other things --

>> good afternoon, everyone. we want to welcome you to congress in your community with congresswoman terri sewell. we are so delighted to be with you today. this is part of our 13 county tour throughout our district care congresswoman is delighted. we want to invite you, if you have a question, we will have time at the end of question and answers. i'm going to ask our staff, chief of staff, is here. our deputy district director. our federal funding coordinator, quinn kelly. we have byron evans, our outreach coordinator. diana johnson, r dallas county and black belt constituent services representative. and we have cheryl waters from jefferson county. we also have our pristine, our

comments -- our pristine, our comms director and kaylee franklin. i am melinda williams, district director for congresswoman sewell. if you have a question, please write it on one of are index cards. our staff has cards if you do not have them. we will have time at the end of the program for questions. we will invite our wonderful mayor, let's give her a big hand for all that she has done and her hospitality today. she is going to come and bring us greetings. mayor boone: great afternoon, everyone. first, i would like to thank god for all of us for being here today, first and foremost. on behalf of the city council,

the great citizens of fort deposit, we are glad to welcome you to this town hall meeting. a space where we can come together as a community to share ideas, raise concerns, and work toward solutions that benefits us all. your presence and participation matter. and we look forward to a productive and respectful conversation. next, we will have prayer. >> good afternoon. can everyone bow their heads? their heavenly father, we come here today to say thank you, lord. thank you for another day, lord. thank you for the traveling grace you allow everyone to make and participate in this meeting. i ask you touch every bone in

everybody's body and be with them and keep then same. in jesus's name i pray, amen. melinda: thank you so much for that. i'm going to ask -- i know we have a couple city council representatives here. four deposit, if you are a city council person, one of our cities, we will ask you to stand. we have the chair of our county commission and four total of our county commissioners here. if you would stand. we appreciate your service. [applause] our chairman. we have other mayors throughout the county. i know the mayor of gordonsville is here, mayor of painesville, we have the mayor of whitehall. and yellow bluff from wilcox county. he drove over today. we are so appreciative. are there any other counselors or county commissioners from our area that are here? and we have our judge.

i know one of our judges, judge johnson. he is over there incognito. we appreciate it. our sheriff and law enforcement, i know he is around. we appreciate you being here. thank you again. we are going to allow congresswoman sewell, your congresswoman, let's give it up, who has been serving the seventh congressional district since january of 2011, who works hard every day for the seventh congressional district. congresswoman sewell. [applause] rep. sewell: thank you all. by acknowledging me you are acknowledging the hard-working staff of alabama seventh congressional district. they are the ones who deserve a round of applause. thank you you, melinda. melinda may be small in size but she is mighty in her actions and voice. and we are grateful that she is our district coordinator. good afternoon. i'm congresswoman terri sewell. i am proud to represent alabama

seventh congressional district. i am thrilled to be here in lowndes county. as many of you know, lowndes county is my maternal ancestry home. my mother, nancy gardner sewell, grew up in this community. and my grandfather, my big daddy, pastored a church and now my uncle pastors the same church. and i am thrilled to be here. as a point of personal privilege, if my own and 10 uncles, will you please stand up so i can acknowledge it in today's town hall? thank you so much. [applause] thank you for being here. i want to begin by expressing my gratitude at how grateful i am for each of you for being here today. this community conversation is part of my annual congress in your community tour through all 13 counties in alabama's seventh

congressional district. it is an opportunity for me to highlight the many ways that are community benefits from vital federal services and programs. services that are under attack currently by the trump administration. last month, at the direction of president trump's passed a budget proposal, which would cut $4 trillion worth of cuts to programs that americans rely on. why? in order to give a tax break to the giant corporations and millionaires and billionaires, not to us. the house republicans budget proposes to cut $880 billion from medicaid alone, threatening to take away health care from our most vulnerable alabamians. their plan also calls for $230

billion to be cut in snap benefits, which help feed hungry families during their most precious times of need. there are more than 197,000, almost 200,000 people in our district that rely on snap benefits. while elana scanned his band of broge have taken a chainsaw to so many programs alabamians depend upon, most definitely, the programs like social security, medicare, and medicaid, they have fired for social security alone thousands of employees. i know the casework we currently have for ssi, disability is a long caseload. it is hard already for people to get access to the social security administration. now, they have fired thousands of employees, they have closed

field offices, restricted telephone services, making it more difficult for seniors to get the benefits they are owed. let us be very clear. social security is not an entitlement. you all pay into it during a lifetime of work. it is that fica, when you see you are putting money into fica, that is your social security benefit. it is an earned benefit. and it is earned over a lifetime of work. in order to give our city money and security during their retirement. it is important that we make sure we keep that pledge we have made two people, when we take that money out of your paychecks, that it will be there when you need it. these cuts are more than about statistics. they are about lives and livelihoods. consider this. in alabama alone, half of all births are covered by medicaid.

