Women’s History Month Roundtable: Countering Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Attacks by MAGA Republ...

I'm very pleased to see uh that we are joined uh by so many people who are very very interested in talking about women and the history uh of women and what has been happening in recent years before we do that I would like to welcome all of the members of the committee so can we start with Miss batty well first Madam chair want to thank you for joining thank you to our esteemed Witnesses being here today and all of those who are gathered to be in the audience with we talk about black women and we talk about black history and women's SP economic that's synonymous with chair magine amen uh let me just say how excited I was to see the invitation for us to come when you talk about history and making a difference if will go down because history is watching us that it was chairwoman Maxine Waters who was bold courageous enough to say not just to us and to Black Americans but to the nation I will have a subcommittee or diversity and inclusion so we can make sure that we talk about Equity so I thank you for allowing me to be here I thank you that she also had enough confidence that I was the first ever a subcommittee chairwoman of diversity and inclusion in a few months from now we're just going to have good news because she will be our chairwoman of the parkle iconic prestigious Financial Services committee and with that I yeld back thank you so very much and now I will ask Miss Williams uh to please say hello to everyone good after afternoon everyone and thank you cheer woman Waters because I will continue to call you that until we get you that gavel back in your hands y'all I congresswoman akima Williams and I proudly represent Atlanta and Georgia's fighting fifth congressional district happy to have constituents here today and this conversation is so critical and important for me because Atlanta continues to be in the top when it comes to the racial wealth Gap and so when we have people that are fighting that are doing something that are leading the way to address these disparities we have to stand up and stay with you stand with you and so the attacks that are going on not just in Atlanta not just Georgia but across the country this is the committee this is the leadership chair Maxine Waters stands with you every day and she leads us to make sure that we are not just having conversations like this but we have policies to back it up so when we put that gavel back in her hands it's going to be a new day y'all thank you for being here and I'm looking forward to the conversation wow you can see we're ready uh thank you so very much again for being here and I welcome everyone I want to thank you all so very much for your attendance here today at the financial services committee's women's History Month Roundtable and your Collective commitment to diversity equity and inclusion in the financial services industry in 2019 when I became the first black person and first woman to chair the committee I created ated congress's first ever subcommittee on diversity and inclusion our work on this subcommittee exposed inequities in America's housing and financial system published unprecedented data on diversity and inclusion in the financial services industry explored policy solutions to address these challenges and put pressure on companies to make changes to advance racial Equity through three in depth reports dozens of hearings and thoughtful legislation Democrats led the charge for more diversity in the financial services Workforce corporate board rooms and Beyond and our efforts were always driven by the evidence which clearly shows that companies with more diverse executive teams perform better financially than team that are not unfortunately after winning the majority in the Congress last year one of the first things that chair McKenry did was to eliminate the subcommittee on diversity and inclusion this decision was just the start of an allout attack on Dei in our committee and of course it is not just in our committee where we're seeing this kind of backlash on the progress and public awareness of Dei extreme Maga Republicans are using the same Playbook all across the country and one of their most effective and potent tools is the legal system starting with the Supreme Court's reversal of affirmative action in higher education conservative groups like America First legal are behind several pending lawsuits to undermine the programs aimed at closing the racial wealth Gap and providing people of color with access to spaces that they have been historically excluded from The Fearless fund which is the first black woman run Venture Capital firm solely dedicated to funding women is currently being sued for its grant program Morgan Stanley and Progressive Insurance Company are currently facing l lawsuits for their Dei programs the minority business development agency which is a sole Federal agency that exists to promote the growth of minority owned businesses and which I helped to cify in 2021 as president as part of President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure legislation that has been ordered to serve white majority owned businesses in addition to minority owned businesses by federal judge in Texas that's not all Republican State Attorneys General are using the Supreme Court ruling in the SF