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IMPORTANT PEOPLE PETE BUTTIGIEG Keith Edwards: Pete Buttigieg BRINGS THE HOUSE DOWN In Vegas (Full Speech) PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpoTo5cCV2w Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Pete Buttigieg BRINGS THE HOUSE DOWN In Vegas (Full Speech) Keith Edwards Aug 13, 2024 196K subscribers ... 634,750 views ... 23K likes Wanted to make sure everyone saw this speech from earlier today! We're so lucky we have Pete. Follow my other social media accounts: / keithedwards / keithedwards / keithedwards http://threads.net/@keithedwards Transcript 0:00 thank [Music] you I am so happy to be with you all today thanks so much thank you thank you for having me it feels so good to be here you know back when everybody was saying who the hell is Pete Buddha the sheet metal workers local 20 were among the few people returning my phone calls and I'll never forget it I want to thank all of you for having me here thank you General President Michael Coleman thank you general secretary treasurer John Daniel thank you Transportation division president Jeremy Ferguson who we work with so hard to get those results that we're celebrating today General President ameritus Joseph sers with us in the fight for the bipartisan infrastructure law thank you 1:00 thank you thank you and to all of the transportation presidents all the locals everybody here um I I couldn't be more excited to join you my name is Pete B and I have the best job in the federal government not that it doesn't have its heics every job does but I have the enormous enormous privilege of working to help shape the transportation systems that we are going to count on for the rest of our lives and the rest of our kids' lives every day under the leadership of President Biden and and vice president Harris I get to work on improving the safety and function of every form of transportation in our country and I experience the thrill of knowing that I am helping build the future you all know that same sense of responsibility and that same rewarding feeling of making things happen that are going to make a difference I feel like uh also being here in Las Vegas right now like I'm going down memory lane this weekend we 2:00 celebrated our twins third birthday it was thank you yeah Applause for that was three years ago exactly I was sitting on a plane getting ready to taxi to go to Las Vegas that I got a phone call that changed our lives the next day we were holding in our arms about 5 pounds each so it's hard to believe now they're already big enough to start asking questions about my work which they really do my daughter every time when we put her to bed after if you have toddlers you know how this goes you uh do the story the bath time and then the pajamas then you do the story then you do the other story and then you do the stuffies then you put the blanket on then you check for Monsters then you turn the lights off then you check for Monsters again and then just before she goes to sleep she says tell me about your work I asked her one time like me talking about work helps you go to sleep she goes yeah so I do and you know sometimes my work doesn't exactly translate into 3:00 terms a three-year-old is going to Care much about congressional committees or hiring process but then sometimes what we do is so abundantly important that it makes sense even to a toddler so the last time I was packing my bags for Nevada back in April this year so I could come here and break ground on bright Line West I got to tell her I'm going out to be with some people who are going to make a fast train in the American West and Joe sers was there uh Jeremy Ferguson was there Peter Kennedy was there whole bunch of you were there as we celebrated not just what that's going to mean for American Transportation but the good paying union jobs that that was going to create building a train like that gave me a good answer for my kids about what I do all day it also gives America a good answer for our traveling public who keep asking why we can't have High-Speed Rail in this country why we can't have more trains more quickly also gave me a good answer for my boss who keeps asking me the same thing 4:01 up until this Administration arrived the questions kept swirling about why we can't have nice things why we can't have highspeed rail why almost none of the world's best airports are in the United States why are roads and bridges were falling into disrepair why our ports were struggling to keep up why public transit wasn't serving everybody's needs and the simple answer is that was a choice every time America missed a chance to do big things in infrastructure structure the backlog got bigger the hole got deeper and every time somebody made a big promise on infrastructure and then failed to actually do it like we saw just a few years ago the impatience began to turn into cynicism about the ability of Washington to get anything done but from the first days of this Administration we set out to change that and now here in year four the money is moving the dirt is flying and America's future is 5:00 changing before our eyes and you are making that happen take that High-Speed Rail again people in this room will be vital at every step of the project from the members of Local 88 who build the rail facilities to the transportation workers who are going to be conducting trains from Las Vegas to LA the Biden Harris infrastructure package is at the core of America's economic future and your members are at the core of this work as you knew you would be if we could get that bill passed which is why you helped us get this done in the first place and I'm here to thank you for that you stood with us when we were pushing so hard to get this done and make no mistake it was hard to get done people talking now about it now like like it was easy like it it never would have been any other way this infrastructure bills if it was certain that it would have passed don't let them forget that we spent our first year pushing don't let them forget that time and time 6:00 again in the months before President Biden signed that bill on the south lawn of the White House in November of 2021 people said it would be impossible commentators wrote the political obituary of that bipartisan infrastructure law half a dozen times before it got done so there's no way President Biden could get this done in today's Washington certainly no way you could get it done on a bipartisan basis but we stuck with it you stuck with it and together we made it happen there doesn't have to be a blue versus red death match when it comes to American infrastructure and transportation there shouldn't be no such thing as a democratic highway or a republican Bridge these are just the foundations of everyday life that Americans depend on to get to work to take their kids to school to visit their parents and grandparents just to go get something to eat and fortunately a number of republicans in Congress recognized that not everything needed to be a political battle and were willing to cross the aisle sit down with 7:02 Democrats in congress with cabinet members like me with President