[applause] rep. subramanyam: thank you everyone for coming today. sorry about the parking. apparently, people are still trying to find their way through. apparently there are parking spots between the school buses at the school and that is where they are finding parking now. i'll shoot you will be here today, j 98 for me, almost 100 days. -- day 98 for me, almost 100 days and it has been a long 100 days, to say the least. a lot has happened. a lot of people ask me if i regret going to congress. i have told them if i was not in congress, i'd be at home yelling at the tv so arm happy to be

yelling at congress -- so i am happy to be yelling at congress instead. i'm glad to be here. thank you senator for being here. we have other officials that could not make it today like delegate delaney that are also serving you very well. we have a great local government in fairfax county. i have a little bit of fairfax county but i wanted to make sure to come to every county i represent. fairfax, like loud and where i am from and arlington and other surrounding areas, we have a lot of federal workers. is anyone here a federal worker or contractor or no one? i would say almost everyone is tied to the federal government in this community in some way. that is why i have found that it is both devastating to our community to see what has happened to the federal workforce entity federal agencies, not just because of what is going on with our federal government and how it

makes every american safer, healthier, and more prosperous. i get those stories. i have gotten almost 20,000 emails to our office. in the first 100 days. we responded to pretty much all of them. one of the things we do before i go to a hearing, before i go speak on the floor, i asked my team commit do you have a story about hhs? do you have a story about this agency? we always seem to have one end those stories seem to infect my colleagues as well. the other thing -- and those stories seem to impact my colleagues as well. the other thing we do with your stories is try to sell them to the press. as a member of congress in the minority i don't have a lot of legislative power but i can make some of the worst offenses happening in federal government now famous. our first town hall was in loudoun county and we got a lot of good stories. one was about the fact that soge -- doge was sleeping in some of

the federal buildings. i pitched that story and i even did a skit on tiktok of me trying to sleep in some of the agencies myself and they would not let me in. what is nice about that is we have a lot of amazing people in this community that do great work. even the ones who have not been fired have told me how dysfunctional some of their work has become. that's a shame, but it's also an opportunity. this is the same community that will get us back on the right track, whether it is within the agencies with people already working there, the people that are fired that he can talk about what happened. in some cases we have even been able to get people their jobs back. i don't want to promise you you will get your jobs back. but in some cases, folks at the v.a. that were fired, we made a big deal out of that. a lot of articles were written. we made a lot of calls and within a week a lot of the people we were calling, especially probationary

employees, were getting their jobs back. this is a time to not feel powerless, but, to actually feel like if you speak up and put on pressure, that is the best way to see results. certainly times when the administration has backtracked on things, times when the administration has admitted fault or mistake, that's when we has put pressure on them. that has been my experience, at least. yes, i am the guy with the suit on. but you guys have a lot of power and it is my job to empower you. that is how i look at this. i want to talk about a couple things before i hear from you. i have these handy posters. they are very nice. the first one is, the question i am asked the most. what am i doing about it? what are we doing about it? there are a lot of things we tried to do here. long storyveryusy first 100 day. i want you to pay attention to 5000 calls and 18,000 letters.

i even get a report when you call me. it is usually an intern you are talking to. they write down what you have to say and i get a report at the end of the week about what you have been saying and sometimes, i will even call you back if you said something interesting. a few of you may have gotten those calls. the emails too. i have actually read out entire emails during committee hearings and even my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have found them powerful. when that happened with signal i had many military families reach out to say how upset they were, that their lives were in power because folks in the administration were using signal to talk about war plans. i just read their emails. i had a member afterwards on the other side of the aisle say how powerful it was to him. just keep telling your stories. you have really good ones, especially in this area. the second thing i want to note is the economy. this is a simple graph showing

what is going on. you have the stock market down, consumer confidence down, retirement funds down, costs up, terrorists -- tariffs up. because of increased tariffs on china they actually made tariffs work by rolling them back. what this means for our community is to -- i have talked to a lot of businesses. i had a small business before i got to congress and i know many others have as well. it's hard to predict the future when you are a small business. you don't know what will happen three months or six months down the line. put on top of that tariffs or even just general economic conditions, i had one builder who talked about how they used to have lumber quotes open for 30 days and now they won't keep them open for more than a day or two because lumber prices go up day by day. they can't predict how much it

will cost for 60 days. it is hard building homes. at a time when we have a housing shortage here in northern virginia. that's just one example. and you can take that across hundreds of sectors. it's not just about the rising costs. certainly that is a part of it. but it is about the unpredictability of what is going on. there is not a lot of data behind the actions that are happening. the administration talked about the art of the deal about the past week. i was actually going through the art of the deal book. there was a quote that said "i don't have a lot of number crunchers. i don't trust fancy surveys. i do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions. to me, that's a little dangerous because it means we are doing evidence-based things and it will hurt a lot of businesses and people in our community. so i'm a little afraid to read the rest of the book. but at least this gives us a

window into what is going on. then, a couple things you may not have heard. there is stuff going on in immigration. even if you don't agree with what someone has to say, people don't deserve to be deported or detained for what they said. [applause] that is against free speech and what our country stands for. and second, people deserve due process. [applause] even if you suspect that they committed a crime, they deserve their day in front of an immigration judge in front of record. to at least be told what they did. that's not happening. finally, if the courts rule something, the administration needs to let it happen. the last couple weeks they won two cases. one last thing too before we go

on. we had a bill that i think it's very interesting. really bad called the save act and we had a vote on and another called the no rogue rulings act that says these nationwide injunctions aren't allowed. so the injunction on some of the firings, the injunction on birthright citizenship. basically they don't like the rulings so they are trying to impeach the judges, or else, stop them from stopping unconstitutional stuff that's happening. i think that is dead on arrival in the senate but i want to let you know that it passed the house on party lines. and second is the safe act that basically requires you to have a passport or federal id to vote and i think that is very dangerous. i think almost 40% of virginians don't have a passport. it's not easy to get a passport. it costs quite a bit of money and quite a bit of time.

