WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.793 When Senator Harkin was retiring and I was in the House and running for 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. 00:00:18.766 --> 00:00:22.727 It's just sort of fallen to me to champion 00:00:22.727 --> 00:00:26.051 ADA issues being a wheelchair user. 00:00:26.890 --> 00:00:30.415 And then, when Senator Harkin was retiring and I was in the House 00:00:30.415 --> 00:00:32.564 and running for the Senate, he called me over 00:00:32.564 --> 00:00:35.854 and he said, Tammy, I'm handing the reins over to you. 00:00:35.854 --> 00:00:39.135 I'm handing the torch to you, and you need to be the torch bearer 00:00:39.245 --> 00:00:44.079 and you need to really represent the entire disability community 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:48.275 because you, frankly, wouldn't be here had the disability community 00:00:48.275 --> 00:00:50.525 not been there before you even became disabled. 00:00:50.558 --> 00:00:51.565 And he was absolutely right. 00:00:51.565 --> 00:00:55.393 I find myself being the go-to person on a lot of the issues 00:00:55.393 --> 00:00:58.347 as they come up in Congress. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:05.330 I said, yes, I was honored. 00:01:05.330 --> 00:01:08.486 I mean, to be able to be handed the mantle from 00:01:09.056 --> 00:01:11.205 Tom Harkin is quite the honor. 00:01:11.574 --> 00:01:14.293 You know, I don't know that I can fill his shoes, 00:01:14.293 --> 00:01:19.900 but I try every day to make sure I do my best to represent the community, 00:01:19.900 --> 00:01:23.492 but then also to just fight for basic common- And this is what I did 00:01:23.962 --> 00:01:26.648 in the army I fought for freedom- I fought for people's rights. 00:01:26.648 --> 00:01:28.662 And this is just a basic human right 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 00:01:34.269 --> 00:01:37.089 and to not be confronted by barriers at every turn. 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 00:01:49.812 --> 00:01:52.028 from just 00:01:52.028 --> 00:01:55.956 my own experience being exposed to the burn pits in Iraq. 00:01:56.392 --> 00:01:58.407 We used to fly into Baghdad. 00:01:58.407 --> 00:02:01.294 We were stationed in 00:02:02.234 --> 00:02:05.624 Balad and we would fly into Baghdad into the Green Zone. 00:02:05.624 --> 00:02:06.632 And if you were on the ground 00:02:06.632 --> 00:02:09.183 looking up, would always just the sky, which is the little overcast. 00:02:09.183 --> 00:02:14.084 It didn't look anything, you know, ominous, but flying through about a 50 00:02:14.084 --> 00:02:18.382 foot, 100 foot layer of basically brown skies in the sky. 00:02:18.382 --> 00:02:21.638 We used to burn the air crew’s lungs and you go through the like, 00:02:21.672 --> 00:02:24.592 oh, man, my eyes are watering, my lungs are burning. 00:02:24.760 --> 00:02:27.010 And I always said there was gonna be some respiratory illnesses. 00:02:27.010 --> 00:02:31.005 And then I started working on Agent Orange issues within the VA, 00:02:31.005 --> 00:02:33.590 and it was under President Obama and Secretary Shinseki 00:02:34.127 --> 00:02:36.275 that we finally 00:02:37.014 --> 00:02:41.345 granted benefits to veterans based on presumptive benefits. 00:02:41.445 --> 00:02:46.917 If you develop Islamic heart disease, if you develop leukemia B, 00:02:47.421 --> 00:02:49.167 and you were in Vietnam, we're going to presume that it's 00:02:49.167 --> 00:02:50.040 because of your Vietnam service. 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:52.188 Obviously, we no longer force veterans to 00:02:53.162 --> 00:02:54.370 prove that 00:02:54.370 --> 00:02:57.493 their illness was caused by Agent Orange, which is presumed. 00:02:57.963 --> 00:03:00.413 And so that really started me working on burn pits 00:03:00.413 --> 00:03:03.099 after we were successful with the Agent Orange Campaign. 00:03:03.468 --> 00:03:06.389 And so it's pretty much been continuous ever since, and I'm really glad 00:03:06.389 --> 00:03:07.967 we got the contract passed. 00:03:07.967 --> 00:03:11.593 There's more work to do, but it's a great, great, great, great, 00:03:11.593 --> 00:03:12.432 first start. 00:03:19.448 --> 00:03:22.336 Yes. So I wrote a piece of legislation 00:03:22.738 --> 00:03:26.465 called the ASAP Act to make all of our transit stations accessible. 