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April 27, 2025 03:48-04:59 - CSPAN
01:10:56
Rep.Terri Sewell Hosts Town Hall
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Alabama Democratic Representative Terry Sewell held a meeting with local officials to talk about how education, health, and food assistance programs could be affected by federal budget cuts.
Congresswoman Sewell's congressional district includes Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Selma.
She also takes questions at this event, which runs nearly an hour, 10 minutes.
Good afternoon again, everyone.
We want to welcome you to Congress and Your Community with Congresswoman Terry Sewell here in Lowndes County.
We are so delighted to be with you today.
This is a part of our 13-county tour throughout our district, and Congresswoman is delighted.
We want to invite you, first of all, if you have a question, we'll have time at the end of question and answer for questions and answers.
I'm going to ask our staff, our chief of staff is here, Hillary Beard, our Deputy District Director, Dr. Teetra Owens, our federal funding coordinator, Quinn Kelly.
We have Byron Evans, our Black Belt Outreach Coordinator, Diana Johnson, our Dallas County and Black Belt Constituent Services Representative, and we have Cheryl Waters from Jefferson County.
We also have our press team, our comms director, Chris Cassavo, and Kaylee Franklin.
I'm Melinda Williams, the district director for Congresswoman Sewell.
If you have a question, we would like to ask you to write it here on one of the index cards.
Our staff, they have cards if you do not have them.
And again, we'll have time at the end of the program for questions.
We're going to invite our wonderful mayor, the mayor of Fort Deposit.
Let's give her a big hand for all that she's done and her hospitality today.
She's going to come and bring us greetings.
Great afternoon, everyone.
First, I would like to thank God for all of us being here today and foremost.
On behalf of the City Council, the great citizens of Fort Deposit, we are glad to welcome you to this town hall meeting, a space where we can come together as a community to share ideas, raise concerns, and work toward solutions that benefits us all.
Your presence and participation matter, and we look forward to a productive and respectful conversation.
Next we will have prayer by Jermichael Boone.
Good afternoon.
Let everybody bow their heads.
Dear Heavenly Father, we come here today, Lord, to say thank you, Lord.
Thank you for another day, Lord.
Lord, thank you for the traveling grace that you allow everyone to make it and participate in this meeting, Lord.
And Lord, I just add that you touch every bone and everybody's body and be with them, Lord, and keep them sane.
Your son, in Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for that.
At this time, I'm going to ask our, I know we have a couple of city council representatives here.
Fort Deposit, if you're a city council person here in Lyndes County, one of our cities, we're going to ask you if you would stand.
We have the chair of our county commission and three other, four total of our county commissioners that are here from Lowndes County.
If you would stand, we appreciate your service.
Our chairman, we have other mayors throughout Lowndes County.
I know the mayor of Gordonsville is here.
I think the Mayor Hainville.
We have the mayor of White Hall and Yellow Bluff from Camden.
I'm sorry, from Wilcox County.
Where's Mayor Gordon?
He drove over today.
We just, we are so appreciative of that.
Are there any other counselors or county commissioners from our area that are here?
And we have our judge.
I know one of our judges, Judge Johnson, he's over there incognito.
We appreciate our sheriff and all of the law enforcement.
I know he is around.
We appreciate you being here.
Thank you again.
With that being said, we're going to allow Congresswoman Sewell, your Congresswoman, let's give it up, who's been serving the 7th congressional district since January of 2011, who works hard every day for the 7th congressional district.
Congresswoman Sewell.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Thank you all.
By acknowledging me, you're acknowledging the hardworking staff of Alabama's 7th Congressional District.
They're the ones who deserve a round of applause.
Thank you, Melinda.
Melinda may be small in size, but she is mighty in her actions and her voice, and we are grateful that she is our district coordinator.
Good afternoon.
I'm Congresswoman Terry Sewell.
I am proud to represent Alabama's 7th congressional district.
I am thrilled to be here in Lowndes County.
As many of you know, Lowndes County is my maternal ancestral home.
My mother, Nancy Gardner Sewell, grew up in this community, and my grandfather, my big daddy, pastored a church, and now my uncle pastors the same church, Bulow Primitive Baptist Church.
And I am thrilled to be here.
And as a point of personal privilege, if my own aunt and uncles, will you please stand up so I can acknowledge you in today's town hall.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for being here.
I want to begin by expressing my gratitude and how grateful I am for each of you for being here today.
This community conversation is a part of my annual Congress in Your Community tour through all 13 counties in Alabama's 7th congressional district.
It's an opportunity for me to highlight some of the many ways that our community benefits from vital federal services and programs, services that are under attack currently by the Trump administration.