it's very inconvenient to get one. so not everyone travels abroad yet to force everybody to get a passport is not easy. it disenfranchises a lot of people and on top of that if you are a woman and got married and have a different last names on your birth certificate, that is a problem for you as well. you have to prove you are a citizen now. so, my staff looked back 20 years in virginia. guess how many instances of noncitizens we found voting? zero. and how many instances of voter fraud we found wasn't much either. there were more republicans committing voter fraud. there were a couple instances. someone told me this and i've been trying to verify. some of the instances were actually republicans trying to prove that there were -- was voting fraud. were trying to solve a problem that does not exist by creating a new problem that's

disenfranchising people. i don't want to drop this save act and let this go unheard. if they are going to flood the zone at me i want to flood the zone back and that means talking about every single thing happening that is wrong. you aren't powerless in this fight. let's speak up. even if you disagree with me i want to hear from you. that's why i am here today. thank you for showing up. i look forward to your questions and comments. thank you for joining us. if the microphone is right there and i hope you step up. thank you. i appreciate it. who is the bold person that will go first? we will help you out. >> al green mentioned

impeachment papers would be filed within 30 days. i'm not sure if you were aware of that. he said it to like thousands of people. then my second question was, even though you brought it up and i appreciate that, the signal chats seem to have fallen off the radar for a lot of people. i am a dod employee. i would get fired for that. so i'm really curious what is actually going on there. rep. subramanyam: good question. al green, i am curious to see with the impeachment reasoning is. certainly, there's a lot to choose from. but i want to remind everyone, impeachment is not just a legal process. if the political process. so, having the votes is just as important. that is why donald trump was not impeached the first time. but i will certainly keep an i will certainly keep an eye out on that.

that is the second thing, the signal chats. they won't have a hearing on this in the oversight committee where i serve. i am at the ranking member on military and foreign affairs that it would be a great place to have a hearing on this. they had a hearing on cybersecurity a couple weeks ago. all i did was talk about this. the reason why is because we can't -- they were talking about cyber security vulnerabilities in america. that is a cybersecurity vulnerability. we need both sides coming together. because, this was a total screwup. it does not need to be a partisan thing. but i am finding there are folks on the other side of the aisle that are scared of criticizing the president even when he does things that are completely wrong that everyone can agree is wrong. and in this case it was the secretary of defense putting war plans in a signal chats. that's completely wrong. we need to call that out. i would call on him to resign.

i called on michael waltz to resign for having signal chats in the first place. we can't let this go. we can't let them plan very important, strategic things on signal at all. that's a vulnerability. and the last thing is, signal is encrypted, yes. but, he can still get into the chats. i explained in my committee how a phone works, because i don't know if they know how a phone works. it's not just about the app you use. it's the phone itself and so many other things. there are a lot of reasons why that was really bad. thank you for bringing it up. i won't let that go either. >> is there anything we can do to help keep that going to make sure that -- rep. subramanyam: on the senate side, i know there is an investigation happening. the white house is doing its own investigation. but, the senate, there is

bipartisan support for continuing to probe this. i want to make sure we continue on the house side. we will be doing our own inquiries and keep putting on the pressure. like everything else, keep putting the pressure on and i think you will start to see some blowback and response. >> thank you. >> thank you for letting me speak today. my name is morning. i'm farm -- from manassas but born and bred in fairfax county. i went to fairfax county public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade and taught for 32 years for the district. i currently tutor schools online in title i schools in milwaukee and oakland. i stand before you not just as an educator, but as a passionate advocate. fairfax county public schools was always an example of diversity and inclusivity. we are deeply concerned about troubling trends we are witnessing across the country that threaten the very foundation of our educational

system. in many states we are seeing teachers fired for simply honoring the names and identities of their students, teachers forced to take down welcome signs because of some sees them as political. as you walk out, look at everything in the hallways. all that would not be hung up in some other states. it's not a matter of policy. it's a fundamental right of every child to feel seen, respected, and welcomed in the classroom. as educators, we have a sacred responsibility to hold a spaces for all children to express themselves relate and learn without fear of discrimination or exclusion. i am alarmed by the recent decision made by institutions like my alma mater james madison university to get rid of their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. these initiatives are crucial for recruiting teachers from diverse backgrounds. our students need to see themselves in their teachers.

stripping d.e.i. efforts sends a clear message that diversity isn't valued and that the you not -- unique identities of our teachers and students don't matter. groups like head start title i which provide essential support for our most vulnerable students are also at risk. if we allow funding cuts or policy changes to jeopardize these resources we are failing not only our students, but our society as a whole. as an educator whose livelihood depends on district funding i fear for my job and the well-being of my students. the loss of support for diversity and inclusion initiatives would not only impact me personally, but ripple through the entire educational system, it diminishing the quality of learning for countless children. please, continue to stand with us advocating for policies that uphold the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our education. thank you for your time. [applause] new time --

. >> after working as a contractor i became a civil servant and i love helping people and working within the challenges of budget and security restrictions the government provides. working for the fda was a dream come true. i am a bit of a nerd. before joining the agency i read about its history, dr. wiley, the poison spot, the fight to make food and drugs safe and i was so proud to work with them. i love creating procedures and systems to make things operating efficiently. again, i am a nerd. in august, 2020 four, my world changed. i was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer and facing multiple surgeries. but i was more worried about missing work. the day after my surgery i tried going back. my boss knew i would do it.

