Barbara Lee — Congresswoman Barbara Lee - District Download

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Speaker 1: Good evening, everyone

Speaker 2: It's great to see you here. I'm Lori

Fletcher

Speaker 2: Fogarty, I'm the director here at the Oakland Museum of California, thank you, and we're really thrilled to have you here at the museum and especially of

Speaker 3: course to be the venue for this conversation, this district download with Congresswoman Barbara

Speaker 2: Lee. Absolutely. You may know us as a Museum of Art, History, and Natural Sciences about California and

Speaker 3: especially focused on Oakland. But we also see ourselves as a gathering place, as a site of community dialogue, as really a venue and a platform for the kind of conversations we're looking forward to tonight. So we hope that you'll enjoy tonight and we hope you'll also come back to the museum

And

Speaker 3: now I want to just say how thrilled I am to be talking tonight with Congresswoman Barbara Lee. She has been a great advocate

Speaker 2: and friend to this institution. She actually nominated us last year and we were awarded the National Medal for Museum Service. It was fantastic. Thanks to her recognition and her advocacy. And not only is she such an advocate for the arts

Speaker 3: and culture and so many other causes and needs and issues here in Oakland in the East Bay, but she is really a friend to the arts and culture all across the country. She's championed support for the arts and culture and understands the importance actually of history. and of thinking about history in the context of what we learn from it in order to inspire a more vibrant and equitable future. Absolutely

Speaker 4: Yeah, let's hear it for history. And

with that, it is my

Speaker 4: great pleasure to welcome to the stage Congresswoman Barbara Lee

Thank you

Speaker 5: I

Speaker 6: didn't even tell her to wear the Oakland Museum branded color of

Speaker 7: orange, but she did, which we really appreciate. I was a little self-conscious about wearing red, but that's what I had this morning

you

Speaker 7: comfortable you ready good so what we're going to do is I'm going to ask a few questions Congresswoman Lee is going to begin with a few remarks I'll ask a few questions we have some special awards to that the Congresswoman will recognize and awardees here tonight and then we'll be having some questions that you all have sent in when you RSVP'd so I'll let you begin

well good

Speaker 8: evening

Speaker 9: first Laurie let me thank you allowing us to be in this beautiful venue for my beautiful

Speaker 10: constituents who are the most enlightened and progressive constituents in the whole country thank you

Speaker 9: very

Speaker 11: much

also let me

Speaker 9: just say this Oakland Museum is is really not only a local and national state treasure but it's a national treasure And I was thinking this evening about one of my bills that is called Equity in the Arts, because we think

Speaker 12: that the arts really provides a pathway to social justice and equity, right? And I

So we

Speaker 12: want grants from all of our federal agencies to provide for our nonprofits and for our museums the funding to really do a lot of what you're doing here because you certainly are providing the glimpse into what life was and what life can be for all of us. So thank

Speaker 9: you again, Laura. I really am proud of this. Also, I'm glad to be home. This is really a download night because we have

Speaker 13: done a lot of work, and I want to take a moment to thank my staff who are here. Give

them a round of

Speaker 13: applause. We have

Speaker 14: also our Washington staff is here with

us because, you

Speaker 14: know, my staff works for

Speaker 12: you. They work 24/7. They do a lot of case work, immigration case work, housing, passport, you name it, 24/7. And so just know that they are phenomenal. They do their job. They all are public

Speaker 16: servants. And they help put this together, and I really appreciate them. And you need to get to know them. And if any of you have any constituent cases, that

Speaker 12: you'd like to talk about, do that at the end of the download because they're there to take notes and to follow up with you

Let me

Speaker 12: say a couple of

Speaker 17: things because it's been quite a remarkable time in Washington, D.C. with the Biden-Harris

Speaker 12: administration, delivering

for the

Speaker 12: American people, delivering for our communities

and

Speaker 18: there are a couple of wins I just want to mention in terms of the big picture

Speaker 17: the bipartisan infrastructure bill for example that was a hundred and eight billion dollar federal investment and we've seen several of those federal dollars come into our district for infrastructure issues like bike lanes and pedestrian improvements And also, you know the issues around the freeway, 980. Well, we received about $600,000 in the Reconnect Communities initiative of the Biden administration, which is really important because we know the impacts of I-90 and what it has done, especially to communities in West Oakland. And now it

Speaker 12: has divided our city up. And so one of the grants under the infrastructure bill helps us now to move forward and study and see what we can do to reconnect our community. And that's a big deal for us here in this district. Also the CHIPS app, that was $280 billion

Speaker 17: in new funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing in the United States to bring jobs back to to the United

Speaker 12: States and to create new manufacturing jobs

here

Speaker 12: course in my congressional district we have a company Amash it's a really great African-American owned company who will be part of this hopefully if this gets done the proper way to begin to manufactured chips here right here in the 12th congressional district so yeah

it deserves a round of applause and of

Speaker 17: course the climate crisis is here we know you see Maui we know from the wildfires look at the floods here the tropical

Speaker 12: floods here in California look at what's taking place in Florida there's so many issues around climate and and it's important

to

Speaker 12: understand that that's a priority for myself in terms of the climate emergency, which it is, but it's

Speaker 17: also a priority for the Biden-Harris administration. And in the Inflation Reduction Act, which of course was to reduce the cost of living and inflation, but just recently I hope you heard about the initiative to begin to reduce the

Speaker 12: cost of prescription

drugs. So we have to

Speaker 12: put that in that bill because that definitely is a cost of living issue. And in fact, now the first 10 drugs, we need more, but we could only get to where we got in this bill through the negotiations. But these will be some really huge benefits to have Medicare to be able to negotiate the lowering the price of prescription drugs for Medicare recipients. But we've got to do more, more medications and more drugs, but we also have to expand it now

Speaker 10: to the general public because this is Medicare recipients only. But that's a great first start. And so that's just been recently announced. I hope you follow that

Speaker 17: carefully because it's something that the pharmaceutical companies are pushing

back

Speaker 17: naturally and unfortunately there may be some lawsuits but that's not going to stop us we're going to keep going and we're going to get this done and

