And we'll we'll see if it works. Alright. And you. It's just setting up. Okay, you should be all set. Hi, everyone. My name is Simon and I'm running for Congress for District two in Texas against the Crenshaw. Thank you so much for tuning in tonight. I hope everybody is being safe your loved ones, sadly as the death toll tragically rise across Texas, especially in our communities of color and it's at times like this that really understand how much is at stake for our families, our neighbors and our democracy and we need Houston needs leaders. Not afraid to speak up for what's right We need leaders with proven track records for fighting for Houston and we need leaders who are everything to do everything they can to this American dream and I am so honored to be joined by one of those leaders. My friend, the one and only like Congress is Sylvia Garcia uh who was elected to the US House of Representatives in November of 2018, becoming the first Latina to ever represent Texas 29th Congressional. Represent Garcia has dedicated her life to our community and to public service as a social worker and legal and lawyer early in her professional career, she protected our community's most vulnerable old and young and ensured no one was forgotten since then she's gone on to serve as director and presiding judge of the Houston Municipal System controller for the city of Houston member of the Harris County Commissioners Court, Texas State Senator and now United States congressman for the 29th district. I'm so honored to welcome you and uh uh I'm just gonna jump right in, but first I wanted to ask you how you are holding up well, you know there's a new world of of doing everything from home is is uh a new for me you know before this, I didn't even know what it was or teams or someone uh use the platform last week called genes you know I know about James. It's my blue jeans right, but there was actually a platform called genes that we had to set it up. so it's amazing uh. All of this, I mean, I didn't know anything about it until you know March. we're all forced to and to do it. um now I've I have to do almost all my work uh virtually II average, you know anywhere from four to five zoom calls or teams calls or WebEx calls and do a lot of one on ones and FaceTime and in a in a smaller level. like today I met with about four different groups uh just like I would in the office but through but through some of these platforms so the work continues. We're home, but we're not at home watching the weight loss or watching Netflix we are working uh so you know the office may be closed, but the business is going on uh so I hope that everyone at home is is a safe uh that they're wearing their mask if they're washing their hands and keeping social distance cuz we've got to beat this thing. Remember, it's the way the Fed chairman said in Dallas. It's the better outcomes will drive the economy. It's not the other way around. We gotta beat the virus we. We wear the mask and then that will then help the environment and the economy and for Texas to open safely, you are so right Uh Congresswoman. I mean, I think we're all dealing with a new world. you know with the zooms. I don't even know what gene is. I'm sure I'm gonna know that but I wanted to really start with what's really on the mind of top on the mind of all of us, which is the tragic toll this crisis. It's taken on our family, especially our families of color in Harris County Latino families in our district and our state are feeling the brunt of this crisis and you. Just reflected and I just wanted to see you know what we can do the most you know and how we can help and you know as a breast cancer survivor, I understand health care is very personal to me and I've seen the cool effect of our health care system that it has to begin with and you know being in waiting rooms and you know seeing everybody struggling to afford their medicine choosing between utility and I feel a sense of beauty for you know to fight for quality affordable health care, especially in the middle of this panic. When you know you have someone like Crenshaw who wants. Mantle ACA uh and you know, especially for our families of color and I heard recently that showing that 60% of the new cases in Harris County uh especially in my district is affecting communities of color. So I just wanted to start the discussion with you about that. Well, first of all. It's just horrifying horrifying uh that in Texas uh about cat almost half of the deaths have been Latino uh and Shed in Harris County uh the death of combined minority uh or about 60% same as a city uh last week, we had a couple of days where all the deaths or 90% of the deaths in Houston were Latino so it is impacting uh a Latinos more. but what concerns me even more as we're talking about opening schools is it three churches Research has found that in children uh the positive. Rate uh in the need for hospitalization is five times greater in the Latino children and it is other children and I think for African-Americans, it's about three times as much so again even with children and we don't talk about a lot about the numbers for children that we have to remember that in Harris County alone close to it's over 9000 kids close to ten have tested positive and that's before the schools have opened so we should all. A concern that our schools be prepared and that Governor Abbott and the Republicans in Austin released the money that the Congress has set to Texas for education. It's amazing to me that we've seen this billions and billions of dollars to help the schools prepare um but TEA and the governor made the decision to hold on to those dollars to maybe some plant their own budget would just go back to session in January instead of releasing those dollars so they can trickle down to the school districts to. You know, I applaud the county yesterday uh they they passed uh uh a program uh to get more WiFi and and notebooks to to kids in in in the county. Well, you know that's just great, but isn't it really TEA and the state who should be doing that, especially since your own tax dollars have gone through the Cares Act back to the state. so we need. Better. That's why Joe Biden always says we are going to build back better uh and I'm just so delighted as I know everybody is on on on on on the uh watching tonight that Joe Biden could not have picked a better VP choice and Kamala Harris. uh you know she. She reminds me a lot of you and I and our stories you know we're we're we're lawyers. you know we we come from immigrant backgrounds. uh some of us are first. You are as she is uh I'm not I'm I'm third but the history is there. That's what T us together as a country and she's not only gonna be an experience