Last month, at the direction of President Trump, House Republicans passed a budget proposal which would cut $4 trillion with a T, $4 trillion worth of cuts to programs that Americans rely on.
Why?
In order to give a tax break to the giant corporations and millionaires and billionaires, not to us.
The House Republicans budget proposes to cut $880 billion with the B, $880 billion from Medicaid alone, threatening to take away health care from our most vulnerable Alabamians.
Their plan also calls for $230 billion to be cut in SNAP benefits, which help feed hungry families during their most precious times of need.
There are more than 197,197, almost 200,000 people in our district that rely on SNAP benefits.
And while Elon Musk and his band of broge have taken a chainsaw to so many of the programs that Alabamians depend upon, most definitely the programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, they have fired for Social Security alone thousands of employees.
Now, I know that the casework that we currently have for SSI disability is a long caseload.
It's hard already for people to get access to the Social Security Administration.
And now they have fired thousands of employees.
They've closed field offices.
They've restricted telephone services, making it more difficult for our seniors to get the benefits that they are owed.
Let us be very clear: Social Security is not an entitlement.
You all pay into it during a lifetime of work.
It is that FICA.
When you look at your payroll stub and you see that you're putting money into FICA, you're giving Mr. FICA some money, that is your Social Security benefit.
It is an earned benefit, and it is earned over a lifetime of work in order to give our seniors money and security during their retirement.
It is important that we make sure that we keep that pledge that we've made to people when we take that money out of your paychecks that it will be there when you need it.
These cuts are more than about statistics.
They are about lives and livelihoods.
Consider this.
In Alabama alone, half of all births are covered by Medicaid.
45% of the beneficiaries of Medicaid in Alabama are our children.
The CHIPS Health Program that's funded through Medicaid.
To strip children of the health care while giving tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires, to me, is an outrageous betrayal of our values as Americans.
But sadly, it is only the tip of the iceberg.
President Trump has signed an executive order to shut down the Department of Education, which administers programs like Title I, which almost one-third of all public schools in Alabama receive funding from.
We also know that over 70% of the children in our district, Alabama's 7th congressional district, receive free and reduced lunch.
It is a lifeline to so many vulnerable children.
And earlier this month, the Trump administration Department of Justice terminated, terminated an environmental justice agreement right here in Lowndes County.
Now this agreement was years in the making.
It had nothing to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
It was about addressing a public health crisis that has forced generations of children and families in Lowndes County to endure the health hazard of living in proximity to raw sewage.
A fact that was documented by the Department of Justice.
By terminating this agreement, the Trump administration has made it and put it blatantly aware for all of us to see that they have a disregard for the constituents that I represent.
It's unacceptable.
It's absolutely outrageous and it's cruel.
Without support from the Trump administration, it is vital that Alabama's Department of Public Health continue to do its part to remedy this injustice.
In fact, I met with Dr. Scott Harris, the director of Alabama's public health department this morning, and I made it perfectly clear that I expected the Department of Health in Alabama and the state of Alabama to honor its commitment to do something about this injustice.
unidentified
We will all be watching.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
I believe that access to adequate wastewater and sewer infrastructure is a basic human right.
It has nothing to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion, as the Trump administration stated.
No one should be forced to live in proximity to raw sewage.
Not on our watch, not here in Lowndes County, not anywhere in America.
Now, since I took office, my team and I have been working hard every day to bring federal resources and funding to our district to improve this wastewater crisis in Lowndes County and throughout the Black Belt.
We have worked to pass legislation to secure federal funding and repeatedly convened researchers and cabinet officials to bring attention to this problem.
To be clear, this problem would not be solved overnight.
We know it took generations to build it and it won't be solved overnight.
But we know that our decades-long worth of work set the stage for the DOJ agreement announced by the Biden administration in 2023.
In 2012, we helped secure $4.8 million for the city of Uniontown from USDA Rural Development to improve wastewater in Uniontown.
One year later, we helped White Hall secure a $1 million grant from USDA, which was used to connect 50 homes and businesses to the municipal line.
We have also championed over the years a number of bills that have passed.
My Rural Septic Tank Access Act passed as a part of the 2018 Farm Bill, and it created a new USDA program, which provides grants to improve rural decentralized wastewater and sewer systems.
We successfully secured more than $782 million in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed in 2022.
And Alabama's ADIM, the Department of Environmental Management, runs an Alabama state revolving fund that now has over $782 million just for water and sewer.
That same infrastructure bill, we also had a part of my bill that I authored, the Decentralized Wastewater Grant Program, created another opportunity for folks to get help with their wastewater through an EPA program to help low-income households connect their homes to existing wastewater infrastructure and install septic tanks.
Now, all these actions helped to lay the groundwork for the DOJ agreement that President Trump, with the signing of a pen, actually terminated.