Speaker 12: so that was part of the Inflation Reduction Act the corrupt Supreme Court you

Speaker 19: know you know it is the corporate

corruption

Speaker 17: Culture has taken over the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land. And yes, I did call for Clarence Thomas to resign. I think he should

But there's

Speaker 10: legislation to rein in the

Speaker 17: Supreme Court in terms of code of ethics, which they need to have. Every public official should have that. Also, I support the legislation to expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices. You know, the Constitution doesn't require any specific number. The world has changed, the country has changed, so why don't we expand the number of Supreme Court judges? And finally, I believe now, I don't believe in

Speaker 19: term limits for elected officials because you have the right to elect who you want, as long as you want to. Even, I hate to say this, Marjorie Taylor Greene, her constituents, they elected her. That's part of democracy. But for appointed officials, for lifetime appointments, no way. The Supreme Court needs term limits

Speaker 17: because they are appointed, they're not elected

So

Speaker 17: that's another bill that I'm working on with Congressman Hank Johnson. And so I'll just stop there and just

Speaker 19: say that's kind of a little bit of the download. But, boy, we've been working hard

Speaker 20: for you. We've done a lot. I was

Speaker 21: going to say, you talk about your staff working 24-7. I

Speaker 2: don't know that there are more than 24 hours in a day, but it sounds like that's what you do. And so thank you for all of that. You raised a question near and dear to my heart and you've said a lot about it, but I want to just reinforce it. You talked about the Supreme

Speaker 3: Court and I know a lot of us here are concerned with the direction that the court is going and we know that several of the justices were appointed

by Trump. So

Speaker 3: you talked a little bit about what you're doing to fight back this regression among the conservative justices on the Supreme Court

Speaker 22: Anything else you want to say about what kind of you're seeing the prospect for that on some of the initiatives you mentioned

I

Speaker 23: think it's important to also look at this in context of how the corporate sector has corrupted the

Speaker 12: Supreme Court and make sure we understand that underlies a lot of these decisions that we see the Supreme Court taking. Also, it's very important to address reform of the Supreme Court because when you look at the types of measures, what they're ruling on in terms of taking away our constitutional rights, for example, the Dobbs decision, the decision to take away for the very first time the constitutional right

a

Speaker 12: constitutional right and that's the right to make one's own health care decisions about one's body in terms of the abortion case they that's what they

did

Speaker 17: and that's the Supreme Court they're rolling back voting rights we we've passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act twice in the house last last year Of course, the Supreme Court has ruled some very terrible rulings, although a few of the recent ones were modest measures, but we have to pass the John Lewis Voting Advancement Act so that we can make sure we preserve voting rights

They're trying

Speaker 12: to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, environmental rights, our labor union rights, the right to

Speaker 17: organize, and I share that in that context because you talk about fighting for our democracy, this is that moment. This is a defining moment, and the Supreme Court is aiding and abetting

Speaker 12: the decisions and the positions of Donald Trump, who as you know is not a democratic leader but is moving, if he wins, God forbid, he is more of an autocratic leader

and

Speaker 24: we have to stop this dead in its tracks, and the Supreme Court is part of that, and we must preserve our democracy right

now. -

Speaker 25: Yeah, you heard it, you heard it right here

Thank you

Speaker 25: so as we were

Speaker 2: just talking about regression, what progressive issues, you've talked a lot about them, but do you

Speaker 3: feel like there are some that you'd really highlight for your constituents here that they have yet to hear about on the progressive side

O

Speaker 12: On the progressive side, several. When you look at, again, understand that we're in the minority right now, the Democrats are, So it's an uphill battle and we still have the filibuster in the Senate, which I Think needs to go. I mean anything that was enacted after

Speaker 18: slavery should go To

Speaker 9: prevent Black people from moving forward in this country and and so even in the context

Speaker 12: though, I'm working one on

on

Speaker 12: repealing the authorizations to use military force. The blank check of 2001 that I voted

Speaker 9: against

and the Iraq

Speaker 9: authorization. Secondly, I have 49 or so Republicans who voted with me last year to repeal the Iraq authorization. And, in fact, the president issued a statement of administrative policy that he would sign that repeal into law

Got it over

Speaker 17: into the Senate. Senator Kaine took it up

And I was

Speaker 17: sitting there during the Foreign Affairs Committee. We were able to get it out of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, got it to the Senate floor, and about nine or ten Republicans supported the repeal of the Iraq authorization. Came back to the House. Now we're working on it again. and this is a glimmer of hope because

Speaker 10: I have some of my, talking about bipartisanship, but a few of my MAGA Republican friends

if you

Speaker 10: can call 'em friends

Speaker 12: such as Chip Roy and others, working to help me get it through the House again. Now we have to get it through the committee, and McCarthy has not said he wouldn't, so we're working to negotiate that now. So that's a glimmer of hope, because

Speaker 17: remember Iraq. That was that authorization was based on the

Speaker 9: lies that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There were none. We knew that and when the authorization came forward I offered an amendment that said okay because we knew if there are weapons of mass destruction there let the IAEA the International Atomic Energy

Speaker 12: Agency complete its investigation

if

Speaker 12: then we'll make a decision well my amendment got 72 votes but if had it had passed then we wouldn't have lost

Speaker 24: so many of our brave men and women and the trillions of dollars that we've lost so we're trying years later to get that off the books

Speaker 4: thank you thank you yeah I my question

Speaker 3: had been about you Really coming to national consciousness around the the voting that you know the horrific events of 9/11 and Voting against the 2001 authorization for the use of military force and here you are talking now about that fight

Speaker 26: continuing

Speaker 10: continuing it continues and and you know what though it is continued because of the public. People are war-weary

Speaker 12: and they finally

Speaker 9: understood that these forever wars will not end until we restore Congress's responsibility and authority in moving forward to declare or not the use of force

