but most are. it's the biggest, most important wealthiest set of continuing democracies in the world if the economy is comparable to ours. weac can't handle autocracy or china or russia, really, or anything else without the europeans. and so-- >> we'll leave the last few minutes of this hearing on the rise of authoritarianism which you can watch at c-span.org for live coverage. house republican leaders kevin mccarthy, attorney general merrick garland and other administration officials are speaking at the u.s. conference of mayors' winter meeting in washington d.c. live on c-span2. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the conference of mayor, of miami mayor francis suarez. ♪♪

>> how is everyone doing today? [cheers and applause] >> starbucks, where are you? we know you're out there. i've got my fix, they said, okay, no more coffee jokes. how is everyone doing? everyone is doing well, getting their breakfast, that's great. today we're going to start off and kick off the day with an incredible conversation with someone who has become a great friend. and really, it was an amazing opportunity to make sure that this conference reflects what we know we are. which is a bipartisan group of mayors across this country. looking for solutions and so, when we called leader mccarthy and asked him to participate and have a conversation with us, he immediately said yes. and so, without further ado, i'd like to introduce my good friend, the leader of the minority leader of the republican party, kevin mccarthy.

[applause] >> good morning, all. well, first of all, thank you so much for sag saying yes. >> no, no, congratulations. >> you know, we met in an interesting fashion and i think one cool way to start this off is to sort of talk about the origin story how you and i became friends and i'll let you tell it better than i did. >> and we met an interesting way, he was just stealing all of these jobs like california and all the other places. no, he put the tweet out, how can i help and what i thought from a perspective is, how interesting is that? somebody that's offering and i didn't know who he was, didn't know his politics or anything else, but i thought that's a great approach and i called him up, i'd like to get together and i like how you said, who

can we help. and really in a time of covid, in a time where people can live anywhere, i was frustrated within my own state, not my city. i love my city. but people were leaving and at the very beginning, i mean, i'm from california, it was people of wealth who were leaving, but now my neighbors are leaving because they're unhappy and looking for other places. well, it was interesting in this approach was, it was a mayor who people are coming and they were complaining about california and he wasn't bashing, he wasn't doing anything else. he just said how could i help. i thought that with as a great approach and when i spent time with you, i love your perspective. >> thank you, leader. you know, all of a sudden, and i'll put flesh on the bone of the story, you know, twitter, social media app, something you may have heard of. all of a sudden i got a random dm. and i put up a billboard, if

you're thinking about leaving. and all of a sudden i had a dm. maybe it's the leader. and now we're sitting down and it's important because i've often said, you know, as a leader in your city, you have a responsibility to run your government as a corporation, as a business, run the federal government and i think we have additional responsibilities to lead, to aspire, to try to help build eco systems. and so, you know, for me, we started this with the talks and the leader was kind enough to come to miami, which we'll be in tomorrow or later today. and we had this conversation, and it wasn't his point. it wasn't partisan, it wasn't, you know, divisive at all. it was something that was having an honest conversation about what works and doesn't work and what works in the city and so, it was wonderful. and if you don't tell the story, it was a message for the

mayor and if you don't tell your story, somebody else is going to tell your story and you're not going to like their version of it. >> i'll tell you my impression, when i was going there, i didn't know his affiliation and i didn't know what his politics were, but what was interesting, we never really talked about it, he took me to the mayor's office, and that's where we met. and what i walked away with, he could tell me the heritage of not just the city, but also what a great background with his father being the first cuban mayor, but just the culture of the entire city. and they when we sat and talked, he had the culture, but he was taking the tradition of the past and applying it to change the future. yes, a lot of things were coming to miami, some because of him, but some balls of what other people were doing and concerned how do i build it right. let me learn from things that you did right and learn from mistakes. if we're going to bring tech

people in, that's great. what does it do to the tradition here and what's the next step. why tech people are leaving and that was refreshing. i started setting up zoom calls with people who were my friends and disgruntled as well. he was planning for the future people were going to come and planning in a way that those who are already there could be a part of. it wasn't just outside people. >> yeah, really, so much appreciate it. i think that what happens is, you know, we, we public service, we get caricatured, right, and what happens is when you get to know somebody, human being, a person you get to know who they are, you laugh with them and share common experiences and there's so much more in this world and this country that binds us than separates us. if you were listening to the

news all you may hear, the things you agree with or push each other away from each other. and the friendship has been from that perspective. i want to talk about my origin story and your origin story in the context how we continue to have success and prosperity in this country. my dad was exiled from cuba, his country of birth, because a charismatic leader there many years ago said hey, if we just take over everyone's business, we take over everyone's property, don't worry, we'll take care of it. we will guarantee equality for everyone. the only equality that was delivered was equality misery for all of the people of cuba. and so my dad came here, he was seven years old, nine or 12 years old. he was 9th of 14 kids. and came to d.c. and immigrated to d.c. and it was super cool, 18

degrees, or why would anybody want to live here, so i apologize for the time you have to live here and he got a full scholarship to high school, full scholarship, presidential scholarship to college and two graduate degrees from harvard written eight books, speaks four or five languages, the quintessential american dream. isn't that what we're supposed to be about? >> and before i tell you mine, i first want to thank you all. you probably do the hardest job of anybody who is elected. [applause] >> you do it in a manner --. >> we'll take that. >> you're closest to the people. people think you're responsible for everything, from the streets to the garbage, to foreign policy, to the kid' education, and you're going to -- and by difference mayors, you have different powers. and it's not viewed as partisan as well, but you're also the great laboratory in the time

and place in which you're serving. you're serving during a pandemic, but serving during a transformational time of our nation because our nation is now finding through technology and others we don't need to live in one place or the other. so there are big cities that before people just had to come and they would put up with whatever. but now people are making decisions different on quality of life and other things, that they don't have to be there, they can make a different choice. so, it really is almost a competition of where to be and you're not in competition with each other, but there's got to be a basis of what people look at and small things become bigger things. look, in my world of politics, no teacher i had thought i could be elected to anything and my dad-- to be fair, i grew up. a family of democrats and i'm republican. youngest in the family, irish and italian, we had the best fights in the neighborhood, no one was better than us. i got out of high school my folks didn't have wealth, i

couldn't go to college so i went to junior college, and instilled in me a worth work ethic. i would go to one liquor store, you can figure out why i went there, the guy had a car dealer, and i grew up in bakersfield, and couldn't get elected general where else, i'd buy and sell cars and i would flip them to pay my way through college. i found out later, it was illegal, but i did not know that. you had to have a dealers license. >> when you go to college, and visit friends who are away from college. and this weekend i went to san diego state. so i go to the grocery store to cash a check so i have cash for the weekend. it's 1985. i'm 20 years old. en the day before the lottery started in california so i'm cashing this check and i buy a later ticket and i won the lottery.

true story. didn't have lotto. put yourself in my place, 20 years old. friday night 1985 and you win $5,000 in money and end up 10 minutes from tijuana. so i come back and take my folks to dinner and give my brothers each $100. and take 30% of my money in a stock. the semester comes i take a break and go and try to buy a franchise and no one will buy one because i'm 20 years old. i never give up. so i open a deli and build a counter in my dad's garage. three lessons in small business and remember this, first to work, last to be paid. i'm out of money, i go put on my credit card. i buy this big sign about my restaurant. i put it outside, and in the early in the morning my four employees cutting the meat and salad and a pickup truck from the city pulls up.

knocking on the glass window and-- the guy wanted to give me a ticket, ticket for my sign, it was past seven days. i don't get in, i spend money to buy a sign to bring more people in to buy sandwiches to pay your salary, i want you to work with me not against me. now what? a food critic came in and my business did really well now i had enough money to pay my way through college and i wouldn't have to work and four year degree, sell my business go to college and a summer intern to be in washington d.c. with a local congressman, thought he'd be lucky to have me. you know what he did, turned me down. this is the end of the story, i'm now elected to the seat i can't get an internship for, only in america could that happen. [applause]. >> that's beautiful. and i often think, you know, you don't know someone until you know their story. and it humanizes them and makes

people understand the adversity, the will to succeed, the persistence and the true americanism which i always say, every single person deep inside of themselves whatever their vision of the american dream, it's not necessarily the white pickett fence for every person, but we find a way to gets there and it's incredible. so, you know, i like to think in miami we follow sort of three simple-- how is this happening in miami? of course as you say there are macro factors that aren't in our chrome. what is in our control. we try to keep taxes low, kept taxes at 1960's level, and what's had a pd happened? our budget doubled in size. people think you've got to raise more taxes to create more revenue. we've seen the opposite. more investments come in and we have more to spend on

homelessness and we focus on public safety. i know that it's become controversial now days to talk about public safety and personal we believe in officer accountability and you know, giving them the tools which we have got in our system to become accountable, but police officers in this country now are not well-paid. right? they have, they're asked to do more and more and more, more than just be a police officer, you know, westbound in the social setting and they've never had more scrutiny than ever before. their lives are at risk on one hand, but also at risk if they make a mistake in a split second on the other hand. we've invested in our police department. and we found a shocking correlation, and that was a joke, and then we lead to innovation. you are a very innovative-- you're pro innovation, pro tech and when my three-year-old

