Speaker 1: Right now, the COVID nineteen vaccines are available to millions
Speaker 1: of Americans, and soon they will be available to everyone.
Speaker 1: This vaccine meansful. It will protect you and those you
Speaker 1: love from this dangerous and deadly disease. I want to
Speaker 1: go back to work, and I want to be able
Speaker 1: to move around to visit with Michelle's mom the Hugger
Speaker 1: and see her on her birthday. You know I'm really
Speaker 1: looking forward to is going the opening day in Texas
Speaker 1: Rangers Stadium with the full stadium lost enough people in
Speaker 1: which self enough damage. In order to get rid of
Speaker 1: this pandemic, it's important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated.
Speaker 1: I'm getting vaccinated. We college, we won't just pant to
Speaker 1: end as soon as possible, So we urge you to
Speaker 1: get vaccinated and when it's available to you, so roll
Speaker 1: up your sleeve and do your part. This is our shot.
Speaker 1: Now it's up to you. America is all aways been
Speaker 1: at its best when we're looking out for one another
Speaker 1: and pulling together and common calls. Now, with the development
Speaker 1: of safe and effective COVID nineteen vaccines, we've got the
Speaker 1: chance to rise to the moment again. I encourage every
Speaker 1: American to get vaccinated as soon as it becomes available
Speaker 1: to you, and to feel confident is Hillary and I
Speaker 1: did when we got ours, that it will protect you
Speaker 1: and your loved ones and bring us all one step
Speaker 1: closer to ending this pandemic. Over the last year, the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen pandemic has sent shockwaves through societies all around
Speaker 1: the world, claiming nearly three million lives, creating economic upheaval
Speaker 1: and exposing systemic inequalities in areas like health and education.
Speaker 1: Here in the United States, the pandemic has had another
Speaker 1: particularly ugly ripple effect, and one that hasn't gotten anywhere
Speaker 1: near the attention it is earths since the outbreak of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, there's been a dramatic rise in hate crimes
Speaker 1: against Asian Americans across our country. These have ranged from
Speaker 1: verbal assaults, divine and attacks, many of which have been
Speaker 1: perpetrated against elderly people, with some causing death. In New
Speaker 1: York City alone, there's been an increase in more than
Speaker 1: eight hundred and anti Asian hate crimes reported in compared
Speaker 1: with these attacks have been fueled both by scapegoating and
Speaker 1: xenophobic rhetoric from public figures, misinformation and outright disinformation, distributed
Speaker 1: and amplified through online platforms and other means. Sadly, they're
Speaker 1: also just the latest and a long and often overlooked
Speaker 1: history of prejudice against Asian Americans, prejudice that they have
Speaker 1: faced throughout our nation's history. So why am I telling
Speaker 1: you this? Because words matter, especially when they're spoken by
Speaker 1: people in power. Stereotypes and slurs and misinformation and disinformation
Speaker 1: can have real, often horrifying consequences. The people being targeted
Speaker 1: by this hatred and racism our friends, our family members,
Speaker 1: our colleagues, our neighbors, and it needs to stop. Today
Speaker 1: I'm joined by a Congresswoman, Grace Ming of New York,
Speaker 1: a leading voice in Congress who's using her platform to
Speaker 1: raise awareness about these attacks, protect the Asian American community,
Speaker 1: and address some of the other inequalities that have been
Speaker 1: worsened by the pandemic. She recently altered the House resolution
Speaker 1: condemning and denouncing all forms of anti Asian sentiments, including
Speaker 1: those related to COVID nineteen. Congresswoman, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being here today, and thanks for all you're doing
Speaker 1: to call attention to this important issue. Let's start because
Speaker 1: a lot of our people live in areas in America
Speaker 1: who don't have which don't have a lot of Asian Americans.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your district
Speaker 1: and what inspired you to run for Congress. Sure. Well, first,
Speaker 1: I wanna thank you, Mr President for uh an amazing
Speaker 1: legacy of service to our country and for providing hope
Speaker 1: for so many across the country still to this day. UM.
Speaker 1: And I'm honored to have this opportunity to come here
Speaker 1: and have this discussion with your followers and fans across
Speaker 1: the country, and thank you for highlighting this important issue. UM.
Speaker 1: Just a little background about myself. I was born and
Speaker 1: raised in Queens, New York, UM, the daughter of immigrants.
Speaker 1: My parents came to this country in the early seventies.