Speaker 27: And so the public was way ahead of the Congress. And so I've just been there with the public. Moving along

with the

Speaker 27: public. - Speaking for me

Speaker 21: speaking for us, right? Thank you so California

Speaker 2: is in many ways and we think about this here at the museum a microcosm of the country and that the issues we face here are magnified and plagues many other states and communities across the United States

Speaker 3: So what can Congress do to help Bay Area residents with some of the issues we face right here at home like with crime, housing affordability, and the climate crisis

Speaker 10: Well first thing Congress should do is to move forward on our common sense gun reform measures. As in

Speaker 12: banning assault weapons and banning these weapons of war on the street. That's the first thing we need to do. And the NRA, we need to fight because we know why Congress is not passing that. I serve on the Gun Violence Task Force. And we, here in

Speaker 9: Oakland, everywhere, Berkeley, my whole 12th congressional district, we have big issues that we have to deal with. But the availability of guns is at the crux of these issues. And so

Speaker 12: I have also moved forward to, and this started here in my own district when Secretary Bassetta was here, Secretary of Health and Human Services, to declare gun violence a public epidemic and a public emergency, public health emergency because it is

a public health emergency

Speaker 12: emergency and so the T heart amendment and I'll just explain that I've been working on this for years with regard

Speaker 9: to gun tracing and the FBI and law enforcement supports this and this went into law years ago but what it is and a lot of people don't know it is but do you know the FBI and the police have to destroy records in terms of gun

Speaker 17: tracing within 24 hours in terms of the who purchased what weapons

And

Speaker 17: so 24 hours, I mean, so I'm trying to, my legislation would give a much longer

Speaker 12: period of time to trace guns so that we can identify who those guns were. Also, we've got to look at prevention and look at how we address a lot of the underlying, not

Speaker 17: all, but a lot of the underlying issues of crime, especially in California and in my district. And we've been working, and I believe in... federally directed resources

Speaker 12: as in earmarks, directing your tax dollars to crime prevention efforts. We were able to get $500,000 a couple years ago to Youth Alive. I mean

Speaker 17: this organization, they're out there on the streets, right? You know Youth Alive

Yes, I do

Speaker 17: As violence interrupters, trying to make sure they prevent

crimes

Speaker 17: from happening, prevent shootings, and so we have to have a total comprehensive approach to crime. It's got to be, yes, we've got to prosecute, make sure everybody is safe, all communities

Speaker 12: want to be safe, and we also have to make sure we address the underlying causes of a lot of the young people and what is taking place, and we have to address the availability of guns and get these guns off the streets of America, especially in California

Speaker 28: Absolutely, yeah, Youth Alive does great work. and combating a lot of the violence that's now

Speaker 3: being instigated and perpetrated on social media as well. So, well, you mentioned earmarks. We know you're on a lot of different caucuses and committees, which I can't even imagine how difficult that is to keep up with. But one of your main... My staff. Yeah, the

Speaker 2: staff. There we go. But one of your main roles is serving on the Appropriations Committee. And so can you say a little

Speaker 3: bit more? You mentioned Youth Alive, but what does that mean and what we're doing. work have you done on the Appropriations Committee for the district

Speaker 27: the appropriations I serve on the Appropriations Committee and the Budget Committee and the budget sets the general framework and parameters for us on the

Speaker 12: appropriations and the quote exclusive committees

have

Speaker 12: appointees for instance if you're on the Appropriations Committee you're not allowed to be on any other committees unless you get a waiver but the Appropriations Committee has an appointee to the Budget Committee so I'm an appointee to the Budget

Speaker 17: Committee and I serve on three subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee now the Appropriations

Speaker 9: Committee does not get a lot of media play but we do a lot of work

And a

Speaker 9: lot of what you see take place on the positive side

and

Speaker 17: stuff that we defeat is not really seen or visible. And I'll give you a couple of examples. I serve on the, of course, Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee of the

Speaker 12: Appropriations Committee. The COVID vaccines, the health care needs, funding community clinics, Asian Health Services, Roots, West Oakland Health Center, La Clinica, the Native American Health Center. I mean, we are able to, and I'm able to, direct money into these wonderful community health centers. We have to get, sooner or later, single payer and Medicare for all. That's where we have to go

Thank you. But in the

Speaker 12: meantime, I'm working to make sure that we have as

Speaker 17: accessible, affordable, and quality health care that we can in my district. So that's my job as an appropriator. I'm on the agriculture subcommittee. I'm the only Democrat west of the Mississippi on the agriculture committee. Now check, the farm bill's coming up. We have authorizing, and there are the Democrats on the authorizing committee, but I'm on the appropriations committee. And when our beloved supervisor Wilma Chan was with us, we had Secretary Becerra come out, and we did a

Speaker 9: roundtable. And we talked about food as medicine, you know, because we have so many people with diabetes and other types of diseases and illnesses where medicine would not be needed if we-- and the science is there, that food is medicine. So Wilma and I worked very closely together, And on the Appropriations Committee, in her honor, I got a $2

Speaker 17: million grant for a pilot on food as medicine, okay? And that's in Wilma's honor

The Healthy Food

Speaker 17: Financing Initiative. You know food deserts, right? And so we authorized and I've appropriated millions of dollars, and now the authorization has sunset, and I'm authorizing

Speaker 12: and appropriating to make sure we have that funding because in food

design

Speaker 12: and rural communities where we don't have grocery stores. Through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, we have grants for farmers, farm-to-market activities for grocery stores, loans, and

Speaker 17: grants. So that's part of what I do on the Agriculture Committee. Also, I'm working to prevent the work requirements for SNAP, and SNAP comes through the Agriculture Subcommittee also

So a

Speaker 17: lot of work I do, and in the Central Valley, you know, food insecurity is huge in our state. Here in Oakland, here in

Speaker 9: Berkeley, all over my 12th congressional district, and in the Central Valley, food insecurity, poverty

Speaker 17: And so I use my work on the Agriculture Committee to address issues around

Speaker 12: poverty and eliminating poverty and lifting people out of poverty and so much more. When you talk about cannabis, if you, you know, I've led on marijuana justice and cannabis access for our veterans. That comes through the Ag Committee, FDA, Mifepristone, some of these drugs, the Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over