intelligent. You know, know it all ready to go face one on one with Vice President Pence uh she will outshine and outdo him because she is the best uh and I'm just so delighted that our ticket will now be Biden Harris I. Agree with you, I am so delighted that we're gonna have our first black Asian female on the ticket you know coming from you know product of this beautiful American dream that we are all fighting for right now. uh you know and and I think it's just I'm just thrilled about this choice well and I and when you get elected, you will be such a great addition to the Texas delegation cuz remember among the women we've got Eddie Bernice Johnson and Sheila Jackson Lee then we have veronica myself so what better. Another immigrant background woman uh to add to the delegation because then again it will represent Texas and Texas looks like in the future uh and that's what we have to build for. so that's why I'm so glad to be here tonight to support you because we need you. We need your face. We need your voice. We need your intellect. We need your background and your experiences to bring to the table because that's what really matters is not only being at the. But being in a strong voice, we must be bold. We must be loud and we gotta be ready. 100%. We must be bold and loud and fight for everybody who doesn't have anybody to fight for them. You know, especially all our communities that are helping and um you know you are there you're fighting for the money from the heroes back to come to help you know the school's reopen up to help our businesses that are hurting to our to help our communities that are helping and I hope you know this bill is passed and. To do that, I know you and I were both at the memorial Fund raiser for Vanessa again a few weeks a few weeks back and sexually especially in the military, has just been a big issue and uh once again has come into the spotlight and I just wanted to see how do we substantially address this in the halls of Congress. I mean I know we we need you know a accountability, transparency and honesty, and you know really a lot. I investigations for sexual abuse You know in in this, but I just wanted to see your thoughts on this well, you know the um disappearance and murder of Vanessa again. It's just a tragedy tragedy Uh the army failed this soldier the army failed this family and the army frankly has failed us Uh and every parent who entrust their child uh to any of our military forces. Parents who. Go to the base and deliver their child, You know, eighteen or 19 years old to do any of our armed forces, whether it's the Marines the Air Force the army, the Navy, the Coast Guard, I could go through all of them, but it's not just the army. It's all of them uh and it says you know, protect my child because my child is gonna be here to help protect our country. protect our democracy, protect our way of life, but they were failed uh and they were filled. In a number of instances and we've talked about it, but I think the most troubling part for me is that we have the mother. We have the sister and we have a friend who share that, Vanessa told them that she was being sexually harassed, but yet, the army says there's no credible evidence of sexual harassment. That's simply telling these family members that their words don't count There. Don't count and I find that badly offensive as a woman as a parent, you know, I'm not a parent, but if I were uh it's a sister as a friend because I think when a girlfriend shares with me, they've been sexually harassed, I tend to believe them so to me the army should have immediately looked into that when those reports came out and there were in the newspaper and news reports from the very beginning uh and and. And who knows how the investigation would have been handled differently if they had uh because sometimes the sexual harassment as you know, your lawyer and his hair is with no she's a lawyer, Sometimes that could be the motive and and and we don't know and frankly we may never know because now uh Vanessa is gone and the person who has been the one who killed her is gone, but the army is still here so they must do better. so we're working on. Uh Jackie Spear, who is the head of the subcommittee on military personnel, which is a committee of jurisdiction in other words, the committee that deals with all those issues in the armed Services Committee has a bill that will address most of these issues it causes for an independent prosecutor it taking the complaint out of the chain of command so that women will feel comfortable and safe in making complaints Uh it also provides for damages uh uh if if it uh there's a finding of sexual harassment it. it calls for a. Looking at how cases of missing persons are handled because imagine she disappeared on April 22nd, but the remains were not found until about July 1, I think months why did it take so long? so we wanna look at that and uh obviously for also for a lot more transparency in the whole process, but the key ones or the independent prosecutor out of the chain of command because until. And sometimes men are not afraid of retaliation or not afraid of being bullied, not afraid of any retribution or making a complaint will never get the complaint and even their own review show that one out of three and sometimes as many as 40% of the people will uh that are sexually harassed and not complain. They are afraid they are afraid even in Fort Hood, they found one out of three recently, but now there's. National of experts, we're still applying for an independent IG investigation, and of course, the Congress continues in its investigation uh through Jackie Spear and her leadership on the subcommittee of our services. so we're gonna keep fighting and that's what we need you Sema uh because we know that you understand this issue and you know that it's more than just the army we've heard scandals in in the military academies in the past, we've heard of scandal. Military different branches so we need to look at the whole thing uh and make sure that whatever we do in response to this particular case with Vanessa that it's something that will protect all soldiers so that again when those parents entrust their child uh and as the army to please protect them, we need to make sure that the army is prepared to do that. I mean I guess as women and as women of color, we have the responsibility to speak up when we see something wrong for so long, we've been told our voices don't matter and our concerns are not valid and. Are to be expected, but we have to stop that expectation from top down from the neon to Congress from the barracks to the White House, and I know you're doing that and I can't wait to get there and you know fight for this well. I'm I'm