1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,793 When Senator Harkin was retiring and I was in the House and running for 2 00:00:03,793 --> 00:00:07,721 the Senate, he called me over and he said, Tammy I’m handing the reins over to you. 3 00:00:18,766 --> 00:00:22,727 It's just sort of fallen to me to champion 4 00:00:22,727 --> 00:00:26,051 ADA issues being a wheelchair user. 5 00:00:26,890 --> 00:00:30,415 And then, when Senator Harkin was retiring and I was in the House 6 00:00:30,415 --> 00:00:32,564 and running for the Senate, he called me over 7 00:00:32,564 --> 00:00:35,854 and he said, Tammy, I'm handing the reins over to you. 8 00:00:35,854 --> 00:00:39,135 I'm handing the torch to you, and you need to be the torch bearer 9 00:00:39,245 --> 00:00:44,079 and you need to really represent the entire disability community 10 00:00:44,079 --> 00:00:48,275 because you, frankly, wouldn't be here had the disability community 11 00:00:48,275 --> 00:00:50,525 not been there before you even became disabled. 12 00:00:50,558 --> 00:00:51,565 And he was absolutely right. 13 00:00:51,565 --> 00:00:55,393 I find myself being the go-to person on a lot of the issues 14 00:00:55,393 --> 00:00:58,347 as they come up in Congress. 15 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:05,330 I said, yes, I was honored. 16 00:01:05,330 --> 00:01:08,486 I mean, to be able to be handed the mantle from 17 00:01:09,056 --> 00:01:11,205 Tom Harkin is quite the honor. 18 00:01:11,574 --> 00:01:14,293 You know, I don't know that I can fill his shoes, 19 00:01:14,293 --> 00:01:19,900 but I try every day to make sure I do my best to represent the community, 20 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:23,492 but then also to just fight for basic common- And this is what I did 21 00:01:23,962 --> 00:01:26,648 in the army I fought for freedom- I fought for people's rights. 22 00:01:26,648 --> 00:01:28,662 And this is just a basic human right 23 00:01:29,199 --> 00:01:34,269 to access the life that you want to access and live the life that you want to live 24 00:01:34,269 --> 00:01:37,089 and to not be confronted by barriers at every turn. 25 00:01:44,239 --> 00:01:48,301 I have been working on burn pit issues for a very long time and it and it started 26 00:01:49,812 --> 00:01:52,028 from just 27 00:01:52,028 --> 00:01:55,956 my own experience being exposed to the burn pits in Iraq. 28 00:01:56,392 --> 00:01:58,407 We used to fly into Baghdad. 29 00:01:58,407 --> 00:02:01,294 We were stationed in 30 00:02:02,234 --> 00:02:05,624 Balad and we would fly into Baghdad into the Green Zone. 31 00:02:05,624 --> 00:02:06,632 And if you were on the ground 32 00:02:06,632 --> 00:02:09,183 looking up, would always just the sky, which is the little overcast. 33 00:02:09,183 --> 00:02:14,084 It didn't look anything, you know, ominous, but flying through about a 50 34 00:02:14,084 --> 00:02:18,382 foot, 100 foot layer of basically brown skies in the sky. 35 00:02:18,382 --> 00:02:21,638 We used to burn the air crew’s lungs and you go through the like, 36 00:02:21,672 --> 00:02:24,592 oh, man, my eyes are watering, my lungs are burning. 37 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,010 And I always said there was gonna be some respiratory illnesses. 38 00:02:27,010 --> 00:02:31,005 And then I started working on Agent Orange issues within the VA, 39 00:02:31,005 --> 00:02:33,590 and it was under President Obama and Secretary Shinseki 40 00:02:34,127 --> 00:02:36,275 that we finally 41 00:02:37,014 --> 00:02:41,345 granted benefits to veterans based on presumptive benefits. 