actually, texted me first thing in the morning to say, don't even think about it. i did return two weeks earlier than expected because i love my job. in january i had a second surgery that was more serious. i had a week, after getting out of icu, a week after i received a letter from hhs saying i was being let go for not meeting probationary standards. that horrified me. my performance was exceptional. i had won awards and been promoted. with my supervisors and supported by appealed immediately and efficiently the probation was rescinded. i pushed myself to return to work early, exhausted and in pain. april 1, barely one month after i returned, my entire team was let go. again, i was without work. i had worked so hard. i thought cancer. i had -- fought cancer. i did everything i could to

serve the american people and i was discarded again. for what? not because of performance or budget because -- but because of politics because of the whims of doge and rfk. these people aren't saving money and they are trying to make america healthy again. they will harm the american people. our food and drug supply will be less safe and our work force made up of people that care deeply and work long hours for less pay are being broken. federal employees aren't the enemy. we make this country run and we are being turned into scapegoats for political gain. we can't let this continue. we have to stand up for ourselves, each other, and the future of public service. we need to fight back before it's too late. thank you for your time. >> [applause] rep. subramanyam: thank you. thank you for sharing your story. one thing i want to reiterate

that you said. a couple things. one, it's not about waste, fraud, and abuse or making government deficient. a lot of it seems to be about loyalty tests or ideology and it is hurting every american in the process. the fda does incredibly important work. it keeps us safe and away from infectious disease. thank you for your service. thank you for sharing your story. i've got your back, certainly. thank you. >> my name is bernie barreto -- ernie loretto. i read with alarm this morning about proposed enormous cuts to the nasa budget by the president on top of very alarming cuts to science in general, the nih cap, on indirect funds, for example.

i am the chair of physics and astronomy at george mason university and i'm greatly concerned. a lot of our faculty work with nasa. are they going to zero that out entirely? i don't know. i am concerned about our students. we have a lot of students on visas. this is very alarming, what this administration is doing. i don't know how to protect them. what can you do to protect science funding, nasa, the national science foundation, nih ? how can we help you protect that funding and support to universities and immigrant students? rep. subramanyam: that's a very good question. i grew up next to johnson space center. i am on the science committee and that includes space. i completely understand how important nasa is. even when we are privatizing spaceflight, nasa does so much

for our country. it is the best investment we can make, the best return on investment in our government. a couple things are happening that are concerning. when his doge folks -- one is doge folks are trying to take control of all of the grants going out now. that has come up recently. there will be folks filing a lawsuit on that end on many other cuts as well. the second part is -- a lawsuit on that and on many other cuts as well. the second part of that is there are the courts and then there is the court of public opinion and trying to let people know, the work you do impacts every american. it's not just a virginia problem or a federal worker's problem. it is a problem for every american when we aren't investing in science. even if you cut funding to a lab for a couple months, it takes many months and sometimes you lose research completely. some of the cuts we have made

already, some of the firings are irreversible unfortunately. but there is a lot that is not. the fda, the previous person, they already said a lot of the firings they made were big mistakes. they already admitted to that, but they haven't reinstated the people yet and they hope we don't pay attention to those types of cuts. we have to continue to bring attention to them, tell stories, make them famous. i think only then will we make a huge difference. every american needs to know about what is going on. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is chuck martello. i live here in virginia run. thank you for listening to your constituents. i have a simple question was no answer or a hard answer. several million people showed up

us week and protesting what is going on. yet, a week later, more outrageous and illegal activity happens with this administration every day. what can we do? here, we voted democratic. but there does not seem to be any checks or balances in our constitutional form of government any longer. people are rolling over to this dictator illegally. the frustration level is obvious here on the voters. what can we do to fight back? [applause] rep. subramanyam: good question. first, if you look at stuff that happens, stuff will happen. then three or four weeks later either the administration will admit it was a mistake or backed down a little bit and maybe reinstate some people. i'm not saying things are going

well. things are going well. but i will say when we have actually put pressure on the administration, we have gotten some results, not enough, but some. i think that the energy is seen and heard, even in the halls of the capital and what i would like to see in the house of representatives is, we have slim margins, republicans, even with the special election wins, only have a couple loads on us and they have three or four members in districts donald trump didn't win. i would like to see them start to pull to our side. right now there is no incentive in their minds or really the eyes of any republican to divert from the president. the incentive is to celebrate the president. we have a bill to put him on mount rushmore and to rename

dulles airport trump airport. >> how is the birthday parade coming? rep. subramanyam: we have a bill to make his birthday a federal holiday. these are real bills. the intent of them is to pander to the president and be in his good graces. i think the more pressure we put , the maid that -- more they might feel like that's not a good idea. that's my hope, anyway. in the meantime we have to use every tool at our disposal. we can't be fearful. we can't back down from a fight. i was a little disappointed by the cr and what the senate did there. we have to use every bit of leverage we have to put them in a difficult spot. maybe fell short on some votes, but every committee hearing i have seen, done, and been in, i bring up all of the stuff we are talking about, even if it is not the subject of the hearing. because i think it is important we continue to put pressure on. i know it is frustrating. i'm with you, but we have to keep fighting even if we don't

win every single fight. thank you. >> hello congressman. i am kevin, the son of a veteran. i want to read a statement about something that has been weighing heavy on my heart, not just as a citizen, but as a human being. what our current administration is doing is disgraceful and should not be taken lightly. we are watching mass firings across the country, vital programs that middle and lower class americans rely on her being gutted by billionaires that -- are being gutted by billionaires that somehow need more money and on top of that there is open inside trading being bribed about that is destroying retirement savings. there's something i want to bring up today as well. that is the genocide happening in palestine. our government is being complicit in it. there are no words to fully