45% of the beneficiaries of medicaid in alabama are our children. the chips health program? that is funded through medicaid. to strip children of the health care while giving tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires, to me, is an outrageous betrayal of our values as americans. but sadly, it is only the tip of the iceberg. president trump has signed an executive order to shut down the department of education. which administers programs like title i, which almost one third of all public schools in alabama receive funding from. we also know that over 70% of the children in our district, alabama's seventh congressional district, receive free and reduced lunch. it is a lifeline to so many vulnerable children. earlier this month, the trump

administration department of justice did -- terminated an environmental justice agreement right here in lowndes county. this agreement was years in the making. it had nothing to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion. it was about addressing a public health crisis that has forced generations of children and families in lowndes county to endure the health hazard of living in proximity to raw sewage. a fact that was documented by the department of justice. by terminating this agreement, the trump administration has put it blatantly aware for all of us to see that they have a disregard for the constituents that i represent. it is unacceptable. it is absolutely outrageous and it is cool. without support from the trump administration, it is vital that alabama's department of public

health continue to do its part to remedy this injustice. in fact, i met with dr. scott harris, the director of alabama's public health department this morning. and i made it perfectly clear that i expected the department of health and alabama to honor its commitment to do something about this injustice. we were all watching that. i believe that access to adequate wastewater and sewer infrastructure is a basic human right. it has nothing to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion as the trump administration stated. no one should be forced to live in proximity to raw sewage. not on our watch, not here in lowndes county, not anywhere in america. [applause] since i took office, 19 and i have been working hard every day to bring federal resources and funding to our district to

improve this crisis in lowndes county and throughout the black belt. we have work to pass -- worked to pass legislation and repeatedly convened researchers and cabinet officials to bring attention to this problem. to be clear, this problem would not be solved overnight. we know it took generations to build it, and it will not be solved overnight. but we know our decades long worth of work set the stage of the doj agreement announced by the biden administration in 2023. in 2012, we helped secure $4.8 million for the city of uniontown from usda rural development to improve wastewater in uniontown. one year later, we helped whitehall secure a one million-dollar grant from usda which was used to connect 50 homes and businesses to the municipal line. we have also championed over the years a number of bills that have passed. my rural septic tank asset pass

does the farm bill and it created a new usda program which provides grants to improve rural decentralized wastewater and sewer systems. we successfully secured more than $782 million in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed in 2022. alabama's a den, the department of environment on management, runs alabama state revolving fund that now has over $782 million just for water and sewer. that same infrastructure bill, we also had part of my bill that i authored, the decentralized wastewater grant program, created another opportunity for folks to get help for their wastewater through an epa program to help low income households connect their homes to existing wastewater infrastructure and install septic tanks. all of these actions help lay

the groundwork for the doj agreement that president trump, with the signing of a pen, actually terminated. but again, i want you to know you have a commitment from make and from my staff, and from the state, that we have to do something about this and hold our feet to the fire, and make sure we do something about this. president trump has made it clear in his agenda that billionaires like elon musk are rewarded, and alabama communities like the one here in fort deposit foot the bill. it's outrageous and unacceptable. i hope you know i will be fighting back. i have voted no more often in the last less than 100 days that i have done in my whole tenure as a member of congress. but you know what? when it comes to fighting for the people that i love and represent an alabama's seventh congressional district, i will

continue to say no, hell no, to the cuts that are affecting our community. we are grateful to be joined by several of our community leaders to help us set the stage for a community conversation about what these cuts, these draconian cuts will do to lowndes county and the communities you all live in. we are fortunate to have our superintendent here. she represents lowndes county public schools. we have mr. gilbert darrington, who is a ceo of health services. he provides health care to the folks in lowndes county pair we also have michael coleman, the ceo of heart of alabama food bank that provides food and nutrition for us. and we have mary wentworth, who is alabama care's coordinator and program director for south-central alabama development commission.