42 00:02:41,445 --> 00:02:46,917 If you develop Islamic heart disease, if you develop leukemia B, 43 00:02:47,421 --> 00:02:49,167 and you were in Vietnam, we're going to presume that it's 44 00:02:49,167 --> 00:02:50,040 because of your Vietnam service. 45 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,188 Obviously, we no longer force veterans to 46 00:02:53,162 --> 00:02:54,370 prove that 47 00:02:54,370 --> 00:02:57,493 their illness was caused by Agent Orange, which is presumed. 48 00:02:57,963 --> 00:03:00,413 And so that really started me working on burn pits 49 00:03:00,413 --> 00:03:03,099 after we were successful with the Agent Orange Campaign. 50 00:03:03,468 --> 00:03:06,389 And so it's pretty much been continuous ever since, and I'm really glad 51 00:03:06,389 --> 00:03:07,967 we got the contract passed. 52 00:03:07,967 --> 00:03:11,593 There's more work to do, but it's a great, great, great, great, 53 00:03:11,593 --> 00:03:12,432 first start. 54 00:03:19,448 --> 00:03:22,336 Yes. So I wrote a piece of legislation 55 00:03:22,738 --> 00:03:26,465 called the ASAP Act to make all of our transit stations accessible. 56 00:03:26,465 --> 00:03:30,762 All Stations Accessibility Program A.S.A.P. 57 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:35,294 I wrote it in this piece of legislation and introduced it in the Senate. 58 00:03:35,462 --> 00:03:39,323 Coming out of my experience with the CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority. 59 00:03:39,524 --> 00:03:43,116 I was invited by the CTA when I was a congresswoman on the 60 00:03:44,157 --> 00:03:47,145 25th anniversary of ADA, so we’re on the 32nd anniversary. 61 00:03:47,145 --> 00:03:51,039 So seven years ago they invited me to a ribbon 62 00:03:51,039 --> 00:03:54,732 cutting at a CTA station and they were really proud, 63 00:03:54,967 --> 00:03:57,888 really, really, really proud that they were announcing that they were going 64 00:03:57,888 --> 00:04:02,454 to begin this program to make 100% of the Chicago 65 00:04:02,521 --> 00:04:05,475 Transit Authority's stations, whether it was bus or rail, 66 00:04:06,616 --> 00:04:07,624 fully accessible. 67 00:04:07,624 --> 00:04:09,034 And I said, this is great. 68 00:04:09,034 --> 00:04:10,141 When is this going to be done? 69 00:04:10,141 --> 00:04:12,189 He goes well it's a 25 year plan. 70 00:04:12,189 --> 00:04:15,681 And I looked at him, Dorval Carter, who is the president of the Chicago CTA, 71 00:04:15,681 --> 00:04:19,508 and I said, So you mean a half century after the passage of the ADA? 72 00:04:19,844 --> 00:04:22,261 Is when we can count on this? 73 00:04:22,261 --> 00:04:25,282 And then he went when you put it that way it sounds terrible. 74 00:04:25,383 --> 00:04:26,793 Like, yeah, it is terrible. 75 00:04:26,793 --> 00:04:29,714 Number one, let me just say that it's great that you're doing this. 76 00:04:30,150 --> 00:04:33,373 And I said, Why are we here 25 years later and we still have 77 00:04:33,944 --> 00:04:34,649 stations that are not accessible. 78 00:04:34,649 --> 00:04:37,167 I still to this day don’t use the L in Chicago 79 00:04:37,167 --> 00:04:40,054 because not all stations are accessible and you never know 80 00:04:41,162 --> 00:04:42,337 if one is going to be or not. 81 00:04:42,337 --> 00:04:45,929 And he said, well, it's because we have a limited amount of money. 82 00:04:46,332 --> 00:04:50,192 And ADA accessibility has always been a priority for us. 83 00:04:50,192 --> 00:04:53,482 It's always been in the top three, but we only have enough money for the top two. 84 00:04:53,785 --> 00:04:59,693 And when I have to choose between safety, as in buying a new train car 85 00:04:59,693 --> 00:05:03,554 or safety equipment for the train car versus building a ramp. 86 00:05:03,554 --> 00:05:06,475 I'm going to choose buying new safety equipment for the train car. 87 00:05:06,945 --> 00:05:08,220 I said, so what we're fixing. 