daughter uses her pacifier to take a selfie, i know we're stuck with tech, whether we like it, big tech, small tech, and all the issues are partisan around tech, you could talk about them until we're blue in the face. we're not putting our iphones away, where do you see that for the mass migration that we've seen, people migrating to places like florida and cities like miami? >> what's happening is technology allows us that we can live anywhere, a lot of people would think they've got to move away, but now, with the pandemic, you can transform that, have meetings different place and don't have to travel all the time. and regardless of party, or wherever else, crime is going to be probably the biggest issue in any election. you want to feel safe and doesn't matter what part of the city you're in. this is the core, you have to feel safe and your children

have to feel safe and others. i look at technology in a way to innovate, but not to innovate, innovate a better customer service. you know, unfortunately in federal government, the government gets so big, it's difficult. right? i envy your ability to make other decisions and make things happen faster. i've been trying to innovate the va. you would think that would be the least political or controversial. uber will let you get a driver, you rate the driver, the driver can rate you, he gets his documents right there and then i sit around and i see veterans who are dying because they're trying to call on the phone and the call center doesn't work. but if we brought technology and lots of times in government you think you have to build a whole new software system and start taking things off the shelf, but what would happen there, is data is king. if somebody has their own personal ability to make an appointment, to get a permit, things are faster and also,

what covid had done for people to personally do zoom and others, you'll have to find government that way, too, your customer service is better for the constituent, you're having more data and more efficiency in government that you can streamline and the duplication, so many times and when you hear that story, when one person tells a story, you're a mayor, but you don't know everything that happened, built upon bureaucracy before it, but then you hear a horror story and they're waiting and you don't want that to happen. if you have greater technology, you have the data where you're stove piping, and data where the customer service is and data for what people are asking for instead of going by a phone and i think that will open up a lot and you're going to have generational, those who want to deal with it and those who might not. but now what? in my church we do three different services and the

strong we sing on the first service and last service are catered to those who are coming and your city is a microcosm and that's different and i think that would save you money, but also provide you-- i'm believer and this is where we can work together because we will want to do a lot about crime, but also a local issue, i think that community policing is so much better. i mean, in our city, we built a fire station and police station in neighborhoods now. so it's not looked as policing. the officer, her or him. >> it's your neighbor. >> your children are going to the same schools as us, we know each other, right? we're in the neighborhood and that's the only way so we're not having adversary, and for these poor officers fear they're going to be sued. feared they're going to get harassed and my father was a firefighter so i have a special place for any of the first responders, i know what they go through and it's not a job, it's a way of life.

>> i don't know if anybody here has ever been to a city called marble, north carolina. anybody been to marble, north carolina. show of hands. i didn't think so. first time last year and one of the most amazing things i've ever seen. i went to a company that wanted to show me a bit coin mining facility in marble, north carolina. i'm going to tell you a little about marble, north carolina. they had a population of 40,000 and they-- their whole entire population revolved around an levi's manufacturing plant. as you can imagine in the industrial revolution, jobs went where costs were lowest, right? so that levi's plant was shipped off to china, right? so the population of marble, north carolina went from 40,000 to 400 when that plant closed, 400. and just recently, china banned mining and just recently china

banned bitcoin. and so what we're seeing now in marble, north carolina is what i call a tech industrial revolution. in other words, the jobs left in that plant. that plant was repurposed and turned into a bit coin mining facility. by the way carbon neutral, there's a lot of discussion, bit coin mining, this is done completely carbon neutral and concepts web 3.0, concepts like crypto, you know, and concepts like nft are very mystifying to many people, but they are the wave of the future. i went to bozell in miami-- . the first nft, i put it out. >> there you go. >> and nobody bought it, but it was a ticket for-- >> i think the point i'm trying to make, we've got to educate people on what the technologies are and i feel as a country we have this generational

opportunity to lean into this, right, and where china is, in my opinion, messing up, right, and giving us the opportunity for a lifetime, by banning some technologies, we as a country need to wrap our arms around it. whatever they're doing, do the opposite in my personal opinion. how do we first educate the generation that didn't create this and how do we lean into the next generation that has grown up with it to generate prosperity for america. >> look, when i look at you, you know what i look at? the laboratories of our country. you have the ability to try things and risk and be different and diversify and all the others, and i remember talking to governor, former governor of texas and he was taking a lot of jobs and i said, how are you doing this? right? and so you know what i found? people wanted to leave, but looked at the quality of life and they looked at the

symphony, did we have the arts, do we have the other? and each element, technology transforms us and what the mayor is talking about is almost a movement. all right? it's a movement in itself and it's generational from older to younger and it's the future and it doesn't matter how small or big you are. if you're smaller, you have a greater ability because you have a greater market share and it's more than just an openness, how can i help? you don't have to know the technology, you have to be open to it, because people who are investing in this technology and this is a way -- i sat with the mayor at the beginning. when you bring in a new industry, everybody tries for the big plants and the others, i would go small and hit singles and doubles because what happens is you have a greater relationship with them and more willing to work with them and then when one of the new technologies hits and they create wealth.

then you create an angel system of local people who created wealth who then reinvest in the city and i would start with an incubation of one or two of these, but i would embrace one and i would bring it into our schools and others so you have young people starting it and just grow from there. >> by the way we started with that, incubators and accelerators and teleconferences. we're a bigger city, but the world is more decentralized than ever. and make capital allocations are made in larger cities. they're going to benefit everybody. i can't tell you the number of new companies started in miami. >> now the biggest individual is not yourself. there was an individual keith, very successful in california, yeah. and he got so frustrated with how they treated him he created thousands of jobs and he moves to miami. >> paypal. >> he meets him, but every day he's tweeting about how he is

an investing in bringing another company there. but it's all because he loves what's happening there. and that's what you'll have. it went be -- you're a great marketer for your city, you know what's better, someone that loves what's happening there. the ownership of telling 10 more people every day. >> he does it every day. i love keith is one of the number one evangelists and he created paypal with others and elon musk. >> and we have to think about who we create in and who is already there. >> elon is a very good friend of mine and elon lived in california. he didn't want to leave california, he has spacex there. he has tesla there and when things became too difficult, it becomes a financial decision and you have a responsibility to shareholders when he said he was thinking of leaving, you

know what the state rep did to him? he tweeted fu. right? but i think he's probably at the point you're not going to save bump him when he left. when you think about it, and people decide i want to invest there because of who is already there. >> that's another famous tweet because he responded, message received. so it was funny at the beginning, how can i help people sort of juxtapose the two tweets. juxtapose and attitude. it's not partisan, it's not political. it's juxtaposition in attitude. there are big and small cities here, many represented and the point i wanted to make quick was that as people are opening companies, even in miami, many of them are built on a remote option, you know, possibility or probability. what does that mean? that means even though the company may be formed in one

city, the jobs that that company creates are being occupied in all of our cities. right, i think that's a very, very-- so when you're talking about creating a tech eco system in your city, you can't say miami is a big city, there's this, there's that, no wonder. no, no, everyone has the opportunity to do it in your own way and they're high paying jobs and i would urge you to do that because it helps with other social issues in your city. >> you know what i would do, don't look at the other as competitive. and narrow it down to three cities. and there are sister cities in other countries. i would create a sister city to each other. why not be a sister city with miami, and once one does it, what happens they talk to each other and a lot of investors, we set it up this way, why don't you go to south carolina, north carolina, we put a little hub there and here is the infrastructure already set up. and you can build upon each

other a win-win. >> so, and we're sort of commenting off stage with you, one of my good friends who is from opposite party, obviously, was the mayor of pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and he told me, mr. mayor, america has three parties, really, what are they? >> republican. >> yeah. >> democrats. >> why. >> and there's mayors. and so you know, to your point, you know, sometimes you can meet a mayor and have a prolonged conversation with them and never know what party they're from. right? because for them, they are sort of instructed with solving problems. >> when i recruit. i love to recruit mayors. >> how do we take that sort of problem solving attitude and bring it to a place of 17 degree weather in the eastern part of the country? >> i'm from california, i don't like this weather either. i don't like your humidity either, but--

or those bugs. but look, i think from a perspective, you are office holders, i'm an office holders. i'm federal government, you're local city. how do we build that together? as a nation as a whole we define each other too much. if we start the definition as american, how are we going to help you or how are you going to be more helpful to us. i think from a perspective, look, we're willing to hold the gavel and the philosophy of what i would look at, i think things should always happen more local and have greater control, but i wouldn't look to the federal government to look at we're just money to deliver something. i look for investments from the federal government, going to invest as a partner. i think everything-- if you have skin in the game and we have skin in the game. more apt to make that happen. we should look at things to try things differently. in college take courses you're not good at. we should disrupt what we're doing to recruit the businesses

that are disrupters, because they find an ability to do something more efficiently. we should find that throughout how can we be disrupters to make sure our constituents get better service and how can we make our cities more efficient? >> i really hope i've part of the time and tenure i'm serving my brothers and sisters mayors across the country and we can become a laboratory of solutions and proposing solutions to the federal government and we can continue to have these kinds of conversations because you can see, what an engaging, wonderful, person the leader is, just like we have engaging, wonderful people that we're going to hear from later today. our president and we have engaging wonderful people we're going to have from yesterday, the speaker. everyone has a great story. everyone has a really true desire inside to serve and to give back. and we may look at the world is little differently, but we have a lot more in common than people want to admit in this sort of context of the

narrative, the national narrative, sort of the media wants to put out there. look, in d.c., you'll read all about us, but we vote together more than we vote apart. there's a lot of great friendships internally, but what happens, technology also does other things, they let you say about something you don't even know and you'll say things differently. we have television stations that don't give us news they give us opinions. ... >> to be competitive for the future i think our two greatest threats in this world is economic debt we have federally.