i'm going to join the panel and we will have a discussion about the various cuts i have outlined in my conversation and in my presentation for you. and what that means to us. i want to remind you, we will open it up for questions and everyone should have an index card to write their question on. and our staff is in the back, if years your hand and don't have a card and need a card or pencil, we will provide one for you. that will be at the end of our discussion. we are going to have a community discussion about those services that may be cut. [applause] all right. i want to thank our guests for being here. i want to start with you, mr. darrington. i outlined earlier that debra -- the house republican budget that past a month ago outlines 880

billion dollars worth of cuts to one program, medicaid. and i know that medicaid is a lifeline of so many in alabama. can you talk a little bit about how important medicaid is, and what you think will be the consequences of cutting medicaid to lowndes county? mr. darrington: sure. first of all, i want to thank you, congresswoman, for always working hard and tirelessly to support all of us. and your efforts are very much appreciated. and thank you for inviting me to the panel. medicaid is very important. two groups of people that really benefit from that program are the children and the elderly. we already have a bare-bones program in alabama as it stands. rep. sewell: bare-bones. like you have to literally make less than $8,000 to get medicaid

in alabama. mr. darrington: you do. for a family of three, the cutoff for qualifying for medicaid is a little bit less than $4800 an year. rep. sewell: less than 8000, 4800. mr. darrington: yes. a cut to medicaid would actually drop, like you already said, 45% of our patients that our children. it is so important early in life to start children out with dental care and primary care where with dental care, if you don't start a child off young and start having those visits at the dentist every two years, every year twice a year, chances are as they grow older, they will not receive dental care because they will not be accustomed to that. dental care correlates to good health care. if you have bad dental care, you

will have poor health care. that group of children who don't receive dental care, and then are off of primary care, not seeing regular wellness visits, will not have a good quality of life going on throughout their life. at the end of life, you are dealing with many more issues, just as a matter of all of us getting older. if you don't have proper health care throughout the course of your life, at the end of life, you don't have that quality of life, so you are suffering. suffering more como rib -- comorbidities then you would otherwise. a cut to medicaid would be very detrimental to the entire health care delivery system. not only in this county but in the entire state. rep. sewell: can you tell us about the services you offer at health services? i know you serve as a large swath of lowndes county. can you talk about your patients? mr. darrington: sure.

we are a federally qualified health center, which means we receive a small federal grant to offset the cost of uncompensated care. casey individuals who have insurance, who have medicaid, and also homeless in individuals who are unemployed. so we see probably 35 -- annually, we see around 38,000, just our organization. i have 11 fixed facilities, four school-based clinics, so we have around 38,000 patients a year. 35% of those patients we see are medicaid. we provide primary care, so regular visits. to provide dental visits for adults, we also have behavioral health care services. rep. sewell: mental health? mr. darrington: mental health. again, a lot of times, if you diagnose a person with something going on mentally, or just need some counseling, they will not be healthy to take care of their physical health.

so we provide mental health, dental, optometry, behavioral health services, and we also have two wellness centers. one is here in lowndes county. we try to wrap the entire health care around the patient and all the services that are needed. we also provide services such as, we do home visits. we do wellness visits to make sure individuals are making -- are taking their medications, living in a safe environment, and we are able to refer them to other services based on what we find. rep. sewell: we want to thank you for having a great service and our community. don't wait? [applause] i want to turn to you, michael. i said in my presentation earlier that over 197,000 almost 200,000 in my district alone depend upon food banks for some form of their food assistance. the fact that we are cutting

snapped, or potentially cutting $200 billion in snap, what effect would that have on your food bank that services this area? >> is this one on now? thank you for having me and allowing me to talk about this issue. it is an issue and very passionate about. both sides of my parents were raised from here. rep. sewell: so you understand. >> i get it. such a struggle because half of the people who are serviced by us, and justly you know, we have 35 countries that we are responsible for with feeding america. we have ourselves in four other food banks contracted with us.

we are responsible for over half the state in terms of food and sick -- food insecurity individuals. . that is 256,000 residents. we are on pace to distribute 34 million meals -- excuse me, 34 million pounds which equates to 24 million meals. the challenge for us as half of those people don't even qualify for snap. so they are just above that barrier that they don't qualify but they still have challenges and still have real needs. we are already struggling just to meet the need as it is. if this not benefits are cut, then that will be -- hunger does not just go away. need does not just go away. it is going to go somewhere. that means that people will turn to the only network that is out there, the food bank network. think about it. there are so many people that don't stand that because they are blessed to not have to worry

where the next meal will come from. the reality is we are the safety net for society. when you don't have enough food, you turned to church pantries and do turn to other organizations that help you overcome those challenges. we are the beginning part of that where we source that food from the usda and major retailers. i look at lowndes county and the challenges, and we all know they are immense. one of those challenges is access to fresh produce. there is no major grocery trains -- chains here. you have somebody who lives out in rural areas and one little thing such as their car breaking down, not having the money to repair it, deprives them of the opportunity to get access to fresh produce and proteins and things they need. you think about the people who find themselves in the situations, elderly, who maybe don't have children who can make up the difference. then children oftentimes who