describe the horror of what is happening right now. israel has bombed schools, flattened hospitals, targeted refugee camps, and even open fired on ambulances full of medics last week. all of this while claiming it is defending itself. let me ask you, how is it defense to target children? how is it defense when every hospital in gaza has been bombed? how is it defense to win last week you shot up paramedics and then tried to bury the trucks, the bodies, the truth? israel is spreading lies, death, and instruction and i don't want my country to be a part of it. how can the u.s. be supporting this with our tax dollars, our weapons, our silence? until prime minister and those responsible are held accountable for their crimes, until israel ends its apartheid and present their agenda, we should not be sending them another nickel, not another dime, not one more dollar.

[applause] thank you. it terrifies me to know my money is being used to fund violence, remove people from their land. again, that's not the sense. that is occupation. that's ethnic lending. it's a genocide. we need to follow the lead of people at senator tim kaine, senator bernie sanders, who have the courage to stand up to this foreign government, one that seems to have far too much influence over our own. even now, students on college campuses that are here illegally are being kidnapped, deported by our own government for speaking out against a genocide.

what will happen when they target us next? i am not just asking, but demanding we stop supporting israel. >> thank you for meeting with us today, representative. earlier, when referring to the kidnappings of political dissidents, you said that people deserve due process. the room, i am proud to say, interrupted in applause. that is what this country is all about. unfortunately, in the first month that you are a representative, you voted for the laken riley act which among other things requires the

detention of undocumented migrants charged with a crime, exempting a particularly marginalized group from the due process we hold sacred in this country. in the interim, since that act was passed, our sheriff's office in loudoun county signed a 287g agreement pledging to cooperate with immigration and customs enforcement. they signed the agreement after the fact, after the slew of political kidnappings and disappearances of american political dissidents. my question is, briefly, threefold. first, what do you say to a constituent that sees your vote in support for the laken riley act and democrat concessions on these issues in general as having contributed to this process and tendency of seeing people to attain for their political beliefs? and urgently, i will ask you, what are you doing to help the

threatened groups among your constituency of undocumented migrants, and palestinian americans in particular? and, considering -- the final question is. considering your top campaign contributor in 2023 and 20 24 was the american israel public affairs to at $37,250, can you pledge to not take any more money from them if and when you run from reelection? rep. subramanyam: the third one is simply not true. i do not know where you are getting that number from. >>opensecrets.org. rep. subramanyam: that's not true. i want to tell you the difference between the laken riley act on what is happening. the laken riley act does give an immigration judge the ability to hear and let the person know what is going on.

they are at least charged with a crime and know what the crime is and have an opportunity to have a deportation proceeding. what is happening now is there are people being picked up without even being told why they are being picked up. they are being sent to el salvador out of our jurisdiction where -- the administration is telling people we cannot get them back. this is not a debate. let me finish, at least and then you can ask another question. the concern i have now is two things. even if you disagree with someone's stance on an issue,, s -- to call a threat to foreign affairs and our country because you disagree what they are saying, it is not right to detain somebody based on that issue. the people detained had a green cards and are here legally. these are very different situations. we can still beat for the rule

of law and for making sure there are consequences for crimes, but not do what is happening now, where there is no communication. we had a third grader in new york that was picked up and it detained and put in a prison. had no idea what was going on. that is not that. i disagree with a lot of your premises, actually. we will agree to disagree on that. but i do not think that what is going on today in our country is anywhere near the goal of trying to make sure our communities are safe. >> ok. i'm aware these arrests are not within the purview of laken riley. i'm referring when you spoke to lcdc in loudoun county a couple months ago and provided the reasoning for your support for the laken riley act as wanting to demonstrate a realism for the other side of the aisle on these

issues. >> you can rephrase it however you like, but can you answer how much money you have taken from aipac? rep. subramanyam: aipac has not take it -- send me any money. look at our campaign reports. they have a portal where people can donate. that might be what you are seeing. but even then, i have gone for more money from people who oppose israel. but it is not about that. my vote is not bought in any sort of way. i vote based on my community and facts and what is bates -- best for the country. so i disagree with your premises. i disagree with that. i appreciate you coming today. >> ok. [applause] >> good afternoon, congressman. my name is mac mcneil. i was part of the ukrainian delegation that met with you wednesday of this week. i want to speak about ukraine. i want to say all of us very

much appreciated your taking your personal time to meet with us. that was a very good. a couple things have happened since then that i have observed in the news. the trump administration's envoy to ukraine, general catalog has just released a statement about ukraine being partitioned in the way germany was after world war ii. i think it is likely, though i disagree with it, but i think it is likely the ultimate solution will be that the russians will remain in the occupied territories of ukraine. that's not right. but i think the real red line here is that the united states should not, in any event,

recognize those territories as being russian. that is what the russians, putin , lavrov, and all of those folks are pushing for. we have to take a strong stance against that. we all want the killing to stop. but not at the cost of putting europe at risk of further obliteration by russia. that is what happened at the munich conference in 1938 when the british prime minister acquiesced to hitler's demands for the sudeten land. then that led to world war ii. we want to ensure that, as in our national interest, that we

don't let that kind of situation happen again. thank you very much. rep. subramanyam: thank you. i have no idea why this president feels the desire and need to be allies with russia. but they seem to think russia is a natural ally. it frustrates me that we are in a position where we aren't sure who our allies are anymore. we are taxing and tariffing and putting sanctions on some of our allies. if you note on the tariffs, the one country that does not have a tariff is russia. the reasoning was because they were apparently in the middle of negotiations with them. but isn't ukraine in the middle of negotiations too? why isn't ukraine exempt from the tariffs?