FDA. It's a

Speaker 12: lot there, a lot to download, but

Speaker 19: it's a big job. Wow. Three subcommittees. And then the third subcommittee I'm on, which I'm the ranking member, I was chair when Democrats were in the majority, is the State

Speaker 12: and Foreign Operations Subcommittee. Now that's like the International Affairs Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. And let me tell you, first, I'm the first African American to ever serve on that subcommittee as chair

Speaker 17: Very first

So, of

Speaker 17: course, my lens has been a little different. There are three legs to the stool of our foreign policy and national security, development, diplomacy, and defense. So my subcommittee is responsible for diplomacy and defense. I mean, excuse me, diplomacy and development. And so what I did during the time that I was the chair is increase the Green Climate Fund. I was at COP27 in Egypt last year, it seems like two years ago. it was last year, talking about the Green Climate Fund and listening to people from around the world and what the United States needed to do to repair a lot of the damage that we've done throughout the world, that came under, and that comes under, like I say, I'm the ranking member under my jurisdiction. We have... Okay, development needs all over the world, hunger, famine, relief, embassy security, embassy personnel, all of our diplomatic initiatives, which I, again, see through the lens of our global leadership, but also respect for other countries and self-determination. And so we have, and I

Speaker 10: always like to cite this, because I think many of you know where I am on the defense

Speaker 17: budget, but my budget, development and diplomacy

was

Speaker 17: probably as high as it's ever been when I was chairing it. That was a little over $60 billion

The defense

Speaker 17: appropriation subcommittee was close to $800 billion. And so, you know, I was trying to steal some of that money from defense

Speaker 19: to put it in, which I was able to at least get a nice... amount

Speaker 10: given the past, but still you see the inequities there and you see why that committee is important because we've got to continue to fight to have some some real national security strategies that employ development and defense in diplomacy as a way to prevent wars and to prevent the use of force and and generals

and

Speaker 10: And the military came to me

Speaker 19: and they said, yes, we support what you're doing because, you know, this we want the seeds of terrorism is sown in despair, you know. And then we have the other issue with regard to China and Russia. But you know why they have been able to invest in Africa

Speaker 9: and the Caribbean and other countries? Because the United States has been missing in action. We have not had a presence that was forthright in terms of infrastructure, in

Speaker 19: terms of climate. and their vulnerable populations there in terms of all of the efforts that we should be engaged in in countries on the continent of Africa in

Speaker 9: the Caribbean Eastern Caribbean in Central and South America all over the world we've just been missing in action and so I tried to and I'm

still

Speaker 10: trying to shift the orientation the Appropriations Committee so they understand what

I

Speaker 24: think most of you believe it is that we have to reorder our national priorities in terms of development defense

Speaker 29: and yes absolutely much

Speaker 30: more to

Speaker 7: those two legs of the stool well speaking of appropriations we have some organizations here and so do you want to just say a little bit about this because you probably know the acronym the

Speaker 31: CFP -

Speaker 7: Oh

Speaker 13: community fund, earmarks. - Okay, earmarks. - Community funded projects. You know, there was a time where, and President Obama, and you all may

Speaker 12: disagree, but I disagreed with President Obama because he, in his State of the Union speech, when he first became president said, "I will not sign any bill with an earmark in it." I said, "Oh my God, no president." And

so I

Speaker 12: was chairing the Black Caucus and I wrote a letter

Speaker 9: Earmarks, community-funded projects, provide jobs and services, and they close some of the gaps, especially when you have people who don't have access, say, to a health center or health care or health insurance, or for people who don't have access to jobs. I mean, we fund apprenticeship training programs for young people who never would get a chance

If

Speaker 9: I had an earmarked through a community project the money for apprenticeship training programs, that's needed. So for those who don't think earmarks are good, you know, worst case makes bad laws. Yeah, there were two or three cases, but I mean, we made sure that the transparency is there. For those who've applied for

Speaker 17: earmarks through my office, you guys know. hard it is to get through that. And so I'm really proud of the fact that

Speaker 9: we have some phenomenal organizations here in my district who have CFP earmarks. And are they here tonight

We

Speaker 16: have five of them here tonight. I really want you all to see

Speaker 33: what your tax dollars are doing with these earmarks

And

Speaker 34: please welcome to the stage from the Native American Health Center, Natalie Aguilera

Speaker 35: First, Congresswoman Lee, thank you for having us here this evening. It's an incredible honor to be here. And good evening, everyone. I'm Natalie Aguilera, a proud member of the Oklahoma Choctaw Tribe, and I have the pleasure of serving as the interim chief executive officer at the Native American Health Center

And

Speaker 35: for those of you not familiar with our organization, we are a community health clinic. And through Indian Health Services, we have a designation as an Urban Indian Health Program. And we opened our doors in 1972 to serve the needs of American Indians who were in the Bay Area due to the federal government's relocation program. And who had little access to mainstream healthcare opportunities. And though our organization remains rooted in our commitment to American Indians and Alaska Natives, our service and programs are open to all. So we serve 14,000 members at 14 different sites. We have a dedicated staff of about 300 people, 100 who are Native American. We think we're one of the largest employers of Native Americans in the Bay Area, if not in Northern California