88 00:05:08,220 --> 00:05:12,215 He goes, well, we need money that is sectioned off 89 00:05:12,215 --> 00:05:15,640 that cannot be used for anything else other than accessibility. 90 00:05:15,875 --> 00:05:18,594 And that would allow us to do this faster. 91 00:05:18,829 --> 00:05:21,918 So then I wrote the bill on this at the federal level, 92 00:05:22,253 --> 00:05:25,913 and when we were starting to work, when President Biden was sworn in 93 00:05:25,913 --> 00:05:31,586 and Mayor Pete sorry- Pete Buttigieg was appointed, I said, you know, 94 00:05:31,586 --> 00:05:35,447 and I've known him from previously and I said, listen, we got to do this. 95 00:05:35,447 --> 00:05:36,387 We have to do this. 96 00:05:36,387 --> 00:05:38,032 And let me tell you what I'm trying to do. 97 00:05:38,032 --> 00:05:38,972 I invited him out 98 00:05:38,972 --> 00:05:41,792 and he toured one of the CTA stations where this work was going on. 99 00:05:41,792 --> 00:05:43,303 I explained what we were trying to do. 100 00:05:43,303 --> 00:05:47,029 I said, We can make this happen in ten years if we fund this 101 00:05:47,298 --> 00:05:51,326 and so in the bipartisan infrastructure deal, we ended up losing 102 00:05:51,326 --> 00:05:56,194 half the money, but, we got the first five years funded and 103 00:05:57,235 --> 00:05:58,108 you need to support it. 104 00:05:58,108 --> 00:05:59,115 So he supported it. 105 00:05:59,115 --> 00:06:01,834 It was great because he elevated it as a priority. 106 00:06:01,968 --> 00:06:05,964 I was able to make it stay even though I lost half the money, I was able to make 107 00:06:05,964 --> 00:06:09,455 it stay in the bipartisan infrastructure bill instead of it getting dropped. 108 00:06:09,824 --> 00:06:11,201 So this will be nationwide. 109 00:06:11,201 --> 00:06:15,196 So what we did was we put aside federal dollars that 110 00:06:15,934 --> 00:06:17,982 first off, the legacy system 111 00:06:17,982 --> 00:06:21,944 but all transit systems can apply for those dollars to help them 112 00:06:22,246 --> 00:06:25,234 make all of their stations accessible, not just for like wheelchairs, 113 00:06:25,234 --> 00:06:30,605 but it's got to be vision hearing cognitive disabilities as well. 114 00:06:30,605 --> 00:06:34,499 You know, when you have to buy a ticket and it's all touch screen 115 00:06:34,499 --> 00:06:38,058 and, you know, that doesn't help somebody who has a visual impairment. 116 00:06:38,293 --> 00:06:43,060 Cognitively, if you don't make your app on the cell phone app, something that 117 00:06:43,295 --> 00:06:47,357 that is friendly for those with cognitive impairments, then it's not accessible. 118 00:06:47,357 --> 00:06:50,983 So this covers the full range of disabilities. 119 00:06:58,067 --> 00:07:00,417 Well, it's certainly more partisan. 120 00:07:00,417 --> 00:07:05,855 And after January 6th, it's been difficult, especially compared 121 00:07:05,855 --> 00:07:09,011 to my time in the House where I had a lot of bipartisan work. 122 00:07:09,414 --> 00:07:12,771 I will tell you, though, that I've been able to be very bipartisan 123 00:07:12,771 --> 00:07:15,222 since I've been here in the Senate. 124 00:07:15,222 --> 00:07:17,538 My first piece of legislation I passed it's 125 00:07:17,740 --> 00:07:20,795 like the 64 day mark, which is the fastest any senator had done it 126 00:07:20,828 --> 00:07:21,634 since the seventies. 127 00:07:21,634 --> 00:07:24,991 And I did it with Todd Young of Indiana, my next door neighbor. 