to

Speaker 38: go? I see people sleeping in the streets

that

Speaker 38: are coming on those buses and they're

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): getting buses every day. Now programs are being cut because we can't afford the people that are coming across the border. And why don't they have a better screening process for the people that are coming across the border? Because we don't know these people's history. They could be pedophiles. They could be rapists. We just don't know. But with all of them coming in, Now they want to cut pre-K, 4K. Our kids are suffering because we have nowhere to put these people. Kids got

to go

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): to

Speaker 40: school. And

I really feel for them

Speaker 40: across the

Speaker 39 (higher-pitched voice): border. But what is being done to screen them and prioritize who gets in first

Well, thank

Speaker 41: you so much, Evelyn, for your question

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): you bring up so many important elements to this. So I want to make sure that I'm answering

Speaker 41: as many components of your question as possible

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): So the first thing that I want to say is, which was first raised, which is the busing issue, which I think is a major issue. And it cuts to the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): core of one of the inequities that I've been certainly raising in Washington, and as well as many others. First and foremost

I agree

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that the busing issue is a major one that really cuts to a lack of fairness in terms of resources and distribution

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): here. We are seeing a lot of municipalities, especially, we started seeing this in Texas, but frankly, we started to see it across the country where people would just, where local leaders will just bus people to New York City

and

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): but here's the kicker with it they would use federal resources so they would take money from the federal government and then they would take they would keep some

of those

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): funds

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): which are intended for migrant relief and then they would just buy a bus ticket and send people to New York now that is not right it's not fair and And if resources are going to go anywhere, it should be going to the municipalities that are actually doing the best job of caring for people

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): And so there's a there's a fund. So the first issue here is a funding issue, because what's also

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): happening is that you have you know

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): you have

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): members of Congress, you had a lot of Republicans, you have a lot of Democrats that want to send all of the money to just the border. Without recognizing that this issue, New York City is also a border city

When

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): we talk about migration, we talk about visas, plenty of people

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): cross the border, so to speak, at JFK, at JFK Airport, at O'Hare in Chicago, in LAX. And so it's really important that

we

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): talk about having actual equity in this funding here. So the first, you know, the first thing on that, we've actually advocated to remove federal funding for these municipalities that are just trying to shuttle people out

in a

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): very cynical

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): manner, because that to me is not responsible. Secondly, there's actually really interesting, there's a really interesting fact around all of this too is that there's all this political pressure that builds up around you know around the border and I want to explain how that translates into policy that doesn't actually does not help us does not does not even help the the migrant situation and that is that Every year, they send billions and billions and billions of more dollars strictly to like actual border checkpoints on the southern U.S.-Mexico border, which is actually not the central problem that we have here when we break all of this stuff down. In fact, we have authorized more money and we have authorized such a high level of money. of, for example, hires just to be deployed at the southern border that at the end of the year, we can't even fill it. So we are allocating all of these resources and all of these positions that we can't even fill. So we're overfilling that in response to kind of a political football situation, but we are under-resourcing programs that are actually being used and needed like what we're seeing here in the city

And

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): so what's happening is that the cities and that the municipalities and places that are actually

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): absorbing this operation are getting underfunded, but

a lot

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): of the militarization of our border is getting overfunded to the extent that they can't

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): even spend it or they can't even fill the positions in time. And so the first thing that we need to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): explore here is a proper allocation of resources. And instead of overfunding one and creating all of this waste, because that's what's going on, waste, we are underfunding the other. And so we need to balance both of those things out. So that's issue number one. Now, question number two that you had, which is

How

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): is the screening going on? What's going on with that, et cetera. Now, earlier this year, the Biden administration rolled out something known as CBP-1, and they actually really did tighten very, very severely a lot of the ability for people who are even seeking asylum to come across. They have to be pre-screened, and they go through an enormous amount of that screening. meaning that kicked in to a much higher gear several months ago. And we've actually seen that any sort of crime that may result, like when we look at what's happening at the Roosevelt Hotel, there are very few to almost no incidents that we see. It's extremely, extremely low. It is nowhere near that. what we see as average for a population. And so that screening is kicking into place. It kicked in through this thing known as the CBP1 app. Now I have certain concerns 'cause there's facial

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): recognition technology that I don't think is fully vetted or tested yet that's being deployed, but that's a separate issue. So that got kicked in there. But now, thirdly, I want to talk to you as well about, I think

the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): most important element to your question, which is what we are seeing play out on the city level, which is this idea from Mayor Adams that now we have to cut you across the board cuts. on our services, on schools, on libraries

on

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): summer youth employment in order to accommodate for this migrant, in order to accommodate for all of this migrant operation

that

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): the federal government is underfunding. Now, I wanna speak to that directly because to be very frank, I don't

I'm not sure

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): if I believe those numbers. I'm not sure if these cuts are actually justified because the math, I don't believe that the mayor, that Mayor Adams has really shown his math to everyday people to actually see how this operation is meriting the severity of the cuts that he is proposing. When we've had this conversation with City Hall, a lot of this is about projections for the future. And it's much more rooted in those future projections than what we're actually seeing play out in the books. I am extremely concerned