But again, I want you to know you have a commitment from me and from my staff and from the state that we have to do something about this and hold our feet to the fire and make sure that we do something about this.
President Trump has made it clear in his agenda that billionaires like Elon Musk are rewarded and Alabama communities like the one here in Fort Deposit foot the bill.
It's outrageous and it's unacceptable.
I hope you know that I will be fighting back.
I have voted no more often in the last less than 100 days than I've done in my whole tenure as a member of Congress.
But you know what?
When it comes to fighting for the people that I love and represent in Alabama's 7th Congressional District, I will continue to say no, hell no, to the cuts that are affecting our community.
So today we are grateful to be joined by several of our community leaders to help us really set the stage for a community conversation about what these cuts, these dretonian cuts, will do to Lowndes County and to the communities that you all live in.
We are fortunate to have our superintendent, Superintendent Jeter, is here.
She represents Lowndes County Public Schools.
We have Mr. Gilbert Darrington, who is the CEO of Health Services, who provides health care to the folks in Lowndes County.
We also have Michael Coleman, who is the CEO of Heart of Alabama Food Bank that provides food nutrition for us.
And we have Mary Wedgworth, who is Alabama CARES Coordinator and Program Director for South Central Alabama Development Commission.
I'm going to join the panel and we're going to have a discussion about the various cuts that I've outlined in my conversation, in my presentation to you a few minutes ago, and what that means to us.
But I want to remind you that we will open it up for questions and everyone should have an index card to write their question on.
And our staff is in the back.
If you raise your hand and you don't have a card and you need a card or a pencil pen, we will provide one for you and that will be at the end of our discussion.
But right now we're going to have a community discussion about those services that may be cut.
Okay.
All right.
Well, first of all, I want to thank our guests for being here.
I want to start with you, Mr. Darrington.
I outlined earlier that the Republican, the House Republican budget that passed a month ago outlines $880 billion worth of cuts to one program, Medicaid.
And I know that Medicaid is a lifeline of so many in Alabama.
Can you talk a little bit about how important Medicaid is and what you think will be the consequences of cutting Medicaid to Lowndes County?
unidentified
Sure.
So, first of all, I just want to thank you, Congresswoman, for always working hard and tirelessly to support all of us.
and your efforts are very much appreciated.
And thank you for inviting me to the panel.
But Medicaid is very important.
Two groups of people that really benefit from that program are the children and the elderly.
So we already have a bare bones program in Alabama as it stands.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Bare bones.
unidentified
Bare bones.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Like you have to literally make less than $8,000 to get Medicaid in Alabama.
unidentified
You do.
Yes.
So for a family of three right now, the cutoff for qualifying for Medicaid is a little bit less than $4,800 a year in order to.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Less than $8,000.
$4,800.
Less than $5,000.
unidentified
Yes, less than $5,000 a year for a family of three.
So a cut to Medicaid would actually drop, like you already said, 45% of our patients are children.
So it's so important early in life to start children out with dental care and primary care, where with dental care, if you don't start a child off young and start having those visits at the dentist every two years or I mean every year, twice a year, chances are as they grow older, they're not going to receive dental care because they won't be accustomed to that.
Dental care actually correlates to good health care.
So if you have bad dental care, you're going to have poor health care.
So that group of children who don't receive dental care and then are off of primary care, not seeing their regular wellness visits, won't have a good quality of life going on throughout their life.
And then at the end of life, you're dealing with many more issues just as a matter of all of us getting older anyway.
But if you don't have proper health care throughout the course of your life, at the end of life, you don't have that quality of life.
So you're suffering from many more comorbidities than you would be if you otherwise had health care.
So the bottom line is a cut to Medicaid would be very detrimental to the entire health care delivery system, not only in this county, but in the entire state of Alabama.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
So can you tell us a little bit about the services that you offer at health services?
I know you service a lot, a large swath of Lowndes County.
Can you talk a little bit about your patient?
unidentified
Sure.
So we are a federally qualified health center, which means that we receive a small federal grant to offset the cost of uncompensated care.
So we see individuals who have insurance, who have Medicaid, and also homeless and individuals who are unemployed.
And so we see probably 35, well, annually we see around 38,000, just our organization.
I have 11 fixed facilities, four school-based clinics, and three medical mobile units.
So we see around 38,000 patients a year.
About 35% of those patients that we see are Medicaid.
We provide primary care, so regular visits.
We provide dental visits for adults and PEDs.
We also have behavioral health care services.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Mental health.
unidentified
Mental health.
Again, because a lot of times if you diagnose a person with something going on mentally or just needs some counseling, they're not going to be healthy to take care of their physical health.