glad you said that because you're again, that's the part that I'm probably when they continue to say no credible evidence cuz it's basically telling three of Latina women, her friends and family that she talked to your words, Don't matter I say. Do matter and especially about sexual harassment and they should have listened. I wanted to ask you in Congress to serve on the House Judiciary and House Financial Services Committee to responsibilities that you are uniquely qualified to fill groups fulfilled and I just wanted to see how has that process of transparency and accountability been undermined in this administration and what do we need to do to fix these problems in Congress? but you know Zuma US probably the multimillion dollar question and we don't have enough time Uh and I don't wanna. wanna steal your. Tonight um but let me tell you this president uh does not does not believe in the rule of law. He simply thinks that he's above the law or we say in Spanish uh what he is above all he thinks he's above it all you've seen that even in some of his actions recently just think about even this whole negotiation for the heroes that remember here's act is a relief bill, but it's more. Relief it's it is about expanding the snap program the food program it is about extending the unemployment checks to $600 supplement it is about uh another stimulus. check this time 2000 uh per uh uh individual and it is about continuing what we started, but it added even more dollars for testing and tracing and treatment, it added dollars for the school districts more money for school districts to prepare for going back to school, it added. Needed dollars $1000000000000 for local governments, I mean, just think about it, the city of Houston would get 1.7000000000. $1.7000000000 under the Heroes Act to help them because they've lost revenues because of the epidemic, Pasadena would get 123000000. You know, Harris County would get 2.6000000000 US Togo. would you like to have $2.6000000 to help her to get to her next budget? She's gonna say yes, but this. A administration feels like well, you know it's up to you know the governor should handle it with the governor's need money too. So the problem here is that it's more than just that and the other thing that that's part of the hero's Act. It's so critical is rental and mortgage assistance for families. I'm hearing more and more calls on evictions and I'll be able to make rent and those are things that are important, not just to those families, but it's important to. Companies that have the the liens it's important to the landlords and they don't get the money it it multiplies so, but this person doesn't think he has to work with Congress. remember negotiations going on, he kept saying no to everything so that any issues his own orders because he thinks he can just do it and ignore Congress, but the bottom line is his executive orders are frankly many. Three of them were just sort of guidelines it hardly much of anything the only you want and even the the payroll of uh the prayer of tax uh may not even be helpful and all he's gonna be doing is putting social security at risk. So this person I can't you know I can go on and on with examples you all know I was impeachment manager. We got a long list, but you know what happens That Senate keeps enabling him keeps backing him up. So what we need to do is good Democrats is call the other two members of the Senate and from Texas and put more pressure if they start thinking about local governments that they start thinking about first responders that they think about the families in need uh because if they don't then we need to vote for MJ Hager and we need to make a change so that we can have control of the Senate uh and keep the control in in the the house and then take. Presidency so that we can just redo and unwind everything that's been done uh and get our country back and we can build back better and that's why we need SEMA in Congress uh to make sure that that she can help us with the majority that we need uh and have the extra votes cuz sometimes one or two Democrats don't stick with it. so we need more than just a majority. We need a super majority so that we can make sure that we. On any program that helps working families so when we win, we need to ensure accountability in Congress by supporting HR one anti corruption bill and clean up our politics. Absolutely uh you know you would be surprised if some of the stuff that the you know we we've the Uh uh the Cares Act had a um a oversight Committee Uh uh joint committee uh that would look over the spending of the. And it's amazing what they're finding, particularly when it comes to the P loans. uh one example they give is today with some group. I forget the name of it. They got 170. 176000000. $176000000, but they claimed they didn't ask for. Okay. So how does that happen? if you just get 160? 16700? $16776000000 in your bank account that you weren't expecting so uh when um Mnuchin, the secretary treasurer uh comes to before that committee. I think it's next week he's gonna get a real. a lot of questions like how can that happen when we're hearing that here locally, so many small businesses weren't able to get their loans and they ask for it So SEMA it's is. it Potential corruption it is about the lack of transparency but our job is gonna be to make sure that there's real accountability and that we know where every single dollar is going. Absolutely II. It's sadly it's really all the time we have tonight but before I close I wanna thank our Congresswoman Garcia for joining me for this discussion. You are an incredible champion for the people. Thank you at Texas 29 is lucky to have you and I cannot. To join you in Congress and if I can I'd like to end with a personal note, my Spanish is a bit rusty, but I'm gonna give it a shot and um just say a little bit sore but as my friend who had copied aorta the Trump. Les comme on a sur les mamans. Qui ne tient des potentiels de la canicule médicale parasale. Les comment propriétaires et on a pris Kenny qui comprennent la difficile esthétitionniste chasse familiale. rébellion et ni l'est de personnes Soy que de este virus que You're doing great, you're doing great and the numbers more testing last time, Yes, Latinos stands with for family medicine I Empresas y que luche por el inmigrante el soñador y el pueblo esta es la congresista que yo seré y necesito tu ayuda para llegar aquí te invito que sea esta un voluntario y que dones y participes. espero que tú unas a nuestro y ganes más este batido junto somos. y me las encima por Texas. FO TX please stay safe. Stay healthy, Wear your mask and we're going to win this together. Thank you so much and thank you again. Good night. Thank you.