And we provide

Speaker 35: primary medical, dental, behavioral health services. And importantly, we have a very robust social service arm of the agency. We've been working on social determinants of health way before it became a buzz word. But we have a broad range of culturally appropriate services for our integrated holistic system of care. Because we know our members are affected

by so

Speaker 35: environmental factors that might be employment, financial security, access to healthy foods, the food is medicine program Barbara Lee was speaking about, community and social issues, and then housing. Housing, housing is such a hot topic for our members right now. And not only do we address the social determinants of health, but we are really good at incorporating cultural practices throughout our organization through our philosophy that culture is prevention. We know that ones who are connected more to their culture have better health outcomes. So you might think, what does that look like? Well, one thing that we've done recently is we have created a sweat lodge right in the heart of the Fruitvale District in Oakland. Many of our members might not have access to this if they're not able to travel to their tribes, or maybe they're disconnected from our tribes. But now, in an urban area, we could provide that service to our members. So 50 years later from opening our doors, our Native American Health Center is still thriving. This past November, the Native American Health Center had the opportunity to honor Congresswoman Lee at our 50th anniversary gala. And we honored her with our inaugural Morning Star Award for her incredible leadership and guidance complex world. She reminds us that renewal in life is possible and shows us that we each carry a light to illuminate the darkness. The Morningstar awardees use their powerful light to create paths for those that are lost, and in this respect, Congresswoman Lee has been a pathfinder and guiding light for so many people throughout her career

Thank

Speaker 35: you. And this level of community involvement and commitment is demonstrated by Congresswoman Lee, and that's why we're all here today. Her connection to our community's needs have allowed all of us to grow and throughout her tenure. And recently her commitment to her district and to her community came in the form of a distribution. I was told don't say earmark, but now I know why

Speaker 36: Now I listen, you know why

Speaker 35: But it came in the form of a distribution or an earmark to the Native American Health Center. And so what will this do for us? The funding is gonna support our efforts to build a five story mixed use development project in collaboration with satellite affordable housing and it'll have over 75 units of affordable housing. Yep, very exciting

For

Speaker 35: us, the integration of primary health care and affordable housing has been a special focus for us for many years. We know housing is a fundamental social determinant of health. If we can ensure our members have safe and stable housing, then we can address not just their symptoms, but also the underlying conditions that impact their health outcomes. In addition to the housing, our newest site will have much needed expanded services in East Oakland. The site at 3050 International Boulevard in the heart of Oakland's Fruitvale District will feature 20 dental operatories, one of the largest dental clinics around. I'm sad to admit, but for years, we've had to turn patients away because we just don't have the capacity to see them in our dental program. or we'll put 'em on a wait list and they have to wait six months and that's just not okay. So we are excited that we will be able to offer expanded dental services to our community by moving some of those programs over from our current clinic that allows us to expand our medical department

But

Speaker 35: what I'm really excited about is right now the health center only has our largest meeting space maybe holds like 35 people and when I've talked about that we have a robust social service program it's hard to run some of those programs in one small space so now we are going to have a large cultural community center that could fit up to 300 people it'll be open to thank you open to the community. But you think of all the programming we have, it could be divided into three different rooms. We might be able to do workforce developments, programming in one room, traditional healing with our traditional healing practitioners in another room, and food pharmacy and the other space. So it'll really allow us to do the social service programming that we're good

at in an

Speaker 35: expanded way. But the Cultural Center for us will serve as an anchor for the Native Americans throughout the Bay Area region, which has been landless since the forced relocation from their homelands in the 1950s as part of the federal government's Indian Relocation Act that had the goal of assimilation. But we're still here. We're still thriving in our Cultural Center

Speaker 37: Yes

And our

Speaker 35: cultural center and the entire building will really be a testament to our culture through native architecture and designs and aesthetics, but a place that our community could come and really feel a sense of pride. So thank you to Congresswoman Lee for your support. You've helped us get closer to meeting our goal. And I'm happy to share that our groundbreaking is scheduled for January 16th, 139 days from now. Who's counting? but we hope you'll be able to join us for our special day, but this really is our most recent effort to address critical social service gaps as well as housing shortages in our region. So thank you for your commitment to the Native American Health Center, to East Oakland, to your entire district. You continue to help families in so many ways. The support you've provided our health center will ensure that health care, housing, and social services are available and accessible. Ben, thank you for being a leader and a fierce advocate for the underserved and marginalized communities. I draw on your work and dedication, not only as a woman, a mom, but as a change maker in our community. So thank you

And

Speaker 39: now, please welcome to the stage from the Construction Trades Workforce Initiative, Megan Nazarino and Juan Calderon

Good evening

Speaker 40: everyone

We are

Speaker 41: grateful to be the recipient of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's community project funds. My name is Juan Calderon and I'm the Director of Stakeholder Relations with CTWI Construction Trades Workforce Initiative. We are the workforce development nonprofit arm of the Building Trades Councils of the East Bay Region where

we work to

Speaker 41: create greater opportunities in the union construction trades for

women

Speaker 41: communities of color, the formerly incarcerated, youth, and low-income residents

We advocate

Speaker 41: for labor standards to protect the interests of middle-class families and support contractors in connecting to a well-trained, safe, and diverse workforce

We achieve this

Speaker 41: through developing

Speaker 42: strong partnerships, programs, and policies in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the union construction industry

Our work

Speaker 42: involves supporting every stakeholder in the construction industry ranging from job seekers where we have expanded the industry standard MC3 pre-apprenticeship and test prep programs to contractors in developing workshops to educate small and minority contractors on how to become high road and work under PLAs. Working with municipalities also to design public programs that incorporate labor standards

We are

Speaker 41: committed to bridging the gap between organized labor and our industry partners in order to build the next generation of local diverse and skilled workers. Since our start in 2018, CTWI has secured over $8 million for high quality pre-apprenticeship programs. We also established nine new MC3 pre-apprenticeship programs and have placed over 200 job seekers into union construction careers

IN

Speaker 43: ADDITION TO THESE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Speaker 42: CREATING 21ST CENTURY CAREERS FOR OUR YOUTH CONTINUES TO BE A PRIORITY FOR CTWI AND OUR LOCAL BUILDING TRAITS. IN PARTNERSHIPS WITH SCHOOL DISTRICTS LIKE OAKLAND UNIFIED WE ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO REBUILD PIPELINES TO DEVELOP LOCAL SKILLED CRAFTS PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY WHO CAN MEET THE INFRASTRUCTURE DEMANDS OF THE FUTURE

and now

Speaker 42: because of the investment from congresswoman lee these funds

Speaker 43: will allow us to make a dedicated investment to recruiting and training oakland residents over