they are innovating faster than we are, , taking critical miners and others. i would never bet against this country. we're all focused on the same path, and i think a lot falls on your shoulders as well. i think you're a natural leader and i think you the ability to set those. toes. there's so many times something devastating happens in your city that you have no control over. but the way you handle it, the way you are the father of the mother to the city itself, you become healthier but also what you do as america, we watch it and we are there with you. there's not a moment in time we don't see one of the stories that we are not crying at the same time, we're not feeling, may it be a natural disaster something else. after that takes place to find the greatest of the nation that people come from all over just to provide food, shelter, other. when we start honoring those things and building those up better i think people will look

much more willing to do more of that. >> i will just end on this note. while china may be taking raw materials for microchips and things like that, that is at a wording rate, it gives us a big opportunity shutting down bitcoin. we should take advantage of it. i think we can all work together. we are hoping to do a crypto compact in miami on april. i invite you all to come and learn about crypto obviously first of all but whatever guiding set of principles we can send up to the federal government because this is you is a unique moment in time. if you're over regulate and stifle innovation we crush it for generation number lives the competitive advantage we have. mr. leader? >> even if you don't know about to learn about it. because there will be people in your community who know it well. >> good luck. [applause]

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> you guys enjoyed that. i thought that was refreshing and may be different than what you would have expected. our next speakers will be discussing the major funding sources that were included in the bipartisan infrastructure legislation but before the joys of what you to be aware of a new publication that we are releasing today that identifies resources within the new infrastructure legislation that can help cities advance and sustainability and climate related goals. this publication come cities advancing climate action leveraging federal funds for local impact was developed by

the alliance for sustainable future, , a joint effort between u.s. conference of mayors and the center for climate and energy solutions. the alliance is chaired by salt lake city mayor, copies of the park defined under tables or on your chairs or on your cable as well as the conferences website. as you know, cities and local governments continue to be at the forefront of promoting climate mitigation and resiliency in their own communities. with the recent passage of the american rescue plan and historic infrastructure bill, our state is now have access to new federal funds that can potentially be used to implement climate related and sustainability initiatives. included in this publication is a series of best practices including an unverified to say the city at my enemies climate resiliency plans at her efforts of about our new green economy. other highlights include city efforts to conduct comprehensive

flood mitigation, fleet electrification, promoting equity in green jobs, conducting energy efficiency retrofit as well as grid preparation for electric vehicles. what may be of great interest to mayors is the apex at the end of this document outlining the major programs in the infrastructure bill that can be used for climate and sustainability efforts. you can find detailed information on the level and type of funding program purpose and who is eligible to apply. it's our hope that you can use this document now and in the future to serve as a guide and leveraging these new funds to implement new projects and programs in your communities. i would like to thank the alliance and a comp for the contributions to the report. the alliance plans of holding a series of follow-up webinars that will take a more in-depth look at these case studies. we hope you and your staff will be able to participate.

please stay tuned. now, our next panel will be moderated by another good friend and former president of this conference, mitch landrieu him on the topic of accessing funds for the infrastructure investment and jobs act where the rubber meets the road to as we've said before mayors had waited decades for the passage of a comprehensive infrastructure bill to prepare us for the 21st-century. with bipartisan support in congress and leadership with the president and the strong bipartisan support advocacy from our conference of mayors we now have the tools and funding to go to work for the american people to modernize our roads, bridges, public transit, broadband, , war systems and so much more. we could not be more pleased the president has chosen one of our own, former new orleans mayor mitch landrieu, to guide the implementation of the new infrastructure law across the many federal agencies responsible for implementation. with his background as a lieutenant governor, state

legislature, and most importantly a mayor, i don't mayor landrieu will help ensure that critical federal resources do not get stuck at the state level. right, mayor landrieu? yeah, yeah. and that comprehensive grants reached cities of all sizes and help communities that have historically been underserved. fellow mayors, please put your hands together for the former mayor of the great american dash i think top of that, great american city, new orleans, former president of united states conference of mayors and why does it for such coordinator for of the united states, mr. mitch landrieu. [applause] >> have mercy. how are you all doing? man a man for miami knows how to say new orleans. that's amazing. francis thank you so much. mayor suarez, it's great to see. you. congratulations on your new role as president of this even pick as great as you guys.

tom and to a staff it's great to be with all of you into my dear friend nan whaley, thank you for all you've done and all the work of leading his organization. i want -- what a record you guys have put together viewed. aarp funny and, of course, infrastructure bill. because of our cities are on a bike path, because of your leadership and a want to thank everybody here i want you to think with me about where we were just one year ago. 2 million people were vaccinated one year ago. now over 200 million people have shots of the life-saving vaccine in their arms. [applause] >> the american rescue plan has, in fact, rescued city budgets, keeping the lifeblood of communities running, the economy in this country is now red-hot adding 6.4 million jobs, the largest the largest number of jobs ever by president in the first year of administration and for the first time in 20 years the u.s. economy has grown faster than china's.

[applause] and it's creating a race to the top for workers not a a race o the bottom. we finally also have a government that looks like american from cabinet to judges because this president understands that diversity is our greatest strength. and we will soon have shovels turning dirt on the largest infrastructure projects in a generation. now maybe some of you are old enough to remember eisenhower but most of us are not but that's the last time something like that happen. when president biden came into office just one year ago he promised to use the power of the presidency to of everyday americans to bring people together, to a rebuild our economy, to help rebuild our country. and he and the vice president are doing just that. for decades all of us in this room and we all remember the conversations talked about what, infrastructure week. it never came. we waited, , we talked.

it never came. we continue to wait and we continue to talk, and it never came. well let me tell you where to with all of you, president biden work across the aisle and he finally got it done. promises made, promises kept so let me just tell you -- go ahead. every week will be infrastructure week. [applause] and only this time we are going to actually be building things and we will be doing it with you. but listen is going to be a little bit hard. i want to explain why. you know this because you are mayors. i talk about my mama. i told her i was going to do this by the way. when i was mayor she would call me and say my streets are wrecked. you are the mayor can't you do something about it? i would say no, because it is your street and your my mom know i can't fix history because it will be a problem but output in line with everyone else, you understand. she would complain and complain about a street not being done. well, , her straight is now undr construction, thank you, mayor cantrell, and now my mother is going be aggravated because it's taken her to want to get to the

doctor. to which i say wait a minute, you complain what wasn't getting done and now your complaint when it is getting done. you can't have it both ways. she said listen, i'm your mother. mother. i can have it however i want. [laughing] so good luck. you understand? in all seriousness, our infrastructure team has hit the ground running and we're going to rebuild a better america. given the kind of work we do as mayors -- [applause] >> you will all be familiar with what we have been up to hear. we are building a team. we're setting up a tracking for accountability. we are talking on how red tape on permitting just to make sure we get it done. and i am so lucky to be working with a great task force made up of cabinet secretaries many of the mayors. mayor pete, mayor marty. by the way the sect of agriculture was a mayor before he got demoted to be a governor.