128 00:07:24,991 --> 00:07:25,763 And it was very 129 00:07:26,804 --> 00:07:29,490 bureaucratic, cutting red tape. 130 00:07:29,490 --> 00:07:32,410 And that had to do with municipal building projects. 131 00:07:32,410 --> 00:07:34,458 But we got that done. President Trump signed it into law. 132 00:07:35,029 --> 00:07:37,950 I passed legislation to support veterans becoming entrepreneurs, 133 00:07:37,950 --> 00:07:39,561 and that was bipartisan. 134 00:07:39,561 --> 00:07:41,575 And President Trump signed that into law. 135 00:07:41,575 --> 00:07:44,664 I mean, it also will also reduce costs for taxpayers. 136 00:07:44,832 --> 00:07:49,431 Since January 6th, though, it has become even more 137 00:07:50,573 --> 00:07:51,848 partisan here. 138 00:07:51,848 --> 00:07:54,937 So you really have to work to find people to work with. 139 00:07:54,937 --> 00:07:58,160 And sometimes you find folks to work with 140 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,786 that you never expected to because you don't, you know, I'll give you an example. 141 00:08:01,786 --> 00:08:07,056 I just pass the public safety officer support back and my partner 142 00:08:07,056 --> 00:08:10,850 in that was Senator Cornyn actually Republican leadership from Texas. 143 00:08:10,850 --> 00:08:12,864 I don't have a lot in common with him, 144 00:08:12,864 --> 00:08:17,564 but it came out of January 6th where we have Officer Smith 145 00:08:17,564 --> 00:08:22,331 was one of the officers and we have him on record on body camera footage being 146 00:08:23,809 --> 00:08:25,420 beaten and receiving 147 00:08:25,420 --> 00:08:28,576 concussive events at least three different times, two of which he passed out. 148 00:08:29,012 --> 00:08:31,060 And it's on camera 149 00:08:31,329 --> 00:08:34,854 and he went back to work two weeks later, got time off. 150 00:08:34,887 --> 00:08:36,499 Went back to work. Was told you're fine. 151 00:08:36,499 --> 00:08:36,969 Go back to work. 152 00:08:36,969 --> 00:08:39,587 Two weeks later, and within days 153 00:08:39,587 --> 00:08:42,508 ended up dying by suicide. 154 00:08:42,508 --> 00:08:44,992 And that's when I found out through his widow 155 00:08:45,395 --> 00:08:49,927 that for our first responders, like the police forces, 156 00:08:49,927 --> 00:08:53,385 the Police Benefits Association is not allowed to consider 157 00:08:54,627 --> 00:08:59,596 post-traumatic stress as being a result of their job. 158 00:08:59,596 --> 00:09:01,845 And so because he died by suicide, 159 00:09:01,845 --> 00:09:05,370 even though the coroner said this was because he had a concussive event 160 00:09:05,874 --> 00:09:08,660 and that post-traumatic stress, he had damage to the part of his brain 161 00:09:08,660 --> 00:09:10,003 that controls emotions 162 00:09:10,003 --> 00:09:14,199 and that his death by suicide was as a result of what happened on January 6th. 163 00:09:14,434 --> 00:09:16,147 His wife still lost all her benefits 164 00:09:16,147 --> 00:09:18,161 and she found out she lost all of the widow's benefits. 165 00:09:18,161 --> 00:09:21,552 Standing in line at CVS to get prescription medication. 166 00:09:22,089 --> 00:09:23,566 And I said, that is absolutely wrong. 167 00:09:23,566 --> 00:09:26,487 And I talked to John Cornyn and he joined me in it. 168 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:28,568 And so we passed it in a bipartisan way. 169 00:09:28,568 --> 00:09:31,355 Pro law enforcement, pro first responders. 