Speaker 1: My dad worked at a restaurant for most of my
Speaker 1: child hood, so I didn't really see him much during
Speaker 1: the week um or the weekend, but we always saw
Speaker 1: him on Monday because that's the day he was off
Speaker 1: and that's when business at the restaurant was the slowest. UM.
Speaker 1: And later on he became a restaurant owner himself. Small
Speaker 1: business owners, similar to the stories of so many immigrant
Speaker 1: families across the country. Regardless of where they came from.
Speaker 1: And also in a lot of the rooms that I
Speaker 1: was in, there just weren't a lot of people who
Speaker 1: look like me, not a lot of minorities, not a
Speaker 1: lot of women. And so you know, I, unexpectedly, without
Speaker 1: any experience, decided to run for the state legislature. I
Speaker 1: didn't win the first time I ran. I tried again,
Speaker 1: and I won. I was there for a few years,
Speaker 1: and one night suddenly heard the news that my congress member,
Speaker 1: Congressman Gary Ackerman, was retiring, and we were shocked. He
Speaker 1: had been there for about thirty years. So within about
Speaker 1: thirty six hours, I went from helping to recruit candidates
Speaker 1: to being recruited myself. My husband playing a large role
Speaker 1: in this uh suggesting that I give it a shot.
Speaker 1: I thought he was crazy. I had just had two
Speaker 1: young kids under the age of three at the time.
Speaker 1: Was probably the worst decision in terms of balancing mom
Speaker 1: life and work life, that I could have made. But
Speaker 1: here I am, um, and so I'm proud to represent
Speaker 1: one of the most diverse districts in New York and
Speaker 1: across the country. We have a little bit of everyone
Speaker 1: from everywhere. We have the best food, and I know,
Speaker 1: President Clinton, you and your family are no strangers to Queens.
Speaker 1: We we adopt you as one of our own. UM.
Speaker 1: And so I'm really privileged to represent a district that's
Speaker 1: completely within Queens. And every day is different, and every
Speaker 1: day you hear new stories, and especially during this COVID pandemic. UM,
Speaker 1: we have seen the best of people, and we have
Speaker 1: seen people go through the worst of situations, heartbreaking stories
Speaker 1: from all corners of our county and our city. For
Speaker 1: those who are listening who don't know, the New York
Speaker 1: City Borough of Queens is the most diverse urban area
Speaker 1: with three million or more people on Earth. It's amazing
Speaker 1: there's somebody there from everywhere. But it has always been
Speaker 1: the borough of New York with the largest Asian population.
Speaker 1: And both Hillary and I have spent a lot of
Speaker 1: happy days with various groups and Queens, as well as
Speaker 1: eating a lot of good food. So let's begin at
Speaker 1: the beginning. What do you think is the cause of
Speaker 1: this sudden, absurd and violence against Asian Americans. Well, so
Speaker 1: it's been about exactly a year actually since our quarantining
Speaker 1: began here in New York State. UM, and when we
Speaker 1: were hearing about the first cases of the virus, I
Speaker 1: think in March, but in the weeks ahead of that,
Speaker 1: before the virus actually came to us here in New York,
Speaker 1: were were already hearing about a different sort of virus,
Speaker 1: that of discrimination and bigotry. We were hearing about people
Speaker 1: being attacked in the subway, people shouting and blaming them
Speaker 1: for bringing the virus over. UM. We heard about people
Speaker 1: being afraid to go to your local Chinese take out
Speaker 1: restaurant because they thought you could catch the coronavirus by
Speaker 1: going to a Chinese or Asian owned business. UM. And
Speaker 1: it was really hurtful to hear the and president, the
Speaker 1: leader of our country, former President Trump, using words like
Speaker 1: Chinese virus and kung flu. And we continue to hear
Speaker 1: that language over the next few months and the next year.
Speaker 1: And not only that, but we heard leaders of the
Speaker 1: Republican Party continued to use words like that, and they
Speaker 1: kept using it, and we kept hearing about more and
Speaker 1: more attacks, verbal to physical happening throughout the country. So
Speaker 1: it's really been a really very heartbreaking year for the
Speaker 1: Asian American community community who really grew up or came
Speaker 1: to this country under the notion that if you just
Speaker 1: blend in and fit in and stay invisible, be quiet
Speaker 1: and do your job. You know you'll make it and
Speaker 1: you'll be seen as American enough. And right now we're
Speaker 1: going through a sort of cultural transformation where we're saying
Speaker 1: to people, know, you have to get out of your
Speaker 1: comfort zone. You have to talk about what happened to you,
Speaker 1: Otherwise it could happen two people you know after you
Speaker 1: in the future. You have to say it out loud
Speaker 1: and report it to protect other people. Um and so
Speaker 1: that's why you know, we're seeing so many incidents, over
Speaker 1: three thousand reported and who knows how many haven't been reported.