don't tell the governor i said that. we also have some great governors on her team, governor rolando. they know what's going on. understand we're flooded the field here with administration folks and is because the president understands that mayors are the ones that get things done. i truly understand that this is where the rubber meets the road. we know how these programs have to look when they get to the ground. we know there is a republican or democratic way to philip pottle. this is a one team won five mission for the united states of america. this bipartisan infrastructure holds a lot of promise, a lot of promise for our community. better roads, more modern airports, fifth -- fixing all system bridges that are in poor condition. just this morning i met with mayor would from birmingham, alabama, who told me that just this morning less than two hours ago they had to close the richard arrington bridge, by the way and other great mayors that ran the city, that runs right to the heart of its town because it

was so dangerous. that city can function as a without that bridge so we understand and you understand the importance of this program. we are also rebuilding the ports, roads and rail that make up the supply chain which give us what we need from the ships to the shelves, to lower cost for americans so we can sell what it is that we make. we are going to expand high-speed internet to every home in america, all households in urban and rural communities. [applause] amen to that. that's because 30 million americans still don't have reliable internet which means they lack opportunity and the country lacks growth and we will do this so that kids can learn, so that seniors can access telemedicine and so that farmers can use precision agriculture. this bill contains $1 billion to reconnect communities that have been separated and invited, where they were divided by highways and other infrastructure because the

president ran to unite this country. we are going to be upgrading repairs to electrical power grids, installing electrical vehicle chargers, 500,000 of them across america and we are going to upgrade and replace water pipes that are contaminated with lead. cities like newark have already been out there paving the way on this. uscm has been a leader making clean water which every american has a right to a core focus of the investment strategy, so thank you for your leadership. these are all investment our country is never made before. but we're definitely making the now and progress is on the way. earlier this week as if we hadn't announced enough, , we announced a $4.7 billion program to cap orphaned wells that are spewing lupines polluting hour land and water, it's a massive investment in waterways porch and resilience from the u.s. corps of engineers of $14 billion announcement over over 500 projects across 52 states

and territories that are going to protect community some flooding, improved navigation for commerce and help manufacturers get goods to the market. that's a lot of stuff in a short period of time. we have a lot of work to do to make it happen but there's more. there's also inclusion $1 billion allocation to protect and restore the florida everglades which is the largest investment in the everglades in u.s. history. you want to give it up for that one. [applause] now listen, we can only deliver on the promise of this bill if we do this in partnership with all of you. after all, most of the building will actually get done by the states and guess who, malcolm, raise your hand. everybody in this room. that's why we asked the states to appoint an infrastructure coordinator which we think is going to help collaboration and make it easier for them to get problems solved very quickly. and states like delaware, new mexico have appointed coordinators, what of them and

ex-mayor and states like argus on michigan and help set up taskforces and offices similar to our federal partners. but to be set up for success we have to think across agencies. by the way it's important that you and local governments do the same and so i'm asking you to do it. some of you already are on it and and i thank you for that. for instant san antonio one of the first in the country to call, one of the first to set up an interagency task force and tap at courtney did with the goal to maximize opportunities and partnerships, equity and to secure federal funding for cross cutting san antonio projects. i commend it to you for reflection. and i can tell you from interactions already, cities like san antonio that are getting organized the right way are set up for success, and you can do the same thing. america's cities are already leading the way on infrastructure just like i know and the president knows that you would do. now mikey mitchard to be problem

solvers him to break down silos. we want to help you take advantage of this great opportunity to build a better stronger america. now i know for some of you in this room the fact that the money has gone to the states gives you headaches, might cause you do lose your hair a little bit. look at mine. i went through rebuilding katrina. i do stand. and may not easily trickle down to your community. you've got to do your work on that level to make that happen and to make a case, but because i've been a in because i understand, we are going to do a lot of things to help so let me tell you what would you thinking about. we have a first ever i think fact sheet where we list out every competitive program you will be able to produce the end that would be coming directly to cities. it's available at the infrastructure desk right outside the hallway. the ink is not dry on it yet. it's right out there and what all to look at it. it's a resource many of you have asked about. in the coming weeks we're going to release a detailed guidebook to state and local governments,

include everything that you would want to know about a program at this point. by the way there are over 100 programs part of this $1.2 trillion bill that is going to help build a better america. we will say whether the funny fg will go to cities or local governments will provide date ranges with applications will be coming to help you plan better and we will have some suggestions about what you can be doing now, you don't have to wait, to help prepare for these competitive funding streams that are coming now. let me give you a couple so get your pinup. -- pan out. make sure the road and bridge projects operate a regional planning planning organizations transportation improvement plan. regionalization partnership. map and inventory your lead pipes. you don't have to wait. work with you states of your broadband gaps and your needs. map out where you would like to and need to put electrical vehicle chargers. start humid engagement now on the front end so we can get this right because we believe in

community engagement. and please can i just get on my knees and ask you, please include your congressman and your center. that can help advocate for your priorities. even those that voted no still want the dell. [laughing] -- want the dough. can you hear me? can you feel me? all right. you understand what i i just , right? okay. plus they voted for the bill and absently should be patted on the back for doing a great thing. most this can be done today with american rescue plan that is available to you right now. i know you have a lot of demands on the american rescue plan find but this is such a once in a generation opportunity that we need to be smart to get this right. i also recognize for many communities even having a staff person to write grants is a significant expense. that's why my team is laser focus on helping develop a technical assistance pipeline to help assist all of you on access

on application and on capacity to execute what many small towns and communities do not have. [applause] the president sees you. this bill also provides government funding to build organizations capacity and following the release of the guidebook we will also roll out deep dive whiteboard session will look more deeply at buckets of funding coming on high-speed internet, on grid upgrade, on ev chargers and more. look, we all try to get the money out of the door quickly but it's also important here for me to level set and help you understand unlike the american rescue plan this is a long-term investment. all of you are in politics to note is easy to tear something down. it just takes a minute. it takes a long time, good planning come for people to build something right that will last for the ages. amen? that's what we're trying to do for the countries over the next five to seven years is $1.2 trillion is trillion dollars is

going to make a huge difference and funding like that may not come around for decades to come somewhat to get it right. we want to go fast but we want to get it right. as a good lord said, lord, help me be patient but hurry the hell up. [laughing] that's a good prayer by the way. y'all ought to try. doesn't always work but i'm just telling you. that's why, that's why what to encourage each of you to think about the long-term economic potential for your communities in the broader sense. you know i'm going to be calling on each of you to help us communicate local impacts of the bipartisan infrastructure law and to share stories about the ways that it will directly benefit real people's lives stories like in new hampshire that would have to go an extra ten miles out of the way is the bridge closes that creates a life or death situation because ems is on one side and the hospital is on the other. stories like the ones gina raimondo told me about a school

that had to bus worksheet home because the committee didn't have access to high-speed internet. stories like the woman lost her job because her committee cut back bus service and is the only way to get around town. this is why we doing this. this is what it's all about, real people, real problems in real places. the president want you to know he sees of them picky wants us to meet them where they are. he wants them to lift them up and he wants us to improve the lives of everyday americans. finally let me say that president biden's direction to me was to help build a better america. the operative word here is better. anybody can do it the old way. that's not what we are doing. so let me tell you for a minute what better looks like. better looks like creating good paying union jobs, a top priority for the president, and making sure great wages paid to great people so they can earn a living and feed their families. [applause] i would like to say can't take

the boy out of scranton but you can't take scranton out of the boy. the better is making possible for companies to manufacture more products here at home,, american-made products to rebuild our supply chain so americans can get what they need more efficiently and to lower the cost for our citizens. better looks like using this investment in our infrastructure and the people to build more resilience to prevent climate change which as you know threatens us all. better look like building an american in a way that moves us all forward with racial equity not leaving anybody behind at the center of everything that we do because the president knows diversity is this countries greatest strength. no community gets left behind, no person gets left behind. because as the president believes and i believe you believe it that we are all better together. all better together. this is what building a better america looks like. when we've invested in ourselves not only in our roads and highways and our bridges but in our people and families come we as a country have one.

with all of you we wish you all the world but working together looks like. with all of you we will show the world we are building a better america looks like. and as always, as always you the mayors are leading the way. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ >> lord have mercy. listen, my mom and must have called you all and told y'all i was having a bad day. thank you all. i'm sorry you had to listen to look at more because you all asked the question so want to be able to answer them for you anyway look, we're going to do a quick panel because we have really smart people that understand this in in a realp way and i know a lot of folks are interested in the mechanics of what we do so we'll do a quick panel with some of the experts that are working on these departments. the $1.2 trillion $2 trillion

bill. 100 program and involves 14 departments at my job is to herd cats, bring them around the table, get anybody focus on the one team one mission to make sure they are working with each other so you don't have to talk to a thousand people. you understand? you get it. so we are going to do a panel here and we're going to do a deeper dive so joining me today is mr. alan davidson who was newly confirmed, i mean like last week. he still in shock. confirmed assistant secretary of commerce and director of the national telecommunications and information administration, also known as ntia. remember that acronym. i'm living in acronym hell appear in washington. who will oversee much of the broadband work for the secretary raimondo, $65 million program length high-speed internet. prior to the role he served in the department of commerce as its first director during the obama administration are help me welcome mr. alan davidson.