Speaker 42: the next

three years

Speaker 42: we're working with oakland unified school district to launch a high school pre-apprenticeship program in east oakland in partnership with castlemont high school this will provide more opportunities for our youth interested in joining union construction careers thank

you We are accountable

Speaker 42: to the current and next generation of construction workers to build a better

Speaker 43: stronger Oakland for everyone. Now I'll hand it over to Megan who will talk more about our initiatives and plans

Megan

Speaker 44: Nazarino: Thank you, Juan. Good evening everyone. My name is Megan Nazarino. I'm

Speaker 45: the senior program and data manager at CTWI. I work with our team to build community-based, effective, data-driven pathways for local community members so that they are better prepared to thrive in union construction careers. This funding will be utilized to plan, design, and develop a construction pathway at Castamont High School so that Oakland youth will receive the education, preparation, and training necessary to get placed into union construction careers

In

Speaker 45: this program, students will work with their hands and meet with tradespeople, contractors, and industry partners to learn about and connect with union construction careers post-graduation. They'll learn job readiness skills, safety skills, and construction math necessary to succeed in this field. In addition, this funding In addition to funding this high school program, we'll also plan to strengthen partnerships with local CBOs and city departments to build stronger ties with the African-American community to ensure that both job seekers and contractors are benefiting from federal and local infrastructure investments. We want to make sure that quality high road jobs remain in Oakland. And so we're committed to advocating for strong labor standards and developing more pathways into the trades that target communities of color

We're

Speaker 45: also committed to providing technical assistance and resources to minority contractors so that people who are living in our community are building in our community. We're honored to be a recipient of these funds that will be utilized to create opportunities for the next generation of Oakland builders

We

Speaker 45: can't do this work alone, and we appreciate Congresswoman Lee and everyone here for sharing this platform with us today. Please come speak with us after this event if you'd like to learn more about us. Thank

you. Please

Speaker 46: welcome to

Speaker 39: the stage from Asian Health Services, Julia Liao, Ben Wang, and Tu Quach

Speaker 47: I'm Julia Liao, CEO of Asian Health

Speaker 48: Services, and Ben Wong, our Special Initiatives Director. I wanted to bring all three of us up here because as Congresswoman Barbara Liao says, it takes a village, so it takes a village. So we just wanted to share a little bit. We're just so incredibly honored to have

this

Speaker 48: KAMI HEALTH PROJECT FUNDING TO SUPPORT OUR CRITICAL WORK AT ASIAN HEALTH SERVICES. JUST A LITTLE BIT ABOUT AHS. WE'RE A KAMI HEALTH CENTER THAT HAS BEEN AROUND

Speaker 49: WE'RE ACTUALLY GOING TO BE 50 YEARS

Speaker 50: OLD NEXT

YEAR. And we've

Speaker 49: got 500 staff who are providing critical medical, dental, and behavioral

Speaker 48: health care services. So when we saw what happened in the pandemic to our patients, there's a lot that's happened, a lot of great loss and hardships. We saw our mental health visits more than double, and we saw in our county how anti-Asian hate and violence went up by 300%. So, we are so thankful for the support from Congressman Barbara Lee, because with the funding, we are going to be expanding our mental health services, and we're going to be expanding those services to include trauma-informed care, and that trauma-informed care is going

to be in Asian

Speaker 48: languages. So, we're excited

Speaker 51: Yes, applause. Thank you

Thank you. So

Speaker 48: we're really excited to have this support because we know that our communities and our patients are suffering so much. And even that we're going to go beyond because we're going to be providing and establishing a mental health academy so that we can grow a pipeline of our own workforce members from our own community who can provide our mental health counseling and services in language and in culture

So

Speaker 48: we want to grow our own

And in addition

Speaker 48: to that, we know that really so much is needed around cross-racial healing

and support. And so I'm

Speaker 48: going to turn it over to Tuquatch who's going to talk more about what we're going to be doing with our cross-healing initiatives

Yeah, as

Speaker 52: Julia mentioned, with the rise in anti-Asian hate, we saw

Speaker 53: the divisive narrative that was out there that actually pitted Asian Americans against our black brothers and sisters. And we knew that couldn't be true. Right here in Oakland, where Black Panthers were founded, we were not going to be pitted against each other. So it was really important that we partner with West Oakland, another federally qualified health center that we've had a long history with that actually helped us become a federally. qualified health center. This, West Oakland has been known to serve many of the black residents in Oakland. And we decided we were gonna partner with them to do a community-based participatory research where we would hear from our own community members about their attitudes, their perceptions, and their experiences. As we know, each of our community has experienced violence in its own forms. So this project was really meant to inform our future work around creating a mental health toolkit to train our own mental health providers to undo racism, to be in anti-racist organizations, as we were providing mental health care to victims of violence. In addition, it was to inform a narrative shift so that we can push back on the divisive narrative that's out there in the media that we're pitting our communities against each other, and to promote more solidarity and more healing within our communities. To date, we've done a series of focus groups and key informant interviews that really informed us as we set out to do some of these joint projects. And it's been such a healing even

Speaker 54: for the staff that have been involved in it. So next, I'm going to turn it over to Ben Wong, who's going to talk about the Stop the Hate War. Good

Speaker 55: evening. Good evening

So

Speaker 55: we know, Congresswoman Lee, as you said, public safety and community safety is such a critical issue right now. And we also believe it really takes an all-hands-on-deck approach for comprehensive community safety and violence prevention. Asian Health Services is proud to be a regional lead through a state program called the Stop the Hate program. And through that, we provide subgrants and technical support capacity building. In the first year to 21 organizations doing great work in multiple counties on community-based safety and prevention work. And in the first year, over 10,000 individuals received victim support services, mental health support, and holistic healing because we know that healing looks different for every individual in every community. Going into our year two, we are going to distribute over $20 million to organizations, 44 organizations, in 15 different counties. And our role is not only to provide the resources, but we really look forward to engaging our federal partners as well as our city and county agencies and CBO partners to have a coordinated and comprehensive approach to preventing