i imagine we are in negotiation with dozens of countries about all sorts of things. why is negotiation with russia any different? the foreign policy of this administration baffles me sometimes. i think it baffles house republicans as well. what i am really concerned about is we have four more years of this. what will happen to our strategic alliances long-term? what will happen to our country? what will happen to our own safety and security and the stability of all these regions? i don't know. all we can do is be very loud voices in our community and on the hill and everywhere else. >> thank you for your support. >> congressman, good afternoon. i would like to explain the situation i am in right now and

thousands in your constituency are in this situation. i'm on a visa. i have been in this country for seven years. i have a masters degree. it has been seven years. since i come from india, i am not treated equally. anyone born outside india can get a green card within six months to one year but because there is a per country cap, because of that, i can't get a green card into another 10 years. so legally in this country i am paying all the taxes, doing masters work. my other colleagues that came after me from another country got a green card in one year.

we already passed a bill in the previous congress for this issue. and some congressmen from our party are working on the same issue. i urge you to reach out to the prime minister and russia on this issue to remove the country cap. rep. subramanyam: i have already committed to signing the bill and like a will. i just want to look as a language when it comes out. when my parents came in the late 70's they got their green card at dulles airport. i am sure you know it takes some families 10, 20 years now to even get a green card appointment. it's so frustrating. the best and brightest want to come to america and we are saying, no, go back. we are losing so much talent. a lot of sectors, if you want to

know how to expand manufacturing in america, how about having a great workforce? immigration is part of a great workforce. for rural communities, for tech communities, for our community in fairfax and loudoun. that is a better strategy than tariffs, a great workforce and training the folks we have in our country now. instead we have a system where we have shortages. in different sectors. i have talked to countries that want to bring manufacturing to the u.s. and want to bring business but they are like we don't have anywhere to put it. when we try to have an immigration program it does not work anymore because the programs like the h-1b program, we are scared it's going to go away or they are going to get rid of it. thank you for bringing that up and what you are doing. i hope we can work in a bipartisan way to success. >> thank you. [applause]

>> my name is robert. i am from ashburn and i am a federal retiree. as such, i am concerned about my two sources of income: my pension and social security. i think sooner or later, they will come after this. i don't have a question about us is -- a specific issue. i have a question to you. why was donald trump put in the office in the first place? i think it is because people are sick and tired of the same old same old and democrats have represented the same old same old for a long, long time. they aren't willing to get down in the dirt and fight the good fight for their people. that is how people like donald trump get into office. so, you are a first-time

congressperson. you have a potential very nice political career ahead of you. what are you going to do with it? are you going to make sure you keep it, above all else, or are you going to do whatever it takes, even if it means your career? [applause] rep. subramanyam: i appreciate that. i do think we need to look at more creative ways to push back and get things done. one of the reasons, for instance, doge has been an initiative, and may more popular, is that we could have done more to make the federal government work better for people. the federal government takes on a very difficult task. but there is more we could have done and more we can do still. that's one example. to your point, i feel like i'm

playing with house money. there aren't very many suhas subramanyams in congress. i feel very lucky to even be here and i have tried to use the platform in a way i would have wanted somebody representing me to use it, to allow every citizen to have a voice and allow people to roles or historians in a roles or historians in a way where little around the hungry listen. if there are things i can do better, please let me know.

please let me know. please let me know.

please let me know. please let me know. and that is why we take all of the calls and emails. >> i did not meet you under the bus. >> we can -- it is hard to tell the story of science because you do not know what you have lost sometimes. like, the internet came from science investments our country made. how would we have known that? we lost that. there are many other industry -- instances of that technology. every technology really has the initial investment often needed to come from federal government

investment in science and research. it's hard. thank you for telling your story. it's very hard for me to see. we have to do something to stop it, otherwise, a lot of people will die. i don't want a lot of people to die for the american public to have to realize the risk. i appreciate you saying that. >> thank you. [applause] >> hello. my name is ellie. i'm from manassas, virginia and i attended george mason university. you are calling for a national data center plan and caution against unlimited data center expansion however you are also supported by a pro cryptocurrency pack called protect progress that also has ties to a conservative counterpart that in 2024 spent

$4 million to influence virginia elections. i received an ad from a cryptocurrency group congratulating you for your support of crypto in congress. both crypto and ai, which you advocate for, are similar to data centers in that they consume large amounts of energy and rely on fossil fuels. why do you see regulation as a tool to stem data center development -- or at least its rapid expansion -- while seeing regulation as a way to help the crypto industry establish itself and expand? is it just because of the damages of data center expansion are more visible to us in virginia? it's not like ai and crypto aren't making their mark in our economy. i have seen a george mason go really hard into promoting ai. i can only imagine that this is because of its funding issues that it is getting, etc.. rep. subramanyam: thank you. first, on the campaign-finance

side, that's true. stand with crypto did support my campaign through super pac. they gave i think a hundred thousand dollars or something. it might have been $1 million. they also spent $5 million against me two months before that. so i don't know how i should be bold to them. i don't -- i think the reason they supported me is, -- maybe not all crypto is good. a lot of it is scammy, but a lot of it is good. for instance, i do think there is a place for stable coins. we are pushing stable coin legislation. there is a place to have a regulatory framework for crypto products so consumers can be protected. but as far as data centers, the second part of your question, you can be for emerging technologies and also not want to have data centers all put in