really suffer from that, from the food scarcity. it is really a childhood trauma. all of that together makes me concerned about any cuts. just because we don't really fully appreciate the effect it is going to have on families, but also the bird and it will place back on the entire food banking system. recently, we have experienced a tremendous amount of cuts. the usda is only 30% of our funding. but we have cut -- already, we have experienced a total of 500 and $600,000 out of our budget. and we had 23 truckloads of food over the coming months that were scheduled to come to the food bank. they were canceled as a result. we have not fully felt the effects of all of that, and what that means. but the reality is it is a huge

gap that we have to face, and if we -- if different communities don't step up and help fund that gap, then the reality is that there is going to be less food to distribute. and less people who are served. and it is going to trickle down. i hate to think of those who need access to fresh produce, and can't get it, because it is simply not there to give. rep. sewell: i want to thank michael and his organization for providing the food assistance he has. i think he deserves a round of applause. [applause] i know that we know that we have never depended upon federal government or any government to help us. what we in rural america are best at is helping each other. neighbor helping neighbor. i want to make sure by the end of this program that you know how you can volunteer to help michael and his organization, and a volunteer to provide some

canned goods. i know i see lots of pastors in the audience nodding their heads. we know these cuts will affect, adversely affect, those who are already vulnerable. and we need to pick up the slack, but do know that we are fighting in washington to get those funds restored. my next question, is for superintendent jeter. i want to welcome you here. i said a couple weeks ago that we found out that the trump administration was going full steam ahead on dismantling the department. and they are saying title i will not be affected, it will go to someplace else. they are saying student loans will go to the small, maybe the treasury. but i also have already seen a

clawback of the american rescue plan money that has already been allocated to be given out. they are now seizing the unspent money. and we know that american rescue plan money came to help us get through covid, and the long-term impact of what that pandemic and into our school systems, two hours -- our communities. we are seeing some of that being claude back. i know that the parents that are in the audience are quite concerned about what that would mean if we actually dismantled the department of education. and i know from where i sit, from the federal government perspective, it offered oversight into states which we know, curriculums that our children have come from the state. ok. and local school boards. but we also know that public

education is for every child. and adherence to civil rights, making sure that those that are disabled students, have an opportunity to learn. those that are behind have the opportunity to learn. all of that came from the department of education. can you share with us your concern about the dismantlement of department of education and how that will impact lowndes county public schools? ms. jeter: first, i want to say thank you for having me, and thank you for all that you do for lowndes county and all of the constituents you serve. right now, we are not exactly certain what direction trump is going with, with the dismantling of the department of education. we do expect every federal education program will be affected in some way or another. right now, it is just like a waiting game. we have to wait and see.

we have been told some federal programs will be shifted to different agencies. however, we are very concerned that the closure of the department will pose financial, even legal or civil rights issues for local boards. and that's not something our board is wanting to take on. but that could be the end result. the structure and oversight of the programs such as ide eight, which stands for individuals with disabilities education act, the special education, those efforts could be cut. in our district, we have quite a few students that are qualified in special education, whether it is gifted, speech, there are several different areas that are categorized under special education. our title i funds, that serve

children in high poverty. we are a title district. all of that, even title iii helps with english-language learners. we have some of those. it's just something that we will be watching closely. we are just really concerned. rep. sewell: can you tell us about the school system, how many children you have in your school system? ms. jeter: we have approximately 1100 students in our district. we have seven schools. we have three elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools and a career tech program. we also serve head start, we serve pre-k and we serve hibi. rep. sewell: and i know alabama used a lot of the federal funds to work on early childhood education. can account a little bit about the resources for head start and are there concerns about those being cut and what that would mean? ms. jeter: in beginning, we were not concerned about headstart.

but now recently, we are beginning to be concerned that headstart will be cut. headstart serves children's ages three through five, early childhood program. it has been here for over 50 years. to lose headstart, that would be very detrimental to our community because at that point, where would our young children go to get educational services at that age? it does not only just serve the children, it serves the families. there are many services that headstart provides to our children and their families. that will be a detriment -- detrimental loss if we lose headstart. rep. sewell: we are very appreciative for what you do as superintendent and the school system here in lowndes county. my mom and all of my aunts sitting down there are proud products of the lowndes county school system. so we want to thank you for all you do. [applause] i know that as part of your job,

through the alabama agency on aging, you help with our senior and the thoughts of cuts to medicaid and medicare directly impact some of the services you provide. can you talk a little bit about what services europe commission provides and what areas you serve and your thoughts and concerns about any potential cuts? >> sure, thank you. thank you for having us at the table. thank you for all of you -- all you do. my heart goes out to you. to talk a little bit about the cuts, our agency provides a variety of program services to our seniors throughout the south central region. medicaid cuts could impact our seniors and it could impact medicare. 20% of our medicare beneficiaries in alabama also depend on medicaid for coverage.

