During a town hall event on Sunday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) spoke about the current state of the nation.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening, everyone. It's great to be here with all of you. I appreciate all of you coming
00:18out tonight to join us for the first of four announced town halls. Before we begin, I'm
00:26going to ask Shawn Glendening, who works in my office. He's general counsel, serves in
00:35our Veterans Affairs program. I asked him to come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
00:47Please tell me you're not objecting to the Pledge of Allegiance. God bless.
00:53Thank you, Congressman Lawler. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance
00:59to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one
01:06nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
01:16Well, I'm looking forward to a great conversation tonight and answering your questions. Before
01:30we get to the questions, I'll be very brief. I'm just going to make a general statement.
01:36It has been a great honor to serve as your member of Congress for the last two plus years,
01:44representing the 17th Congressional District of New York in Washington and having the ability
01:50to serve on the House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committee. This year, I was
01:57appointed to serve as chair of the Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, which is a great
02:05honor, certainly, and given the challenges that we're dealing with around the globe and certainly
02:11in the Middle East, something that I am immensely proud of and certainly focused on. During my
02:18time in Congress, I've been rated the fourth most bipartisan member of Congress. I've also been
02:29rated the most effective freshman member of the 118th Congress. And that is precisely because I've
02:39been able to get things done on behalf of our community, including passing 11 pieces of legislation,
02:46six of which were signed into law by President Biden. And the fact is, not many people can actually
02:54say that. Our prior representative got exactly one bill passed to rename a post office. So to those
03:02of you who feel that you're not being represented, the fact is that I have been doing the job effectively
03:13on behalf of our district and working with folks in both parties, as I always have and always will. And the fact is,
03:23that we as a country, whether people like the outcome of an election or not, the fact is that we are a strong,
03:38united country. And we have, we are a strong, united country that is rooted in shared values, shared belief,
03:53and an ability, if you're willing to listen to each other, to get things done. And for those of you that are here tonight, because you actually want to ask questions and engage in conversation, that's why I'm here. And I'm happy to answer your questions and look forward to it. And so with that, we will begin the process, as I always have at these
04:11town hall meetings. It is a random draw. And we will be calling out your ticket.
04:18Before we start, I'd like to ask you a personal question. So there's a lot of proposed legislation, bipartisan legislation, to either restrict or prohibit stock sales from people of Congress. So I'd just like to get your position on that.
04:36On the issue of banning stock trading in Congress, I fully support banning stock trading. I've been a co-sponsor of that bill both in the 118th and now again in the 119th. I don't care what party you belong to. The fact is, if you are a member of the
05:06Congress, you are aware of information that the general public just is not aware of, period. And so on the issue of banning stock trading, it should be banned. I fully support that legislation and hope that we can bring it to the floor for a vote.
05:24Thank you. Do you have a question?