the same community and stress our region's energy infrastructure. and stress our region's land values, for instance, things like that. that's why i wanted a national data center strategy. we are putting them all in one community. we are hurting our rural regions and communities here. we are building powerlines through homes. one might go through a high school in my region. that's hurting us a lot. i think we need to be a little smarter. there are groups out there. i don't want to say their names or promote them necessarily, but there are groups out there looking at ways to have data storage in a way that's not just the data center model, for instance. i would like to see us look more into that but i do think we will need a data centers moving forward. it's just we don't need to put them all in one place. let's figure out how to put them in places that don't -- that have the energy infrastructure already where we don't have to

build new power lines and put them in sustainable places where we can meet clean energy goals. we are building data centers in a way that will double everybody's energy prices the next 5-10 years. your utility bills will double because of data centers alone, paying for their power. that's unfair. the second part is, then we are also building it in regions that did not ask for it. people had already put their communities there and we are building infrastructure through these regions without any community input. these are the things we need to address and keep in mind. finally, we have clean energy goals in virginia and this completely implodes those. there is no way to reach our clean energy goals if we are building power lines through coal country in west virginia to power data centers. >> very quick follow-up, if i can. ai and crypto have these real

energy intensive. and they are also in virginia along with the data centers. we are a tech focused region. i think we really need to look at the economic impact, the environmental impact of that. rep. subramanyam: we do. but we don't need to build all the data centers here. people in europe have their internet go through our region. we can have a great tech sector there. but we can put a pause or revisit why we are putting all of them in one region. i appreciate the question. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for being here.

one thing about the data center, i know people who work for amazon, they abandon the data centers in five years because they do not have enough power. they moved to other data centers. that is something you might want to look at. i'm a little lost somewhere the democratic party stance. you see trump out there with this fictional ad about all the great things going on. where is the democratic national committee saying here are the facts? recently they just said republican spend more money in the previous year. where is the efficiency and cost savings that they already spend more money? where are you guys? why not put out nationwide ads?

i see where you stand. i truly appreciate you being here because the cowards on the other side of the aisle have refused to do town halls now. they have been told by the house do not do a town hall. they say you are paying us to be here. can you encourage the committee to put out a nationwide ad based on facts? [applause] one of the problems we have in politics today is anyone can write a check. we heard some criticisms about campaign donations that supposedly helped me. i would just say that elon musk went to wisconsin and wrote a giant check. and he lost. a lot of the money that is being spent on these ads is being --

coming from these big special interest groups that can spend the money. they are trying to sell the trump agenda to curry favor with him. i do not have the money to fight that. but what we can do is use our platforms to fight back. i have i-70 comes to these campaigns is it is not about who has the most money, you just have to have enough. you have to use the platforms you have right now. small dollar donors helped with that. you just have to get enough money. this is not a political event. there is certainly a lot we need to do. i understand how frustrating it

is. i see these commercials all the time. sometimes i will actually be on the cable network and i have a commercial interview before my network. another one? i see how frustrating it is. i will just say if we do not have the billionaires writing checks like they do, we can at least have everyday people who can do whatever they can to speak out. i think our strategy would be good for the american people. and certainly successful. >> i doubt anyone here is maga. the problem is they are not hearing us. [applause] >> hello. you may remember me from joint leadership council at the state legislature. i truly thank you for being here and all of your thoughtful responses and how hard you are

working on our bath. some quick points. i am a phd student who has advanced to candidacy. i am working on water pollution and heavy metals in surface water. the problem is all the websites are now blocked. that are dealing with all of this. i don't know if you are aware of that. i dove we can work to get those websites back up. you cannot trust whether a website will be there for the department of transportation or anything. it is getting to be really scary. if you try to get researcher information from the federal government from the agencies. do you have a comments on that? i am close friends with him. i will communicate with him.

the governor of kentucky said that 20 people who died last week probably did not have to. i don't know if you know that those weather balloons have been cut. regular forecasting that you see under local television comes from that source. flying airplanes kind of matters about whether. the insurance industry for your auto insurance and housing insurance, i don't know if you have anything tied to any where where you can put input into issues tied to the national weather service. rep. subramanyam: that is a good question. i am on the science committee. we are trying to rally republicans. so they can speak out.

did you have another question? a lot of people ask me why services have been targeted. i think there is this notion that the weather service should be privatized. we have done that before. it was not very successful. it takes a lot of upfront investment. the most successful has been started through federal grants anyway. i think this is really important. it will be really bad for different sectors. we get really bad at predicting the weather. that is not very good given that climate change is here.

it is making a bad problem much worse. >> i appreciate that you are already engaged with that. i put these for my last one. this is not polarized. but i am a retired deportation officer. i have written 6000 orders of deportation in west texas. every single person that i wrote that for, i personally interviewed them. i personally ensure that their due processes were met. that they did not have a right to stay here. in the process of meeting those people, i met some who had citizenship because they had military service. one was a u.s. citizen and did not know that. i wanted to share that. i talked to some people on the hill the other day. they were shocked that somebody cared and was trying to be a

human being while being an enforcement officer for deportation. i am very upset about the el salvador movement. i am very upset that they did not have any due process. and i am upset for people who are possibly innocent going through the hell they are going through. i'm not sure there is anything you can do about that. [applause] but i can communicate if you want any more information for me. rep. subramanyam: absolutely. thank you for explaining that. we had a gentleman who was arrested and detained and was a citizen who voted for trump. that is the kind of system they are running right now. i think some of it is for headlines. i think what is going on right now is terrible. we cannot let this fade into the

background. [applause] >> just full disclosure, i am a paid republican operatives. [laughter] just kidding. some of you may be familiar with parts of that speech. i think he was only 28 when he wrote that speech. it was pretty remarkable. he was speaking about the permanence of our democracy. at what point should we approach danger? how should we fortify against it?