love this guy up. [applause] >> you can come up. look him he don't want to come out. come on, alan. how are you doing? nice to see you. christopher coes is a principal deputy assistant secretary for transportation. you want to love him, too. christopher served as vice president for land use and development at smart growth america senior fellow at brookings institute, professor -- professor? wow, at gw to budget a deputy and senior advisor for transportation, roads, bridges, airports, that kind of stuff. y'all need some of that? all right. and finally radical fox is principal deputy assistant administrator at epa, air, water. do you all like clean air and clean water? this is a boss. she said a senior obvious water of life and has a background in local governments where she directed the policy and government affairs or san francisco public utilities commission. she . she previously served as federal

policy director at policy link so thank you, guys all for joining me. give them a round of applause. you all want to know these people. [applause] >> just to kind of get you had right about this. pete buttigieg transportation, right? okay. administrative locks, epa, right? and what are you? your and -- >> secretary raimondo. >> there are six different agencies that messed around with broadband by commerce as most of it so that's why he's here. you understand you got the secretaries, then you have the folks that are making things happen and then you of the governors and infrastructure coordinators and then you are you guys and we will do horizontal and vertical integration so stuff gets down to the ground and communities get better. that's like the whole bill in like five seconds. all right? just a couple of questions on the issues that these guys are really smart about. ratigan, going to start with

you. you. there's a great need in this country as you know to make sure that everybody has access to clean water and let bites has been a real significant problem because any trace of lead is damaging to her kids and families. can you talk to us about that pipe and the lead pipe action plan the vice president and us on behalf of the president a couple of weeks you. >> is absolutely but i just have to present thank you mitch for serving in this role. did the president get it right i want, right? [applause] the president knows it's mayors that make stuff happen for committees come so who better to really hurt the cats, as you said, mitch, then you? for me it's wonderful to be with a group of mayors because i started my water career working for mayor ed lee in san francisco and he's a great, he was a great infrastructure man come learn so much from him come such an honor to now serve in this role. for the last action plan come so

president biden is a first president to ever say there is no safe level of lead exposure when it comes to our water system. he has called for 100% removal of lead pipes in communities all across the country. so the lead paint plan, he called all of the federal agencies to say what can you do to make progress on removing lead pipes for drinking water systems come to remediating lead paint in communities around the country, and the federal agencies answer that call. the plan calls for ten federal agencies to do their part, 15 bold actions to achieve that goal. at the epa administrator and i are proud to do our part and a couple things were focus on is strengthening the lead and copper will and making it clear for local commands across the country, leveraging the $15 billion in the

infrastructure package for removing lead pipes and harmonize it with other grant programs that we have. and finally we know that on removing lead pipes -- that's why we need these resources but it's complicated. we are going to be putting out whole range of resources to support mayors like you, state governments and having the best information to get those pipes out once and for all. >> thank you very much. that was an easy question. there's a hard one, the one to want to know. how can they get the money? i'm sorry, can i -- i should follow my script but that's with the point of the question. i've use states control revolving funds. you guys understand federal pipelines, right? there are these for new set up, formulas mostly go to the states. this is one of those and they go to something called state revolving funds. really, what do you guys think about and how you make sure the money actually gets down into the smaller communities and tribal lands? what's a process?

what does that look like? do you have a plan and what is at plan so they can organize themselves around? >> absolutely. one thing that's incredible about the 43 of the 50 billion for water and infrastructure investments are going through the state revolving loan funds. what is different about this is that 49% of it has to go out, has to go out as forgivable loans which is so key, mitch, to disadvantaged communities, lower income communities because you can access that. we're going to focus on leveraging that 49% and really working with states to get that to communities who need it the most. the second is we are going to partner with states in a way we haven't before. administrator reagan a couple weeks after the bill was signed by the president can send a

letter to all of the governors calling for partnerships and calling for prioritization in underserved communities. i'm doing called every single environment sector around the country to say how can we work together? one think we're excited about is we're going to be investing just in 2022 although $15 $15 mid technical assistance. we want to work with local communities. we want to help you, what is that water challenge? what's the project that best meets that needs that can get the money? what investing technical assistance that will help your folks, right this application get on the list. that's what we're going to be doing. >> i want to take a minute here to repeat something fetter said i'm untreated list it i'm from a family of nine. abuses against him and nobody listening. don't worry about it. y'all can eat up.

i want to impress this on how much he to be impressed by it and i want to do something about it. i have recalled all 50 governors in america i personally spoken to 40 of them. i've talked to three of the chiefs of staff. the other seven we would get in touch soon even if i have to go over there and see them. the idea is to create a vertical and horizontal system so that appear we're going to break down the stovepipes amongst all of these different departments. because alan will tell you this. broadband his piece about five or six agencies. all of a sudden all the way down as well. this requires cooperation between you and your governors. i know some of y'all maybe don't like each other and maybe some of y'all do but everybody likes infrastructure so we keep this in focus you heard me say this there's not a republican or democratic way to fill pottle although people try to make it that way. we don't need to let that happen but we have to be organized

horizontally and vertically. so it's going to be helpful to your governors in the decision-making process for you to be organized on the local level in each of the mayors i'm hoping we'll have a table that looks like your emergency operations table. if a catastrophic event happens you go to that of the table, you conjure fire chief, police chief, water person. you understand. get another table and call the infrastructure table. understand in this bill half of this bill is transportation. that's in his shop. but the other half is everywhere else. you have to all of those people at the table for two reasons. one is because not all the money is in transportation and in order for transportation to do their job and in order for commerce to do their job and an order for water to do their job they all got to be talking the same language at the same time because you guys know the mixing people in washington forget that you're actually building a community here all that stuff is got to get it doesn't make sense of a grocery store if this got house or a house without a

school or a school without a transit system or transit system without a doctor. that's not a community. that's an island, right? you all understand this and they understand this so we're try to put everybody together so we understand each other. that's kind of what we tried to do roman execution point of you and your governors will get this but they won't get it necessarily by themselves so you have to help them. the better organize you are on this level and in the governor is here at us or, if we push a together and where one seamless thing we are and organization no one can beat. what i want -- that was an easy question. if the money has gone through the state revolving funds and you're doing of the kinds of loans and have communities they are for, then have a good tax base. they can't pay this back, how are they going to be able to get the resources, keep them and not have to pay everything back the way we were taught about? is that which were discussing? >> that is and that is huge and it's ever been before. the fact almost half of this money must go out, states must

put it out as grants. when we develop our guidance at the epa we're going to really be very clear that we've got to prioritize those grant monies to the disadvantaged communities and that's why the technical assistance comes in. what i want to say it's addition to the srf money with other money and the water piece the folks know about, , about 1.7 billion for the geographic program. we just earlier this week put out a request for proposals for 50 million in the puget sound. there will be other things like that coming soon. >> for all of you folks that are just kind of some urban and some rural, all of these issues are important to everybody but everybody in the country wants clean water. i just tell you straight out. this thing has popped so high since they've announced this. every community in america wants clean water, sewer and water systems, sewage. all of the stuff is critical import. it's a shame we've gotten so far behind and president biden

understand a the must do someg about it. radhika, thank you very much. you are off the hot seat for a wealth you can relax. poor outages came on board a couple days ago, and you just can't confirm, right? >> last week. the day before. [applause] >> he's a smart guy who does a lot of stuff and essentially he's going to be for the ntia which by the way is in the department of commerce remember i told you that's good but is open to different agencies that play in the space pixel alan, just talk a little bit. it's absolutely clear as you know the present of the united states once to unite america. bridges unite people, right? guess what, so does high-speed internet. that's what people can talk. can you imagine a girl sitting on the porch in the hall of appalachia or kentucky and not have access to high-speed internet but she's brilliant? if we gave her what she needs maybe she would be the president

baby should be the next poet laureate. maybe should be the head of the valley. maybe she should manufacture next superconductor chip as she ain't going nowhere without high-speed internet. she's not learning is a who's losey, us or her? shias. compared to another will get them interested in the middle of new york that has access, same kid essentially. when kid has something and the other kid doesn't. the country is still losing because now they don't ever get to know each other. just simple like that. so connecting people and it's his job right to everybody in america on behalf of the president has access. talk a little bit to us about the approach that you guys are thinking about inside of commerce and then across the agencies, department of agriculture, department of interior, maybe even transportation. because when you lay down roads, you open up things, you might want to put lots of stuff and the grunt rather than one thinks it will have to open it up again. again. even i can understand that. sometimes we open up roads and witches, we don't fix anything

and when to go back and opened it up against and it cost us twice as much money. talk to us about how you connect people in america. >> the president has given us pretty simple and incredibly ambitious goals and witches to connect i do in america with high-speed, affordable internet service. it's simple -- yes. [applause] once in in a generation baby once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bridge the digital divide the weight haven't had chance before. it's a program that if we do it right it's going to upgrade or infrastructure is going to create jobs is going to address some of the long-standing inequities in our society. it's going to improve our competitiveness. mayor landrieu just told us some of these stories. you are living them, too. the pandemic has made it clear. we need broadband. people needed to be able to thrive in a modern economy. i'm a techie.

i started working this space 25 years ago as a computer scientist. if, if you adobe then what we would be doing, i would not have deleted. video conference, you know, access to our economy. all of this relies on broadband. you all heard the stories about people who are unserved and underserved. the schoolkids going to the library, sitting in a parking lot in order to be able to get access to education. but it's more than that we know. if you want to find a job online today how did it without being online? access to telehealth. access to justice. it all goes to the internet now. there are millions of households we know that are unserved, that are underserved and we have a plan to connect them all. the good news is that the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as other laws that are passed recently, there are now pools of money.

