My partner on this legislation uh my friend congressman uh Karen bass um we're both gonna be introducing this bill today uh I'll introduce the Senate uh Congresswoman bass will introduce it in the house. um she's right now I understand on the floor of the house um and should be joining us soon um she of course, uh played a key role in the drafting introduction of the George Floyd justice in Policing Act. um. The head of the CBC, I think both of us see the legislation. we're introducing today uh the Community-based Response Act as an essential a compliment uh to the George Floyd justice uh in Policing Act and I wanna thank all the other participants uh in today's call and their organizations uh for the work they do every day uh in fighting for justice in America our. This But really wanna thank them for their input uh as we shaped and framed and crafted uh this legislation um without all of your input, uh we would not be able to move forward uh today in introducing the Community-based Partnership Act uh to my mind, this is long overdue and it's absolutely necessary uh George Floyd Rihanna Taylor Rashad Brooks, Daniel PhD. So many others should be alive today they should be with us at this moment, but black Americans are two and a half times more likely to be killed by police than whites in Maryland African-Americans represent 31% of the state population, but 70% of the prison population, the highest in in It's unacceptable uh and it. Unjust a black Lives matter and we must make important structural changes in order to save lives. It's very clear that we ask a police to do too much in our communities. We ask them to respond to situations where the the use of is unnecessary and where they are ill equipped to provide the appropriate response. As a result, too often those encounters lead to unnecessary escalation and tragic death. So that's why we're introducing this legislation to create real structural forms and alternatives and if you look at the police encounters, you'll find why this is so important and I just wanna focus on some of the data uh with respect. Emergency calls are related to things like mental health or behavioral health crisis. uh check ins for health and safety. uh a lack of housing or health care or as we know emergencies uh in communities that have faced uh historic discrimination just looking at mental health situations we find that they are responsible for one in ten police calls. According to a recent report from the Justice in some jurisdictions, please spend more time on mental health related calls then on burglaries or felony assaults from 2008 to 2018 the number of 911 calls to report emotionally disturbed persons to the New York Police Department doubled reaching nearly 180. 180000 unique calls in a year. And while about 3% of US adults suffer from a severe mental illness, they make up a quarter to one half of all fatal law enforcement account encounters, according to the nonprofit Treatment Advisory Center in many of these situations, we know that communities would be much better served by having an option having a response that could meet these needs that could dispatch. Professionals who are trained in mental and behavioral health or crisis response uh instead of a law enforcement uh that would help to target the the professional intervention to the person in need and allow for the connection to immediate and ongoing surfaces. so, in in addition to avoiding unnecessary escalation uh we connect the person in need with the services that would be appropriate. Uh what. What we find is that if you take this approach and there are other examples around the country uh it can reduce these tragic and unjust deaths uh looking at individuals killed by well enforcement who have a disability. Uh we find that people with an untreated mental illness are sixteen times more likely to be killed during a police encounter and at least one quarter of people killed by police from 215 to 218 were people with signs of unmet mental health needs. As I mentioned, we've seen models work uh in many places around the country and with all that in mind, uh we thought it was very important that we introduced this legislation at the national level so that we create momentum for a national movement uh in this direction or this new alternative and some structural changes and so we have been. Uh for months um going over this legislation um with the people you're gonna hear from uh today uh and their organizations uh the bill we're gonna introduce today will create a federal grant program through the Department of Health and Human Services for localities and Community-based organizations to team up to establish and operate programs that provide a non law enforcement community based. Response for certain situations and with respect to certain populations, uh we need to fundamentally change the emergencies are responded to in so many of these cases uh as I said, we need the right professionals with the right skills uh to provide the response uh this is necessary uh to ensure that. Stop the criminalization of poverty stop the criminalization of mental health stop the criminalization of substance use disorders and stop the tragic unjust and unnecessary deaths. uh we've seen in communities of color so just to end what we would authorize through this bill for these purposes uh is $100000000 uh starting in fiscal year 2021 uh and through. Twenty-five for a five-year initiation grant a 75000000 for each of the fiscal year 2026 and 2027 for 2 year continuation grants with the 25% non federal match requirement. so we wanna make sure we provide the resources uh to get this job done and create the structural changes that are necessary um and with that, I'm going to turn it over. I see that uh congresswoman. Is joined us um at