Qualcomm for supporting thee session 250 years out of its founding americas more diverse than ever before stereotypes are beginning to fade significant barriers still exist justice equal opportunity and inclusion continue to be out of reach for many black hispanics and lb gt q and other minority populations. This is a real problem with initiatives put into placenu and with that bigotry and the institution across the board and across thehe institution and we will be joined by my colleagues rafael as a staff writer keeping me company a great guy i look forward to him intervening. The first housekeeping. The hill diversity. We will be broadcasting live just refresh the page is a quick fix i believe it but i hope it works for you. Veronica escobar representing texas 16 Congressional District the first woman elected for her district so congratulations the next round of elections you will nd they keep coming way too often. But let me just ask you beuse i know you have been working very hard on the National Defense authorization act to get this mention of diversity an minority inclusion in the system. Want to ask you whats on your mind and do you believe our institutions like the pentagon is a basis where discrimination is stillnt running rampant . First of all good morning and thank you so ch for the formation good to see you againn the National Defense authorization act to create chai chip on to create change includes diversity good work to increase diversity i just visited a military installation and with focus groups of women thinking of diversity and those racial challenges and also think about women as well to remind everyone that diversity those conversations i have with those women all the blind spots the military had when it comes to women in service and inre many ways the significant limitations placed on their ability toen advance and to have hearings all the time it with a higher level leaders at the height of power those with the leadership table. And what the military is doing with the pipeline leadership that is diverse. So many of those are firsttime members of the military and children of immigrants. So they dont always know the best route to ascend so we have Mentorship Programs we need to make sure those Mentorship Programs so that the people who are committed to the military that we are committed. So a friend of mine in the new york tim with the expose of the military services and when weee an exception. And then the next iterations it is very clear this is a structure domited by white guys. Its very clear nothing has worked at the command staff level i like to see when ople are not an exception . And to see there is a challenge or a person to address it. But its clear whatever we are doing now is not working very well. So thats what we have to put infrastructure in place one of the things i heard from the groups of women i had spoken to come is when they had a Mentorship Program made all the fference in theorld. But unless we actily ease set them up and funding tm and basically creating a permanency for themthey are not sustaine sustained. Everybody waso fix the problem its clear we ne serious intervention to fix it. You want to switch over to politics. You are in the running to be the Congressional Hispanic Caucus but just in texas so democrats have relied on the divee caucuses so how are they going to change . To take a beating in the selection. We did. I was hoping we would grow the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and i was heavily invested not just financially but in terms of relationship to help especially the latinas who i was hoping would grow the caucus and we have to be far more unified as a caucus and running for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and should be elected as i share with my colleagues want to have a Strategic Planning session immediately before the end of the yearr to define our priorities but also to talk through what the plan will be Going Forward and how to best push that agenda so clearly that the Democratic Party is demonstrating that through legislation and the leadership we provide on the hill. I want the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to be r more strategic and proactive and ats what i would focus on if i were chair. Hank you so much for helping us to launch this. We will do three hrs we want to keep people talk about versity and inclusion and i hope you will come back an talk to us about this. Take you so much. The next guest is the first woman to serve as representative from puerto rico focuses on getting equal treatment to citizens of us territories and access to education and promoting Small Business perk i had the pleasure to meet her. Its great to see you again. Congratulations. The Republican Caucus has more women e than ever so how does that go down . What do you think will happen . What are the future ways . Tell us about it. First of all thank you for inviting me its a wonderful year because there are so few here in the house and the people of the business area that brings to the arena and compromise is not the same thing asas surrender. That there are many that can reach a compromise in many of the issues. Released with the hispanic and many others with the awareness that we need more voices here and the vice chair of the caucus and not just to see one point of view but many and with professionals arere former military. Representative we will get another question before you bring in my colleague but i want to ask you speaking in the drama in the aftermath of the hurricane donald trump is using puerto rico as a punching bag and days before the election there was no better friend than President Trump so how does puerto rico a part of america feel that whiplash treatment . Do you agree with my framing . Today i was on the floor a few minutes ago we been looking for equal treatment for many years and today we all have a delegion so that means when you need to do with