Speaker 56: hate, to preventing violence, and to promoting community safety for all of us. Thank

you. - Please

Speaker 57: now welcome to the stage from the Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Center, City Manager of Berkeley, Dee Williams-Ridley

Hi everyone, good

Speaker 58: evening

I think we

Speaker 58: should all just say earmarks are

Speaker 59: good. I'm Dee

Speaker 60: Williams-Ridley, city manager with the city of Berkeley, and I had a ten-page speech for you all this evening

but they

Speaker 60: whispered to me and said we've got to wrap it up. So I'm going to work my magic and just kind of jump through

some

Speaker 60: of the things that I want to point out for our amazing Congresswoman Barbara Lee for allowing the city of Berkeley to continue some of our amazing projects in the city. Because of you, we've been awarded $1 million

Speaker 62: for our African American Holistic Resource Center. Thank

you. In fiscal

Speaker 62: year

Speaker 60: 23 this year, we will be receiving $750,000 for the Martin Luther King Jr. Resource Center and we call it the Yap Center and I just can't thank you enough, district rep for the city of Berkeley and all the other cities. You can hear the amazing programs and projects that people are able to institute because of you. So I want you to know on behalf of our mayor

Our

Speaker 60: Vice Mayor, Ben Bartlett, who is here this evening, if you can stand

Our Parks

Speaker 60: Recreation Director, Scott Ferris

over in

Speaker 60: the corner, Scott, if you can wave again, it takes a village. And Jenzie Bryant, she's sitting there in the middle. Jenzie, can you wave your

hand? You

Speaker 60: don't often get to see the people who actually do the work with our youth. The African American Holistic Research Center and our Youth Services Center, particularly the latter. Gen Z Bryant, she works with the youth. She builds programs, she takes them from camping to interviews to everything that you can think of that would help a young person get up in life. So I want to recognize her

Speaker 62: because she's doing the work on the ground. So because of you, she's able to continue this. So very

Speaker 63: quickly, I want to share a little bit about the facilities and so that folks can know a little bit about what we have going on. So in terms of the Martin Luther King

Speaker 60: Youth Services Center, at this location we run free after school programs, summer programs for middle school students

Speaker 63: It includes tutoring, life and job skills training and mentoring. We have other free programs such as Young

Divas. From

Speaker 60: Boys to Men, no not

Speaker 64: your Boys to Men DVD

Speaker 60: no not that one, but From Boys to Men, how we get our young boys to become men. Particularly a lot

Speaker 65: of these programs serve our black and brown community and I'm very proud of that as an African-American woman raising three young boys and three young girls. Yes, I have a family of six. But I am proud of that, and I am extremely proud to be the city manager of Berkeley and

Speaker 60: have the honor of having you lead our city. So I am going to end there because I was told that this 10-page

Speaker 65: document could not be read. But thank you so much

Thank

Speaker 66: you. Please welcome to the stage our final CFP awardee of today from

Speaker 67: the Covenant House of California, Amber Johnson. Well

I'm delighted everybody else was so

Speaker 68: expressive because I was filling in at the last minute and had like eight sentences. So I've expanded

it

Speaker 69: a little. Covenant House, first of all, I'm Amba Johnson. I'm Director of Prevention and Learning for Covenant House California. And prior to this, I was the Director of Dreamcatcher Youth Services for 10 years. I mention that because you've been such an incredible support for Dreamcatcher over the years also, and I want to always thank you for that. We're with Covenant

Speaker 71: House now, so we're all one. Covenant House serves homeless and trafficked youth between 13 and 24 years

old. We

Speaker 71: provide case management, medical support, legal support, job and school support, but most of all we supply beds, safety, food, and friendship

This work is so

Speaker 71: important. The separation between homeless youth and trafficked youth can be as thin as one more time without a meal one more night without a bed, or one more hour alone and frightened. The separation between trafficked

youth and

Speaker 71: youth that we've lost forever is equally slim. That same amount of time with a bed and food and safety can turn that opportunity that they need to become active members of our community and leaders so often, Safety and basic needs change lives. We see it every day and it's extraordinary. The smallest amount of support for these youth enable them to find a way to their future in the community

I just want

Speaker 69: to thank you again. This year, Covenant House will be

Speaker 71: doubling the beds and starting at the beginning of opening even more transitional beds, which we all know are desperately needed. And I also, this year, we have really turned our focus to young men of color in our program. You know, I've worked in trafficking for 20 years. We've been worried about the girls for 20 years, and when we started to really look and ask ourselves, what is a real holistic solution, we realized we were leaving our young men in the dust, even though they are, in fact, in the middle of an emergency public health crisis. terms of their welfare and outcomes so we have started a focus and a lot of innovative work and I hear miracles every

Speaker 72: week so thank you so

so much Wow

Speaker 73: that is

Speaker 2: amazing work

Speaker 16: I'm done and there's so many more but this is why I love being an appropriator

and being

Speaker 74: This is what it's about. Like I said, don't be a lot of media about it, but

we're

Speaker 75: changing lives and helping to change this. I

Speaker 6: think you may be the best appropriator I've ever seen. And what great

Speaker 2: work. Thank you all for what you're doing for our community. So

So we know

Speaker 7: we are hitting time, but there are a couple questions that came, and a few of the ones that came from constituents you've already addressed so well in your earlier

Speaker 3: comments. So there are just a couple that I'm going to ask you that I don't think we fully touched on. One you mentioned right at the beginning, but I want to have you come back to it. This is coming from a constituent, so the question is, how close are we to getting the votes necessary in the House to pass voting rights

Speaker 26: legislation? This continues to be a top priority and concern in protecting our democracy

What I

Speaker 76: have

Speaker 77: to say about the voting rights, John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, is a couple of things. One is we have passed it in the House twice, two times

And

Speaker 77: in fact, it gets stuck in the Senate

Speaker 78: So that's why you need to go over there

Speaker 77: And that's

Speaker 13: why... Right? Good point. Smart woman. And that's why we

Speaker 16: need to end the filibuster. And I'm going to help end that. Because it's important that