faav Harvard to go after Fortune 100 companies warning them against engaging in Dei in their employment and Contracting practices claiming that these practices are illegal in response I sent a letter to the financial services companies in the Fortune 100 CEOs urging them to resist the intimidation tactics and carry on with their Dei efforts Dei initiatives have been effective at giving underserved communities a More Level Playing Field to Excel and accomplish professional and economic success this is called Equity not Reverse Racism for those who claim to care about America global economic power they must understand that fighting for a more Equitable future through Dei initiatives is critical to the economic well-being of all Americans women and people of color need inclusive intentional and genuine representation fortunately there are a number of nonprofits and other women focused organizations and women leaders like the ones on this panel today rising to the challenge and expanding opportunities for women and people of color these four women here with us today are resilient authentic and aspirational despite the challenges they face they are Relentless in their efforts to build a more robust pipeline of upwardly mobile women of color uplifting the Next Generation to look beyond the status quo to what is possible thank you again to all of our panelists for joining us today and I look forward to having an insightful and impactful conversation on Dei I would like to remind members that today's Roundtable is open to the public and will be live streamed I'm very pleased to have with us today Arian Simone who is a co-founder and CEO of The Fearless fund the nation's first vental capital firm founded by black women that invest exclusively in companies owned by women the next person on this panel is Angela Ry principal and CEO of impact strategies and renowned social justice Advocate and my daughter which I have to disclose to everybody the next is my sister Laura Murphy civil rights expert and president of Laura Murphy and Associates LLC and finally Dar El Rodriguez deputy chief counsel for the lawyers committee for civil rights under law where she works strategically to advance racial Justice thank you all for joining us thank you so very much Miss Simone I will go to you first for your opening remarks I just want to say thank you for this opportunity to be here I'm Arian Simone I serve as the CEO and founding partner of The Fearless fund um and as you stated the nation's first Venture Capital firm built by women of color for women of color I'm honored to be here today um we were recently as you stated sued for alleged discrimination which was beyond disturbing to me the plaintiffs filed three things against four of my companies a preliminary injunction to stop one of the grant programs a lawsuit itself which is the complaint and a temporary restraining order to put us out of business by August 17th 2023 we got the temporary restraining order withdrawn and we have been in court fighting the preliminary injunction and we are waiting for the appeals court to issue a ruling if we can continue our program or not well thank you very much for getting us started here here and next I'm going to call on Miss Ry uh for your opening remarks okay mine will be uh closer to 5 minutes can you all hear me yes yours was loud and I can't hear mine okay here we go you want no no no no I had a little bit of feedback in fact I'll give you mine um good afternoon um to every member of Congress present to the staff I have to say it is amazing to see a DI full of women of color um in women's history month and right on the hills of Black History Month and sitting at this tremendous table next to my mentor someone who I couldn't wait to meet and and a very brilliant attorney um the theme of this round table was countering attacks and I think in order for us to get into what it really means to counter attacks we have to understand how um the depth and the breadth of these attacks are the scope of these attacks so we understand that Dei diversity equity and inclusion are being attacked on multiple levels the public sector the local state and federal level the private sector and in education and if we're honest I think we can acknowledge that this didn't begin with maga maga is merely the Frankenstein of the Republican party and it has been in existence for a very long time I am biased to the West Coast and so the two examples that I have of a well thought out intentional attack is where I'm from um in Washington in 1998 there was the initiative 200 to reverse affirmative action and in California which I'm partially from um in 1996 there was proposition 209 I am not celebrating these I'm just merely stating that they have been planning this for some time and unfortunately those who are progressively minded have been caught on their heels despite seeing these attacks for some time so from access to healthc care to affirmative action from stop woke to Alabama Senate Bill 129 from hair to history and what they've deemed as our handouts from access to healthcare to a ative action from venture to voting rights and federal Contracting to The Fearless fund we are facing unprecedented attacks the American Alliance for equal rights to America America First legal they've been striving to take us to pre-1950 which is when most folks who support the make America