So we provide mental health, dental optometry, behavioral health services, and we also have two wellness centers.
One is here in Lowndes County as well as in Aimville.
So we try to wrap the entire health care around the patient and all the services that are needed.
We also provide services such as we do home visits.
If individual, we do wellness visits to check to make sure individuals are taking the medication, they have food in their homes, that they're living in a safe environment, and then we're able to refer them to other services based on what we find.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Well, we want to thank you for having such a great service in our communities, don't we?
I want to now turn to you, Michael.
I said in my presentation earlier that over 197,000, almost 200,000 in my district alone, Alabama's 7th Congressional District, depend upon food banks for some form of their food assistance.
And the fact that we are, you know, cutting SNAP or potentially cutting $200 billion in SNAP, what effect would that have on your food bank that services this area?
unidentified
Well, I didn't think this was on.
Is it on?
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Yeah.
unidentified
Is this one on that?
Yes.
Okay.
Sorry.
Thank you for having me and allow me to talk about this issue.
An issue I'm very passionate about.
And by the way, Fort Deposit in Lowndes County is my home.
Both sides of my parents were raised from here.
So you want to say that I get it.
I get it.
So, yeah, it's such a struggle because half of the people who we're talking about who are serviced by us.
And just so you know, we have 35 counties that we're responsible for with Feeding America.
And we have ourselves and then we have four other food banks that are contracted with us.
But with Feeding America, we're responsible for over half the state in terms of food insecure individuals.
And that's 256,000 residents.
We're on pace this year to distribute 34 million meals and excuse me, 34 million pounds, which equates to over 28 million meals to those in need.
The challenge for us as we're looking at that is half of those people don't even qualify for SNAP.
So they're just above that barrier that they don't qualify, but they still have challenges.
They still have real needs.
And it's all, we're already struggling just to meet the need as it is.
If the SNAP benefits are cut, then that's going to be a further, hunger doesn't just go away.
Need doesn't just go away.
It's going to go somewhere.
And that means that people are going to turn to the only network that's out there, and that's the food bank network.
Because think about it.
And there's so many people that don't even understand that because they're blessed to not have to worry where their next meal is going to come from.
But the reality is we are the safety net for society.
When you don't have enough food, you turn to church pantries and you turn to other organizations that help you overcome those challenges.
Well, we're the beginning part of that where we source that food both from the USDA and from major retailers.
But I look at Lowndes County and the challenges, and of course we all know they're immense.
One of those challenges is just access to fresh produce and there's no major grocery chains here.
So you have somebody who lives out in rural areas and one little thing such as their car breaking down and not having the money to repair it all of a sudden deprives them of the opportunity to give access to fresh produce and proteins and the things that they need.
And then you think about the people who find themselves in those situations, elderly who don't maybe not have children who can make up the difference.
And then children oftentimes who really suffer from that, from that food scarcity.
It's really a childhood trauma.
And so all of that together makes me concerned about any cuts just because we don't really fully, I think, appreciate the effect it's going to have on families, but also the burden it's going to place back on the entire food banking system.
Recently, we've experienced a tremendous amount of cuts.
Now, the USDA is only about 30% of our funding, but we've cut already, we've experienced a total of between $500,000 and $600,000 out of our budget.
And we had 23 truckloads of food over the coming months that were scheduled to come to the Heart of Alabama Food Bank and that were canceled as a result.
So we haven't even yet fully felt the effects of all that and what that means and how we're going to make up that difference.
But the reality is it's a huge gap now that we have to face.
And if we can't, if different communities don't step up and help fund that gap, then the reality is that there's going to be less food to distribute and less people who are served, less needs that are met, and it's just going to trickle on down.
And I hate to think of those who need access to fresh produce and can't get it because it's just simply not there to give.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Well, I want to thank Michael and his organization for providing the food assistance that he has.
I think he deserves a round of applause.
And I know that we in our, we know that we've never depended upon the federal government or any government to help us.
What we in rural America are best at is helping each other, neighbor helping neighbor.
And so I want to make sure by the end of this program that you know how you can volunteer to help Michael and his organization and volunteer to provide some canned goods.
I know I see lots of pastors in the audience nodding their heads.
We know that these cuts will affect, adversely affect, those who are already vulnerable.
And we need to try to pick up the slack, but do know that we're fighting in Washington to get those funds restored.
So my next question is to Superintendent Jeter.
I want to welcome you here.
You know, I said that a couple weeks ago we found out that the Trump administration was going full steam ahead on dismantling the Department of Education.
And they're saying that Title I won't be affected.
It'll just go to someplace else.
They're saying that student loans will go to the small business administration, that maybe Treasury, I'm not sure where Title I is going to go.
But I also have already seen a clawback of the American Rescue Plan money that has already been allocated to be given out.
