Cspan. Org impeachment. Kendratic representative horn spoke to constituents recently at a town hall in Oklahoma City. Included Prescription Drug prices, healthcare reform, impeachment d the inquiry. This is about two hours. Call to order. Attention. Order advance. Post the colors. Color scattered please join pledge. E [pledge] color guard retreat. Dismissed. You may be seated. Thank you very much. Scouts a e our girl warm round of applause. [applause] so these young women are senior girl scouts which means hey are in high school, and hey represent a few different troops that are working on learning how to interact with the world. A lot of Different Things but to explore the world and to support younger girls, along. G them a couple of them i know are skoud on their girl Leadership Award thats like its the equivalent of the eagle award. Myself. E just introduce ill let you know how well move through this town hall but first you. Nt to say thank thank you for coming out. For participating in the process. Of this part conversation. Came because you have a concern and you disagree or whether you came because you something to ask and you agree with some of the things weve done. Its a an incredibly important process and we try to have town halls and opportunities to have this as much as possible. So im curious because i see some new faces. Faces that i recognize, how many of you have een to one or more of our town halls or Public Events before . Okay. Great. The rest of you havent. So making sure that were all page here the same one of the things that is really constructive ave dialogue and be able to tackle some of the issues that may be to many of us is the give and take. Of the reasons that we use the tickets. The word. The reason were using the tickets is we knew there would e a lot of us and we want to make sure we have a process thats fair. Were going to draw the tickets who has questions because if everybody had questions, we may not have assure you but i can well do this again so those of dropped the tickets in outside thats how well choose the order of questions and then make our way around through as many questions time, and then e i will be happy to stick around after for t longer specific questions. If there is something you dont a l comfortable asking or story you dont feel comfortable setting n the broader and you want to share it with me or one of our team members, we be happy to stick around for that. So having said that, i want to a moment and have all of the team members that work in he Congressional Office go ahead and raise your hands. If you look around the room you see several of them. You can approach any of them and ask questions. Help you be there to out as well ch. Its very important to me to have a dialogue thats respectful, thoughtful and and i pledge to do that and have that dialogue with anyone, and in order to keep things going and to get to as any peoples questions as possible, i just ask when you ask a question, youre going to have one of our team members will hold the microphone back there, hell come to you with the mic and we want to make sure we keep it the question an ill respond. If you want to have further conversation afterwards we can so we can get to as many people as we possibly can. And for me, thats just what it comes down to. The more we can create that space to agree and with constructive dialogue, thats helpful for all appreciate all of here and your participation today. You g said all of that, if hink partway through the process, you have a question, tear your ticket off and richard box will who has the bring it around so you can drop the ticket in. A question and ou want to add a ticket in, raise your hand and richard will come to you and you can drop that in. Or those of you who dont know me, since there are many people here who havent been to events efore, ill give you a little bit of background about who i am and what were working on and are and what ties things are happening because one f the things that i know for sure is there is a lot going on. And the other thing i know for lot more e is a happening than what we hear on the National Level and he national media, than what were hearing about in our daytoday life. A lot of those things that are impacting us here in many things on daytoday basis. Im just erve to throw the lid on the floor i understand whats and vice versa. So i serve on the Armed Services committee and on the science, space and technology committee. On the Armed Services committee on the readiness has mmittee which responsibility for all of the issues that help make sure that nations troops are ready, and that means everything from as a care of tinker epot, which supplies a lot of things across the spectrum, to taking care of the housing, that is one of the things weve been spending a lot of time on. Reason for me its so important to hear from all of i is because thats how on my ut, thats how we team found out about what was housing. With our base so, how many of you know the things out happening with base housing . Okay, excellent. Very first town hall came to the woman town hall, weve been going through a lot of questions and almost at the very end, her hared with me her and familys heartbreaking story of them in happening to base housing. Being made,were not how they had Ongoing Health just this it was story and she brought documentation and evidence. It was that person showing up and sharing her story with me that allowed me to go back an immediately take it to the chairman of the readiness subcommittee an say weve got to address this. Did. E on both sides and in the we te and the house, and were able to end this years guess authorization bill which were still working to get line, were nish going to get there, i know we will, able to put in some mportant protections for our Service Members and their families so that they know