great again agenda say America was at its best po pre1 1950 they've been striving I would argue to take us back even further to right before reconstruction and I think the thing that we really have to address is that the real elephant in the room with us is equity the fact that they cannot bear to see us Beyond equal footing it's not that the attacks or discriminatory practices are new they do seem to though be testing the standards the standard um which is intention and they're testing that standard with all out viciousness anti anti- Dei um on the state level is hitting Us in more than 30 states with more than 100 measures many of these have been passed yet to be implemented in several ways but at least eight of them have been implemented and again we know the most recent is Florida and Alabama just last week what is remarkable to me is that while we were in the midst of a pandemic as we all know we watched our dear brother George Floyd be murdered um on camera for 9 minutes and 30 seconds and in the moment where people were forced to look at it and not look away because there was nowhere to turn in the midst of a pandemic what we realized or I think we all knew but what most of America had to realize and come to terms with with is the fact that the pandemic wasn't just Corona virus it was also a decades and centuries long battle with racism 400 years to be exact in County while the response was a good one um relatively speaking of course there were convictions on the criminal side but Corporate America the public sector turned to what happened after George Floyd and said we have to do something so we were met with $60 billion of commitments and commitments from Corporate America which later turned to $340 billion in commitments and now as Equity is under attack most of them could not wait to get out of those commitments without being accountable even to what they said they would do they were like you know what we'll throw this aside because we never wanted to do it anyway and at some point we got to get out of this white Guild it is really uncomfortable so now we are still experiencing the impacts of the most brutal Boomerang effect and despite us having every right to get our companies funded to be paid equitably to be sitting in boardrooms occupying board seats and in the sea suite and of course to sit in classrooms we are experiencing another unprecedent attack at the in the highest court of the land um thanks to someone who also benefited from affirmative action Clarence Thomas I wish it was funny I really do but if we built the table and the chairs I see no reason why we should have to ask for a seat thank you thank you very much Miss Ry we will go next to Miss Murphy uh for your opening remarks thank you thank you chairwoman Waters um having worked with you for many years I know how hard you fought for justice equity and inclusion especially in your leadership role on the house Financial Services committee thank you so much for all that you have done for our nation I'm here to discuss three things one civil rights audits as distinct from corporate diversity equity and inclusion policies two what civil rights or racial Equity audits are designed to do and three why such audits make business sense civil rights are rights guaranteed and protected by the US Constitution federal laws and federal laws enacted by Congress they are designed to combat discrimination guarantee equal opportunity and equal protection under the law and to stop harm based on race religion age sex disability national origin sexual orientation gender identity and other categories our civil rights laws apply both to government action and the actions of businesses the Supreme Court's decision in students for fair admissions versus Harvard weakened the use of race and college admissions but it did not invalidate our civil rights laws or the reasons for their existence civil rights audits are designed to go far beyond diversity equity and inclusion practices Dei functions and corporations are often relegated to internally focused Human Resources departments individuals in those departments do not have the power often times for example over whether a Bank locates branches in low-income communities steers subprime mortgages to people of color or use uses biased algorithms to Grant small business loans a civil rights audit is a holistic examination of significant civil rights and racial Equity issues that may exist in a company both internally and externally Auditors with civil rights expertise assess a company's business practices policies products and services to determine if and how those components perpetuate discrimination the Auditors work with the company to issue a public report to hold on one second the allergies are getting to me thank you um they issue a public report to provide a blueprint for concrete corrective action and to ensure that structures are in place to implement changes and prevent future civil rights harms I conducted pioneering civil rights audits of two US corporations the first was for Airbnb in 2016 and the second was a Facebook from 2018 to 2020 my reports for both companies are available online after those audits I also wrote a report in 2021 outlining how civil rights audit should be conducted entitled The rationale for and key elements of a business civil rights audit and that's also available online and I have