the um I thank you for being a friend and a partner on this legislation and also for all your other work. Uh so make sure we uh achieve justice in America so without further ado, let me turn it over to Congresswoman Karen Bass of California. Well. Thank you so much Senator Thank you for your leadership know you're still missed over here in the house but uh really appreciate your great leadership uh in this effort every year hundreds. Call the police out of desperation when family members suffering from mental illness experience a crisis and threaten or become violent in too many cases, law enforcement responds with force resulting in injury or death and leaving families wrapped with the guilt of calling for help that led to the loss of a family member This legislation provides the resources for the appropriate response Law enforcement. Should not be in the position of picking up the pieces of society's issues when we do not provide resources to communities for health social and economic problems. We then expect police officers to respond this is why earlier this year we passed the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act that provides resources to re envision public safety this bill that community-based Emergency Response Act is consistent. This effort to address one of the reasons why officers encounters results in violence and deaths. I believe this legislation works in tandem with our effort to transform policing in America and we should invest in our communities We should invest in the health, the social and the economic issues in my state in California, we are introducing legislation very similar to this and let me say that I recall in California as part of a national. Effort when we decided that mental health institutions were not the appropriate way to deal with mental illness and we des institutionalize, we ended the institutions, but we ended those institutions with a promise that we were gonna provide resources on a community level and we did not fulfill that promise, which has left so many people suffering from mental illness to deteriorate to the point of crisis and when. Need intervention They have no one else to call except for the police, which is exactly why this bill is so important and this funding is so needed This was needed many years ago. I'm glad we're doing it now and I'm glad that it is all becoming a part of what we need to do to transform how we deal with problems in our community we have to invest in our communities and so we don't have to spend so much money. Incarcerating a health issue we have A. Jail in Los Angeles that we call the twin towers and we say that that is it is the most expensive mental health institution in the United States. so we have moved from institutionalize people with mental illness to incarcerating people with mental illness mental illness is a health issue and should be addressed in that way. I am happy to join the senator in this effort on the house and once again I just thank him for his outstanding leadership. Thank you congresswoman bass and again um Thank you for all you're doing um keep up the fight uh and I know that we're gonna work very closely together and with all the individuals and organizations here to get this over the finish line. I really think as you said, it's an essential our comp uh to the justice and placing uh they go together so now. It's it's my honor to introduce a Clint Odom um he's representing the National Urban League uh here today. uh he's the senior vice president for policy and advocacy and the executive director of the Washington Bureau of the National Urban League, um the league has been right at the nexus of police and criminal justice reform and initiatives to uplift communities for a long time they. How and her experience in working with within communities for a change and really work with us to ensure that their affiliates can bring their expertise to the Community-based response models so uh in his capacity um at the league and all the work that he's done with us. uh we thank you uh mister Odom and let me turn it over to you. Thank you very much, senator and it's a pleasure to be here representing the National Urban League. Uh we applaud. Leadership and the leadership of CBC Chairwoman Karen Bass We've worked tirelessly to get George Floyd, justice and policing uh on the docket and over to the Senate and uh and we know that uh Senator Van Hollen is pushing to get that legislation done there uh was also good to see you at the commitment March uh in August on the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington there in person uh safely. And socially distance, and we really appreciate your leadership uh here uh after the murders of a Mod, Aubrey, George Floyd and Briana Taylor at the hands of police and vigilante earlier this year, Millions of Americans began protesting racial injustice and policing and demanding transformational systemic change, according to a 2019 University of Michigan study deaths at the hands of law enforcement is the sixth leading cause of death of young black men in this. Congress has responded swiftly this summer and introducing the George Lloyd Justice and Policing Act, which the National Urban League in our affiliates uh nine affiliates through Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia. We're proud to support I stand here today on behalf of those members and the Urban League movement to support Senator Van Hollins and CBC Chairwoman Basses Community Emergency Response Act another important tool. A fight reduce unnecessary violence and death the hands of police too often the mental the response to mental health or substance abuse disorders creates an escalating situation that leads in the injury or death of the person who's the subject of that call. so