Speaker 1: This is not the first time that Asian Americans have
Speaker 1: been targeted in America. Now, last October, you introduced legislation
Speaker 1: to promote teaching of Asian American Pacific history in schools
Speaker 1: across our country. To what extent do you think there's
Speaker 1: a lack of awareness about the history of Asian Americans
Speaker 1: contributing to what's been happening. I've really started to think
Speaker 1: about this actually during the Black Lives Matters protests last year.
Speaker 1: So our country is going through this pandemic. Then we
Speaker 1: witnessed the murder of people like George Floyd, Brianna Taylor,
Speaker 1: and the real, authentic hurt and pain that are black
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters were facing in this country. And what
Speaker 1: we saw, for you know, probably one of the first times,
Speaker 1: was that the people at these protests and rallies weren't
Speaker 1: just black people. They were Asians. They were Latinos, Native Americans, young, old,
Speaker 1: you name it, kids. And I started to be approached
Speaker 1: by a lot of Asian Americans, maybe older, maybe newer
Speaker 1: to this country, who asked why I and why Asian
Speaker 1: Americans cared so much about George Floyd and the Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter protests, And I had the opportunity had to
Speaker 1: have really raw conversations, uncomfortable but important conversations with them,
Speaker 1: you know, and realizing that gosh, you know, they didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily grow up in this country. They didn't have the
Speaker 1: history lessons to learn about, even topics like segregation that
Speaker 1: we assume everyone knows about um. And this led me
Speaker 1: to think that the history lessons that we as Americans
Speaker 1: have learned in this country have not been complete. I
Speaker 1: barely learned about Chinese immigrants building the railroad. I barely
Speaker 1: learned maybe a paragraph about Japanese incarceration camps. I barely
Speaker 1: learned about the slaves that built the US capital, the
Speaker 1: place where I work every single day. And I realized
Speaker 1: that to make long term change and the long term
Speaker 1: solution to addressing systemic bias and eduction and you know, uh,
Speaker 1: the infrastructure and equities, we have to talk about education.
Speaker 1: We have to teach history in a more complete and
Speaker 1: accurate way. Um. And and that's why I propose this legislation.
Speaker 1: And I to give a shout out to now Secretary
Speaker 1: Marsha Fudge and Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Haucus, Joyce Batty.
Speaker 1: They're working on they've been working on legislation to have
Speaker 1: black history taught more completely in our curriculum across the
Speaker 1: country as well. Um. But I think we have a
Speaker 1: real opportunity here me too. One thing I should have
Speaker 1: said at the beginning is that just a little fact
Speaker 1: that's worth noting. While it is true that the first
Speaker 1: reported case of the coronavirus came out of UHA in China,
Speaker 1: in fact, we now have evidence from tracing that the
Speaker 1: first coronavirus cases in America came from Europe. And look,
Speaker 1: that's the way these things work. People want to understand things,
Speaker 1: and we put each other in categories all the time.
Speaker 1: But if it blinds you to our common humanity and
Speaker 1: to ordinary notions of justice, and even to looking for
Speaker 1: the facts, then your society gets in trouble. And we've
Speaker 1: been in a lot of troubles from the beginning of
Speaker 1: this country because we elevated categories over people. And when
Speaker 1: you do that, you turn people into two dimensional cartoons,
Speaker 1: and you get a big mess on your hands. And
Speaker 1: people who feel they're in a dominant category are tempted
Speaker 1: to abuse others trying desperately to hold on to something
Speaker 1: that they may be losing by their own behavior. And
Speaker 1: you've tried to expose all this. I'm really grateful. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. Let's talk a little about language and rhetoric,
Speaker 1: um and over and over again. You were out there
Speaker 1: warning the public and elected officials not to blame the
Speaker 1: Asian America and community for COVID nineteen. You condemn the rhetoric,
Speaker 1: You condemn those who are stoking it and fueling these hatas.