to digress because this wonderful leader put Mark Zuckerberg on the firing line asked him if he even knew my name and that kicked the Civil Rights audit of Facebook into much higher gear your oversight role in Congress is stupendous and I'm grateful to you and it led to real changes in settling lawsuits having to do with advertising bias in housing employment and credit so you've had a great impact through these audits so thank you I had to say that some 30 corporations have engaged or are in the process of engaging in civil rights audits these have come about because of pressure from a variety of sources including consumer complaints social justice groups members of Congress and shareholder activist funds many shareholder proposals for racial Equity civil rights audits met with success in the 2022 proxy season but they saw a precipitous decline in 2023 in terms of the number of proposals and the level of support for them the shareholder advocacy group majority action has just issued a report documenting the major Asset Management firms that have reverse course on civil rights and racial Equity audits people like black rock groups like Black Rock corporations and asset managers that turn their back on civil rights audits are abandoning their responsibilities to shareholders and customers and I would argue abandoning their fiduciary responsibilities businesses and stakeholders need to confront the challenges resulting from our country's Legacy of systemic racism and other structural forms of discrimination when problems of corporate discrimination go unchecked it leads to legal political reputational and operational problems it hampers productivity it turns away consumers and it weakens Workforce Talent while I would love businesses to conduct civil rights audits out of the goodness of their hearts conducting such audits should happen because they make business sense as the nation's population becomes more people of color than white by the year 2050 and as companies try to to expand to diverse Global markets problems like systemic racism only hamper Market access productivity and profitability Multicultural populations will only expand in influence it is essential that Corporate America face and fix discrimination issues for their businesses to survive thank you thank you very much and now uh we'll go to m Rodriguez for your opening remarks thank you sh thank you chairwoman waters for the invitation it's a real honor to be here um I am darel Rodriguez deputy chief counsel with the lawyers committee for civil rights under law and last year we know that the Supreme Court held that the UNCC and Harvard's affirmative action programs which considered race as one factor of many as part of a holistic admissions process violated the equal protection Clause the lawyers committee represented multi racial groups of students in alumni from UNCC and Harvard the lawyers committee is the only civil rights organization that litigated both cases since their Inception and was also the only organization that presented oral arguments in the Supreme Court the Supreme Court's ruling undermines Equal Opportunity by significantly limiting the circumstances in which race can be used in higher education and missions however even before the ruling came down at the lawyers committee we started thinking about the implications of a negative ruling in areas outside of higher education admissions we knew that Fallout from the decisions had the potential to undermine race conscious and racial Equity programs across Industries and unfortunately our prediction was true since the ruling there has been a coordinated attack on workplace efforts designed to advance diversity equity and inclusion this backlash as many um have already stated comes after corporations made unprecedented commitments to advancing racial Equity after George Floyd's murder in 2020 interestingly recent analysis shows that in 20121 among 88 companies in the S&P 500 94% of the increase in the headcount went to people of color so this shows that when you put pressure on businesses they really start analyzing and start making progress we are now seeing roll backs in this progress in response the lawyers committee has launched a comprehensive strategy to combat Fallout from the adverse rulings and subsequent attacks in other sectors I have been personally deputized to oversee this cross-disciplinary strategy which has included engaging in Impact litigation for example we led the Civil Rights Amicus brief in The Fearless fund case engaging in extensive policy advocacy as well as Outreach and education to various sectors including the corporate philanthropic and nonprofit sectors about how to navigate this moment and how to continue ADV advancing racial equity in Legally defensible ways we've also exec uh uh executed a protecting and advancing Dei pro bono initiative the goal of which is to provide free legal advice to uh entities that are eligible in partnership with proon law firms so that they can obtain the advice that they need to continue their critical racial Equity initiatives in advising various entities engaged in efforts to advance racial equity we know firsthand the immense impact that these programs are making on the lives of black people and other people of color across the country and in speaking with leaders from various sectors I know personally that there has been a