instead of involving law enforcement the training and the skills of mental health professionals are social workers should be used to help resolve and deescalate these situations uh in our RA. Uh area we saw earlier this year that Daniel Prod a gentleman wandering the streets to 3 AM uh in the city suffered a mental exacerbated by drug use officers handcuffed mister PD put a hood over his head and pinned him to the ground until he stopped breathing 2 minutes later he was taken off life support a week later the legislation we're here to discuss today will support local governments and community based organizations with the necessary resources to establish and train human response. Units to resolve conflicts for which police officers were never trained and it was never intended that they respond to. We believe this legislation will reduce police encounters that can escalate and provide those in need with the most appropriate assistance, the National Urban League and our affiliate movement stand ready to partner with local governments to better serve and protect the most vulnerable among us with non police responses to non police problems. Thank you for this opportunity I Thank you very much mister Odom and let me now turn it over to Kate Chatfield um who is the director of policy with the justice? uh collaborative and she's also along with the collaborative in a critical partner uh in developing this legislation and especially um through her monitoring of existing program uh around the country and looking for a best practices that could inform our approach. Uh on this bill uh and the Justice Collaborative is also been taking public surveys uh around this concept of um a different approach um so thank you um uh Kate uh for joining us and without further ado. let me turn it over to miss Chatfield. Thank you, Senator and thank you and thank you. congresswoman bass for your leadership on this um at the Justice Collaborative we work with state local national elections Community groups researchers academics. Policies that ensure that the needs of vulnerable people are met and in this regard um sending a police officers to people who are in crisis who um have a family member in crisis who are on housed is just simply is not meeting the needs of these vulnerable people um police as we know they're trained often uh train to aggressively enforce the criminal code. They're not social workers and. Counselors they're not um experts in uh community based services where they can uh direct on how's people to they are armed to enforce the criminal code to arrest people and that's not what um most people need when they call 911 actually um so our research and our polling has shown that voters understand that they. They they understand that they need and want alternatives to policing for uh events that don't require a policing response and you know it's just common sense. You would no more call a medical doctor to fix your leaky sink. then you would take your child with a broken arm to your plumber. You know we need the right solution to the problem and uh what. Up and people have seen is that policing is not the right solution to a lot of the problems in our communities Um so today we're releasing polling that reveals its 66% of voters across the political spectrum support the community based response grant legislation um this uh reflects this um also uh corresponds to polling that we did in June um showing. Voters support the creation of these programs uh 68% of voters across the political spectrum uh support the creation of these programs and 70% of likely voters support a non police response for calling 911 um as the senator said we do have uh reports and research uh that we uh are posting today that shows the uh these programs at work in local communities. Across the country, there's just been this wonderful um explosion of these local programs but uh to uh set up civilian response teams to meet the the needs of people um but they need uh support from the federal government they need funding um and so um we are just so incredibly grateful to uh the senator and representative bass for leading on this. we think this is. One of if not the most impactful things that can be done right now to address the policing crisis in our country. Thank you. Thank you Miss Chad Field and uh one of the things we want to make sure we did um as we put together uh this legislation was really uh talk to and engage with people who are directly involved uh in their communities um it doesn't do any. Uh for us to put together legislation that's abstract and isn't going to actually meet the needs at the grassroots uh local level and Aaron Maybin is somebody uh who understands what is needed. Uh he's a former a pro football player uh who left the NFL uh to be an artist and activist uh and a change agent uh in his home. Of Baltimore and he provided very important uh input into this legislation uh from start to finish and really help uh the direction that this bill ultimately so that we can be targeting needs and in places like Baltimore and other cities. so mister Maybin thank you for your leadership and let me turn it over to you. Thank you, Senator Van Holland uh thank you to councilwoman bass. Thank you to everybody that is uh been a part of this call and a part of this um long uphill battle towards um real change in our um in our system in our criminal justice system and uh the whole relations between police and communities of color across the country. um as a senator already said um for a few months now we've been having really important conversations and consultations around this whole idea. A reimagining of how 911 is utilized and how emergency community response um is isn't is a necessary. uh it's a necessary component of any police reform going