Speaker 1: But talk about how that rhetoric and language of people
Speaker 1: who could command of public following contributed to this. How
Speaker 1: did you see it and how did you think that
Speaker 1: it contributed to the coronavirus causing a spike in anti
Speaker 1: Asian sentiment. Well, when I first heard the former president
Speaker 1: use words like Kung fluent Chinese virus, I was really horrified.
Speaker 1: And every time he said it, I thought, Okay, this
Speaker 1: will be the last time. He couldn't possibly continue to
Speaker 1: use it. UM, And even the w h O, the
Speaker 1: World Health Organization, even his own Secretary of Health suggested
Speaker 1: that we don't use words like that, but he continued UM.
Speaker 1: And So while racially motivated harassment of Asian and Americans
Speaker 1: is a longstanding issue and certainly didn't start last year, UM,
Speaker 1: but since COVID nineteen began, the incidents have been, you know, NonStop.
Speaker 1: And when you have a leader in this country who
Speaker 1: has a tremendous platform use words and fuel um false
Speaker 1: facts and and misinformation about the virus UM. And it's
Speaker 1: perpetuated by the leaders, the top leaders of the Republican
Speaker 1: Party in the White House and in the Congress. What
Speaker 1: happens is people Asian Americans are getting shoved, assaulted, spat
Speaker 1: on UM. Just two days ago, in a park right
Speaker 1: near my house, a mom was out with her baby
Speaker 1: and a man came up to her, spat at her direction,
Speaker 1: spat in her direction three times in front of her baby,
Speaker 1: and said, Chinese virus go home. And this happened, you know,
Speaker 1: five ten minutes from my house. So as a parent,
Speaker 1: as a mom, it just breaks my heart to have
Speaker 1: had to talk to my kids about this. I got
Speaker 1: two middle school kids. UM, and it just it scares me.
Speaker 1: It makes me angry. UM and it's just stems from
Speaker 1: false information, UM and and cowardly acts. I think it's
Speaker 1: worth pointing out that this is not just a speech
Speaker 1: she's giving. She represents a this week with a lot
Speaker 1: of Chinese Americans, I had a lot of other Asian Americans.
Speaker 1: Asian American children represent of all of our school students
Speaker 1: in New York City. And we've opened the schools again
Speaker 1: and under certain strict protocols. But of those who have
Speaker 1: returned to the classroom, fewer than twelve or cent or
Speaker 1: Asian Americans. So we're about a third off. And how
Speaker 1: much of that do you think it has to do
Speaker 1: with the discrimination that's occurred. I think it has something
Speaker 1: to do with it. I literally had a mom friend
Speaker 1: text me right before UM, I started talking to you
Speaker 1: saying that it's so nice out it's too bad. I
Speaker 1: can't let my kids play outside. There's no way I'm
Speaker 1: letting them go to the park with all that's happening,
Speaker 1: and that's just heartbreaking to hear. UM. It's also you know,
Speaker 1: parents and educators play a huge role in combating against
Speaker 1: hateful rhetoric and bullying in schools, so they're also scared.
Speaker 1: Some are also scared to send their kids to schools
Speaker 1: because they don't want their kids to be made fun of,
Speaker 1: They don't want them to be bullied, and they know
Speaker 1: that conversations and things that are said could be hurtful. UM,
Speaker 1: And so that that plays a role into you know,
Speaker 1: some of this as well. Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about some of the community efforts that have
Speaker 1: been made to push back against the discrimination. You know,
Speaker 1: I have been heartened to see so much support from
Speaker 1: other communities. So when I first introduced my resolution for
Speaker 1: Congress to you know, um, speak out and condemn bigotry
Speaker 1: towards Asian Americans, some of the earliest supporters where Karen Bass,
Speaker 1: who at the time was the chairwoman of the Congressional
Speaker 1: Black Caucus, Hawking Castro, chair of the then then chair
Speaker 1: of the Hispanic Caucus, Uh Deb Holland, who is now
Speaker 1: a secretary, name dropping on my super cool colleagues. Um.