cuts to medicaid may reduce access to long-term care. into long-term care is our nursing home and it receives long-term care in your home. it also will have an impact on our home health services, our home health agencies. it also will have an impact on our seniors being able to get medication. some of our seniors already right are making decisions whether to get medication or provide a meal for themselves. so it will have a great impact on the. it also would increase financial strain on our seniors and our caregivers in the region. and potential rises in uncompensated care from hospital providers because our hospitals depend on medicare and medicaid to be reimbursed. and a greater demand will be on similar agencies trying to find other resources in the communities for our seniors to be able to get connected to

these resources. interest to share with you some of the support and programs we have for our seniors, we have our aging and disability resource center. this is a way for seniors to call in, get screened, so they can determine what services what services we have that will be beneficial to them. we also have our senior community service employment program that helps seniors work-based training. we operate on a $46.3 million grant under the u.s. department of labor. ms. jeter: how much -- rep. sewell: how much? ms. wedgeworth: $46.3 million. a cut to that would make an impact on our seniors that are 55 or older that are receiving training opportunities in the community. we also have our elderly nutrition program. we have a wonderful senior in for deposit.

we have 18 centers throughout our region that provide nutritious meals, social recreational activities, it gets to mount in the community, keeps their mind functioning, they have the opportunity to interact with other people, which is a great opportunity for them. we also have home delivery and frozen meals available to our seniors who are 60 and older. we have nutrition counseling where they can get one-on-one counseling to educate them about whatever chronic condition they have so they can learn to eat healthy food, make up the traces, select the best food for them. we also have our senior program which gives scene -- gets seniors connected to medication. sometimes we have seniors who are -- they may have cancer and some of those cancer medications may be $1000 just for one medication. i have seen some edge much -- seen some as much as $4000 a

month. so we can help them get connected to those services, to help them get a lower cost of medication. we have our state health insurance program where people who have questions about medicare and medicaid, you can call in and get connected and find out what resource will be best for you. we have free legal services for seniors that are 60 and older, if you are looking to get your power of attorney completed. the service is free for you, for anybody 60 and older. we have our long-term care program, which they advocate for our seniors in the nursing home so that their rights are being met and all of their basic needs are being taken care of. we have our program, senior medicare program. it helps our seniors to detect

medicaid fraud in the community. those are some of the services we provide. a cut to medicare and medicaid would impact those programs tremendously. rep. sewell: we want to thank you and the south central regional commission on aging, all that you do has just been great. i want to remind our audience that if you have a question, you should have gotten a card, and my staff has been going around and picking up those cards. if you have a question, raise the card and someone will come and get it, and we can have that question answered. we have 15 minutes. if you have a question at all, please hold up the card and someone will come and get it, and i will be able to ask your question. as we are gathering the questions, i do have a question for you, gilbert, if you don't mind. i know that health care is such an important part of our community. without good access to good

health care, we can't attract economic development. and i know that lowndes county does not have a hospital in the whole county. so that your services are immensely important. can you tell us a little bit about some of the challenges that you have seen so far and what you are doing to try to mitigate against such challenges? mr. darrington: one of the biggest challenges is in rural communities, our rural hospitals are closing. which is a huge, huge issue. not only for the patients that the hospital serves, but for us , we don't have the capacity or resources or staff to handle the amount of volume that a rural hospital would handle. so, those patients, typically

what happens is they have to travel 30 to 45 minutes to receive health care. what would happen with us is our waiting times would be extended. a patient would not be able to get a timely medical appointment. the other thing is that rural hospitals are also economic engines. you are talking about individuals somewhere from 1000 to 1200 employees losing jobs right away. now in the local economies, you just took away 12,000 paying individuals who use -- utilize services in the community. so it is a huge domino effect. and then what happens when the hospitals leave, only the specialists, the cardiologists, your endocrinologists, they leave with hospitals, because they need hospitals to function and provide their services.

when a rural community loses a hospital, it is detrimental, not only for the patient, but for the entire economic development of that rural community. and it is devastating on the local economy. you would not be able to attract quality businesses in communities where you don't have quality health care. rep. sewell: absolutely. if you have a question, please raise your card up and somebody from my office will come and. get it i know we have received some and i will ask melinda if she would share those. >> we have several questions. i want to let the audience know if you have turned in a card and we don't get to your question, our staff are here and we will be around afterwards to answer those questions. rep. sewell: we will be around to answer those questions. we will get to as many as we can and the next 20 minutes. >> we have several questions regarding the wastewater program in lowndes county, and the

recent doj ruling. we had a question from mr. arlene allen and it is regarding what can be done to continue to assist lowndes county constituents as it relates to the unincorporated wastewater program and other wastewater programs that are currently with alabama department of public health and doj? rep. sewell: thank you for asking that question. i acknowledged in my presentation that this has been in a ongoing issue. i also wanted you all to know that there are resources, federal resources, that have been sent to the state that can help mitigate against that. i see sherry is in the audience. i know you have been doing a great job. stand up. the black belt unincorporated authority has had resources she received from the alabama department of public health,

