-I want to talk about certainly another thing,
give you a chance to clarify, the Green New Deal.
-Yeah. -One of the things we're even
hearing the president say is that you would outlaw cows.
-Oh, yeah. -Cows farting.
That's would be out -- children, hamburgers, ice cream.
Any of that true at all?
-No. In fact, I think it is interesting.
it's always good to see how these narratives
are manipulated, because they're trying to say
that the Green New Deal is about what we have to give up,
what we have to cut back on,
when, in fact, the Green New Deal itself
is a resolution to be more expansive.
It is to be able to generate more
and to make sure that we're investing
in working-class Americans
so that we all can afford to have more in life.
So an affordable apartment isn't a dream,
but a norm and that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And, honestly, the only reason I think anyone would have
to cut back on ice cream is if their doctor advised them to.
-Yeah. And sometimes doctors will do that.
Also it should be pointed out, though, there are some Democrats
who seem a little cautious
of how ambitious the Green New Deal is.
How do you talk to your colleagues
within your own party to let them know
that this is the right path to take?
And have you met with a lot of interparty resistance?
-Yeah, well, I think one of the things that's important
that doesn't get communicated is that
our Green New Deal legislation is not a bill.
It's a resolution.
So there's two different kinds of legislation,
and what a resolution does is that if we pass
the resolution in the House,
it doesn't go into the Senate,
and it doesn't go to the president.
It is a House resolution.
It is a declaration.
It is an intentional vision document.
And what it does is that it puts forward the large scope,
the overall vision of what we're trying to accomplish,
and to say, listen, if we're going to make progress,
we need to declare our North Star
and our North Star is 100% renewable energy,
it's Medicare for all,
it's tuition-free public colleges,
it's investing in technology and renewable --
renewable resources and electric vehicles.
And -- and as a result,
any legislation, any actual bills that do follow from that
are pieces of that.
So you can have one bill that just addresses, you know,
battery storage, like Representative Takano
out in California.
You can have bills that just address
infrastructure investment.
And, so, all of those are pieces,
but the resolution of the Green New Deal
is the vision of what we need to accomplish in the next 10 years.
-It's really exciting.
And I hope people actually look at what it says.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Another thing that I think everyone is appreciating
about this new generation of people that are in Congress
is that it strikes me that people show up in Congress
and then people who've been there longer said to them,
"Hey, this is how it works here."
And it seems like a lot of you are now doing us the service
of turning to us and going, like,
"You guys won't believe how it works here,"
and telling us as opposed to just accepting these rules.
You posted this photo, which was fascinating to me.
Explain what's going on here real quick.
-So I was shocked at this photo.
What this photo represents are folks
who are experiencing homelessness
that have been paid by lobbyists
to wait outside of committee rooms
so that lobbyists can be the first
and oftentimes only seats in a congressional hearing.
-They're basically holding a place in line?
-Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. -And when you saw that,
this has been happening for a very long time.
And I certainly never heard of it,
and I appreciate you putting it out on social media,
because I think it's a helpful thing for us
to know exactly what's going on in this hall of this building
that we're all chipping in for.
-And it's not to say that these folks sitting down
are doing anything wrong.
But, you know, Congressional hearings
are not a Beyoncé concert, you know?
-Yeah. -They're two different things.
And this is one way in which money and politics
has really sunk so steep to the fact that everyday people
can't even see their own elected officials
because a lobbyist has paid to get in there first.
-I want to point out one more thing
on the Green New Deal before we go because the president said
it was, like, a bad report.
-Yeah. -It was a poorly written --
He did not buy the science in it.
But it's very unfair to say that about you.
You are a winner of science awards.
Look at that.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I mean, I personally never went past, like,
the papier-mâché volcano that my dad definitely made and not me.
[ Laughter ]
But this was a passion of yours
when you were in high school, right?
-Yeah, yeah, science was my first passion.
And I pursued the Intel science competition.
I studied microbiology
and the impacts of antioxidants on model organisms
known as the C. elegans which is of the nematode family.
-I think that's something you have in common
with the president, because I think he did that, too.
-Because he's a nematode? -He's an antioxidant.
[ Laughter ]
Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.