What is the most reluctant part of the Democratic coalition when it comes to this bill, and how do you plan to persuade them?

There are two major objections that I'm hearing a lot that I think are, are worth thinking about.

One is, Why should we trust the Trump administration at all? Uh, this is an administration that has had a war against clean energy.

They canceled solar and wind projects again and again and again, or c- some cases, weeks away from completion, uh, just because they have a political vendetta against this.

If we make it easier to build all types of projects, won't they just get all the gains on, on fossil fuels and then continue to deny clean energy the type of permits that it needs? Uh, I think that that is a, a really reasonable objection, but actually not true if you look at the text of what's in the bill.

Uh, one of the things that this bill does, which I'm really excited about, it was part of a bill that I, I wrote called the Freedom Act, uh, is it actually tries to take the politics out of the permit process.

Uh, and so it makes sure that any administration, if the Trump administration wants a war against clean energy, uh, they will not be able to do it.

Um, how do you, as someone who is taking a lot of these principles but actually making bills, making policy, making law, how do you think about AI fitting into this picture?

Uh, so can you just talk about, uh, your Build America Caucus and what it is you're pushing? And in particular, is this bill going to make a difference? And if it's insufficient, what, what's next on the agenda?

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

I was here last year talking about the launch of our Build America Caucus.

Uh, we now have twenty Democrats, twenty Republicans united around how do we make it easier to build housing, infrastructure, energy all across the country.

Uh, and one of the things I talked about last year, right in this very seat, is that we need to get a housing bill done, and that was the top priority for our caucus.

Uh, it's tough at a time when Republicans and Democrats can barely agree on what to order for lunch, let alone how to actually work together on real problems, but we did it.

And, you know, we somehow have to figure out how to get those outcomes into the way that we evaluate, you know, people's performance.

And how did you first become aware of the problem it had created?

Anytime there's a really big issue going on that Americans are really frustrated about, there's going to be a real attempt to try to simplify that issue and create an easy villain.

And that's what we've seen with housing, because almost every American is unhappy with how unaffordable it's become.

people are going to look for somebody to point a finger at.

And in the case of housing, that has pretty much been Wall Street and the idea that hedge funds are coming into the single family market, buying up homes across the country, overbidding and outbidding ordinary Americans.

And that's the reason why it's become so expensive.

We know in the data that's not the case.

When you all put ROAD together, was there any discussion around some type of incentives for starter home construction or just some way to produce more starter homes?

I'd love to hear your read on this broader phenomenon.

Uh, I don't think there's as much conflict as there may seem on the surface.

I, I think it's imminently possible to do two things at the same time and to make sure that there are clear institutional safeguards so we don't have Wall Street owning every home in the country, bidding up prices, while also building more homes.

And, and the reason why I think this isn't in much conflict is if you look at the earning reports by Blackstone, one of the largest owners of single-family homes, although they, you know, I, I, I should note that institutional investors own less than 1% of homes across the country.

It's, I think, m- a little bit less of an issue than, than some Americans feel.

They will say that the biggest risk to their business is making it easier to build new homes because of course it is.

Because if you own a lot of the existing housing stock, you have a high incentive to make sure that folks are not making it easier to, to, to build more.

I'm curious how you think about this.

What do you say to that?

I don't think the Department of Homeland Security has made Americans safer at all.

Uh, look at what we've seen just over the last year.

I represent a community in Stockton, California, that has an awful lot of immigrants.

I've talked to grandmas who are afraid to walk to the grocery store because they might get picked up just because of the color of their skin, even if they're American citizens.

Uh, kids that are going to school terrified that their parents might not be at home when they come back.

This is a DHS that has, uh, done so much wrong, not just in Minneapolis, but all across the country.

What is your reaction to the appointment of Senator Mullin as the next DHS secretary?