people have been working in the space, it's an incredible chance to connect everyone. there are couple of different streams of money you're going to hear about. the biggest is one that we are administering, over $42 billion in state grants that connect the unserved and underserved first. there are other pots of money as well. we're going to be focused first -- it lays out a path, lays out a path that starts with making sure we're getting to the unserved first but it also has components that will address affordable and adoption which are critical opponents, mortgages access. we will require a low cost options when who gets this federal money will make sure there's affordability built in. we also have a couple of the grant programs that we are administering which include $2 billion digital equity fund which is going to be open directly to communities to be part of your we also have $1 billion middle mile fun of those connections in between not

necessarily to the hobo like kind of people can build on. those are real, serious money. her talk backstage if we just been taught by those five or $6 billion programs in the obama administration we would've been pretty psyched. we've also got these other pools of money with the department of agriculture. we are all going to be coordinators so it's one-stop shopping for you off. >> i appreciate that. i want to kind of before i turn over to chris, alan, talk about how local governments can access the work that's coming out of the broadband team, called high-speed internet because -- the guy who works for me when home for thanksgiving and he said what he doing? i'm working for this to mitch landrieu, kind of crazy. he says what you doing? the the president wants to red the country.

he says he goes but what do you do? he says we are laying broadband. the dad said i don't know what that is. he said it's high-speed internet. he said why don't you all just say that? [laughing] i mean i'm just saying that, you know? i called high-speed internet. i'm sorry, getting in a way of my own story. what are some of things they can do to get prepared on the local level what you have coming? >> first of all i would just start by saying have a plan. i would never necessarily say that two people five years ago but have a broadband plan. the truth is we are in this moment where there are so many pots of money, so many funding streams come you want to take avenge of the peer i would say

some committees have them come some don't. start thinking about having a plan. second thing, a lot of this money is going to go to the states for sure. and so engage with your state broadband officer which have an idea of where your need is engage with them. we know that communities, you folks are on the front lines of this and no where the need is. the third thing i would say is pay attention to the maps. one thing is going to come out, not to get too technical, all of this is driven by where are the unserved come where are the underserved. we will be nothing that out. the fcc will be doing that and this is a chance to secure that. you folks on the front lines and no with the need is so that we something else to pay attention to. the last thing i would say it's not just not that big state grant pot. that's the biggest pot but there are lots of other pots of money. have a plan, be ready to engage. our front door, broadband, broadband usa.gov.

come there here we got information about where to find grants. we have people who will help you. we will provide you technical assistance of models that we want to be one-stop shop easy for you to get access to all of it. >> now he's kind of singing my song so let me give you a headache. broadband, two things. in the ground for people can get connected to set the open the ground. for people who have that but don't have any money there will be money to help pay for with the rea but they can't afford. that's the whole program. you understand what i just said? so that's the easy part. here's the hard part. it's got to go and read somewhere and get sick of where that somewhere is. then you figure out where the people are who need it so that's what the mapping piece is the they will be doing this on federal, state and local level which i can't get synced up and guess what you don't miss early control this to get something like a public service commission we have in louisiana that

oversees up your gift to get within so you can organize how you're going to do it together. number two this is not just going on in your area. it's going next door. if you're running a road you don't stop the root at the india county line said to talk to partners. when you open up the road, seriously think about this, and i told you where fixing the electric grid, somebody might want to lay that stuff in that hole. if you're doing sewer and water stuff they might want to lay stuff in battle. now you have a headache because you got to bring all those agencies together. that's why i'm telling you you can do whatever you want because you all are the mayors and the bosses but would be wiser and smartest to go to coordinate all the stuff so that when you ask to get a yes rather than a no. you and everybody to say yes,, right? so go do that thing. that's the whole point of the coordination. there's a thing we're trying to do and there's a way to get organize and makes it easy to get done when you finish it is actually better like i said before rather than what we had. delivery system from horizontal

vertical. i'm going to go to then who has half the money. 1.2 trillion half of it is going to all these different agencies and half of it is going to the department of transportation. mayor p2 has been your you guys know well is going to oversee the money that's going to highways, airports, ports et cetera. that's all going for the part of trepidation which a big pupil agency. that's been working really, really hard, and christopher is kind of point today on these things. christopher as is the dot is about half of this bill. most of the competitive grants, you all can get some of that. that's what i mean. can you tell us big picture dot is thinking about those climate and equity as key benchmarks in designing and educating -- you want to guess? president said this is what better looks like and were not talk about how you designed your programs so you get a yes. can you tell us how you are set up to help make that happen and give them some thoughts about how to design the program? >> absolutely.

first and foremost literally a year plus one day ago the president, president biden and vice president harris may climate and racial equity a number one priority for this administration. as such this department to public transportation and great leadership of you call mayor p, recalling secretary buttigieg, has instructed his staff to literally the last year really infuse that spirit, that call of action in our day-to-day work. mayor hugh asked how we're designing, how we think about this in terms of discretion to grant as well as her as r programs are a couple things. mayors, you understand the value of transformed of infrastructure projects to lead to climate goals and equity goes. i'm preaching to the choir. one of the things we know is that right now at our department, safety is our number one norstar. however, we know when we make

our roadways can take in our neighborhoods, safe for people to walk, bike, role, particularly after this last year where we have seen the highest number of fatalities and injuries on those roadways, when we address that, guess what, we also reduce greenhouse emissions are we also address the disparities we're seeing with those of talents, particularly in rural and disadvantaged communities but more important as make your cities more walkable safer not just for those to walk bike and go but also to dry. your businesses do what the market love money into pockets because because they don't have to drive everywhere and they can spend money on your local retail. that's how we are incorporating equity and climate. so when you're applying to our grants we are looking to you to bring that what you're doing every day with your business committee, which are partnerships come with your local community groups, cdfi's as well as bring in other stakeholders. we are looking for this project

and i will say one of the things you will be excited about this bipartisan infrastructure law now includes $6 billion specifically to address roadway fatalities, if you're bring this types of projects to us. we are more likely going to find those projects. that's one example of how we're trying to incorporate climate equity into our work. another place i will point to is a fact look at our ev charging dollars commuters comy where coming out with guidance on our electric vehicle program as well as our community discretion to grant program. when you're thinking about, of course ev chargers themselves to reduce greenhouse gases to think about it in this way. when you think about equity, where are we putting those charges? i would making sure this chargers are placed not in just in terms of human beings who have ev is what we want of those charges to go in the future? in dissidence committees, rural places. we're making sure our guidance emphasizes these don't just go

to those who have but also those who want to be a part of this new revolution of what america can be when it is better. lastly and i will just didn't hear in terms of climate equity, this is not a conversation just for the urban cities. this is for world community as well. one of the things we are excited about particularly through our justice authority work that will be providing additional resources in terms of technical assistance, webinars and the like so the disadvantaged community scope world canaries thinking how to re-transform, how can we change our dissidence communities town centers, we are going to benefit lines with you mayors so you can get your applications right, when you apply we cannot only get to the money but also the most challenging aspect is making sure you can put those dollars out effectively. one of the things will be working with you is on the grant management site. those are some examples of how we're trying to incorporate the equity and climate space through some of the work we are doing. >> pretty good. [applause]

>> but, but, it was good, and it i should say and, not but. he rolled something pretty quickly. you all heard this term before, -- [inaudible] it was really specific measure. >> thank you for that, mayor. one of the things as part of the president's commitment to tackling this climate crisis is recognizing that when we are with significant investment in america we need to make sure were not leaving anyone behind, that this is a moment that we will build back better. we need to make sure we're building at edwin. one of the key aspects is recognizing the federal government has responsibility to make sure we're targeting these clean transportation come clean energy resources to combat climate crisis to disadvantaged community. what does that mean? number one, we need to know what is causing disadvantaged -- we been going through all mapping exercise. what are things we've learned is there many communities that

individuals think about this individuals are spending more than 80%, 80% of their household budget on housing and transportation. you know this. if we can figure ways how we can redesign some of our programs as well as transit dollars to those, we can bring those dollars cost, people are more money for food, for education and also support local businesses. that's an example how we're taking justice everyday based on the goals that the president laid out and try to implement. in addition to that we are also required us to work across agency. it's not just a beauty effort or its weight with epa, working with department of agriculture to make sure research is benefiting are going to those disadvantaged communities across the board of providing the support. it's an exciting time but we can't do it alone. it will require a federal and local and particularly the mayors to come together and close collaboration and unity

with committees to get this done. we are excited. >> love that, love that. [applause] i picked up the new phrase, unity with the community. disadvantaged means white and black and it means urban and rural. it means everybody. all in. guess what there's a lot more that connexus then does it. it's easy to tear something done it hard to build it up. there's a lot of stuff in it for everybody in america. we are better together. this justice 40 piece cuts across every agency. you know this. how something is designed is an indication of how it comes out. if you don't does i write it ain't going to come out right. you have a lot of power so when sony brings you something them lots of people bring you stuff every day. a staff member, architect, engineer and the bring something that looks a certain way into safe have you thought about

this? no. have you thought about that? no. like making a pot of gumbo. if you don't put the right stuff in it, it doesn't taste right. you all can understand that. a little bit too much pepper, not enough salt. you forgot the hot sauce,, whatever it comes a bad if it's not designed right. the president says if you want to build back better designer right. i want to think about people a been left out, think about made in america, think about does it produce good jobs. think about whether it is strong and resilient so in the three lipids when a big bad wolf comes along they can't blow the house down. that's climate change like in the fable right there. right? you understand that? you understand the three little pigs, right? you want to be the peak in the house of bricks, okay? that's what resilience and sustained it is about. think about that. back to the last question of the day. this is when you care about most. do you all remember what tiger grants were? loved of those things. i love you so much they change the name of it so now i don't know what it is. i don't know why they did that. but they did.