Biden and vice president Harris and we got that infrastructure law done but it would not have made its way to the president's desk without the support of the people in this room you stood up you made clear that the legislation was something this country needed for everyday life and for our long-term economic growth you did so knowing that if we got this bill through we wouldn't just be building railroads and bridges we'd be building livelihoods good paying jobs that mean presents under the tree a new car or truck in the driveway and everything else the family needs smart members and locals stood up for this bill and I was proud to stand with some of you that day on the south lawn of the White House as President Biden signed the bill into law now for the tricky bit the thing that I wake up every morning thinking about and you wake up every morning making happen delivery now that the funds are flowing you showing up in ways that are going to 8:00 decide the success of America's infrastructure decade recruiting and training and deploying the workers who are getting the projects done who are building the structures that are going to carry us into the future who are operating and maintaining the trains and buses that carry people across their days making sure that Freight and goods keep moving across this country and keep our supply chains strong and so much more so again thank you there's a lot of good work happening right now so what I want to do is just give you a brief update on where it all stands bottom line up front America is building like we haven't built in more than 70 years there are now 60,000 projects and Counting getting support in every one of America's states and territories because of this infrastructure package package we're 9:00 calling it The Summer of construction around us do headquarters in Navy yard and I've been touring projects happening all all over the country because of the Biden Harris Administration and because of you in Montana I was with sheet metal workers who were working on the Missoula Airport project I if we have anyone from local 103 in the house that was a really impressive project to see in Iowa was with local 263 building up the Eastern Iowa Airport thank you for your work on that the infrastructure package provides a record investment an airport construction and a lot of that by the way is HVAC in North Carolina we broke ground on the new Raleigh to Richmond passenger rail line Pennsylvania we celebrated 5 billion going toward repairing restoring or reconstructing more than a dozen of the nation's largest most economically significant Bridges around the country including that i83 South Bridge in Harrisburg in Southern California we broke ground on the new onoc rail system that will serve the Port of Long Beach which means the busiest port complex in the US will be able to move even more 10:01 Goods every single day our deputy secretary pully trottenberg has been part of that road show as well touring projects that are transforming the Northeast corer passenger rail line like the New Hudson River tunnel and the sus River Bridge we got over $ 1.4 billion now going to dozens of rail projects across the country to upgrade Freight Rail and passenger systems another 343 million to retrofit some of the country's oldest and busiest transit systems and rail systems things like elevators and ramps to make them more accessible earlier this month we announced $5.1 billion in funding to go to extending Bart service into San San San Jose and Santa Clara which will help put Local 104 members to work for years to come just a few weeks ago we announced $1.5 billion to upgrade transit buses across 47 States modern zero emission buses also manufactured by American workers in Los Angeles I toured the Metro division 13 bus facility I 11:02 spoke to the operators and mechanics there about their new Fleet and as the focus of the Summer Olympics shifts from Paris to Los Angeles those buses are helping La get ready for the 2028 Olympic games that are going to make us all proud and the Common Thread through all of those projects so many of which smart members will build and operate is that they are making everyday life better first for the workers building them and then for the workers and users who will count on them every day that's what we're doing through the infrastructure package I want to share a little bit about the ways in which the Biden Harris Administration is proud of being the most pro- union Administration that we've seen in decades in this country when it comes to support for union workers recent experience has shown us the difference between administrations that talk the talk and administrations that walk the walk literally in the case of this president as you saw the first ever to walk a 12:01 picket line in solidarity with American workers on strike one of the best parts of my job is meeting with apprentices and workers earlier in their career like the ones I met at local 20s training facility in Indianapolis who talk about how union jobs changed their lives I met a trades Apprentice in Washington State preparing for the work ahead on the I5 Interstate Bridge replacement there talked about how he is sure that if he hadn't found that Union after separating from the Marines he would have wound up as a statistic I met a working mom who said that the difference this work was making was the difference in whether she would know her own children because of the commute she used to have to take just to travel and find work then I think about a trip we took to Wisconsin where students from around the state were invited to see for themselves what a future work in construction could mean to them the 13:02 difference between what they might have pictured a construction site was like and what it would actually mean and the wages they could be earning in a good union career it was news to a lot of those kids but you know it well a single good union job can change the trajectory of an American life and a single project can support hundreds sometimes thousands of those good union jobs so you multiply that by the 60 th000 projects going on around this country and it can change the trajectory of generations right now together we are building a future for America for what I know you would smart have been calling accurately the infrastructure generation and yes it's through the projects we're doing the job creation we have underway but it's also the policies the policies that back up American unions and union workers and again not unlike the infrastructure Bill itself you see the difference right now between talk and 14:00 action here's what action looks like we got serious about by America rules that are stronger than ever thanks to the Biden Harris Administration anyone getting taxpayer dollars for infrastructure needs to be building with americanmade steel and iron and construction materials we got serious about prevailing wage for the first time in 40 years comprehensively updated the rules around prevailing wage on federal construction projects meaning that upwards of a million construction workers are getting erased a well deserved ways I might add we got serious about the