that they got from the federal government to install septic tanks. as i understand it, that $3.5 million is being utilized by your agency to actually, so far, over 100 homes have been -- please give her a round of applause. [applause] have been able to get access to that. i just want you to know that we are here to help make sure -- and raise your hand, to the extent that you have an issue or problem in the black belt, sherry's organization is one of those organizations that can help out. we also have lowndes county wastewater. i'm not sure if that person is here. stand up! thank you. want to thank you for all you are doing to address the lowndes county efforts. the federal government has several programs that we can access. i spoke about the rural access

to septic tanks. that is where this $5 million came from, that bill i passed in 2018. of that $5 million, $3.5 million -- $1.5 goes to lowndes county wastewater crisis. and then $3.5 million for all of lowndes county. so far, i shudder to whisper it on c-span, because i don't want it to be clawed back. because it has been appropriated, and we are spending the money down, but we have seen in other areas of this administration take money that has already been appropriated by congress, and i locate it specifically to help certain problems in certain programs. and they are taking it back. know that your congresswoman is when to fight like hell to hold onto the money we have appropriated for the wastewater treatment here, and throughout

the black beltk\ and make sur they have, hands off our money for wastewater and water systems, if you are listening, the trump administration. anyway, i want you to know, because i'm not afraid. i want you to know there are resources out there and i want to point out several of the service providers doing an excellent job in our community, and we will continue to work with them on that. > two question is for mr. jon bowman. his goal, the what areas as it relates to becoming self-employed or self-sufficient. what can you talk about projects that would address the barriers such as childcare and transportation, particularly in rural communities? i want to get some of our experts on the panel to also

weigh in. i know that many of you provide transportation services and help with access to health care and senior services on -- or meals on wheels so we want to make sure you get a chance to answer that. it is critically important that we acknowledge the social determinants of health. one of those is poverty. another is lack of transportation. another of those is health care and preventive care. so there are lots of social determinants of health that work against us. i want you all to know that i know what is possible with the resources and opportunities. that is why we fight so hard to try to get more of those resources to be delivered. because with more resources and better opportunities, we have better outcomes. we know that and we will strive to do that. i wasn't sure if you wanted to talk a little bit about access

to meals on wheels. lots of the services here can be provided at home. i fight all the time, many of you know that my father passed away four or five years ago. for 10 years, he was a stroke survivor -- nine-time stroke survivor and my mother took care of him at home. so i understand the importance of home care and the importance of making sure meals can be delivered to those who don't have transportation. we fight for those resources. can you talk a little bit about that being a barrier of how you are meeting the challenge? >> yes, it's a huge challenge. because our territories actually over 25,000 square miles. when you get into counties like lowndes county that don't have resources and they are scattered out where it is very difficult to bring solutions for just a

few people for the cost associated with it, one of the ways we are trying to help meet the need is we just recently announced our food is medicine program. we partnered with the cancer center. and if you are food insecure and go to the cancer center in montgomery, they will refer you to us and once they do, we will bring two shipments per month delivered to your house with fresh produce and things of that nature. we have a rural delivery system set up to be able to read some of those needs because we understand -- and the truth of the americans is under 200 food banks in the feeding america network system, there are some rural delivery systems but none that i am aware of that going to the extent and the coverage that we are doing. but that goes back to ending that is needed and all the things that happened. we are limited as to what we can do. we would love to be you to everybody's home because we understand transportation is one of the social determinants of

health, along with food insecurity, and it is a real challenge. we are thinking outside the box and trying to tackle these challenges in new and innovative ways to lessen the burden on those who need help especially when they're going to critical care such as cancer, kidney disease, those kinds of severe things that make it that much more difficult. and with proper nutrition, it is especially vibrant when going through cancer treatments or serious illnesses. you need the nutrients. so you're trying to do everything we can that way to meet our community's needs. but as you can imagine, it is very difficult. >> i know it is very difficult. i want to ask about how transportation and home care that both the aging commission offers and also our health services, but before that, i want to just acknowledge that it will be critically important that we tell our neighbors about

the services that are there. part of what i hope today's community conversation will do is alert you of two the great services that are available so that we spread the word about what is available through the commission on aging, what is available in the heart of alabama food bank, as well as in our public school system. we need to each one teach one. to the extent that we are finding out about some information that you didn't know about, please come and see our experts at the end of today's panel to get that information. they all have a really wonderful information on their websites that they can provide to you about how you can get some help. gilbert, do you want to talk about what you all are offering in terms of home care? i know that the commission on aging has a lot of opportunities to provide home health. >> several different things