00:03:26.465 --> 00:03:30.762 All Stations Accessibility Program A.S.A.P. 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:35.294 I wrote it in this piece of legislation and introduced it in the Senate. 00:03:35.462 --> 00:03:39.323 Coming out of my experience with the CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority. 00:03:39.524 --> 00:03:43.116 I was invited by the CTA when I was a congresswoman on the 00:03:44.157 --> 00:03:47.145 25th anniversary of ADA, so we’re on the 32nd anniversary. 00:03:47.145 --> 00:03:51.039 So seven years ago they invited me to a ribbon 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:54.732 cutting at a CTA station and they were really proud, 00:03:54.967 --> 00:03:57.888 really, really, really proud that they were announcing that they were going 00:03:57.888 --> 00:04:02.454 to begin this program to make 100% of the Chicago 00:04:02.521 --> 00:04:05.475 Transit Authority's stations, whether it was bus or rail, 00:04:06.616 --> 00:04:07.624 fully accessible. 00:04:07.624 --> 00:04:09.034 And I said, this is great. 00:04:09.034 --> 00:04:10.141 When is this going to be done? 00:04:10.141 --> 00:04:12.189 He goes well it's a 25 year plan. 00:04:12.189 --> 00:04:15.681 And I looked at him, Dorval Carter, who is the president of the Chicago CTA, 00:04:15.681 --> 00:04:19.508 and I said, So you mean a half century after the passage of the ADA? 00:04:19.844 --> 00:04:22.261 Is when we can count on this? 00:04:22.261 --> 00:04:25.282 And then he went when you put it that way it sounds terrible. 00:04:25.383 --> 00:04:26.793 Like, yeah, it is terrible. 00:04:26.793 --> 00:04:29.714 Number one, let me just say that it's great that you're doing this. 00:04:30.150 --> 00:04:33.373 And I said, Why are we here 25 years later and we still have 00:04:33.944 --> 00:04:34.649 stations that are not accessible. 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:37.167 I still to this day don’t use the L in Chicago 00:04:37.167 --> 00:04:40.054 because not all stations are accessible and you never know 00:04:41.162 --> 00:04:42.337 if one is going to be or not. 00:04:42.337 --> 00:04:45.929 And he said, well, it's because we have a limited amount of money. 00:04:46.332 --> 00:04:50.192 And ADA accessibility has always been a priority for us. 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. 00:04:53.785 --> 00:04:59.693 And when I have to choose between safety, as in buying a new train car 00:04:59.693 --> 00:05:03.554 or safety equipment for the train car versus building a ramp. 00:05:03.554 --> 00:05:06.475 I'm going to choose buying new safety equipment for the train car. 00:05:06.945 --> 00:05:08.220 I said, so what we're fixing. 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:12.215 He goes, well, we need money that is sectioned off 00:05:12.215 --> 00:05:15.640 that cannot be used for anything else other than accessibility. 00:05:15.875 --> 00:05:18.594 And that would allow us to do this faster. 00:05:18.829 --> 00:05:21.918 So then I wrote the bill on this at the federal level, 00:05:22.253 --> 00:05:25.913 and when we were starting to work, when President Biden was sworn in 00:05:25.913 --> 00:05:31.586 and Mayor Pete sorry- Pete Buttigieg was appointed, I said, you know, 00:05:31.586 --> 00:05:35.447 and I've known him from previously and I said, listen, we got to do this. 00:05:35.447 --> 00:05:36.387 We have to do this. 00:05:36.387 --> 00:05:38.032 And let me tell you what I'm trying to do. 00:05:38.032 --> 00:05:38.972 I invited him out 00:05:38.972 --> 00:05:41.792 and he toured one of the CTA stations where this work was going on. 00:05:41.792 --> 00:05:43.303 I explained what we were trying to do. 00:05:43.303 --> 00:05:47.029 I said, We can make this happen in ten years if we fund this 00:05:47.298 --> 00:05:51.326 and so in the bipartisan infrastructure deal, we ended up losing 00:05:51.326 --> 00:05:56.194 half the money, but, we got the first five years funded and 00:05:57.235 --> 00:05:58.108 you need to support it. 00:05:58.108 --> 00:05:59.115 So he supported it. 00:05:59.115 --> 00:06:01.834 It was great because he elevated it as a priority. 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 00:06:05.964 --> 00:06:09.455 it stay in the bipartisan infrastructure bill instead of it getting dropped. 