Speaker 79: we have members... the community around the country weigh in with their members of the Senate and say this has got to go because otherwise with the filibuster we're impeding democracy

Speaker 77: we're impeding the constitutional rights that people have based on the fact that they're Americans, and they're being eroded. And so that's where we are, and we're gonna keep at it until it's done. And that's what I have to say about it. John Lewis, he was a phenomenal man. He came here, of course, to Oakland and Berkeley and the 12th Congressional District several times with my young people at the Martin Luther King Freedom Center. And Congressman Lewis

you know, he

Speaker 77: was almost

Speaker 79: killed fighting for the right to vote on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And I was able to, for 18 years, take young people from my Martin Luther King Freedom Center to go and march across that Edmund Pettus Bridge with John Lewis, recognizing the importance of John Lewis and those freedom fighters and those foot soldiers who fought and some died to get us to the point where everyone had the right to vote, including my own family. I come from Texas, born and raised in El Paso. And so it's a shame and disgrace

Speaker 77: It's immoral, it's anti-democratic, and we've just got to get it done. But the House, again, has passed it. Of course, we have, Democrats are not in

Speaker 79: the majority this time, if you know what I mean. And so

Speaker 16: we've just got to get it

done. And we

Speaker 3: know you will keep fighting for that. This was one I was very curious about as well, and you were just mentioning it. And you mentioned it earlier in some of the efforts you were describing, but can you talk about how you've worked across the aisle in this current climate to create and pass

Speaker 80: important legislation? And how do you just do it? How do you just cope and go to work? Let's face

Speaker 18: it, you know? - Well, my background is psychiatric social work. I'm a psychotherapist by profession

So

Speaker 79: I listen and I try to find common ground. And I'm gonna give you a couple of examples that are very current

Of

Speaker 12: course, I have been fighting for years since our beloved Ron Dellum's passing. You know Ron

Speaker 81: Give Ron a round of applause and he was a phenomenal leader. And Ron

Speaker 77: after he passed, and I worked for him for 11 years

I was

Speaker 77: an intern for him, and I said, I've gotta do something that will acknowledge the legacy of this great man

I said, but how

Speaker 77: am I gonna do that with Republicans

So

Speaker 82: I

Speaker 77: decided, again, going back

Speaker 79: to my role on the Appropriations Committee, Now, for those of you who don't know, Ron was always, he was a former Marine. He was the first African-American chair of the Armed Services Committee, and he never voted for his own budget as chair because the military budget was too excessive. It had nothing to do with our national security but fueling the military industrial complex and weapons and arms dealers. So Ron always said, you know, no more funding. We have to get this in balance, like I'm trying to do with

my

Speaker 79: 100 billion cut, which needs to happen, but Ron was known for that, and he went to Congress on an anti-war

Speaker 77: platform. Fast forward to Ron passes away, and I'm saying, "I've gotta do something." I said, "I know what I'm gonna do," because Ron was so respected, had so much

Speaker 12: integrity, that even the really conservative Republicans respected him, even though they disagreed. So, I established

in I'll

Speaker 27: tell you in a minute what. The Ronald V. Dellums Fellowship for STEM education for underrepresented children, young people

Speaker 83: So last year

as an

Speaker 18: appropriator, it took me several years since Ron passed to get it. I got $5 million, 30,000 a year for a young person, guaranteed job after the fellowship. But guess where it's

housed? the

Speaker 18: Pentagon it's over there in the Defense Department and I share that because

Speaker 79: it it's a testament to Ron's integrity he was so much against what they were doing but they they respected him over there and so when

I went

Speaker 79: to the Republicans in the Appropriations Committee and on the floor when I went to the Pentagon and say I want

Speaker 9: to do this in Ron's name with his legacy. You all know who he is. And they said, yes

Speaker 79: let's do it. And so that's what one of my pride and joys in terms of honoring Ron, but it was a bipartisan effort that now is really helping our low-income and minority kids with the STEM program that would provide for $30,000 a year. $5 million last year, hopefully $3 million this

Speaker 27: year. That's

Speaker 14: a great example. I have a lot, but it's hard to work, but you have to find where you can work together. Well

Speaker 80: yeah, that background in, what did you say? Social? Yeah

I

Speaker 18: have my MSW from UC Berkeley

Speaker 84: Go Bears. Go Bears. And my BA in psychology from Mills College. Mills College

Speaker 4: Mills College. Yes, indeed. So

really the

Speaker 3: most pressing question of the evening, I think, is coming here, which is, are you going to the Beyonce concert? I'm

Speaker 27: here

I

Speaker 27: love Beyonce and this was you guys have to see my video before I let go right it was done a couple of years ago but I love that song but my staff had

Speaker 17: me out dancing to before I let go so it's on whatever it's on my website and Beyonce is is Not only is she a wonderful entertainer and beautiful woman, but she has a social consciousness that's really remarkable. And I always think of her when

Speaker 24: I think of my bill in terms of social justice, equity, and the arts. But

Speaker 18: I'm here, and I can't go to a concert because I'm

Speaker 14: working. And I will continue to work for my district

I

Speaker 14: have an aunt who's 102 years old, who's doing fine, and I'm looking out for her and

all of

Speaker 14: that

Speaker 4: Well, Beyonce

Speaker 21: needs to come see you, is what I think. And with that, we are going to wrap it up. Thank you all for being here. Thank

Speaker 85: you, Congresswoman Lee, for all you do. Thank

Speaker 87: you. All right

Look

Speaker 74: at this. Where's all my staff? Thank you. Come up here so you can see them

Where are

Speaker 74: you guys? Everybody, get everybody up

Speaker 86: here. The staff is still here from D.C., Oklahoma. How are you? All our community projects

Speaker 14: Leaders who are changing this district, thank you all very much. Thank

Speaker 88: you, and I think our community groups will be outside, and the staff from Congresswoman Lee's office will also be outside

Speaker 21: Thank you. Have a good night. Stay safe. Come back to the Oakland Museum of California. Thank

Speaker 89: you all

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you