the federala government and then to say i did not agree with every bill andhen providing resourc for an earlier thisear and we did have to hear that. And then working with the administration to acknowledge thesissues as well his medical devices industry and i need t secure our supply ain medicine and drugs pushing for theipartisan legislation in the house and senate for the United States and puerto rico to have those incentives related to b creation and property in thisrs area. O so again if you are elected , you need to dohatever it takes to get things done and ats what i have been doing dealing with discrimination from gernment these issues we members of congress. So thats why i thinwe should and this type of information and it is unsustainable. And then for statehoodn 2012 and 2017 now in 2020 now from both sides of the aisle it is what it is in sports and counities in every sta so across the world from people from all over the state so whatever is the president i will be working wh these four years were not easy we accomplished resourc and i hope and expect we can continue this. I want to stick to this issue because i know you like talking about statehood a lot of things have to happen in the selection for the realistic political environment, and there was a lot of thought that someli peoplele said they would have to take control of the senate and get rid of the filibuster. But that didnt happen and the legislature puerto rico as many word expect so what are the chances of this congress and this legislature to be the one that gets across the finish lin line . Happy to see youor again. And the last four years and in 2016 i ran on a platform with the most voted official statehood is bigger than any other to have more votes so that means its bigger than a candidate the reality is a people puerto rico directly voted and went hawaii and alaska they were not consulted to choose other options. Why we need to provide more options that we make in 2112 andmo 2017 so now i truly understand statehood will happen and there is a lot of misconceptions Puerto Ricans you can see that now in florida i can tell you with the incidence of that that we got equal footing. Not asking for benefits and i think its not right to have a territory that will act and react in congress but are proving all the law and the lifes we live and senators republicans and democrats across the aisle in the house and senate look at what happened next with the bipartisan bill sincece last year with a wide range of members supporting it. Is not just about democratsod and senators because its never been moved by the leadership those are to understand like many others in theov past that it is clear. Representative we have a question from the audience from the treasury department. Purple sectors have have 5 percent of hispanics. If elected in the 2020 consensus of the population. So with those sectors in society. And what has been happening for many many years and is part of that discrimination and every time using those changes people respect that. And questioning that is part of the leadership. And is more women are elected and those to have more cabinet members of latinoo heritage. So in the case of puerto rico we have a lot of vacancies so sometimes its about hiring so i agree with you. So then we look forward to the other hispanic organizations. Representative am onhe opinion side of the top on opinion operation so i can say totally support your efforts on statehood. I hope you keep coming back to talk to us thank you for your thoughts today. Thank you. Thank you for thopportunity. Of my next colleague to rafael over to you. A thirdgeneration crew be an american a Public School math teacher and center for district 25 from brooklyn new york. He will be the first openly gay black person to serve in the new york state legislature. Welcome. Onthank you for having mee rafael. The first question is a milestone. These arevi still notable we still have a huge disadvantage as the only represented wage property owner. And there is a lot of wo to catch up on. N your case h has your identity and values affted your approach to politics or how ha they . Y . Yes. Than for asking that. As queer and black i have lived in many spaces because of i waslack or gay but when you are a marginalized pson whether racial identity or Sexual Identity when you are marginalized and began fighting for yourself you want to fight to ensure nobody should go marginalized that s y not of my policies or liticsnd why i fight for those uversal programs so no one has to suffe suffer. And with marginalized people the question of you can support these policies at the leadership level what do you want to push the people in your party and the legislature . How do they open their eyes to see things from the perspective to be marginalized . In tms of leadership that we undoing the harms of working class people of color. For example those that are most likely to be have housing discrimination about people and people of color so to have a home guarantee or a cancellation of rent is a huge amount of work to do. Le or they are more likely to have preexisting conditions with covid19 so with a universal healthcare pgram would go mileso toward alleviating the pain and the queer communities of color. Fighting for universal programs for marginalize people and to be under the influence of those corporate donors we are where there is a Political Movement but then to take way from the rest of the country . Yes. It is very transparent that every single gg person looks t housing for profit has not worked out for the past several hundred years of our nation is possible to guarantee of the human rights investment to make you wealthy but every person has access to a doctor and healthcare. And those that they are suffering from and then to have Community Involvement it with a few Corporate Board executives. And with the needs of the big city and brooklyn and rural kansans are very