They are now seizing the unspent money.
And we know that American Rescue Plan money came to help us get through COVID and the effects, the long-term impact of what that pandemic did to our school systems, to our communities.
And we gave that money over five years, but we're seeing some of that being clawed back.
I know that the parents that are in the audience are quite concerned about what that would mean if we actually dismantled the Department of Education.
And I know, you know, from where I sit from the federal government perspective, it offered oversight into states, which we know the curriculums that our children have come from the state, okay, and local school boards, curriculum.
But we also know that public education is for every child.
and adherence to civil rights, making sure that those who are disabled students have an opportunity to learn.
Those that are behind have an opportunity to learn.
All of that oversight came from the Department of Education.
Can you share with us your concern about the dismantlement of Department of Education and how that will impact Lowndes County public schools?
unidentified
Okay.
First, I want to say thank you for having me and thank you for all that you do for Lowndes County and all the constituents that you serve.
Right now we are not exactly certain what direction Trump is going with the dismantling of the Department of Education.
However, we do expect that every federal educational program will be affected in some way or another.
Right now it's just like a waiting game.
We have to kind of wait and see.
We've been told that some federal programs will be shifted to, like you were saying, to different agencies.
However, we are very concerned that the closure of the department will pose financial, even legal or civil rights issues for local boards.
And that's not something our board is, you know, wanting to take on, but that could be the end result.
The structure and oversight of the programs such as IDEA, which stands for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the special education, those efforts could be cut.
And in our district, we have quite a few students that are qualified as special education, whether it's gifted, whether it's speech, whether it's, there are several different areas that are categorized under special education.
So our Title I funds with that serve children in high poverty, and we are a title district.
So all of that kind of, even Title III helps with English language learners.
We have some of those, and it's just something we'll be watching closely.
We are just really concerned.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Can you tell us a little bit about the school system?
How many children do you actually have in your school system and schools?
Thank you, sir.
unidentified
We have approximately 1,100 students in our district.
We have seven schools.
We have three elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools, and a career tech program.
We also serve Head Start.
We serve pre-K, and we also serve HIPI.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
And I know that Alabama had used a lot of the federal funds to work on early childhood education.
Can you talk a little bit about the resources for Head Start and are there concerns about those being cut and what that would mean?
unidentified
In the beginning, we weren't really concerned about Head Start, but now recently we are beginning to be concerned that Head Start will be cut.
Head Start serves children ages three through five.
It's an early childhood program.
It's been here in Lowndes County over 50 years.
So to lose Head Start, that will be very detrimental to our community because at that point, where would our young children go to get educational services at that age?
And it does not only just serve the children, it serves the families.
So there are many services that Head Start provides to our children and their families.
And that will be a detriment, a detrimental loss if we lose Head Start.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
We are very appreciative for what you do as superintendent and the school system here in Lowndes County.
My mom and all my aunts that are sitting down there are proud products of the Lowndes County school system.
And so we want to thank you for all that you do.
Ms. Mary, I know that as a part of your job through the Alabama Agency on Aging, that you help with our seniors and the thought of cuts to Medicaid and Medicare directly impacts some of the services that you provide.
Can you talk a little bit about what services your commission provides and what areas you serve and your thoughts and concerns about any potential cuts?
unidentified
Sure.
Thank you.
Thank you for having us at the table and thank you for all you do for South Central Alabama Development Commission and our heart goes out to you.
But to talk about a little bit about the cuts, our agency provides a variety of program services to our seniors throughout the South Central region.
And Medicaid cuts could impact our seniors and it also could impact Medicare.
20% of our Medicare beneficiaries in Alabama also depend on Medicaid for coverage.
Cuts to Medicaid may reduce access to long-term care.
And long-term care is our nursing home and you also can receive some long-term care in your home.
It also will have an impact on our home health services, our home health agencies.
And it also will have an impact on our seniors being able to get medication.
Some of our seniors are already right now making decisions whether to get medication or to provide a meal for themselves.
So it will have a great impact on that.
It also would increase a financial strain on our seniors and our caregivers in the region and potential rise in uncompensated care from our hospital providers because our hospitals depend on Medicare and Medicaid to be reimbursed.
And the greater demand would be on similar agencies trying to find other resources in the communities for our seniors to be able to get connected to these resources.
And just to share with you some of the support and programs that we have for our seniors, we have what we call the ADRC, which is our Aging and Disability Resource Center.
And this is a way for seniors to call in to get screened so they can determine what services we have that would be beneficial to them.
We also have our senior community service employment program that helps seniors work-based training.
And we operate up on the $46.3 million grant up under the U.S. Department of Labor.
And a cut to-how?
How much?