what their rights are. Tenants bill of rights, protests from having to sign that preventedts them from bringing it to attention, that would require them to take part in a inding mediation and not have the option to lift it up and some other things, so we put protections in. Not done but i think this serves as a be example of us to is important for ave this dialogue, and the other piece is that, on daytoday basis we have all of the Staff Members who raised hands, they are here in Oklahoma City and across the district and they are here to and to help, because that ability for us to understand is important. Ng and that means we help veterans having challenges dealing with their system through the v. A. Quarter of the cases hat were working on are for veterans, individuals having challenges with social security, we many other things where interact with the federal government. On s how we can serve also daytoday basis, and how your ability to tell us whats happening with the and everything, that we assume are working or we know, e may know they arent, it helps us to figure out how to change it. So Armed Services, and science, technology. Armed services we passed a Defense Authorization bill out and out of the senate and im one of three freshmen that was named to the committee and were currently working to get the bill through conference and weve been going back and forth. I am dedicated and determined as on ow many of my colleagues both side of the aisle are to make sure we get this through ecause its critical to ensure we authorize the programs that ensure our nations security hich is something thats just absolutely not a partisan matter. Its about all of us. That rt of the things were also able to include in that legislation was the largest for our troops in 10 ears, and some provisions that address the widows tax and some other things that are really important as well as modernizing some of our systems and other things. Now, there are some disagreements. To happen. G because i think were humans, well, there is a canine, a service canine in the room. Any of yall bout but i dont know anyone that i every er agreed with on issue out there. Has anybody here ever agreed ith everybody else a hundred percent of the time . So part of the work we have to do and the reason i enjoy the assignments, i get to work in a bipartisan way and i know it seems like there is not of that happening at the National Level but i assure you there is a lot of that happening the chairwoman of the space, aeronautics subcommittee thats a lot of the work that we do. We work on science, space and technology, oklahomas number wo employment sector is aerospace, so not just aeronautics but aerospace, so happening that were working on. Asot of Different Things and were working on eauthorization and different programs that help more people go into stem fields and working 21st century jobs thats really important. Outside of those Committee Assignments, were also really in my office, and ive been focused on a few different reas, im going to touch on a couple of them and then open it up to questions. Protectingthcare and our access to quality, affordable care. That means one of the big issues weve been tackling, and then ill continue to tackle because there is a lot of work Prescription Drug pricing. We know that Prescription Drug us. Ing impacts so many of i hear from a lot of you day in inthat out about what and ive our lives heard from far people from to choose out having drugs that saving they need or keeping the lights on. To me these are not all or Nothing Solutions. Or Nothing Solutions usually means that its really nothing its not cause we dont live in lives that are all or nothing. I believe in a thoughtful, stair step approach to fixing protecting things, what we have with medicare, and social security, which is not a im just thing but going to talk about that. In a moment. Of also, then, fixing some the things that are broken. And the cost of Prescription Drugs is one of those things. Introduced a bill that will cap the cost of outofpocket at 2,000 per rs year, medicare under Medicare Part d. 5,100 per year. Big step in be a the right direction. There is a lot more that we need to do but thats one of the were going to keep working on it. There is a Prescription Drug bill thats working its way so were continuing to work on those, and other things. Is, in r piece healthcare, is Mental Health. Probably seen a lot of the things that have been appening in our country, with addiction and Mental Health. Those two things often go together and its one of the incredibly s important for all of us. This impacts communities across board. So i have introduced a bipartisan bill and had a ompanion bill in the senate which means we introduce one in the house and the senators very similar bill to help our Law Enforcement communities better learn to and get the training they need to recognize and they encounter somebody with a mental thats xperiencing a Mental Health crisis. The reason that we tackled this way, as a starting point, is because police are ones that are st called out when somebody is crisis Mental Health and they are not routinely provided the training so this means individuals who have illness are exponentially more likely to be shot and police. Y so when i say these solutions re not all or nothing, we have to look at all of the different pieces and continued increased Mental Health. We had a whole town hall on that. I wont spend a whole lot of that. N the last piece ill talk about is education. Hats one of the things that i hear more than just about anything else. Weve talked a lot about it in the state. Through 12 education, and thats critical. Lot about funding comes through the state but there are also federal programs that are really important including for some of our schools hat are near bases, or other places where they