they are now called raise ticket must be an accurate and that i don't understand but that's the new allocation of money directed to cities and states are bad which you can lay down stuff and of billions of dollars of private development go up against it. they are about to announce another tranche of this, the sector announced when dillion picked about to come out with another one and you know these folks are eager to understand when this can happen and how they can take advantage of it so you can explain the name change really quick so they know what it is and tell them how that will roll out. >> name change, from tiger build to rebuilding american infrastructure and sustainability equity. that's what made -- >> did you come up with that? >> that was a -- rebuilding american infrastructure sustainability and equity. >> raise, not tiger but they are twins. that's the same thing. >> one of the first and foremost, we were really excited

back this past november to announce $1 billion of raise grants in 46 states with 90 projects. there was a a common theme through all that, which is mayors really think about how in a truly transform their communities to make a more livable, more sustainable and more equitable. that is the commitment we're going to be putting two. what is now $1.5 billion we will see this bill now increases are raising capital to about 50% and if we're successful in fy '22 can go as high as $3 billion. one of the things you ask what are the key changes you should see in the next round, number one, we will have a lot more money. secretary buttigieg had, for everyone dollar dollars d he had ten dollars with the projects he could not spin. we are going to be able to with this new infusion of dollars spent and support a lot of great highly rated transformative projects. that's number one.

number two, changes. this ever such a bill as you are remember this is kind of an appropriations like maybe every year you make it. it is to authorize so there's some new things in the you be mindful of because impact and how you think how your designed a project for application. the first thing, this round of raise will now give come has new criteria called mobility and connectivity. how are we connecting people, places and things people care about together? whether it's the transit, walking building and the like. for the first time this grant has new definition for historic dissidents communities. normally when you wanted to get 100% of her funding you either had to be a rural community or had at least 20% of property over the last dash of -e last 35 years. in addition to this carveouts we now can target historically disadvantaged communities with 100% of capital funding or in planning grants. that's huge as you think about

where you want to prioritize. the last but not least one of the things i will just tease, raise is not the only program that we're going to be rolling out in the next several weeks. raise is one of four new programs as image and state streets for all which is a program designed -- safe -- for local governments who are trying to do away with the caliber that is coming out very soon. also for those who are interested we also have new active transportation grant program, a new rural transportation program that mayors can apply to we're also going to be rolling out a new megaprojects program so for those of you are thinking how can they go to scale, how can i make my city more livable, bring transit not just one neighborhood, to an entire neighborhood? you should be seeing those come out very soon. raise is hopefully a you saw in the last draw just a case of what this department plans to do. >> just a little taste come just a little taste.

look, we're going to close us out. i'm sorry we took it all to school today. i hope you all wrote some of that stuff down. [applause] but i want, the president's coming today. he loves come to u.s. conference of mayors. you'll be in a couple of hours but he put a great team of people together. these folks are, , unbelievable, the best in the business. the folks to work directly for within work for the president, we all do, are incredible partners. ..

the united states is going to go from being down here to where it was supposed to be this was part of it . the second is done without these partnerships. i just explained why the federal state and local partnership is important and i'm thinking of both the federal state and local level it's important all the agents talking to each other because we're all part of getting anything done . building a place , nothing can be done by itself. where all dependenton each other for this work .we're not like it was, the president wants to build it back better as we have challenges and we need to move forward. we all have to go forward together or we can't go forward at all . that's the whole story. . when is the last time you had somebody on the federal level trying to give you somuch ? a long damn time. that's the answer to that question . i would say get ready, get

prepared and let's get towork . we're out of here. >> all right, all right. i'm thinking our tradition of having many cabinet members today right now at this very moment it's my pleasure to introduce the attorney general of the united states guard. he has divided his practically whole career in the pursuit of justice. as a federal processor prosecutor for the us attorney's office in washington dc and department of justice where he served in both career and noncareer positions under five attorney general's.

his responsibilities span the whole work of the department including civil, criminal and national security matters . notably he supervised investigations and prosecutions of national importance including the oklahoma city bombing, the unit water and cases. he served as judge of the united states courts of appeal for the district of columbia for 23 years and as chief judge for the last seven years he was on the bench. under his leadership the department of justice is dedicated to upholding the rule of law, keeping our country safe and protecting the civil rights of all americans. general garland, it is our honor to have you here today to address america's mayors. [applause]

>> good morning. thank you for that warm welcome. thank you for the kind introduction and congratulations to the mayor for the inauguration of the 80th president. i have deep respect for the work of the mayors. every single day the work you are doing in your cities. throughout our country's history the leadership of america's mayors has been and continues to be essential in meeting our country's greatest challenges . thepandemic has been no exception . no one needs to describe to you thechallenges the pandemic as opposed to our cities . and the stress it has placed

on our public servants . we will keep our community safe, or streets clean to deliver public health services. we teach our children who work in court systems and perform all the other services essential to the functioning of government we know them a great debt of gratitude . and also know the pandemic is not the only challenge facing your city. before i begin, i want to say a few words about the anti-semiticterrorist attack on congregation beth israel in texas last saturday . saturday was the kind of day that mayors hope never comes. but that we at the justice department constantly prepare for. fbi operators, agents, negotiators and their logistical support teams train grizzly . fbi and justice department

supervisors repeatedly run crisis scenarios. a joint terrorism task force run countless exercises to develop and foster cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement. i cannot say enough about how important that last point is. as anyone watching events as they unfolded could see, though many hours the fbi and local police departments spend planning together for these kinds of crisis are critical to saving lives when the unthinkableoccurs . i want to recognize the incredible bravery of rabbi walker and his congregants who used the skills they have learned in active shooter trainings to respond to this terrible event. i want to recognize the incredible courage of local law enforcement officers and federal agents on the ground

in texas, including members of the hostage rescue team who went into a building knowing that inside was a man with a gun who said he had two bombs and was expecting to die. i want to assure you that even inthis case our work is not done . the fbi is now working full-time to determine whether this perpetrator acted alone or with others. on the morning after the attack i briefed president biden on the justice department's response to the attack and on our ongoing efforts to evaluate the full range of threats that our country faces. the presidents resolvedwas clear. we will not tolerate this . we will not tolerate attacks on synagogues or other houses of worship. we will not tolerate violence or threats of violence fueled

by anti-semitism, racism, hatred or bigotry ofany kind . keeping our country safe and the american people safe is your priority of the united states department ofjustice. a critical part of keeping our country safe is protecting it from foreign and domestic terrorists . these are dangers the justice department law enforcement components work against all day every day and as i have said they are dangers we work against together with our state and local partners with whom we, without whom we cannotsucceed . another important part of keeping our country safe is working alongside all of you to protect our communities from violent crime and particularly the scourgeof gun violence . at the justice department we stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the fight against violent crime and we will use

every tool at our disposal to protect our communities. last year the department launched the comprehensive anti-violent crime strategy aimed at harnessing our resources of every relevant component in the department including our united states attorneys offices, litigating divisions, all our law enforcementagencies and our grantmaking offices . recognizing the importance of anti-violent crime strategies that are tailored to individual communities we directed each united states attorney's office to work with the state and local partners to address the crime problem in those communities. as a result the fbi, atf, dea and us marshals service partnered with date and local agencies and police departments to embed agents and homicide units, confiscate illegal firearms, disrupt violent drug

trafficking and provide other support where needed. we also strengthened our initiative to reduce file crime at the community level. call the project safe haven which brings together mayors, police chiefs, other local agencies and our united states attorneys to develop solutions to the most rising violence crime problem facing communities. the department well understands that it is our mayors and their police departments who shoulder much of the work to disrupt and deter violentcrime in their home cities . so last year we awarded 110, $310 million to a funding to the department of service to support our law enforcement partners. this included more than $139 million for the hiring program which provides funding to cities and towns to hire more law enforcement

officers and put more resources to work building communities. we also understand and that our society frequently turns law enforcement to address a wide array of social problems. too often, police officers are the first ones paul and when someone is experiencing a mental healthcrisis . such calls unnecessarily lead to difficult and dangerous confrontations. that is why we will continue to support programs to provide alternative approaches to engage with people with problems that are battle better handle by nonlaw enforcement. we also know that promoting public trust between committees and law enforcement is essential to making both communities and policing saver. the department will continue to fulfill its duties to ensure that constitutional policing practices that promote accountability

necessary to build backpublic trust . i strongly believe as i am sure you do that good officers want to work in systems that do not prevent bad practices. so in addition to our enforcement efforts, we are committed to providing natural support and technical assistance to our law enforcement partners to implement policies and trainings that promote accountability and best policing practices. in the year ahead we will continue the presidents budget request for fy 22 includes potential increase of funding for the department to combat violent crime. including the resources we will make available to mayors and police departments nationwide. that includes $1 billion in grants to support local police departments and to help them know the trust with communities they serve.