00:06:09.824 --> 00:06:11.201 So this will be nationwide. 00:06:11.201 --> 00:06:15.196 So what we did was we put aside federal dollars that 00:06:15.934 --> 00:06:17.982 first off, the legacy system 00:06:17.982 --> 00:06:21.944 but all transit systems can apply for those dollars to help them 00:06:22.246 --> 00:06:25.234 make all of their stations accessible, not just for like wheelchairs, 00:06:25.234 --> 00:06:30.605 but it's got to be vision hearing cognitive disabilities as well. 00:06:30.605 --> 00:06:34.499 You know, when you have to buy a ticket and it's all touch screen 00:06:34.499 --> 00:06:38.058 and, you know, that doesn't help somebody who has a visual impairment. 00:06:38.293 --> 00:06:43.060 Cognitively, if you don't make your app on the cell phone app, something that 00:06:43.295 --> 00:06:47.357 that is friendly for those with cognitive impairments, then it's not accessible. 00:06:47.357 --> 00:06:50.983 So this covers the full range of disabilities. 00:06:58.067 --> 00:07:00.417 Well, it's certainly more partisan. 00:07:00.417 --> 00:07:05.855 And after January 6th, it's been difficult, especially compared 00:07:05.855 --> 00:07:09.011 to my time in the House where I had a lot of bipartisan work. 00:07:09.414 --> 00:07:12.771 I will tell you, though, that I've been able to be very bipartisan 00:07:12.771 --> 00:07:15.222 since I've been here in the Senate. 00:07:15.222 --> 00:07:17.538 My first piece of legislation I passed it's 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:20.795 like the 64 day mark, which is the fastest any senator had done it 00:07:20.828 --> 00:07:21.634 since the seventies. 00:07:21.634 --> 00:07:24.991 And I did it with Todd Young of Indiana, my next door neighbor. 00:07:24.991 --> 00:07:25.763 And it was very 00:07:26.804 --> 00:07:29.490 bureaucratic, cutting red tape. 00:07:29.490 --> 00:07:32.410 And that had to do with municipal building projects. 00:07:32.410 --> 00:07:34.458 But we got that done. President Trump signed it into law. 00:07:35.029 --> 00:07:37.950 I passed legislation to support veterans becoming entrepreneurs, 00:07:37.950 --> 00:07:39.561 and that was bipartisan. 00:07:39.561 --> 00:07:41.575 And President Trump signed that into law. 00:07:41.575 --> 00:07:44.664 I mean, it also will also reduce costs for taxpayers. 00:07:44.832 --> 00:07:49.431 Since January 6th, though, it has become even more 00:07:50.573 --> 00:07:51.848 partisan here. 00:07:51.848 --> 00:07:54.937 So you really have to work to find people to work with. 00:07:54.937 --> 00:07:58.160 And sometimes you find folks to work with 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. 00:08:01.786 --> 00:08:07.056 I just pass the public safety officer support back and my partner 00:08:07.056 --> 00:08:10.850 in that was Senator Cornyn actually Republican leadership from Texas. 00:08:10.850 --> 00:08:12.864 I don't have a lot in common with him, 00:08:12.864 --> 00:08:17.564 but it came out of January 6th where we have Officer Smith 00:08:17.564 --> 00:08:22.331 was one of the officers and we have him on record on body camera footage being 00:08:23.809 --> 00:08:25.420 beaten and receiving 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:28.576 concussive events at least three different times, two of which he passed out. 00:08:29.012 --> 00:08:31.060 And it's on camera 00:08:31.329 --> 00:08:34.854 and he went back to work two weeks later, got time off. 00:08:34.887 --> 00:08:36.499 Went back to work. Was told you're fine. 00:08:36.499 --> 00:08:36.969 Go back to work. 00:08:36.969 --> 00:08:39.587 Two weeks later, and within days 00:08:39.587 --> 00:08:42.508 ended up dying by suicide. 00:08:42.508 --> 00:08:44.992 And that's when I found out through his widow 00:08:45.395 --> 00:08:49.927 that for our first responders, like the police forces, 00:08:49.927 --> 00:08:53.385 the Police Benefits Association is not allowed to consider 00:08:54.627 --> 00:08:59.596 post-traumatic stress as being a result of their job. 00:08:59.596 --> 00:09:01.845 And so because he died by suicide, 00:09:01.845 --> 00:09:05.370 even though the coroner said this was because he had a concussive event 00:09:05.874 --> 00:09:08.660 and that post-traumatic stress, he had damage to the part of his brain 00:09:08.660 --> 00:09:10.003 that controls emotions 00:09:10.003 --> 00:09:14.199 and that his death by suicide was as a result of what happened on January 6th. 00:09:14.434 --> 00:09:16.147 His wife still lost all her benefits 00:09:16.147 --> 00:09:18.161 and she found out she lost all of the widow's benefits. 