we're doing, of course,, transportation is a huge issue for the residents in our rural communities that we serve. so what we have done, we received a grant to be able to transport behavioral health, mental health patients to and from their appointments if they don't have transportation. but that is only for the behavioral health side. we are still working on the medical side. we have also implemented telehealth care, which is huge. >> huge. please elaborate on that. >> there are even, what do they call them, portable telehealth centers throughout the black belt that auburn university and others have been working to do. >> that's right. we are in the purchase prices of those parts. we have seen that our kept appointments with telehealth are 80% to 80 5% whereas in person appointments, we have 35% or 40

per 5% no show rate. so telehealth is actually working. what we need now is approval for audio only, to be able to call a patient on the phone is better than a patient not speaking to a provider at all. >> and i did not prompt you for this, that was one of my bills, during covid, we realized there were lots of infrastructure needs for broadband that hadn't reached areas like lowndes county and the black belt. so in order to better serve those communities, we allowed medicaid and medicare, they allowed reimbursement for audio only. now we need to make that permanent and that is on our agenda -- obviously a priority of my office is to make sure we get that done. but we were the ones who had the bill that got passed on how to do that. >> and we thank you for that. >> yes. [laughter]

audio, telehealth, and we have our dental mobile unit, where we go to our counties and provide them with services at least once or twice a month. we are trying to help with transformation -- transportation issues by bringing services out to the patients where they are needed. >> awesome. tell us what is going on with the commission and how you are helping with the transportation issue. >> thank you. we have our medicaid waiver program who provide meals to our seniors at home and for our elderly and disabled individuals. we also provide meals -- in the rural areas it is hard for seniors to get out and have dependable transportation, so we have home delivered meals for seniors who don't live in the city, that live in rural areas, meals that we deliver daily. we also have frozen meals delivered to our seniors in the

rural areas, and frozen meals are very expensive. so that limits access for people to be able to receive those meals in the community. >> and they know our school system provides breakfasts in the summertime and they are funded through federal programs, i don't know, superintendent, if you want to talk about that. >> so we do provide breakfast, lunch, and a snack during our summer programs. we have summer programs for our elementary schools, middle schools, even for the high schools. but now some of those programs are based on grants. so if it is a federally funded grant -- lake this summer we are waiting to find out if we will get a grant before we can -- before we will be able to provide those meals. we have applied for meals for

our summer program because our children still need meals throughout the year. some of our meals are the only meals some of them will get each day. so we try to make sure they are available whether we delivered them out to the community -- and we have partnerships with some churches or places in our community, communities, where the meals are sent out so they will be closer to the children where the parents can take them to be received. >> very good. >> most of our questions were regarding the wastewater, the septic tank issue, the doj ruling. but this is one that kind of tied with this, that wanted to know how this program, this agreement with the doj and the alabama department of public health, why was it considered illegal and ida program by the

federal government, and if there are other programs at risk of being terminated based on dei. >> thank you, mr. jackson, for asking that question. so, in the letter, the termination letter the department of justice issued, it called the agreement in dei agreement -- diversity, equity, and inclusion agreement. i said at the outset, this is not about diversity, it is that initially about diversity, equity and inclusion. rather, it's a public health crisis. it's about a basic human right. everyone in this great country we live in, nobody should have raw sewage in their front yard, period. so this is not about that. they did categorize -- this administration categorized that agreement as a dei agreement. and we do know that diversity,

equity, and inclusion is under attack and under assault by this administration. and unfortunately, even the word diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is as if elon musk and his doge, the department of government efficiency is what it is called, some of what they are doing is literally word searching "diversity, equity, inclusion" and just terminating programs and attacking programs that just have those words in it. and mark evaluating whether or not these are programs that are actually delivering on some outcomes that are effectuating our well-being as people. they are not taking that seriously. so it is -- we have to push back on that. we saw that not just in the area of wastewater, with this agreement, we saw it in other areas as well.

you will recall that they terminated the tuskegee airmen part of the air force manual because they said it dealt with diversity, equity, and inclusion. it's not just about black history. that is proud alabama history and proud american history. when we pushed back against them on that, they restored it. i guess what i am saying is, we all know, and none of us want inefficiency or ineffective government. nobody wants waste, fraud, and abuse, let me just say that. we want effective government. but there is a way to go about doing this. and unfortunately this administration has a chainsaw approach. they are cutting everything and wondering if it will stick. so, we have to amplify our voices as american citizens to push back when we see injustice,