different and is often portrayed as socialism and then to have a capitalist perspective so this shifted and regional paradigms. What do you think for people of color . And as a great socialist former labour party in the early part of the 20th century everywhere you go the noon of the profit motive for working class people i you live in the city or rur areas to Electrify America not to build out that last mile because it wasnt profitable. Is there a way to reach ot to sort of say like this isnt sports, this is a policy that manages the way we conduct our lives . The best way to bring people together is for both universal programs. When you say healthcare for all it is making sure eryone has access too a doctor. Everyone should be able to see a doctor. A job for all. A een new deal, the environmt for all. These are things that should go for everyone regardles of your political f ideology and regardless of your race or gender or identity a of that. Thank you so much. I wish you the bestn the legislature. Now it is time for the sponsor portion of the program. A clarification while im conducting the clarification the content of this portion shouldnt be considered editorial. Id like to welcome Susie ArmstrongSenior Vice President and Senior Engineer weve long talked about this and love to just have a conversation on how to make diversity and inclusion and its also for people and firms ere theres been just barriers and ssometimes those are informal in the council and nudging that kids get early and i want to k you to start with susie for a minute. Youve been acte with a program i remember very moving conversation had with a girl that happened to be africanamericann a device at she put together. It kind of rotated around. But, tell us what you feel needs to be done to make diversity and inclusion for those people aspiring or who might choose engineering rather than a fake course . Its great to talk with you again. As you know we are a company of inventors and we know the benefits of bringing these different ideas to the table with a diverse background and the perspectives that our employees have. Also it is critical that we also believe access to technology promotes the quality. If you think about it, the wireless device is the way they access the internet and so it can really help bringing Diverse People into these companies and into technology to provide things like healthcare and fiucation. We focus on a lot of things, homegrown programs and partnerships and i think that is important. Think of it as the homegrown program. Its practical, tangible, and it targets the Large Population of students in San Diego County and other places and it targets middle school girls, middle schoolers from diverse backgrounds who might not normally see themselves as inventors or engineering careers and its been highly successful andd highly impactful. I think these programs from a corporate perspective are critical in terms of partnerships as well. We are also partnered with robotics and a variety of other partnerships, but an organization you can tell im a practical engineer, the tangible programs with universities to pull together multidisciplinary and diverseen teams to teach thm how topr be inventors and actuay launch their product. So, sometimes people think that inventors are these people sitting in a lab and they have a light bulb moment, but its not. Its all about working in teams and the diversity is critical to the kind of ideas that come out. Before i do that, i want to remind the audience how cool you are. E. Its ridiculous the things youve created and patented. Years ago you created the analog, not analog but the algorithm for how the smart phones can send pictures and surf theeb. All of you are doing that online right now. My question may be unfair becaus i think when you did that youoiere extremely rare to have a woman engineer. Your stature and the exact same thing. T why did he go right for you and what do other places have to chge to make it right fromll different backgroundsl so tha they can follow the track you did. Er for me i had very general neutral parents that encouraged me to go into schooling and so i had a lot of support all along the way. I say anecdotally t probably 25s were female and its Something Like 14 or 19 female and that is and taking the account in the hispanic populations. In some ways weve gone backwards but tha is the sort of negative side of the story. Theres no better time to be a woman or underrepresented person in tac and stem. Theres so much scrutiny on the problem and so many of these tangible practical programs. Some people will say we are not movinghe needle theres so anmuch awareness and opportunity now that i think the fact that it became in my mind itecame a National Priority and interNational Priority and it became part of the National Conversation and i think that his what has given rise to these incredible programs starting with gradeschool kids up through the universities and then reteion in the companies. So, where it went right for me think these programs and the naonal conversation about this situation is iredibly important d the policy matters as well. The patent and trade Office Actually has a number of good legislativ programs to make sure the act and that we can accurately count the demographics and the idea act so these kind of conversations and theskind of policies are really critical to making it go right for other people and mentor ship as well. You have a great background and i nt know if you are intimidateby susie. Im intimidated by you both. We a interested in meeting with you and talking with you today and qualcomm has a program called iest together and you are also a parof the smart mentor ship program. I love that your insights are along the same lines i asked to susie. What do you thinkatters in terms of getting the change in peop of different backgrounds and colors onto the track tractf scale. What d the communities or hools