forward, you know um and the aftermath of of all the victims of state sanctioned violence that we've already named here today um specifically uh people like uh uh Rihanna Taylor George Floyd Aubrey, Jacob Blake and so many more uh especially people like Corey Gaines here in Baltimore City. um when you look at these. Um it's one thing for us to acknowledge the clear uh examples of implicit racial bias, brutality and injustice and a lack of accountability. Sometimes they go on um in communities of color uh between uh police officers and people of color, but before we can even begin to record with that, we have to first acknowledge that our police await are asked to do way too much in cities like Baltimore um from the standpoint of community response um as all. Has already been reiterated on this call um several times a lot of the issues that police are responding to they simply don't have the training and experience for in order to really impact uh the situation in a positive way. and I think that whether you agree with the community response model or not everybody can agree with um the idea that by the time the police are called you know oftentimes either. the crime is already been committed or the situation is still at a point where um a community-based. Is still possible and I think that in order for us not to acknowledge that and not not to at consider the necessity uh and the need for reimagining of 911 and how uh we're having community-based responses available as an alternative to simply sending police how that will have a huge positive effect on the negative interactions between people of color and police officers in general and as somebody who like the senator and like Congresswoman bass really does want. C The American people um put in situations where they're given solutions instead of uh uh assigned criminality um by the time the police arrived, I think that when a person is dealing with mental health issues when a person is dealing with substance abuse when a person is dealing with a domestic disturbance of community disturbance and need of mediation when we're sending police as a response instead of social workers instead of people who are clinical therapist people that actually have. EMT training and that can assist from the standpoint of not just getting them what they need and the immediate to stay alive but getting them to continue uh resources necessary to actually fix the problem that took place in the first place. I think that the humanity um attached to that is something that we can't at this point ignore anymore as a society, we need to see um this community emergency response at uh as a law, we need to see this implemented. Like Baltimore, we need to see this um as a major piece of um many discussions that we have going forward around defunding the police around uh a reimagining of all of these things. I think that what was uh the senator and the Congresswoman has have put forward is not just uh um a component of that. But I think that it's a reasonable alternative for certain places that like Baltimore City that already have people like myself, people like Erica Bridge for that, you know is uh. In charge of the Baltimore ceasefire um initiative, you know you have community response that's already in place but without the funding without the investment, you know they're never going to have the bandwidth to be able to service the entire city. You know what I mean we already know in our community who the people are that we trust to handle these issues, but we need that investment and I think the idea for federal grants um that you know the senator and the congressman put forth in this bill um was not. A great idea, but it will serve as um. It's a great resource for um the many community and grassroots base. organizations that need that support in order to provide the solution to the problems that we're all seeing prevalent in cities like Baltimore uh across the country. So again, I wanna say thank you to the senator and the congresswoman. Uh we all understand that this is just the first in a long line of steps towards actually seeing this um piece of legislation um become law and uh I. You know looking forward to being a part of and supporting that effort in any way that I can well. Thank you. Thank you uh for those words and most importantly, thank you for um your input on this legislation and what you're doing uh every day um and Aaron mentioned mediation uh and uh that brings me to our next um great participant uh here um Erica Bridge for uh who is at the center uh as mister Maiden, said of community response uh in Baltimore. City she's organizer of Baltimore ceasefire, which is led to peaceful community celebrations of life and support for the victims of violence. Uh she's taken her own personal pain with the 2007 murder of her brother, David and really mobilize the community to try to bring about a change and peace. Uh she's the director of training for community mediation, Maryland, and so she know. That how the impact of a cool and calm head I can help de escalate a volatile situation and Erica has provided key feedback uh as we've gone through this legislation again because we want to fashion it to make sure that we uh address uh the the real world uh not just um addressing this in in theory so uh without further ado Miss Bridge. Thank you for um all that you're doing. For your your key role in putting this legislation together, Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. I'm really happy about the work you all have done to create this legislation and put it forward um just uh a new update um as of July 1st, I'm actually the executive director at the Baltimore Community Mediation Center and so um yeah, but um so one reason that I'm really. About this legislation is because