in addition, we are doubling down on our commitments to support and strengthen project safe neighborhoods and give mayors and police chiefs the tools they need to reduce violent crime. while many of the public safety challenges our city space require a unique and tailored approach, done violence is a universal challenge. one that demands comprehensive access. over the past 10 months the justice department has taken a number of actions to prevent and disrupt the illegal use and trafficking of firearms. we proposed a new rule to curb the proliferation of those guns. to a small gun safety legislation for the state. we established a new policy to strictly hold gun dealers accountable while willful violations of the law. we lost launched five additional strike forces to disrupt illegal firearms

trafficking in the corridors across the country . just over two weeks ago, we announced a new rule to enhance safe storage of firearms to that build on our efforts to reduce the risk of firearms falling into the wrong hands.and as part of the presidentsfy 22 budget request , we are seeking $1.6 billion in funding for etf. included are funds would expand ats crime done intelligent sensors for national integrated ballistic information network or the city police departments use every day to trace crime guns. also included are funds that would double ats capacity to investigate thatfrom federal firearms licensing . you all know as well as i do that every firearms stolen from a licensed dealer poses a threat to committee community safety and to our law enforcementprograms .

the justice department's anti-violent crime strategy and our initiatives to suspend the rising tide of illegal guns will help save lives. but what we know full well that to succeed all of us at the justice department and the mayor's offices and police departments across the country must work together. finally, yet another important part of keeping america safe is protecting those who serve the public from violence and unlawful threats. we have all seen that americans who serve and interact with the public at every level, many of whom make our democracy work every day have been targeted with violence and threats of violence. these are our fellow citizens who administer our elections, and sure our safe travel,

teach our children, report the news, represent their constituencies and keep our communities safe. the very least we can do is to commit to keeping them safe. peacefully expressing a view or ideology, no matter how vociferously, how extreme is protected by the first amendment but illegally threatening to harmor kill another person is not . there is no first amendment right to unlawfully threaten or harm or kill somebody . in bitter historical experience has made clear that the time to address threats is when they occur, not after a tragedy has occurred. the justice department will continue to do all it can to hold accountable those who target public servants with violence or illegal threats of violence.

indeed, today we are taking the law enforcementaction to that end . but as with everything i have spoken about today, we know that success in stopping this kind of violence also depends on close cooperation with our local partners who bear the lion's share of the burden of protecting the people of their cities. the united states department of justice is grateful to count our country's mayors as our partners to keep our country and our community safe. i appreciate the opportunity to join with you today and look forward to our continuing work together in the days to come.

[music] >> thank you so much general garland for your commitment to justice and america's cities and theirmayors . we hope this is the first of many meetings we will have. it is now my honor but before we go there, i'm off script a little bit. oh. tom was backstage and he said mister mayor why don't you bring me up because i want to go a little off script . whydon't you come up and do something special ? >> i would like to bring out the real mayor suarez, francis'sfather, the former mayor of miami .

xavier suarez. [applause] >> i have nothing planned for this and francis's charisma i want you to know comes 99 percentfrom his mom . but i said can i tell one washington dc story? and i arrived here in 1961, the ninth of 14 kids. my father said we've got to get you the best school in washington dc because you test well and all that stuff and he takes me to saint anthony's, it used to be called priory so the benedict and headmaster, the old english headmaster says my dad starts saying i'mdoctor suarez, i went to villanova in philadelphia . and the headmaster says we don't admit the students based on their father's merits here in the united states.

cuban father, you know. so we've got to give him a test. they give him a test and brings it to my dad and he said there's a mouth and a verbal part like every other test. good thing your son is good in math because in the english part there was a question that said of the following four words which three, which does not belong with the other three and the words were stream, river, creek and mustard. and he put a big red circle around. i had it wrong. i was 1961, later i went to all kinds of places but that's the american dream. i came to this country as a refugee. 25 years later i was allowed to be a citizen, run for office and theelected mayor of the city . [applause] i will tell you how many times i lost but

francis says that i learned more from my defeats that i do from my victories and i guess there's truth to that but anyhow it's an honor to be here with you all. i'm not prepared to do anything here or speak at all but it's a great honor and you guys are a fantastic organization.i know, going back into you stories of things that i did when i was in the conference but will leave that for another time . thank you and god bless you . [applause] by the way, yesterday he ran 15 times. i'm not going to tell you the win andloss record because i will not hear the end of that . it's now my honor to announce

this year's innovation grant winners for our dollar wise economic mobility campaign. made possible by founding sponsor bank of america. the dollar wise campaign is dedicated to helping vulnerable families and individuals climbed the economic ladder by removing barriers to mobility. creating educational and economic opportunity and building long-term tangible assets. dollarwise focuses on areas such as eliminating excessive fines and fees, expunging judicial records that consign the opportunity for a lifetime. helping immigrant communities build professional careers assisting minorities and women owned businesses, promoting homeownership assistance, digital leadership and much more. objectives identifying and addressing some systemic issues that impact economic nobility. dollarwise also supports new and innovative economic mobility efforts helping cities scale their programs

wide and nationwide. the campaign works closely with mayors to develop cutting-edge research cities can use to implement new economic mobilitystrategies . it thanks mayors across the country who support dollarwise and promote its programming in their cities . i like the fact bank of america for their generous and ongoing support of the dollarwise economic mobility campaign . our partnership and the campaign has made a real difference in the thousands of lives and we look forward to our furthercollaboration . we encourage all mayors to sign up for dollarwise programming at our loft. you'll be glad you did it. now onto our innovation grant awards. this year dollarwise is awarding grants of $10,000 to seven cities, bringing our total to over 100 grants awarded since 2005. our first dollarwise winner is clarksville mayor joe pitts.

who's award will help develop a new micro-enterprise development program that will help cities and most underserved communities build new businesses and create jobs . mayor pitts, congratulations . [applause] >> next is my man denver mayor michael hancock who received a dollarwise. you've got friends in the audience. he will receive a dollarwise grant to serve underused residents with digital literacy training through the cities tech loaner laptop program. congratulations mayor. [applause] hempstead mayor weiland hobbs junior will receive a grant to expand the cities loaner stabilization initiative which provides pathways to homeownership or economically vulnerable

residents. mayor hobbs,congratulations . >> she will receive a dollarwise grant to find a home buyers club which will provide financial education training to new homeowners and in underserved neighborhoods. former president of our conference mayor greg fisher will receive a grantto support the city's economic mobility labs . the eight data driven citywide effort dedicated to helping underserved residence address various economic mobility while promoting racial justice congratulations president fisher . nashua mayor jen dodges will receive a grant to expand the arlington street community center which offers three children, free childcare, free childcare for underserved families.

that would be weird. while providing services in multiple languages. mayor john, congratulations. i'll take half a dozen free children please, thank you. and pittsburgh mayor eddie gainey will receive a grant to create an initiative for african-american women to make long-term investments in the stock market with the goal of building intergenerational wealth. mayor, congratulations. now let's have a round of applause for our 2022 dollarwiseinnovation grant winners . [applause] but of course, none of this would be possible without our funding sponsor, bank of america. you guys work for bank of

america. from bank of america we have here today brian butler, please put your hands together . >> and mayor suarez. it's a pleasure to be here. bank of america is proud to be the longtime sponsor or founding sponsor of dollarwise and we are particularly enthusiastic about the innovation grant awards. the bank of america and mayors, we appreciate your partnership on matters having to do with economic mobility because it's so important to your residence and to our customers. so thank you very much and congratulations to the mayors who received grants today.

>> thank you brian and i want to thank all our guests for being with us this morning . while this session is adjourned we are going to be right back . in this room for our closing lunch featuring our former colleague secretary of labor and good friend former boston mayor marty walsh and of course the president of the united states so coming soon. >>. [inaudible] everyone who exits the secondfloor will

have to go through security again . >>. [inaudible] >> this afternoon president biden will be the mayors and

their closing session. watch it live at 1:50 p.m. eastern on c-span or watchful coverage on c-span now, our new video app. c-span is your unfiltered view of the funding by these televisioncompanies and more including mexico . >>. [music] midco supports c-span as a public service along with these othertelevision providers giving you a front row seat to democracy . actor and comedian jon stewart joined other advocates for a roundtable discussion to highlight veterans who are battling diseases after being exposed