dont get as taxes, because schools that are on land year bases, so that t get as much federal funding helps to balance it out and it quite frankly our schools open saechbing the students of our families who are serving and that area, live in so thats really important. On the Higher Education front, things e a couple of that weve done. Ive introduced a few pieces of legislation. This,o had a town hall on to address the cost of higher ducation in a thoughtful, methodical an Sustainable Way. Its not all or nothing. I dont think we need to give away for free to everybody in or wholesale erase peoples debts but what we do need to do in my opinion is create pathways. People to ways for get the job and skills training productive be members of our communities to to do m build a family, what they see fit. E have a fantastic career tech system here in oklahoma. I have worked on some bills and ntroduced legislation that would support our career tech system with some of my olleagues, making sure that federal funding for student loans, which they are much more costeffective, can be used for areer tech systems as well as legislation that would limit the cost of interests on student to make it more and to have student Loan Interest delayed so that it oesnt start accruing until weve got our students that are coming out. Because weve got a lot of tens of ming without thousands of dollars in interest in addition to their loans before they get out. Me the bottom line is, we have to do things that are troubled by im this idea that there is only one a successful, productive cop struck active and career. It doesnt mean, this whole idea that we all have to go to a or youre not ge successful, thats not life. We have amazing jobs and careers waiting. Ive talked to businesses across need strict, that say, we fill in the blank, a lot of these skill sets, but we dont to fill them. Ople they can be filled with community college, with career higher ith some education, so there is a lot of different pathways and these are that were really focused on, on a day in and day out basis and will continue to want to give you a foundation, f that and then, of course, were going to talk about really quickly of the things that i think many of you here are probably about, and i will tell you that bottom line, when make decisions, for any bill, or any piece of legislation, i based on the bill that comes in front of us. Cosponsored aave piece of legislation and somebody comes along and it get a point that it as, i what it started against that bill, im deeply troubled by the idea that we as communities. That somehow our political affiliation should take over our relationships in our i ran for this office and am proud and honored o serve everyone in this district. Every Single Person regardless of background, regardless of political affiliation. Our office is here to help, and sometimes that means were going to disagree. And thats okay, too. We want to hear from you. At when were looking everything that comes in front of us, my top priority is upholding my oath to protect and defend the constitution, to thoughtful im being and were taking each thing as it comes. Thats a commitment that ill make to each an every one we move forward with all of the questions that are facing us. The reason i spent so much time about the other things that are happening and the other things that weve been working a lot of ause i think that gets drowned out. And i know that we have a lot a lot common, we have more that connects us than divides us. Sometimes its really difficult to see that. Look forward to hearing from you and what you are what youreout, and thinking about throughout this and were going to go ahead and into the questions and, richard will bring the box going to just, just withdrawing a tint and well start from there. Well pull that out. Leave find it, ill just it sitting here. We do have some more water in oh, did you find knit okay. 276. 276. Yes, maam. O hes going to come to you microphone, and female ree connecticut on the filed suit ground rounds that they lost Scholarship Opportunities because biological males were in the girls competition. Biological males be compete on girls sports teams . Not familiar with that particular issue or that suit. Cular and so without the specific more ation ill answer broadly your question. That k we have to ensure treating people fairly. Making sure that were expecting every Single Person. Dont know the particular about that issue. We have a say is wide variety of individuals in our community and that we set is important, and i specific to look at issues around those things, but respecting individuals of their sexual is, ntation, their gender, gender identity is very important to me and i think with, to be g challenging really questions that the way that many of us, many people have the world, and the scientific discoveries and the things that we know and the that we live in, bring up new questions every day. Bottom line is to make sure that every person is treated with dignity and that is the thing, ottom line, that i would look those situations. Okay. 346. 346. Hes coming. Hi, first i want to applaud work on Mental Health. Hall on that town september 30, and that was great, thank you very much. Is, my family day has been the victim of Health Nation by my Insurance Company for violations of the federal parity law. So my question is, what have you or what do you plan to do enforcement of the law . I understand there are currently bills in place, to put some teeth in the law. Plan on cosponsoring those bills and if not, why . What can you do to put some teeth into the law so families discriminatedt be against. Thank you very much. Can you tell me your name, and we said hi know earlier, but if you want to tell want to, if you thats great. Sure, my name is virginia i had a 17yearold son thats een over two mon