along with everything everybody's already talked about, I think we we we focus on the murders and violence that happens because of over policing, But I think that what we don't pay as much attention to is how over policing causes consistent trauma in our communities, even when somebody didn't die and it causes unnecessary pressure and exhaustion for police officers so arrests not only to often lead to. But it also leads to people being excessively charged, which then goes a long way to destroy their lives even after they're trying to rebuild their lives depending on the kind of charges that they got, they may not even be able to get things expunged even after they're doing well in their lives and they've paid their debts to society. So in my work in the community mediation movement around the country and also in the Baltimore ceasefire and and mediation work in Baltimore. And Dealing with people in the aftermath of how over police has impacted their lives and we hear many officers talk about how they feel overworked and how often if they even just have the ability to refer people to services that they need in community um that it would that things that would actually address the problems that people call the police for you know, often they show up and they're like. Yeah, this is not something. Do anything about but they don't know where else to send people and so things escalate from there um and so if they had the ability to actually refer people and send people to the services they actually need, then it will help officers build a stronger relationships in the communities they serve, which we all keep talking about needs to happen. So I really love this legislation. I got really excited when I started talking about this is just the first. Because one thing I really love about it is that this is not a proposal for a quick fix or a knee jerk reaction. it is instead of plan to give the needed time and resources to build a more healthy response system and it ensures that the systems can't possibly be built without including the people who are most impacted by over policing and including the service providers like mental health professionals, Addiction recovery specialists media. Is right all of the people, community organizations and professionals who actually do the work already have systems in place Already that are awesome alternatives to policing all of those people are included in building what the response systems would look like and this legislation allows for the time and the resources to be given not just to the system itself, but to what this building. System like this really take what is it look like and who should be included in that decision making and this allows for all of that in a way that we all talk about should be done um but we want immediate answers so that we don't put in the time and work and money that's needed in this legislation is aiming to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you miss. Thank you for um all your input in this legislation and for all your good work um and now why don't we open it up uh for any uh questions. I think it's all of us have underscored we see this is working in tandem with the George Floyd justice and placing actors um Erica just mentioned this is the key long-term structural. Change that we need uh to provide for healthier communities and responses that um help people uh when a police response is just not appropriate or effective um in so many circumstances so well it's we'll we'll be happy to try and answer any questions. People may have if you could just identify yourself and ask the question and if you could let us know what you're with as well. That would be great. I'll go ahead I. Yeah. Hi everybody. Paul Gessler here with the CBS News in Baltimore, WJZ. Um I guess this question is for anybody. Have you see this playing out in practice? Many police departments have this kind of crisis response teams now I guess what guidance would be in place to deploy them just 3 months ago today that we had uh a man undergoing a mental health crisis who was shot by Baltimore police and there was some criticism that they didn't uh deploy the crisis response team. so I'm eager to hear some responses. Well, let me just take a quick crack at it, but then I think um you know, obviously our representatives from Baltimore and others uh may may wanna respond well. I'm sure they will uh look the idea here is to create this capacity and capability um outside the you know Police department uh that's why in this legislation and we have these grants being provided by the federal secretary. Of health and human services because the whole purpose here is when an emergency call comes in that doesn't need a law enforcement response and where other responses would be more appropriate We need to have a capacity to deploy those professionals and and I will say uh while we're all we're looking for emergency response, there's also all the work that needs to be done upfront uh to. Capacity uh in communities we wanna avoid uh as many of these emergencies as we can and so our view is a lot of upfront investment here uh is an important and I wanna say you know as we went through this originally we were calling it the community emergence Community-based emergency response, but we really have changed it to community-based response because yes, we need to be prepared for emergencies and have that group of people who can be deployed. But there's also a lot of work to be done to try to avoid the emergency in the first place and we see that as building on all of it, so let me now turn it over to any of our other uh been starting with any of our representatives from Baltimore. I just think I just think it's personally um important for us to also take into account that um specifically