strong inclination to overreact to the attacks to Dei programs and voluntarily roll back such critical efforts we cannot do our opponents work for them employers still have a duty an affirmative duty to prevent and correct discrimination in the workplace we at the lawyers committee have been urging employers to not Retreat from their Dei efforts and instead to continue pursuing all that is possible under the law to advance Equity why because black communities continue to suffer from persistent and systemic discrimination including in the workplace occupational segregation continues to leave workers of color and today on equal payday worth noting that in particular black women and women of color are overrepresent presented in lower paying and higher risk jobs we have been urging businesses to stay the course because we know that Dei programs Advance equity and inclusion and these programs are good for business they're good for workers and they benefit our entire country in this moment we applaud the work that you all are doing to hold companies accountable to ensure that they continue to do this work and we ask Congress to continue to push back against the overcorrection and the overreaction that we are seeing across Industries we ask that you hold hearings and briefings to highlight the systemic barriers that black workers and workers of color continue to face in the workplace and to highlight lawful employer and corporate policies that have been successful in minimizing these barriers and creating more inclusive workplaces we also call on Congress to make clear that programs that Advance racial Equity are not discriminatory but instead they are necessary for our country and the economic well-being of all of our communities finally we call on Congress to ensure federal anti-discrimination agencies have the Appropriations that they need to forcefully combat systemic discrimination across sectors again thank you for giving me the opportunity to address these issues oh thank you so very much all of our panelists uh for your opening statements I would love uh to have had the time to spend a few days with you uh talking about the issues in the way that um you have had to confront them whether it's talking about how do you amass Venture Capital uh whether or not a young brilliant lawyer who has worked in the streets of Los Angeles with gang members have the time uh to give uh to this effort given any career that you could have chosen why someone who is a civil rights leader having led the ACLU is still still doing it and working at civil rights issues and hello how are you good to see you Mr cleav is here please welcome him also and Miss Rodriguez thank you for using your lawyer skills on behalf of all of us and dealing with an issue that confronts us today that's been identified by everybody that requires so much work and so much uh commitment thank you all let's give them all a big round of applause now I would like to open up the Q&A portion of our round table with a few uh questions and then we're going to call on uh other members to be recognized for any questions they may have but before I do that I think uh that Mr Cleaver should have an opening statement also please thank you for being here give him a round of applause for thanking you okay thank you all right Mr cever I'm going to go right to a couple of questions before I turn it over to uh the other members here Republicans have spent years perfecting their playbook to roll back racial progress through concerted attacks on diversity equity and inclusion initiatives unfortunately these efforts to strip power from black communities and are making Headway in the face of a widening racial wealth Gap and heighten inequality we should be deeply concerned about what this means for the economic opportunities for people of color Miss Ry what do you think about that if I can uh chairwoman Waters I would like to yield my time to This brilliant um vure capitalist to my right um I believe this format is a little different than normal so I want to make sure she has the opportunity to be heard to she has a lot of wisdom and so I want to defer to her first if that's okay well thank you very very much go right ahead Miss Sone no thank you and she is definitely correct had I known I had more time chairwoman Waters I would have took up all the time yes um when it comes to venture capital the disparities that exist in this space are very alarming black people collectively receive less than a percent of venture capital funding the industry I work in is a 62 trillion dollar industry the investors are 92% white male I do believe that if we can diversify the investors we can diversify the Investments as of recent the numbers showed up in crunch base last week that the numbers have declined drastically for black people receiving funding by 70% and in the city of Atlanta that I reside black people are at a decline of 79% yes this is very alarming especially after June 2nd 2020 when we saw all of the black squares take place on social media we do not see any of that energy currently my company in particular is backed by JP Morgan Chase Mastercard PayPal Ventures Bank of America allies bank and so many more that have been silent during this time but we're very loud June 2020 prior to the Fearless fund's existence black women in particular were raising an average of $30,000 for their businesses