$46.3 million from the U.S. Department of Labor.
And a cut to that will really make an impact on our seniors that are 55 and older that's receiving training opportunities here in the community.
We also have our elderly nutrition program.
We have a wonderful senior here in Ford Deposit.
And we actually have 18 centers throughout our region that provide nutritious meals, social recreation activities.
It gets them out in the community, keeps their mind functioning, and they have an opportunity to interact with other people, which is a great opportunity for them.
We also have home delivered and frozen meals available to our seniors who are 60 and older.
We have nutrition counseling where they can get one-on-one counseling to educate them about whatever chronic condition that they have so they can learn to eat healthy food, make healthy choices, select the best food for them.
We also have our senior RX program, which gets seniors connected to medication.
Sometimes we have seniors who are on, they may have cancer, and some of those cancer medications may be $1,000 just for one medication.
I have seen some as much as $4,000 a month, and I don't know who can afford that.
So we can actually help them get connected to those services to help them get a lower cost of medication.
We have our state health insurance program that where people that have questions about Medicare and Medicaid, you can call in and get connected and find out what resource would be best for you.
We have free legal services for seniors that are 60 and older.
If you're looking to get your will or a power of attorney completed, the services is free for you, for anybody that's 60 and older.
We have our long-term care program, which is, they advocate, we call it our unbuzzment program, which is the sweetest term.
And they advocate for our seniors in the nursing home so that their rights are being met and all their basic needs are being taken care of.
And we have our SMP program, which is our senior Medicare program that helps our seniors to take Medicare and Medicaid fraud in the community.
So that's just some of the services we provide.
And like I said, a cut to Medicare and Medicaid would impact those programs tremendously.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
We want to thank you and the South Central Regional Commission on Aging.
All that you do has just been great.
I want to remind our audience that if you have a question, you should have gotten a card and my staff has been going around and picking up those cards.
If you have a question, raise the card and someone will come and get it and we can have that question answered.
We have about 15 minutes.
So if you have a card, if you have a question at all, please hold up the card and someone will come and get it and I will be able to ask your question.
As we're gathering the questions, I do have a question for you, Gilbert, if you don't mind.
I know that health care is such an important part of our community.
And without good access to good health care, we can't attract economic development.
And I know that Lowndes County does not have a hospital in the whole county.
So that your services are immensely important.
Can you tell us a little bit about some of the challenges that you've seen so far and what you're doing to try to mitigate against such challenges?
unidentified
Well, one of the biggest challenges we see in the rural communities are our rural hospitals are closing.
Yes.
And which is a huge, it's a huge, huge issue, not only for the patients that the hospitals serve, but for us as an FQHC, we don't have the capacity, the resources, the staff to handle the amount of volume that a rural hospital would handle.
So those patients, typically what happens is they have to travel 30 to 45 minutes to receive health care.
If they, what would happen with us is our waiting times would be extended.
They wouldn't be able, a patient wouldn't be able to get a timely medical appointment or dental appointment.
The other thing is that rural hospitals are also economic engines.
So you're talking about individuals somewhere from 1,000 to 1,200 employees losing jobs right away.
So now in the local economies, you just took away 12,000 paying individuals who utilize services in the community.
So it's a big domino, a huge domino effect.
And then what happens when the hospitals leave, normally the specialists, your cardiologists, your endocrinologists, they leave with hospitals because they need hospitals to function and to provide their services.
So when a rural community loses a hospital, it's detrimental, not only again, just for the patient, but for the entire economic development of that rural community.
and it's devastating on the local economy.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Absolutely.
unidentified
So again, you wouldn't be able to attract or you don't attract quality businesses in communities where you don't have quality health care.
So that's the effect.
Absolutely.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Once again, if you have a question, please raise your card up and somebody from my office will come and get it.
I know we've received some and I'm going to ask Melinda if she would share those.
unidentified
Congresswoman, we have several questions.
I want to let the audience know if you turn in a card and we don't get to your question, our staff will hear and we will be around afterwards to answer those questions.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
And we will be around afterwards to answer those questions.
We're going to get to as many as we can in the next 20 minutes.
unidentified
So we've had several questions regarding the septic tank, the wastewater program in Lowndes County and the recent DOJ ruling.
We had a question from Ms. Arlene Allen and Ms. Carmelita Arnold and it is regarding what can be done to continue to assist Lowndes County, Lowndes County constituents as it relates to the unincorporated wastewater program and other wastewater programs that are currently with the Alabama Department of Public Health and DOJ.
Congresswoman?
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Thank you so much for asking that question.
So first, I acknowledge in my presentation that this has been an ongoing issue.
I also wanted you all to know that there are resources, federal resources that have been sent to the state that can help mitigate against that.