citing the incident from a little bit ago here in Baltimore, where uh the man um the man was shot, but he was dealing with mental health issues I. Important to understand that a proposal like this doesn't stop police from being involved at all. You know what I mean, like because in certain instances you would need police on site just to make sure that um that safety that everybody is safe, you know, but I think the important thing that about a bill like this is what it leads to ultimately is the people that are heading the situation up or people that are trying to know the signs of what they're what they're looking at. They're trying to know when the situation is becoming dangerous, they're trying to understand. Alright, it's cool for them to say we need a police officer to come in to this and um and and and make sure that this person doesn't attack somebody. but I think that um what the community emergency response at uh starts to do is it starts to get us to look at other solutions to these issues rather than just automatically assuming that the police will handle a situation like that, I think that um if anything it allows them to do a more effective job. Um using some kind of force is actually necessary because you have people around that are trying to let you know when they see signs that something is about to happen, but I think often times what ends up happening is when you're not trained and you come on site and you encounter somebody that you're not necessarily uh prepared to encounter um from a mental health standpoint, it might be a knee-jerk reaction for you to use excessive force um not understanding. The person is dealing with and I think that right now when we're looking at a lot of people spending time um protesting and raising issues around this idea of reforming police and reimagining um the way policing takes place in our cities. we have to look at a more community-based um response as a solution rather than um just assuming that police officers that may or may not be equipped to handle the situation um will. Do a more effective job. Any others, maybe we can take the next uh next question there. there is Oneil Harrison, the Washington and former newspaper. um can you talk about right now when you get a 911 call or the police again? Aaron talked about that a little bit about non-lethal of the mental health responders. I thought it was already in place and they were state people that normally respond is that not working in the air. People on the ground in terms of what's in place right now in in terms of what's what's the disconnect there? great. Yeah. let me turn it over. I don't know um I'm sorry. I can't I don't really. I'm not sure I understand your question. Here's the question is right now is someone who works in the hospital for when you call the first responders they come to try to. I guess deescalate the situation what is in place now that's not working because I've always heard about the social workers or counselors and stuff like that is it that someone. Gets there the police get their first they make a decision about the gun or the lethal that's before they even referred to someone in the counseling growing and so I guess I'm to tell what's the need that you see on the ground level. That's just not happening now I guess um so I think your question is broad, but I'm gonna do my best to answer it so different situations require different things, but our problem is that the police are called so far too many situations. That's not just a Baltimore problem. That's a United States problem right where. Police are called um into situations that they either there's nothing they can do about it legally because their job is to enforce the law and this is not AA lost situation um and so there's nothing they can do and in the way that they may engage with people the way people may engage with them, then escalates the situation and somebody ends up getting locked up when they were calling for help or you know things escalate somewhere, but then even when you. About the escalation, it depends on what type of de-escalation is needed and so police officers are not trained with like really deep rooted conflict management skills to help deescalate upset people who are arguing with each other so they they show up and there's a fist fight for example, their job is to break up the fight. Keep people safe arrest somebody for violence right when um people who have deep roots and conflict. Skills Understand how how to up and de escalate the situation and nobody would need to get arrested and it will get to they would help get to the root of whatever caused the conflict in the first place to help those people that resolve the conflict and get redirected to what other services they need that are impacted in the situation that got them into conflict in the first place. So that's just one example, but there are many kinds of situations that happen like that. so the disconnect not just in Baltimore. Everywhere is that um we engage with the criminal justice system way too soon way too often when we have right in our communities professionals experts who know how to address alternatives and the things that really will be a better fit to the things that people are dealing with which was the reason they call the police in the first place and. Doesn't just happen with policing people call their legislative representatives offices all the time complaining about stuff that they're like, Oh ma'am. This is not my ministry. This isn't it's not what we do here you know and so just in general we need to build structure and capacity for organizations Experts community groups who actually do the work to be able to for people to have access to those resources and for them. To actually be able to deliver what we're good