00:09:18.161 --> 00:09:21.552 Standing in line at CVS to get prescription medication. 00:09:22.089 --> 00:09:23.566 And I said, that is absolutely wrong. 00:09:23.566 --> 00:09:26.487 And I talked to John Cornyn and he joined me in it. 00:09:26.520 --> 00:09:28.568 And so we passed it in a bipartisan way. 00:09:28.568 --> 00:09:31.355 Pro law enforcement, pro first responders. 00:09:31.757 --> 00:09:35.517 But really drawing on my work from VA, so when I went to John, 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. 00:09:39.580 --> 00:09:43.440 Will you work with me to help our police, our first responders, our public safety 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:47.704 officers, that this is crazy, that they can't claim PTSD 00:09:49.450 --> 00:09:52.001 as being result of their job duties. 00:09:52.001 --> 00:09:52.807 And he supported me. 00:09:52.807 --> 00:09:53.445 And we were able- 00:09:53.445 --> 00:09:56.265 we had a couple folks who tried to shut it down on the Republican side. 00:09:56.265 --> 00:09:58.044 But because Cornyn is Republican 00:09:58.044 --> 00:10:01.368 leadership, we were able to work our way through it and get to a yes. 00:10:01.401 --> 00:10:03.885 And I had to stare down one of my Republican colleagues 00:10:03.885 --> 00:10:06.303 and threaten to make him defend his position 00:10:06.303 --> 00:10:08.518 against public safety officers on the floor of the Senate. 00:10:08.518 --> 00:10:09.425 And he backed off. 00:10:09.425 --> 00:10:12.580 I won’t tell you who it is because he didn’t 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:14.259 want to be on record doing that on the floor. 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:15.434 So we got it passed. 00:10:15.434 --> 00:10:17.851 So we can get things done. 00:10:17.851 --> 00:10:22.216 Cynthia Lummis helped me work on water infrastructure. 00:10:22.216 --> 00:10:26.009 I wrote the drinking water and wastewater portion of the bipartisan 00:10:26.009 --> 00:10:29.836 infrastructure deal and that included in a significant dollars 00:10:29.836 --> 00:10:34.201 to get lead out of drinking water supply via grant programs. 00:10:34.536 --> 00:10:36.819 And she is on the same committee. 00:10:36.819 --> 00:10:38.968 And I went to talk to her and I said, What do you think about this? 00:10:38.968 --> 00:10:42.191 And she said, Well, you forgot all the people who are on well water. 00:10:42.493 --> 00:10:45.346 This system- this grant program you’ve 00:10:45.346 --> 00:10:47.864 written allows municipalities to 00:10:48.536 --> 00:10:51.524 get reimbursement and gives them dollars to fix these programs. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:53.236 But what about people on well water? 00:10:53.236 --> 00:10:54.579 Don't they deserve to not have lead? 00:10:54.579 --> 00:10:56.996 And so I said, absolutely, let's write that in. 00:10:56.996 --> 00:10:59.144 So we specifically wrote in the well water piece 00:11:00.151 --> 00:11:00.689 and we got 00:11:00.689 --> 00:11:03.072 89 votes on the floor of the Senate because of it. 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 00:11:07.504 --> 00:11:08.444 who are still on well water. 00:11:08.444 --> 00:11:11.196 So it wasn't just people on the water across Illinois, which I knew about, 00:11:11.331 --> 00:11:13.949 but I even have people in urban areas who are still on, well, water. 00:11:13.949 --> 00:11:15.796 And that was bipartisan. 00:11:15.796 --> 00:11:18.012 She made the bill better. She listened to me. 00:11:18.347 --> 00:11:21.704 And even though we rarely vote the same way on a lot of things, 00:11:21.704 --> 00:11:24.256 we got 89 votes on the bill, and I'm really proud of it. 00:11:29.258 --> 00:11:30.131 There’s hope. 00:11:30.131 --> 00:11:31.574 There’s hope, yeah. 00:11:31.574 --> 00:11:34.730 Maybe if fewer cameras were watching us and people don't have to play up 00:11:34.730 --> 00:11:37.785 for the cameras. We’d get more done. 00:11:37.785 --> 00:11:38.490 You know what? 00:11:38.490 --> 00:11:41.915 Less people are needing to do this, you know?