I see Sherry is in the audience.
Raise your hand.
I know you've been doing a great job of step up, stand up.
The Black Belt Window Authority has some resources that she received from the Alabama Department of Public Health that they got from the federal government to install septic tanks.
And as I understand it, that $3.5 million is being utilized by your agency to actually, so far, over 100 homes have been, please give her a round of applause, have been able to get access to that.
And I just want you to know, Sherry, that we are here to help make sure, and raise your hand, to the extent that you have an issue or a problem that's dealing with, that's in the Black Belt Wastewater.
Sherry's organization is one of those organizations that can help out.
We also have a Lowndes County wastewater, and I'm not sure if that person's here.
unidentified
Yes, thank you.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Want to thank you for all that you're doing to address the Lowndes County efforts.
So the federal government has several programs that we can access.
I spoke about the rural access to septic tank, and that's where this $5 million came from, was that bill that I passed in 2018.
And of that $5 million, 3.5 go for 1.5, as I understand it, goes to Lowndes County, just for Lowndes County wastewater crisis, and then 3.5 for all of Lowndes County.
That's a $5 million grant.
And so far, I mean, I even, I shudder to whisper it on C-SPANs because I don't want it to be clawed back because it has been appropriated and we are spending the money down.
But we've seen in other areas of this administration take money that has already been appropriated by Congress and allocated specifically to help certain problems and certain programs, and they are taking it back.
But know that your congresswoman is going to fight like hell to hold on to the money that we've appropriated for the wastewater treatment right here in Lowndes County and throughout the Black Belt and make sure that they have hands off our money for wastewater and water system.
If you're listening, the Trump administration.
Anyway, so I want you to know, because I'm not afraid.
Anyway, so I want you to know that there are resources out there, and I wanted to point out several of the providers, service providers that are doing an excellent job in our community, and we will continue to work with them on that.
unidentified
Thank you for that, Congresswoman.
This question is from Mr. John Bowman with Hope Inspired Ministries.
And his question is: their organization work to eliminate barriers with individuals as it relates to become up to becoming self-employed or self-sufficient.
What can you do, or can you talk about projects that would address the barriers, such as child care and transportation, particularly in rural communities?
Yes.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
So I want to get some of our experts on the panel to also weigh in because I know that many of you provide transportation services and help with the access to health care and to senior services or Meals on Wheels.
And so we want to make sure that you guys get a chance to answer that.
But I think it's critically important that we acknowledge the social determinants of health.
And one of those is poverty.
And another is lack of transportation.
And another is of those is about health care and preventive care.
And so there are lots of social determinants of health that work against us.
But I want you all to know that I know what's possible with resources and opportunities.
That's why we fight so hard to try to get more of those resources to be delivered because with more resources and better opportunities, we have better outcomes.
We know that.
And we're going to strive to do that.
And I wasn't sure if you wanted to talk a little bit about access to Meals on Wheels.
I mean, lots of these services that are up here can be provided at home.
I fight all the time.
I think many of you know that I had my father who passed away four or five years ago for 10 years.
He was a stroke survivor, a nine-time stroke survivor.
My mom took care of him at home.
So I understand the importance of home care and the importance of making sure that meals can be delivered to those who don't have transportation.
And so we fight for those resources.
But can you talk a little bit about that being a barrier, but how you're meeting it, the challenge?
unidentified
It's a huge challenge in our territory is actually over 25,000 square miles.
And when you get into counties like Lowndes County, don't have a lot of resources and they're scattered out everywhere.
It's very difficult to bring solutions for just a few people because of the cost associated with it.
One of the ways that we're trying to help meet the need is we just recently announced our food is medicine program.
We've partnered with the Cancer Center and if you are food insecure and you go to the Cancer Center in Montgomery, they will refer you to us.
And once they refer you to us, we will bring two shipments per month delivered to your house for fresh produce and things of that nature.
So we have a rural delivery system that's set up to be able to meet some of those needs because we understand.
And the truth of the matter is, out of 200 food banks in the Feeding American Network system, there are some rural delivery systems, but none that I'm aware of that go to the extent in the coverage that we're doing.
But again, that goes back to funding that's needed and all the things that happen.
And we're limited as to what we can do.
We would love to be able to bring it to everybody's home because we understand transportation is one of the social determinants of health, along with food insecurity, and it's a real challenge.
But we are thinking outside the box and trying to tackle these challenges in new ways and innovative ways in order to lessen the burden on those who need help, especially when they're going through critical care such as cancer, kidney disease, those kind of things, those severe things that make it just that much more difficult.
And with proper nutrition, if it's vital, it's especially vital when you're going through cancer treatments or serious illnesses.
You need the nutrients.
