Hello. This is Congresswoman █████████████ at ████████████. I'm calling to invite you to my live telephone town hall that I'm hosting right now. So to join us. Just stay on the line. I'll be sharing an update on what's happening in ██████████, what I'm doing to represent you and taking your questions. Again. To participate, stay on the line. To ask a question, press star three at any time. The call will begin momentarily. Please hold while we connect you to your Access Live event. The Access Live event is currently in music hold and we'll start momentarily. Please note this. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining Congresswoman █████'s telephone town hall tonight. Tonight we're joined by Congressman ████████████, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Focused on the government shutdown. Now, first I'll turn it over to Congressman █████ to give some introductory remarks. Well, hello, everyone. I want to thank you all for showing up to our 20th town hall since January and for taking some time out of your Tuesday evening. We're lucky to have Democratic Chair ██████████ joining us today. And I'm really excited for you all to be able to ask him questions. We'll have him for the first ██ minutes of our call today, so get your thinking hats on. I really like this format because it gives everyone, regardless of where they live, an opportunity to participate. And make their voice heard. So, before we continue, I'd like to remind you all that you can ask either myself or Chair ███████ a question by pressing star three. That's star three. If you want to ask a question. Now, we're here today because we are officially two weeks into a government shutdown. And it doesn't seem like my colleagues are any closer to fixing the crisis that they created. In fact, just today, Speaker ███████ says he has, quote, no strategy. And that makes me kind of wonder what's going on there. We were supposed to have votes this week and last week, but instead of spending that time working towards a deal to bring to the table, Speaker ███████ sent us all home. And it's as if he doesn't remember that he controls the house. He has a colleague that controls the Senate, and President █████ has the presidency. So for us in ███, what I'm fighting for is that we need a budget that reverses cuts to health care. In this trash bill that was passed, and it's a budget that we need to have the American people put first and not billionaires. The challenge for us is that Speaker ███████ won't come to the table, and it's Oregonians and Americans that are paying the price. So people relying on Social Security, Medicare, the VA or other federal services are facing longer wait times and worse services. And each week that the shutdown continues, it costs the ██ economy $██ billion. And of course, everyone knows we're fighting a fight at home in ████████, where President █████ has sent troops to ████████ and authorize them to use full force. And I believe that this was a declaration of war. On our flagship city, and I won't stand for it, and neither should you. And so if the president wants to help our city, run us our money. Give us our money back for our roads and transportation projects. Give us our money back for our election systems. Give us our money that we will promise for water projects. But if he wants to spend truth know thanks. I believe he should focus on getting the government back to working for the American people. Now, before I pass it off to Chair ███████ to say a few words, I want to remind you all. That you can ask a question by pressing star three. Now, a big thank you to Representative ███████ for joining us. He represents ██████████'s 33rd congressional district, which includes the Inland Empire and █████████████████████. He also sits on the House Appropriations Committee and is the chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Chair ███████, the floor is yours. thank you so much i want to start by thanking my good friend and colleague congressman ██████████████████ for her leadership and for having me join your community's town hall tonight listening to everything that congresswoman █████ was saying it's just makes me think it's just so important during times like this that you hear directly from your elected officials about what's going on in ██████████ and how democrats in congress are