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): about these cuts to our libraries, which are unacceptable. You know, all of these across-the-board cuts around all of our agencies

But

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): at the

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): same time, I don't think, I'm not sure. I have not been convinced

by these

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): numbers that the migrant crisis covers 100% of what is going on here. I, you know, I think that one of the things that I've come out for is for more transparency around that. Because the absolute last measure of resort should be cutting our public resources. That should not be

and it

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): should never be, the go-to. We live in a city that is home to an enormous amount of the world's billionaires. We live in a city where if you look in Manhattan, At night, half of those window lights are off because they are pied-à-tiers for the globally wealthy, and they should be taxed. And if there are people who are buying their second, third, fourth pied-à-tier in Manhattan

and

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): they don't even live here and they're contributing to gentrification and displacement and the housing crisis and they're not even being hit to contribute to our tax base then that should be the that should be what is looked at first in order to balance our books it shouldn't be cutting our teachers it shouldn't be cutting our schools it shouldn't be cutting our library access and

If

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): we actually kind of look at this conversation, I have not seen, frankly, that solution even be entertained. And so my first question is, why is the only conversation in the room cuts? And why is there no conversation about revenue raising? And now you might hear some people say, well, it's because we're going to push the wealthy out of New York

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): City, and they're going to move out. We have actually seen that the data does not support that. There have been people who move out of New

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): York City, but guess what? The people who are moving out of the city are not, by and large, the wealthiest people. They're the working class that can't afford to live here anymore. And so, you know, to me, I completely understand the

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): situation, and it's not to dismiss what's going on

I

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): have been advocating an enormous amount for continued and elevated resources, having the Biden administration step up in what they're giving, not just to New York City, but to other places like Chicago, L.A., et cetera, so that we can do what we do as a city of immigrants. And to date. we've brought in over 145 million dollars from the federal government to help contribute to that pot but i think

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): that as someone that's watching these numbers play out i think that if we're going to see city hall and if we're going to

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): see folks demand such severe cuts they need to show their mass down to the penny because not one kid in this city should have a dollar less than they deserve because someone didn't do the math right. And I'm concerned that there has not been an actual accounting of that. And I am very concerned that

we are

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): using the migrant

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): issue to like throw them as just like a scapegoat for what is actually perhaps budgetary planning that hasn't dotted all its i's and

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): crosses d's i don't know but what i do think that we can all ask for is for the numbers to be shown

Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): and if the numbers show that this is causing then this is dollar for dollar it then i think we can discuss what our alternatives are but you know i don't i just don't think that the even if you Like, even if you completely shut down this entire operation, I still don't think that that justifies dollar for dollar these draconian cuts that are just being kind of announced all of a sudden. And so, you know, that's where I'm at on all of this. I think we can. advocate for more transparency on that, because I'm in complete agreement. There is no way, shape, or form in which our cuts to our public services, essential public services, like our libraries, our schools, our healthcare

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): our housing is acceptable. Not now, and it's not something that I'm willing to sacrifice

C

Speaker 42: Congresswoman, we had so many questions coming

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): in this evening. I know we weren't able to get to all of them, but we are coming to the close of our event this evening. I did want to give you the results of our second poll that we took. That question was, what federal issues matter the most to you? And it was fairly broad ranging. 11% voted for immigration was the most important issue. 17% said housing affordability, 18% said health care, 12% reproductive rights, 16% said climate was the most important federal issue, 6% said inflation, 8% said public safety, foreign policy, 11%, and job creation, 1

And

Speaker 43: with

Speaker 2 (lower-pitched voice): that, I just wanted to share those poll results with you, Congresswoman, and give you a chance just to close this evening with any final thoughts you might want to share

Well

Speaker 44: first and foremost, I want to thank every single person who's been

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): on with us tonight

Thank you

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): so, so much. Really, it is this engagement and it's you all really participating in this that makes me a better member of Congress

It makes

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): me more confident every single month when I go back to D.C. saying, "This is what my constituents are feeling. This is how they, you know, this is what they think about things." And so it really helps me do my job better when we have such wonderful and robust civic engagement. So thank you all for taking the time out of your

Speaker 5 (higher-pitched voice): day, taking the time out of your month, for joining us for this town hall i'm so sorry to the folks that we couldn't add to whose questions we couldn't get to but hopefully we can get to you next time um and we're just very thrilled you know this is a new thing

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): that we're trying in terms of this month's format and we're hopeful that this was a positive experience for you all you can always re-watch the town hall, I believe on Facebook and YouTube. Please sign up for our newsletter. When you sign up for our newsletter, you can get regular emails that include a wide range of things from federal updates to tax credits that you may not know that you're eligible for, to internships with my office, to a lot of other kinds

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Speaker 17 (higher-pitched voice): our our town hall so that it is accessible to every single person in in the

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Speaker 9 (higher-pitched voice): all happen and we're just really thrilled until next time we'll see you at the next town hall thank you everybody

Thank you

Speaker 1: for joining tonight's Telephone Town Hall with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If you haven't spoken

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