Speaker 1: But they stood with us, and they stood, you know,
Speaker 1: publicly at news conferences and at virtual events to condemn
Speaker 1: this sort of violence and bigotry. And I'm so thankful
Speaker 1: we we've had groups like the n DOUBLE A C P, A,
Speaker 1: j C, A, d L, National Urban League, Black Student
Speaker 1: Associations come out and condemn this. And even though I
Speaker 1: live in a really diversity in New York, too often
Speaker 1: different communities are stuck within their own silos. We don't
Speaker 1: have enough opportunities to get to work together and to
Speaker 1: truly appreciate each other. Um. And So even though it's
Speaker 1: largely stemming from these unfortunate incidents, I will say that
Speaker 1: it's really been beautiful to see how these coalitions have
Speaker 1: been building and expanding, and I think in the law
Speaker 1: own run, this will really make our city and our
Speaker 1: country stronger. I also want to point out that when
Speaker 1: you introduced this resolution last year, they passed I think
Speaker 1: two hundred hundred sixty four. Now tell us why you
Speaker 1: reintroduce it. Why did you introduce it again? Since it
Speaker 1: had already passed, so we we did introduce it last
Speaker 1: year past the House, and I was disappointed that one
Speaker 1: and sixty four colleagues, Republican colleagues, couldn't vote for something
Speaker 1: that literally was symbolic and it wasn't political at all.
Speaker 1: I made sure that the content of the resolution wasn't political. UM.
Speaker 1: And this year in Congress, we have a lot of
Speaker 1: new members. You know, last year, I guess for some reason,
Speaker 1: I didn't expect all these hateful incidents to continue and
Speaker 1: to increase. I kept thinking that the end was near.
Speaker 1: And this year we've seen more are incidents than ever
Speaker 1: being reported and being reported by mainstream media. So we
Speaker 1: just felt that it was really important to once again
Speaker 1: take a stance, especially with so many new members of
Speaker 1: Congress and with a new White House. UM, to take
Speaker 1: a stance and to remind people that your elected officials
Speaker 1: denounced this sort of discrimination. And do you think you'll
Speaker 1: get more Republicans this time? I hope so, I really hope. So.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of them are very sympathetic. But
Speaker 1: one of the unfortunate consequences of all this gerrymandering has
Speaker 1: been done is that most Republicans are in districts where
Speaker 1: they're more afraid of a primary than a general election,
Speaker 1: and everything's been turned into politics. I mean, there was
Speaker 1: a poll that came out today on the vaccines or
Speaker 1: recently done by Marris which said that percent of the
Speaker 1: people who voted for President Trump wouldn't take the vaccine
Speaker 1: even though he's taken it. We somehow have to recapture
Speaker 1: a sense of our common humanity and a feeling that
Speaker 1: some things are beyond politics. If every single issue is
Speaker 1: a test of your partisan loyalty, it will all be blind.
Speaker 1: Before long, we will be blind to anything that affects
Speaker 1: someone else. And we have to ask people to go
Speaker 1: back to treating people as they would like to be treated,
Speaker 1: not necessarily as they feel they have been treated. And
Speaker 1: I hope you get more than three votes this time.
Speaker 1: Me too, Me too. Let's talk about the larger impact
Speaker 1: on this. A lot of these events, including the violence
Speaker 1: against Asian Americans, have laid bare structural and equities, a
Speaker 1: loss the board, and it's all happening at once. I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the reasons that we're seeing this
Speaker 1: and one of the reasons I think what you're doing
Speaker 1: is so important is we've got to settle down and
Speaker 1: get people to accept joint responsibility instead of reflectively looking
Speaker 1: for someone to blame. That. That's true, and it plays
Speaker 1: a huge role in all of this. People, especially when
Speaker 1: times are tough, people look for a scapegoat. They need
Speaker 1: a scapegoat, They need to have a better understanding of
Speaker 1: why things are happening, UM, and to help explain the
Speaker 1: inequities that they face, whether it's to themselves or to
Speaker 1: the people around them. And when you already feel like that,
Speaker 1: when you are vulnerable to that sort of frustration and anger, UH,
Speaker 1: false narratives and false news from a leader with a
Speaker 1: large platform like the former president UM really adds fuel
Speaker 1: to the fire. UM. And so that's why it was
Speaker 1: so so damaging UM two for him to sort of
Speaker 1: lean in on people who are desperate and looking for help,
Speaker 1: looking for a scapegoat. We'll be right back. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about another thing I know you care a lot about.