pension plans after years of concern and even more years of talk this Administration took action we're also working alongside unions to bring more people into the trades who don't necessarily have a family background in these good careers 15:00 our Workforce hubs are a big part of that so are you partnering with us to make sure there are more jobs on projects for people who live in the communities where the work is happening because you understand that unions are at their most powerful and unifying when their membership reflects entire communities and I definitely want to lift up our work together and your leadership on safety in April our Federal Transit Administration issued a final rule to make public transit safer and better protect public transit workers including giving these essential workers a voice in safety decisions and then after a lot of anticipation and a lot of work a rule that was developed two administrations ago Frozen by the last Administration that we knew in this one we had to get done this spring our Federal Transit Administration issued that long fought for rule for safe train crew sizes 16:02 establishing what most Americans already thought was the case what most Americans all Americans ought to know is common sense which is a one mile or 2 mile or 3em long train ought to have minimum Cruise size requirements to make sure everybody on that train is safe and everybody who lives anywhere near where that train is going you helped make that happen you drove that for years and and I was proud to be with President Ferguson when we announced that rule that is what the power of organizing and good policy working together can do and it is good policy we know there's more to do but these are the kinds of gains that we can score when we work together we have final rules to require emergency escape breathing apparatus for trains carrying Hazmat we conducted 7,5 100 focused inspections issued safety advisories 17:01 developed a new rule to require those railroads to provide realtime information for local First Responders when something happens and I promise you we are not walking away from the fight for sick leave until 100% of railroad workers have that sick Leaf when we got here less than one out of 10 class one Union Freight rail Road workers had access to paid sick leave we have pushed hard on that and today the number stands around 90% from just 5% to 90% in less than two years and again we will not stop until it's 100% working together we will continue to do everything in our authority to set higher standards to protect workers and the public to upgrade and modernize our rail infrastructure to make operations safer I know there's still more to do a lot of it requires new authorities from 18:02 Congress which is why I have been demanding that Congress finally pass the bipartisan Railway safety act to make tracks cars and working conditions safer for those who work on freight Rail and everybody who lives near a railroad line in America and I know you've been fighting for that too so thank you for standing up for that important legislation we got so much to be proud of and we got so much more to get done but the biggest reason that I'm glad to be joining you today is that you understand in your core what politics and policy is actually about not personality contests not power for its own sake not some kind of gotcha moment or parlor game or horse race it is about our lives everyday life in America and how it gets better or it gets worse depending on the decisions that are made in our Hall power that's our Focus as an 19:01 Administration inside and Beyond the transportation sector you see in healthcare fighting and winning to get the cost of insulin for seniors from about 400 a month to 35 to make hearing aids available over the counter to get Medicare to negotiate drug prices you see in consumer protection standing up for airline passengers and for credit card holders for all kinds of consumers taking on junk credit card fees overdraft fees unfair non-compete contracts and unfair Airline charges there's more to do we're going to keep pushing Congressional Republicans stopped us from getting the $35 a month insulin out to every American and not just seniors they forced the expanded child tax credit to expire even though it was shown to cut child poverty almost in half almost overnight they stopped us from getting paid family leave for every American worker but we won't give up and we won't back off just like we won't back off from insisting on a fairer tax code not 20:00 tax cuts for the wealthy we won't back off on standing proudly with our unions and maintaining our infrastructure momentum we won't back off in the face of those who want to use the latest culture War to distract or divide workers while they put shareholders first and we won't back off on defending and extending the historic infrastructure and transportation work that we're doing Coast to Coast that so many of you are part of we're part of together with you on the front lines is about more than Transportation it's about more than policy it's about a life worth living I mentioned to you those kids I saw those high school students in Wisconsin getting introduced to apprenticeships and the more I reflect on that more I realize why what I saw there has stuck with me why it was so moving as those students were being shown the equipment that they could be working on the projects that they could be building and the income that they could be earning I saw 21:01 something change on their faces right then and there I think you know what this is like too at first I thought it was that they were looking at construction and infrastructure differently and they were but eventually I realized something else was happening that day they were looking at themselves differently they saw in a new way how they could Thrive how they could contribute how they could belong how they could make something important of their own lives as well as their careers they saw their future in a whole new light when you were a member of a union like smart you don't just come to understand things about the world or about the political system or about the economy or even about how to do a highly skilled and demanding job you come to understand yourself and where you fit in the world and the value that you were bringing to your household and family but also to your country's economy a proud tradition that you were part of 22:01 and your hand in building the future you are shaping a future that your kids will be proud of and we are building it together and yes with unions like smart leading the way there is no going back you are closing the gap between what America is now and what America can be that will be your legacy and that will be the legacy of America's infrastructure decade and The Best Is Yet To Come so thank you for everything you're doing to help us build that future thank you for standing together in solidarity to get big things done let's get out there and keep doing that good work thanks very much I don't know what's wrong with you young people you think you just fell out of a coconut tree

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