after our existence we came on the scene cutting seven figure checks we have raised almost aund million but I'm going to give you an Applause whether anybody else Applause with thank you so very much thank you and it is unfortunate that we are experiencing these attacks they are using litigation as a way to eliminate diversity we are inaugural defendants of one of the most defining lawsuits of our time this is not about us they are literally trying to make what we do day today by funding women and people of color illegal in court they the plaintiffs had the audacity to refer to my business as the whites only sign during the segregated period in this country I said this is not correct that sign was used to oppress and I'm not sure what disparity that sign was used to meet we are in existence to meet a disparity again we make up over as women of color 20% of the US population and receive less than 0.39% of the funding as everybody has stated here today diversity is good business if the only color people are concerned about is green it makes sense so that tells me if the stats say that that the mission of Oppression and suppression is greater than the mission of making money which does not add up in a capitalistic Society so my ask here also today and I know I'm supposed to be answering your question chairman Waters but like I said had I known I had the floor I would definitely take it all my ask here today is to get assistance on an offensive strategy we need policy that protects our access to Capital we need policies that have minority mandates that state that the people in this country will receive access to Capital according to the demographics in which they play and exist in this country we need accountability held for all these corporations making public commitments to the black community that they have not fulfilled and though this is not for this panel we're going to need um help legally for counter lawsuits I'm tired of being on the defensive it's time to get on the offensive and that's why I'm here today and those are my ask well thank you so very very much before we go to the next panelist for a question Miss syvia Garcia entered the room Miss Garcia would you like to have a few minutes for an opening statement well I think in the interest of time no uh but I do want to thank all the panelists and for being here particularly the investment banker because I know how hard it is uh I was City controller in Houston and I still remember the first time I walked to walked on the floor the trading trading floor there at uh um at the stock exchange I see a white guys with short sleeve shirts white shirts and just a little tie y'all are laughing I'm showing my age maybe a little bit but it you know and then the last time I was there uh which was probably maybe five six years ago you know not too much has changed not too much there's a few minority men maybe a few minor white women but there's still not enough of us there so thank you for being here and speaking up and and as a lawyer I applaud you and and do seek out that legal advice because lawyers can make a lot of good social change I graduated from the third grade Marshall School of Law from historically black college in Houston and that's one thing that he always talked about was Lawyers are for social change and in Arena social change is simple it's access to Capital with that I Y back thank you so very much I'm going to move on uh to our Members First I'm going to call on Miss batty when I asked Miss batty if she would take the chairmanship of the subcommittee on diversity and inclusion she jumped at it she said absolutely now she eats sleeps and breathes Dei and she he has confronted Corporate America with questionnaires uh to find out exactly about who what and where is in these corporations what positions they're in etc etc it's done a fantastic job Miss batty go right ahead thank you so much and I'll be brief because I know the time is fleeting but I'd be remissed if I would not say I have followed the work and the research of all four of you and let me say thank you because the question I'll start this way on on policy as you just said that something came to mind a few years ago when we were talking about poverty and how it affected the funding that we get tied into the sensus bureau Mr uh klyburn came up as you all remember with 10 20 30 so I would like to work on something and give it back to you why can't we do the same thing if we do that break down as he did with the percentage of representation or lack of tied to how much we should be able to give in those communities into to those businesses to give us some Equity because right now it's it's zero for practical purposes and reading your studies in McKenzie so I was going to ask the reverse question uh of what policies would you all like to see us Implement What legislation should we be fighting more because we I won't go through all the statistics and what you found out uh but let me also say and today is Delta day on the heels and I'd be remiss uh because missone is a Delta uh and thank you for your work with the Congressional Black cockus and same to you Miss Ry but but let me take my last minute and say it's when you speak out and you do things and and what uh Miss Murphy attorney Murphy was making reference to and she of course wouldn't say this this sister is one of the baddest lawyers in