Speaker 1: In the last year, almost three million American women have
Speaker 1: left our labor force, and these three million women were
Speaker 1: forced to choose between their jobs and either caring for
Speaker 1: children or other family members. By and large, so last February,
Speaker 1: last month, you introduced what you call the Marshall Plan
Speaker 1: for Moms, which specifically aims to help mothers return to
Speaker 1: the workforce. Tell us a little about why you did it,
Speaker 1: what the bill doesn't, What do you think it would
Speaker 1: mean for economic recovery? Sure? Well, like you said, millions
Speaker 1: of women have left the labor force entirely, about one
Speaker 1: million of those women or moms, they've been forced to
Speaker 1: choose between their jobs and to care for people in
Speaker 1: their own family, whether it's their kids or whether it's
Speaker 1: their their own parents and relatives. Um. I've been working
Speaker 1: on this Martiall Plan for Moms with Senator Klobachar, Senators Duckworth,
Speaker 1: and the former head of Girls who Code Rushima, so Johnny. Um.
Speaker 1: And it is a resolution that hopefully will lift up
Speaker 1: the voices and the christ for help that moms are
Speaker 1: screaming out for help across this country. And we want
Speaker 1: to make or that as we come out of this pandemic,
Speaker 1: that we are doing whatever we can to reform and
Speaker 1: to restructure this infrastructure of childcare and to help them
Speaker 1: return to the workforce if they want to, and to
Speaker 1: help stabilize the childcare industry. Um. You know, moms across
Speaker 1: the country have been facing a public health, economic and
Speaker 1: caregiving crisis. Especially moms of color have been pushed to
Speaker 1: the brink of economic, social, and emotional collapse during this
Speaker 1: past year. They're shouldering all these burdens childcare, remote learning,
Speaker 1: remote work, telehealth, um and oftentimes without much support and
Speaker 1: in social isolation. And so look, moms are always fighting
Speaker 1: in uphill, bad at all against gender norms, um ratio
Speaker 1: and gender pay equity. But you know, this pandemic really
Speaker 1: exacerbated already struct existing structural inequalities UM and so our
Speaker 1: plan is really a framework for moms to help revitalize
Speaker 1: our moms in the workforce. We have an opportunity for
Speaker 1: transformational structural change, and I really want Congress and our
Speaker 1: leaders in the government, corporate, all leaders to take advantage
Speaker 1: of this moment. I think that some of the things
Speaker 1: in this relief bill that you just passed like a
Speaker 1: good beginning on that, including giving cash allowances to families
Speaker 1: for the number of children they have, and talk a
Speaker 1: little about that, because most people just know about the
Speaker 1: check and where the income cut off is. But there
Speaker 1: are actually some really remarkable innovative changes here. Definitely, I'm
Speaker 1: so thankful to our leaders President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: Speaker Pelosi, my speaker, UM, Majority Leader Schumer, UM, and
Speaker 1: of course on my colleagues in putting forth legislation the
Speaker 1: American Rescue Plan that literally will help rescue families, including moms,
Speaker 1: including children. UH. This is a dramatic piece of legislation,
Speaker 1: incredible steps to lifting families out of poverty. Literally. It
Speaker 1: includes money, I think about forty billion dollars to help
Speaker 1: stabilize our childcare industry, so important. Expanding the child tax credit.
Speaker 1: Families are going to get more than the fourteen hundred UM.
Speaker 1: More money into families pockets. UM, vaccines in arms, UM,
Speaker 1: the ability to open our schools back again. UM. Money
Speaker 1: for internet access so our kids could have access to
Speaker 1: a good education, UM in an equally accessible way across
Speaker 1: the country. So there's a lot for families. UM. We
Speaker 1: will continue to fight our Our fight is not over,
Speaker 1: but incredible steps and investments have been made with this
Speaker 1: latest bill. I think it's important that we publicize this
Speaker 1: because this is one of the things that I think
Speaker 1: will help bring America back together again. Of all the
Speaker 1: advanced industrial economies, the United States historically has given the
Speaker 1: least support two families, and that the job of balancing
Speaker 1: work and family and supporting both. And I remember, I
Speaker 1: still believe that the most popular bill I ever signed
Speaker 1: was the very first one, the Family Medical Leave Law,
Speaker 1: And that was way back in that was a generation ago.
Speaker 1: And yet I was never able to persuade the Congress
Speaker 1: to pass an optional plan I offered that would give
Speaker 1: states with stable unemployment funds the option to fund paid
Speaker 1: leave out of that. So say a little more about this.