at doing because we have the funding and capacity to do it. And just to uh just to piggyback on that a little bit because everything that Erica said pretty much pretty much nails it as always, but um there are two quick points that I wanna um I wanna touch on that she touched on, but I just wanna reiterate for one. Disconnect is is not necessarily just in the first responder, but there is such a disconnect there because at the end of the day, a lot of the a lot of the organizations that we're speaking about don't have the bandwidth. you know what I mean to to to cover an entire city from that standpoint, so just by nature of the bandwidth and the resources not being there for them um to have enough employees trying to be able to cover all sectors of the city's simultaneously to have a relationship with um with the the. The people who are directing the calls where they know the certain calls to them first and have them reach out to the police and the capacity of letting them know exactly what they need. in addition to whoever they're sending I think those are the things that um most people don't take into consideration from um a funding and resources standpoint. It's like yes, we have the people here that are doing the work but unless those people have enough of a staff enough of um uh enough of an infrastructure underneath them where they actually have. The North Southeast and West Baltimore, you know what I mean, and they have the relationship with um the police department, where there's a trust level there where the police have an understanding of these people know their job. They know at what point they need to ask us to participate in all that kind of stuff I think that's really important right now and I know the senator has to run in just a second for votes, but I did see a film from the Sun pop up real quick so I wanna grab your question before the senator has to head out. Oh. thank you I. That uh the consent decree monitoring team put out it's first comprehensive report today and actually had some recommendations on this subject matter in regards to Baltimore and it included in a number of recommendations like uh opening up Twenty-four 7 Hour Crisis stabilization centers uh furnishing more Outpatient Services outpatient centers as well as expanding the scope of crisis response teams as some of you have been talking about in regards to uh the July shooting uh of the men and Crisis So my part of my question is two parts first with it with this bill allow for city agencies as well as community based organizations to start up any of those again community uh or rather crisis stabilization centers Crisis response teams and and and and uh organizations of the like and my second question is actually a more minor when I was just hoping the senator could kind could kind of clarify the funding mechanism that he described earlier in terms of the 100000000 between twenty 2021 and 2025 and the 75000000 that part kind of cut out for me is to the 2026 and twenty-seven allegations. I got it well first of all um the answer to your first question is uh yes uh the city's local governments uh can really team up uh partner with um designate um the other organizations in the community community based organizations uh to take take on these responsibilities and uh the idea is for there to be this. Partnerships um and uh so the answer there is yes um with respect to the funding mechanism what this does is create AA National Grant program. uh the community uh based response a grant program and in year it will provide $100000000 in authorization uh for the first 5 years so fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 25. And then it provides seventy-five. $75000000 a year uh for fiscal year 2026 and 2027 for 2 year continuation uh grants uh and the the continuation grants require a 25% on non federal match uh coming from you know, in this example, uh ball of our city. I feel we can also send you some follow-up in terms of um. We the minimum number of grants that we want uh to be issued um each year uh by the secretary, we really want this to um you know grow to scale um over time, I mean the idea is to really uh again change the structures uh in how we approach so many of these situations okay and yeah, I appreciate the the follow up in terms of uh any additional details and get over it would be great. Thanks. Any other questions. Alright and with that senator if you wanna briefly close this out and we'll get you headed to the Senate floor, no looks like I'm gonna have to go vote but let me just thank all of you who joined us uh but really uh thank you to all of our partners in this effort. Um, of course, you know my partner in the House the Congresswoman, a bass but to all the others uh individuals and your organizations who joined us uh who really helped put this together. Um you know in a way that's designed to make a real impact at the grassroots level and address some of these structural changes. Uh. Thinker are necessary uh to uh. make sure that we um you know reduce the unjust death toll that we have seen uh but also as miss Bradford pointed out to build capacity in communities. This is about building healthy communities and to do that we need um a responses that are designed to be most effective to address real underlying needs. So thank you all very much um and Now, I know we're gonna work together uh to build the you know the the political momentum to get this done um as we heard uh from uh Kate uh chatfield uh the public understands uh this approach it makes common sense um and she gave us some examples um as did everybody else so uh that public service I think underscores are optimism about moving forward here. so thank you all very much uh for you know being. Of this solution in this approach take care.