all the armies of europe, asia, and africa cannot by force take a drink from the ohio or make a track on the blue ridge. when his danger going to be expected? it cannot come from abroad. we must learn. i hope i am over wary. but if i am not, there is something of ill omen among says. i mean the increasing disregard for law. the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions and the worst and savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice. this disposition is awfully fearful in any community. that now exists in ours.

pretty scary that he wrote that. my question to you, and this echoes what we were talking about. your poster up here is wonderful. but it is meaningless. and i don't mean to belittle your work. thank you for your work. winhe midterm elections and in 2028? our governing institutions are broken. our political process is broken. it is time to take the gloves off and get dirty. we want to maintain a higher

ground and maintain decency. the democratic party has been in a shambles not responding to this threat. i don't know what takes the gloves off means. i have not gotten a decent nights sleep in five months because i do not know what to do. [applause] rep. subramanyam: thank you for that. it is a good question. something to think about. someone actually asked me if we can throw chairs at each other in congress. we unfortunately have benches. if you have ideas, let me know. what i have tried to do is any about things, in thngeshetiallye people need to hear it. opportunity i have to think we had a hearing on cannabis and vaping. i brought up the fda cuts and how it will hurt every single american.

i told stories of people in our community. i have heard what you just said many times. i have taken it to heart and tried to figure out ways that i can do it. i think it is important. without getting into the details of politics, i will say that we had a special election in pennsylvania. we had a election in wisconsin. this showed that people are paying attention to what is going on. but that is not enough. i feel the need to not just fight back and be loud and be aggressive but also to be welcoming to people who may be voted for the other side last time and feel like they made a mistake. or they are second-guessing things or making excuses or the president right now. maybe they might come over and

make a different decision in the future. i think it is port -- to have positive views. i'm trying to navigate that and do both. what you brought up is a very good point. someone asked me what will you do if he stops listening to the courts. i said take to the streets. people liked that answer. my wife heard that in she asked what it really means. sometimes i'm trying to figure out what it means. there are protests, we've had protests, what al green did, impeachment proceedings, that has not stopped stuff. that is not happening yet. i think the one thing that is slow down bad things from happening is peeking out and putting pressure on the

administration, especially on folks who support the administration, making them feel like they need to talk the ministration because even they disagree with what is going on. i continue to wonder what i can do better. i will continue to take any opportunity to get feedback. >> thank you so much. [applause] rep. subramanyam: we have 15 minutes left. if you are in line, stayed in line. but we will be done in 15 minutes. >> i'm currently writing a book about the american church and its toxic relationship with politics. i will try really hard to get through this. i need you to understand where i was coming from. i was raised in a fundamentalist church. women do not have rights. they are taught that their body and mind is the problem.

i have seen the antithesis is of all of that because loud, strong, highly educated women change the world. [applause] i am the head pastor's daughter. to be here and speaking things i'm about to say. [applause] in this book i will be asking really big questions that i know every single person in the u.s. and even some of the ones in maga who are scared to say anything. that is not just what i'm writing about. i am asking the hard questions. we now have a face task force.

a woman who has called donald trump god. what will stop a politician from doing that? this must happen. i literally watched that. i have seen it behind-the-scenes. making sure that women do not have a voice. there have been other people saying what are we doing? the gloves come off. i would like to request go live with me on tiktok. let's talk about women and religion. there are men out there fighting for women's rights. they just don't have the microphone. i want to make sure that we have a microphone. [applause] there are over 100,000, the

comments are insane. i don't even want to repeat them because i will never make it through. they will break your heart. it will give you the power to come off the gloves. i want to get into good trouble with you. [applause] there could be people in here who are christians. i was literally raised as one. that doesn't make religion better or deserving of more protection of someone else. everyone in here has mentioned stop funding people who are blowing up children. what will we do when it happens here? i feel like we are living in the just before. will i be at the grocery store when the bomb goes off? when religion is in bed with politics, women's rights are stripped away and i can

confidently say that every woman in here, it has only been 51 years since women could have their bank account. women in 1994 were told they could wear pants in congress. our men lining up worrying wearing they will have to get a passport? it is exhausting. in order for us to take off the gloves or go in the streets, first i would say, i know you cannot get into politics. forgive me, it is my first time at the microphone. what are you wanting to do? maybe it is a one-on-one conversation. i would love to do that. i have over 40,000 people who want to share their story about the dangers of religion in politics. there are some people who are threatening to murder me. there minimize comments section to say my body is their choice.

i can give you screenshots. i'm not the only one it is happening too. to me a good trouble is democrats willing to let's talk about how people feel. that is swear people my age are getting their news. it is why the president has the density to tell me i don't know what i'm talking about because i was not born with male genitalia. he has another thing coming because women are powerful if you just give us an inch. i am done. [applause] rep. subramanyam: thank you for that. i have a lot to say. let's talk off-line. thank you for that. >> i also post about my cats and disney world sometimes.