Speaker 1: This is really a big deal. Definitely, Look, our American
Speaker 1: Rescue Plan not only addresses the COVID nineteen pandemic and
Speaker 1: what we need to build back, but like President Biden says,
Speaker 1: we need to build back better. So with this bill,
Speaker 1: uh is a tremendous first step in addressing a lot
Speaker 1: of the systemic inequities and injustices that already exist to
Speaker 1: lift so many families, so many children out of poverty
Speaker 1: so that they could have food. This there's an increase
Speaker 1: in snap benefits for our kids as well. Kids are
Speaker 1: going hungry and in my district, and you you see
Speaker 1: this around the country. You saw kids online at food
Speaker 1: pantries because their parents had to go to work, but
Speaker 1: they still needed food they needed, even that one or
Speaker 1: two meals a day that they couldn't afford UM. And
Speaker 1: so we're helping to feed kids, we're helping to lift
Speaker 1: them out of poverty. We're helping to give them internet
Speaker 1: access so that they could get a good education. But
Speaker 1: you're right, we need to do more unpaid leave. There
Speaker 1: are moms, there are people who have had to leave
Speaker 1: their jobs, whether they're taking care of their kids or
Speaker 1: whether they're taking care of sick parents, elderly parents, um
Speaker 1: who have had nowhere to go. And so it is
Speaker 1: important as we rebuild, not just rebuild, but rebuild better
Speaker 1: our childcare industry that people will feel that they have
Speaker 1: a safe place, safe caregivers to take care of their
Speaker 1: own kids so that they could pursue a career if
Speaker 1: they choose to UM. And that you're right, it's a necessity.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be a luxury in America. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: another thing that the big piece of this, and I
Speaker 1: know you're interested in it, that's closing the digital divide.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about doing this for more than twenty years,
Speaker 1: and my second term I went to Window Rock, a
Speaker 1: Navajo reservation in northern New Mexico to recognize a young
Speaker 1: thirteen year old girl who had won an academic contest
Speaker 1: and the prize was a computer. She lived on a
Speaker 1: reservation and she didn't even have a telephone line to
Speaker 1: hook her computer into. They're still twelve million children who
Speaker 1: do not have access to affordable broadband in America, and
Speaker 1: I believe it should be part of any infrastructure plan.
Speaker 1: It's one of the cheapest things we could do in
Speaker 1: a hurry that would bring both educational and economic opportunity
Speaker 1: two people in some isolated urban areas, but in many
Speaker 1: rural areas who just don't have access to it. So
Speaker 1: I never thought about this necessarily as a New York
Speaker 1: City issue. I will say that when my kids started
Speaker 1: going to school, though, you know, I remember one night
Speaker 1: I said, you know, take out your textbooks, show mom
Speaker 1: your textbooks. And they laughed at me. They said, what textbooks.
Speaker 1: We don't want textbooks. It's all online. You go on
Speaker 1: the website. Um, And luckily we had internet access, we
Speaker 1: were able to click on the link and get get
Speaker 1: his homework. But I will tell you and how I
Speaker 1: learned more about this was I spent the last four
Speaker 1: years helping out at the d n C the Democratic
Speaker 1: National Committee, and I traveled around the country free a bit.
Speaker 1: I went to over twenties states. I've gone to places
Speaker 1: in Iowa, to Montana, um and even Arkansas. And I
Speaker 1: met families who told me that they couldn't do their
Speaker 1: homework or they couldn't read the news on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: that they would have to go sit in the parking
Speaker 1: lot of a fast food restaurant or go to a
Speaker 1: library if and when it was open to be able
Speaker 1: to do their homework. And I started to learn more
Speaker 1: about this issue. Mr Clyburne from South Carolina has been
Speaker 1: one of my teachers, my professors UM and I learned
Speaker 1: that even in my home state of New York, in
Speaker 1: parts of upstate New York, they can't get reliable internet access.
Speaker 1: And I learned that in New York City on a
Speaker 1: good day of kids don't have access to the internet.
Speaker 1: And so it was actually before pandemic that I started
Speaker 1: working on this. I even joined me a city girl,
Speaker 1: joined the Rural Broadband Task Force started by Mr cliburn Um,
Speaker 1: and we made a lot of headway. And then COVID
Speaker 1: hit and then the whole country suddenly realized how serious
Speaker 1: a problem. This was on a good day before the pandemic,
Speaker 1: twelve million kids didn't have access to the internet UM.