when we see things that are being terminated that should not be terminated, like the tuskegee airmen. we also saw that on the same day, march 7, which was the 60th anniversary of the salama montgomery march, we saw the doge folks had put on a list of 500 properties, federal government properties, that were up for sale. and it included the greyhound bus station in montgomery, which serves as the freedom right at the -- freedom ride's museum. we spoke up. we held press conferences. you wrote letters and emails, and we got that restored. so what we have to do in fighting against some of the injustices that we see coming down because of the ineffectiveness of this administration, targeting cats -- i mean, nobody wants

ineffective government. i said it once and i will say it again -- your congresswoman does not want waste, fraud and abuse. nobody wants that. but there are ways to go about doing that. not as if other administrations haven't done it. the clinton admin went after waste, fraud, and abuse as well. they studied it for six months and made every program administrator, invalidate and justify their costs and expenses and what the goals were and where they met. and they made targeted cuts, focused on those programs that do provide the inefficiency and are duplicative. so i think all of us are just concerned -- limiting one's waste, fraud and abuse, but there is a proper way to go about doing this and unfortunately this administration seem to have a shotgun, chainsaw approach versus a more targeted one, and i think a more targeted one would be much better.

but the lesson i think we as citizens of this great nation, the lease on the lesson we should take from that is, when we see something, what did john lewis used to say? when you see something that is not fair, we all have a moral obligation to push back and do something about it. so i want us all to remember that so that in times like this, it is more important than ever for you to be specifically engaged. that is why i am so excited to see you all here today at this community conversation, and very grateful to serve you as your member of congress and to listen and interact and partner with these organizations who are here to help deliver better services to you. we have to be more specifically engaged. those letters and calls matter. everyone of us, every member of congress logs those calls and emails.

don't think that you're reaching out to your elected officials go in vain. they do not. it is even more important during times like this that we do that. so thank you. >> congresswoman, again, if we did not get to your question, a lot of them are about -- >> let's do another one, please. >> i think we have time for two more. this is from ms. harriet, what can be done to make an impact or encourage congress and our legislators to pass bills or rural and impoverished areas such as for deposit and other communities in the black belt? this is also about the septic system or the wastewater system here. but the question is, what can citizens do to encourage them to impact congress to pass bills that would support rural communities? >> i will take that question and

answer it. i wanted to just say that the thing that you can do is what you are doing now. and that is being informed. there is nothing, to me, the worst thing is to have a citizenry that is uninformed or misinformed. in this day and age when we get our information from that phone, from social media, sometimes we only what those stations that feed into our own personal philosophy. the danger is that we don't have a shared understanding of what is really going on. that is why coming out to community conversations and town halls like this is so important. because we as elected officials, we have to be held accountable to the people who elected us to tell them what is going on. to share with them the concerns, or take back their concerns to

washington and to fight for resources and opportunities that address those concerns. so what you can do is what you are doing now, being an informed citizen. it means making sure we are not getting this information and misinformation, we are seeking to find out from the source itself what is going on. i also want you all to know that we have in our midst, these great organizations here on the stage that provide services and making sure we understand what the services are. so the answer to that question is what i have been saying, which is that the best way to tell congress is to come in congressman and women and senators whatever concerns are and how we want them to be addressed. i think that knowing that right now, in the beginning of the budgeting process for 2026, because that is where we are now

, we are in the 2026 budgeting, understanding that we have a proposal on the table, a plan of action that was actually adopted by congress, the senate had there is, the house had theirs, we will recognize this reconcile the two and have come up with how they are going to cut, they have told us, $4 trillion worth of cuts. please, to all of you, i am saying stay tuned, stay engaged. stay connected and informed. that is what you can do. making sure you are amplifying your voice and making them hard to your elected officials at every level, not just federal, state, but local level as well. remember, our district is a district that was born out of civil rights and voting rights. a proud history of fighting,

ordinary people fighting for civil rights and voting rights. we have to vote in every election -- [applause] -- yes, come on. your school board, your state and county commission, local mayors race. those are all important. please continue to do that. i want to thank our guests. please give a round of applause to our guests. i want to thank my amazing staff, please thank the staff for their wonderful efforts. [applause] this is our taxpayer money that pays for the staff and they have been amazing. we are all an extension of this great staff. i want you all to stay tuned and stay engaged and informed. and i want to thank you for the opportunity to represent you in washington. thank you. >> let's give the panelists at hand. appreciate you being here. let's give a big hand to our

powerful congressman who fights 23 hours a day for the seven congressional district. we will ask mr. boone if he will come -- if he will come and give us a closing prayer. the panelists will remain. and your congressman will remain to answer any questions you may not have wanted to share with the public. we will stay around. >> deer, heavenly father. thank you for allowing us to gather here. give them traveling agrees to make it home to their destination. in your son jesus's name i pray, amen. >> a man. thank you all for a very successful and very informative panel.