you can follow along. i post about the journey of the book. thank you. [applause] >> i don't know how i can compete against that. there have been somebody great eloquent speakers here today. this is amazing. i want to talk about a couple of quick things. the cell phone that we have gone through -- self own that we go through. with the economy here. all of the suppose it savings we are getting from their efforts. republicans have already signaled that they will use that and much more to give more text

outs to the ultra-wealthy. to increase defense spending even more than it already is. it is once again increasing the burden on the young and people who cannot afford it the most. my friend has a young son who is about nine years old. he has seizures. he has a rare genetic disorder. he has drug trials that her arm going. he has no idea if those will and you. he has no idea if he will be able to take his kid to the doctor anymore because he is on medicaid. he is a tech industry worker. he makes good money. but he needs medicaid because in order to take care of his son, he has no choice because of the medical industrial complex. because of all of the costs involved. and yet we are looking at

cutting the health and human services budget. where does that money come from? it comes from medicaid, nowhere else. the second thing i will say were quick it's about the centralization of all of our data. and all of the work that elon musk and his minions are doing to try to collect all of the points of data about each and every one of us into one centralized location. it doesn't take much thought to figure out that it leads to a social credit score for every single american. this is not a place for freedom loving people to be. as a party in a group of people, we need to embrace and take back the imagery of patriotism. we are the true patriots here. [applause] we believe and a strong country. i'm so glad to be here.

this is the first town hall i have attended. i'm very happy that you are a congressman. thank you very much. [applause] rep. subramanyam: we will do a couple more. if you are in line, i am happy to talk to you one-on-one afterwards. >> thank you for being here today. most of us are aware of how vulnerable populations have been targeted by this administration. we really need to fight back against that. it has consequences for everyone. we see already how the targeting of trans-people has affected everyone. we have people who are accused and getting harassed in public restrooms because of the transphobia.

i have a quick question, on your website, there is a link to the virginia department of health. a page for resources for trans-people. that link is not working anymore. to know if that is because of the administration perched -- purge? rep. subramanyam: thanks for letting us know about the broken leg. >> i wanted to make sure that was addressed. it is not just that. i'm sure people are aware of the policies.

that sounds like eugenics. some of it does. it will affect everyone. i tutored students. many of them are neurodivergent. they have various disabilities. we have even fewer people who might be trying to keep them safe. the area i work in is fairly progressive. the students are fairly privileged. but i'm still scared for their safety.

is there anything that can be done in our social institutions where we have influence. is there anything that could be done to protect people in those contexts? rep. subramanyam: that is a good question. keep an eye on the budgets. funding for school lunches. i know there are republicans who do not like that. other republicans think it is a bad idea. right now i feel like it is political suicide to do anything against the president. for people who speak out.

this affects republicans who are legislating. last question. >> good evening. i know there are many people with serious problems. they are citizens of this country. i am not. i'm a refugee. being a refugee feels like being an adopted child was abused in their first home. this country became a second home. this country does not feel kind to me anymore. when i was accepted as a refugee, i was not allowed to come with my husband. i ran -- iran treated us like a crime because we are not muslim. we have no rights to even go to university.

that is why we had to leave them i we still cannot go back. the last time we saw each other was a 2023. i applied or him. it is unhuman to separate families. no one should be forced to do that. i cannot leave the country to see him and he cannot come here. the only answer i keep getting is we do not know. that is the hardest part of living with no clear answer. sometimes it feels like we are criminals, not human beings. please believe me, no me, no one chooses this path unless they have nothing else. we do it because we want to

asking, but i need to share how unsafe, uncertain, and painful all this feels. also, i want to thank you because you are one of the only people who response to my emails. [applause] rep. suhas: i will take one more. i just want to say, i googled refugees in american history and i got albert einstein, gloria estevan, sergey brin of google. last one and then i'm happy to be -- happy to talk to people

one-on-one. a quick thank you. i'm glad to be here. the reason i'm here is because five years ago, i was on the double lung transplant list with 18% lung function. i was on the way out five years ago. that's it. in january of 2020, a new drug in partnership with vertex pharmaceuticals and the nih came out. it's called a gene modulator. it actually changes my dna. it goes to the mutated protein in my chromosome and gets it to function properly. this totally changed my entire outlook. my life expectancy was 30 years old from my cystic fibrosis when i was born. now it is over 80. in five years. five years, that's it.

cystic fibrosis is one of those drugs that is not a money maker insurance companies, ok? that's why we needed that funding from the nih as an incentive for these pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs like these. without the nih, where is that funding going to come from? is the only drugs that will be developed going to be for high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity? like, what happens, and what is going to happen when they break down the whole nih? how is it going to be rebuilt? what is it going to look like in five years? rep. subramanyam: i think about that every day. when i hear that story, we have to do something about these science cuts. it is a great place to end. this is going to hurt every single american. we won't even know all the lives

could have saved. >> yeah, they are quiet. they are sick. sick people are quiet. rep. subramanyam: trials are canceled. it is horrible what could happen, what will happen to so many people. some of the things we have done will be hard to reverse already. we just have to continue to speak up. unfortunately, the only thing, if this keeps going, what will happen is we will see people die , and then we will realize what we missed and we will want to get it all back. we will try to find scientists, rehire them. it's a horrible thing to happen and we have to stop it. >> what is it going to take to lure some of these people back from the private sector where they will probably be making more money?

with the instability going on, who knows? people need to be able to plan for their futures. what if the next administration comes in and does the same thing over again? rep. subramanyam: i will just end by saying thank you for your story. in the science field and health field, often people come because they don't care about the money. they get a phd, they could make a lot of money in the private sector. they come to do good work. they want to save lives. this is one place to do it. unfortunately, they are not welcome. a lot of people will not even go into the science field in the first place. we are hearing stories of phd candidates dropping out, and that is a shame. i do not want our country to

quit on science, right? we have to continue to push this and make this a story. thank you so much. >> thank you. [applause] rep. subramanyam: thank you, everyone, who joined us today. i'm going to stay after for about an hour to talk to everyone one-on-one. i really appreciate you coming. thank you. [applause]