Speaker 1: But then during the pandemic, millions more didn't have the
Speaker 1: necessary access that they needed it. And so we were
Speaker 1: really proud to work with Speaker Pelosi, with Clyburn, Chairman Polone,
Speaker 1: and Senator Marquis and others to bring billions of dollars
Speaker 1: UM and seven billion of it was secured in this
Speaker 1: latest bill, the American Rescue Plan to help close this
Speaker 1: homework gap in the digital divide. And Mr Cliburn and
Speaker 1: Senator Clobridge are actually just introduced legislation to and fuse
Speaker 1: I think it's about two billion more UM for the
Speaker 1: E rate program. So we are making tremendous progress. It's
Speaker 1: a bipartisan issue. It affects everyone in America. We see
Speaker 1: this now. It's a human right. It's like having electricity,
Speaker 1: it's like having clean water. So we're excited. We're headed
Speaker 1: in a good direction. We started the E rate way
Speaker 1: back when I was president, and it's saved schools and
Speaker 1: libraries in small areas, rural areas two billion dollars a
Speaker 1: year before I left office. Just having the E right
Speaker 1: so the system is there, it just needs to be
Speaker 1: made universal. And I think that this is one thing
Speaker 1: I believe you could get a lot of bipartisan support
Speaker 1: for for people who are just listening in who never
Speaker 1: thought about some of this the violence against Asian Americans
Speaker 1: for example, or some of these other issues. We discussed
Speaker 1: what advice can you give citizens who aren't in Congress
Speaker 1: about what they should do to change the environment in
Speaker 1: their communities, to get people talking about these issues and
Speaker 1: to get people loving for not just closing the digital divide,
Speaker 1: but closing the emotional divide that has led to so
Speaker 1: much irrational reaction. That's a great term, um, you know,
Speaker 1: speaking up and saying out loud on any platform that
Speaker 1: you have, whether it's your family and neighborhood or whether
Speaker 1: it's a large Twitter following that you might have. It
Speaker 1: means so much to the Asian American community. We are
Speaker 1: a community that, stereotypically but to some extent true, has
Speaker 1: been encouraged to blend in and to stay quiet and
Speaker 1: to be invisible. And so when people from other communities
Speaker 1: are speaking up for us, it's incredibly power full, um,
Speaker 1: and so impactful. And I think just on issues in general,
Speaker 1: you know, I just want to say that never underestimate
Speaker 1: the power of one on almost any issue, and certainly
Speaker 1: on almost every legislation that I've worked on and that
Speaker 1: I've passed. It comes from everyday people in my district
Speaker 1: and across the country, someone who might not be an expert,
Speaker 1: but detected a problem that they saw in their neighborhood
Speaker 1: and their community. And if you do enough research, you
Speaker 1: realize that that same little problem might be happening to
Speaker 1: Americans all across the country. And it gives us tremendous
Speaker 1: opportunity to be able to work together and to hear
Speaker 1: from the everyday person. And that's how change is made,
Speaker 1: one by one by one. Um. And so you know,
Speaker 1: never doubt and never underestimate your power. A few years
Speaker 1: ago in Berkeley, California, Yeah, I had one of my
Speaker 1: Clinton Global Initiative meetings just for university students. I opened
Speaker 1: the Florida Questions and I asked the students if they
Speaker 1: add any questions they wanted to ask me, And one said,
Speaker 1: what advice would you give to your twenty year old self?
Speaker 1: And I said, never dise empower yourself, Never dis empower yourself,
Speaker 1: never underestimate the ability to raise an issue, try to
Speaker 1: get it right, don't shut out people who want to
Speaker 1: have a discussion with you, who may disagree with you,
Speaker 1: Just don't disempower yourself. And to me, that's the most
Speaker 1: encouraging thing about the current moment. Uh A hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty three million plus people voting in the last election,
Speaker 1: people caring. Even the people who disagree with you and
Speaker 1: me or nearly everything, they live in a country where
Speaker 1: they're not dis empowered. In the last few years, the
Speaker 1: leader of China has decided to stay there for life.
Speaker 1: The leader of Russia is obviously trying to stay there
Speaker 1: for life. We at least live in a place wherever
Speaker 1: free to debate these things and try to work them through.
Speaker 1: And I'm very grateful that's someone like you. I was
Speaker 1: able to work her away into Congress. And uh, I
Speaker 1: know you've been away from your kids more than you want,
Speaker 1: but I bet they're doing fine, and I know they're
Speaker 1: proud of you, and we certainly are. And I thank
Speaker 1: you for your time today. Thank you, Mr President, Thank
Speaker 1: you for all that you continue to do for this country.
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Grace Mayn, thank you. Why am I telling you
Speaker 1: this is a production of our Heart Radio, the Clinton Foundation,
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