WEBVTT - Where is the Action ( Congressman Jamaal Bowman) 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:04.800 I want to what we're trying to figure out. What 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.479 we've now already talked about some of your early stuff. 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.080 And I think people need to do some research because 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.680 what often happens in our community is that people say, well, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:17.360 oh no, he's already you know, he's a congress but 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.319 he don't understand, he don't get it. But understanding where 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.120 you come from, um, you know, knowing that you at 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.560 one point lived in public house, and understanding your your 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.560 journey through the Bronx becoming a principle, bring people like 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:32.680 my son into your school, which I didn't know about. 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.640 So this is new information for me as well. Um, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.400 and now going to Washington, it would seem that's the 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.480 story we're trying to really replicate in our communities over 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.760 and over again. And UM, now what we're trying to 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.080 figure out Since you're there, we celebrated you. Now we 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:50.879 need to go to the effect that we're mad at 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.480 all of y'all because ain't not happening. So tell us 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.040 what why is there so much? Uh? Some people want 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.680 to say stalling. I'm at the point where I just 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.040 I'm I don't even know the appropriate word to describe 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.480 what how frustrated I am about the lack of action 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:16.760 in Washington on policing, you know, now, voting rights, um, 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.160 and just so many other things. So why don't you 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.480 just kind of you talk. We'll listen. Yes, So, Um, 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.760 the short answer is Republicans don't want to do anything 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.400 at all. And then we have a few Democrats who 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.840 behave like Republicans. And you've heard the names Mansion in 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.880 Cinema and the way the Senate works, And because we 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.520 have such a thin majority, if Mansion and Cinema aren't 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.600 on board, even through a reconciliation process where all we 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.160 need is fifty votes, then we can't move anything like that. 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:51.480 That's the short answer. The longer answer is the filibuster. 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.080 So the filibuster was put in the place several decades 0:01:55.080 --> 0:02:00.000 ago pretty much designed to stop civil rights legislation from 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:06.240 moving forward and to UH acquiesce um to Southern Democrats 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:11.440 who lived in racist KKK driven communities, and so any 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.279 civil rights legislation we try to move forward to filibuster, 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.760 which means we need a super majority sixty votes in 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.640 the Senate to pass legislation is still in place because 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:26.280 of that, you know, Voting rights UH S one and 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:31.960 S four uh, commonsense, gun reform, um, immigration policy, all 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.200 of those policies that have already passed the House. And 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.320 that that's the thing, like it's it's not all of Washington. 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.440 It's like the House passed these bills arecy. Now it 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.079 gets to the Senate, and each senator, especially with the 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.760 the majority, is almost like a president. They could they 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:48.760 could dumb up a thumbed down a bill and the 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.560 bill will not will not go anywhere. So that that's 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.440 the short answer. The longer answer, and what you and 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.240 I have talked about offline, Tamika, is we as a community, 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.680 I don't think are doing enough to really build coalition 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.960 and will and use the coalition to engage Congress and 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.639 the White House and to build power in Congress and 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.440 the White House. And I'm saying that because and we 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.880 talked about this, there are other groups and other lobbies 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:23.799 in Washington, the Fraternal Order, police, fossil fuel industry, pharmaceutical industry, etcetera, etcetera. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.280 They don't make a couple of calls and literally will 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.000 be voting on the bill on Tuesday that we didn't 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.760 know about on a Monday, because people may some calls 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.080 or they'll get a bill pulled. UH that we was like, yeah, 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:38.480 I thought he's gonna vote on this, and they're like, 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:40.800 now we decided not to not to not to put 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.400 that forward, they'll get it pulled on the same day 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:47.800 as well. So the consistent engagement of members of Congress 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.760 underneath around a black agenda, if you will, agenda to 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.560 uplift poor people and everything we're fighting for is what's needed, 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.240 both in the short term and the long term. So 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:05.160 it's very frustrating. Now good news is this reconciliation package 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.440 that we're working on right now. It seems like we're 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.839 making forward progress in a way that's going to really 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.920 benefit the entire country, but particularly communities of color and 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:20.119 black communities. Investments in affordable housing, public housing housing vouchers, UH, 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:27.279 universal childcare, Medicare, Medicare and Medicaid expansion three K programs clients. 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.479 So this bill has a lot in it, and the 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.080 American Rescue Plan also had a lot in it as well, 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:37.039 with with investments in public education. But in terms of overall, 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:43.960 you know, Congress isn't responsive to like our demands or 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.359 agenda if you will, because I think we need to 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.039 do a better job of organizing around their building coalitions 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.920 underneath that agenda and then using it to wheel power 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.320 in Congress through the CBC and other means as well. 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.760 Is it frustrated for you being a congressman who gotta 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.920 let did and on the right things for to do 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.159 the right things and watching, you know, being involved in 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.000 the situation like we see right now, just seeing how 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.680 it's just not everything you're trying to do and old 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.800 things you want to do to seeing it be installed 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.960 and and you know prolonged. So yes, um it is, 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:26.279 and it's it's like deflating as well. Like so a 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:32.120 couple of weeks ago, while Black Asians were being harnessed 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.560 at the border with horse reins, the George for Justice 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.600 and Police and that was dying in the Senate without ceremony, 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.120 Like it didn't even get that much coverage. And for 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.480 those two as a black man, for those two things 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.760 to happen at the same time, and and you know, 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.839 we we brought attention to what was going on with 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.680 the Aitians at the border, which was good, but it 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.160 still just felt like, damn, when it comes to our stuff, 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:03.719 it dies without ceremony. But again, you know, other issues, 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.640 like I'll give you an example, um, the appropriate. We 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.360 just went through our first appropriations process, which is how 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.919 the federal government spends its money both here and abroad. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.520 And I had to fight and still fighting to move 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.360 two million dollars, let's say, from the Borough of Prisons 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:28.080 to historically black colleges, UH minority serving institutions and and 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.320 and black small businesses, Like I'm still fighting to move 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:37.080 to million of like a seventy six billion dollar budget 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:41.800 to these areas. Two million ain't nothing on the national level, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.920 is nothing, but because of the way that the structure 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.359 of white supremacy and European seller colonialism is entrenched in Congress, 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.040 that's just how we do business. Same thing with trying 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.400 to send more money to the Caribbean, Like, well, we 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.240 fund countries very well, you know, in Europe, in the 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.560 Middle East and other places, but like the Caribbean and 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.520 the continent Africa, when you compare the money that goes 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.720 there versus other areas, it's clear to see that, like 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.440 you know, no one really has full full organized around 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.920 in Congress for the stuff that matters most of our community. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:24.520 So frustrating, but it's also like I see it as 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:29.400 an opportunity to to do things differently, and like it 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.520 gives me a reason to go to work everything, like 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.840 to to put pressure on people on the inside and 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.480 do enough work on the outside to make sure that 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:39.880 begins to change and it and it is change it. 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.960 I mean, we just we just brought the vice president 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.680 to the Bronx a few days ago. And one of 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.040 the reasons why that happens because we engage them in 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:52.200 consistent conversations around the issues that we're talking about and 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:53.800 he's like, Yo, you gotta come to the Bronx and 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.640 see it. Blah blah blah. And that happened, But there's 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.240 there's obviously more work to do.