170 00:09:31,757 --> 00:09:35,517 But really drawing on my work from VA, so when I went to John, 171 00:09:35,517 --> 00:09:39,580 I said, listen, here's what I know about post-traumatic stress in my work at VA. 172 00:09:39,580 --> 00:09:43,440 Will you work with me to help our police, our first responders, our public safety 173 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:47,704 officers, that this is crazy, that they can't claim PTSD 174 00:09:49,450 --> 00:09:52,001 as being result of their job duties. 175 00:09:52,001 --> 00:09:52,807 And he supported me. 176 00:09:52,807 --> 00:09:53,445 And we were able- 177 00:09:53,445 --> 00:09:56,265 we had a couple folks who tried to shut it down on the Republican side. 178 00:09:56,265 --> 00:09:58,044 But because Cornyn is Republican 179 00:09:58,044 --> 00:10:01,368 leadership, we were able to work our way through it and get to a yes. 180 00:10:01,401 --> 00:10:03,885 And I had to stare down one of my Republican colleagues 181 00:10:03,885 --> 00:10:06,303 and threaten to make him defend his position 182 00:10:06,303 --> 00:10:08,518 against public safety officers on the floor of the Senate. 183 00:10:08,518 --> 00:10:09,425 And he backed off. 184 00:10:09,425 --> 00:10:12,580 I won’t tell you who it is because he didn’t 185 00:10:12,580 --> 00:10:14,259 want to be on record doing that on the floor. 186 00:10:14,259 --> 00:10:15,434 So we got it passed. 187 00:10:15,434 --> 00:10:17,851 So we can get things done. 188 00:10:17,851 --> 00:10:22,216 Cynthia Lummis helped me work on water infrastructure. 189 00:10:22,216 --> 00:10:26,009 I wrote the drinking water and wastewater portion of the bipartisan 190 00:10:26,009 --> 00:10:29,836 infrastructure deal and that included in a significant dollars 191 00:10:29,836 --> 00:10:34,201 to get lead out of drinking water supply via grant programs. 192 00:10:34,536 --> 00:10:36,819 And she is on the same committee. 193 00:10:36,819 --> 00:10:38,968 And I went to talk to her and I said, What do you think about this? 194 00:10:38,968 --> 00:10:42,191 And she said, Well, you forgot all the people who are on well water. 195 00:10:42,493 --> 00:10:45,346 This system- this grant program you’ve 196 00:10:45,346 --> 00:10:47,864 written allows municipalities to 197 00:10:48,536 --> 00:10:51,524 get reimbursement and gives them dollars to fix these programs. 198 00:10:51,759 --> 00:10:53,236 But what about people on well water? 199 00:10:53,236 --> 00:10:54,579 Don't they deserve to not have lead? 200 00:10:54,579 --> 00:10:56,996 And so I said, absolutely, let's write that in. 201 00:10:56,996 --> 00:10:59,144 So we specifically wrote in the well water piece 202 00:11:00,151 --> 00:11:00,689 and we got 203 00:11:00,689 --> 00:11:03,072 89 votes on the floor of the Senate because of it. 204 00:11:03,676 --> 00:11:07,168 And then I come later on to find out that I actually still have people in Chicago 205 00:11:07,504 --> 00:11:08,444 who are still on well water. 206 00:11:08,444 --> 00:11:11,196 So it wasn't just people on the water across Illinois, which I knew about, 207 00:11:11,331 --> 00:11:13,949 but I even have people in urban areas who are still on, well, water. 208 00:11:13,949 --> 00:11:15,796 And that was bipartisan. 209 00:11:15,796 --> 00:11:18,012 She made the bill better. She listened to me. 210 00:11:18,347 --> 00:11:21,704 And even though we rarely vote the same way on a lot of things, 211 00:11:21,704 --> 00:11:24,256 we got 89 votes on the bill, and I'm really proud of it. 212 00:11:29,258 --> 00:11:30,131 There’s hope. 213 00:11:30,131 --> 00:11:31,574 There’s hope, yeah. 214 00:11:31,574 --> 00:11:34,730 Maybe if fewer cameras were watching us and people don't have to play up 215 00:11:34,730 --> 00:11:37,785 for the cameras. We’d get more done. 216 00:11:37,785 --> 00:11:38,490 You know what? 217 00:11:38,490 --> 00:11:41,915 Less people are needing to do this, you know?