the United States but I have to correct you play one on TV but well exactly and that's what I I've supervised lawyers for almost 20 that's right that's right so let me reframe that because your company that does that and was hired because Facebook had not put individuals like you in that space and we were so proud and so happy and so when he came in here and was I said well you know I was hoping that I could help him but then I just had to rip him I had to do a auntie Maxine uh on him for that because he should have been embarrassed uh not to know what he had right there which is my point that I'll end on how do we make sure that we do a better job because the first thing we hear is we can't find them when we when we're talking about double and triple digit millions of dollars whether it's someone to be uh in the sea Suite on the boards whether it's getting access to Capital they always want to act like we don't qualify in what we can't do and and here's four examples right here of why we should be in the room more so you don't have to answer it now so we can go to someone else but what I'd like to know is for you all to share with us legislation Partnerships or what voices do you want us we took on the business round table because of call you speaker now because of chairwoman waters all we're talking about 50 billion above companies couldn't send a design had to come into our hearing room and bring data that they had refused to do prior to her letter going from them so we know we have power and we know people will do it so think about how we can use that leadership with chairwoman Waters so we can say help is on the way but I just want to say thank you to the four of you thank you so much Miss batty now Mr cleever uh who is a member of the committee and uh chairs one of the subcommittee with housing uh comes from uh a time when he talked about poverty and living in public housing he served as a mayor and he's worked with a lot of issues like cdbg on and on Jo on Mr CER thank you madam chair let me let me just resp hi Angela [Music] Murphy uh hi Angela good to see you uh Angela Angela yes like my family yeah like my family uh let me let me just say you you're in the right place because uh I mean you were talking about the issues uh when you get congresswoman Maxine Waters and Jo BTY who Tred to they hate her and I was supposed to say okay uh you know and and and the problems are are Mammoth but when uh when our chairperson uh uh started the diversity uh committee it opened up a whole new world and I I think you know uh it I think in January uh we'll be in a position I think where uh Miss BTY will be back and we we have a lot of of things that we we were all working on and I think she did a magnificent job and uh our Visionary who who did it uh I didn't know how it was going to work but uh it it has and as I said they they hate her and so uh that means uh yeah hate uh that means that uh you know she's doing it right so thank you madam chair thank you uh you're so welcome um Miss Williams uh I'd like to call on you Miss Williams your sister's from uh Georgia also and certainly you got to know each other better and get to understand what she's doing with vure capital but I want to tell you this is a young woman who came to our committee absolutely committed hit the ground running and is aligned with us in ways that helps us to move whatever we're moving and when we uh take back the house and we're able uh to put legislation that you're referring to on Biden's desk it'll be because we have young people like this who joined us and stepped in right away thank you Miss Williams thank you so much chairwoman Waters and y'all votes have been called and I'm still a newish member so I get a little nervous when that clock is ticking down so I will be brief because I came today to listen but something stuck with me Miss Rodriguez you said we cannot let we cannot do our opponent's work for them and that really stuck in my mind because that is what I wanted to hear more of from a legal strategy and a policy piece what is it that you need to see so that we are doing our part and not doing our opponent's work for them that really stuck in my mind today yes I would love to hear about that we miss batty is tracking the vote so I'm going to follow her lead I get to serve on this committee y'all with so much wisdom and Leadership and I take it in every day because not every new member of Congress gets this opportunity and I am so grateful for what I have learned in just three short years on this committee under your leadership chairwoman and so I am here to listen and would love to hear more from you on the strategy and what we need to be doing here as leaders in this space because we cannot do our opponents work for them well thank you so very much Miss Williams we have to go and take a vote but let me just conclude by saying first of all you've got to have the confidence that we can close this wealth Gap you can't be afraid of anybody you've got to take on whomever and whatever tries to impede our ability to close this wealth Gap we deserve it we've worked for it it can happen so each of you are working in this space in different ways I appreciate you I honor you let's keep going and we'll have plenty to put on the president's desk I mean President Biden thank you very much for being here everybody you want to take a photo with the panel