And so we're trying to do everything we can that way to meet our community's needs.
But as you can imagine, it's very difficult.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
I know it's difficult.
I'm going to ask about how the transportation at-home care that both the Aging Commission offers as well as our health services.
But before I get to that, I just want to just acknowledge that it's going to be critically important that we tell our neighbors about the services that are there.
I mean, part of what I hope today's community conversation will do is alert you all to what the great services that are available so that we do spread the word about what's available through the Commission on Aging and what's available at Health Services Inc. and what's available at the heart of Alabama's food bank as well as in our public school system.
So we need to each one teach one.
So to the extent that we're finding out about some information that you didn't know about, please, please, please come and see our experts at the end of today's panel to get that information.
They all have really wonderful information on their websites that they can provide to you about how you can get some help.
So Gilbert, do you want to talk a little bit about what you guys are offering in terms of home care?
And then I know that the aging, the Commission on Aging has a lot of opportunities to provide home help.
unidentified
Yes, so several different things that we're doing.
Of course, transportation is a huge issue for the residents in our rural communities that we serve.
So what we've done is a couple of things.
We did receive a grant to be able to transport behavioral health, mental health patients to and from their appointments if they don't have transportation.
But that's only for the behavioral health side of the house for us.
We're still working on the medical side.
But the other thing that we've done is implemented telehealth, telehealth care, which is huge.
And so huge.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
We haven't, can you elaborate on that?
Because they're even, what do they call them?
Portable telehealths that are all throughout the black belt that Auburn University and some others have been working to do.
unidentified
That's right.
So we are in the process of purchasing four of those pods.
And we've seen that our kept appointments with telehealth are about 80 to 85 percent, whereas the in-person appointments, we have like a 40, 35, 40 percent no-show rate.
And so our telehealth is actually working.
What we're needing, though, now is approval for audio only.
So to be able to call a patient on the phone is better than not a patient not speaking to a provider at all.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
And I did not prompt you for this, but that was one of my bills.
During COVID, we realized that there were lots of infrastructure needs for broadband that had not reached areas like Lowndes County and the Black Belt.
And so in order to better serve those communities, we allowed a Medicaid and Medicare allowed reimbursement for audio only.
Now we need to make that permanent.
And that's on our agenda.
Obviously, our priority of my office to make sure that we get that done.
But we were the ones who had that bill that got passed and helped to do that.
unidentified
And we thank you for that.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Unprompted.
unidentified
Yeah, so audio only, telehealth.
And also we have our dental mobile unit now that we take to each one of our counties and provide dental services at least once or twice a month.
So we're trying to help with the transportation issues by bringing the services out to the patients where they're needed.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Awesome.
Tell us what's going on with the commission and how you all are helping with this transportation issue.
unidentified
Thank you.
But one of the ways we're helping is we have our Medicaid waiver program who provide meals to our seniors who are at home and for our elderly and disabled individuals.
We also provide meals in the rural is hard for seniors to get out and have dependable transportation.
So we have home delivered meals for our seniors that don't live right here in the city that live out in the rural.
Their meals are delivered to them daily.
And we also have frozen meals that delivered to our seniors that's in the rural.
And our frozen meals are very expensive.
So with tremendous cuts, more cuts, that will limit access for people to be able to receive those meals in the community.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
And I know our school system provides hot breakfasts even in the summertime.
And all of those are funded through federal programs.
I don't know if Superintendent, if you want to talk a little bit about that.
unidentified
So we do provide breakfast, lunch, and a snack during our summer programs.
We have summer programs for our elementary schools, for our middle schools, and even for the high schools.
But now some of those programs are based on grants.
I know.
So if it's a federally funded grant, then we're, you know, we're waiting for the program.
So like this summer, we're waiting to find out if we're going to get a grant before we can, before we'll be able to provide those meals.
But we do, we have applied for the meals for our summer program because our children still need meals throughout the year.
Some of them, some of our meals are the only meals that some of them will get each day.
So we try to make sure that they are available, whether we deliver them out to the community.
And we have partnerships with some churches or places in our communities, communities where the meals are sent out to so that they'll be closer to the children where their parents can take them to receive them.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Very good.
unidentified
So next question.
Most of our questions was regarding the wastewater, the septic sinks issue, the DOJ brewing, but this is one that kind of tied with this.
They wanted to know how this program that this agreement with DOJ and the Alabama Department of Public Health, why was it considered illegal or a DEI program by the federal government?
And if there are other programs that are at risk of being terminated based on DEI.
This was from Ms. Lee Jackson Jr.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Well, thank you, Mr. Jackson, for asking that question.
So in the letter, the termination letter that the Department of Justice issued, it called the agreement a DEI agreement, diversity, equity, and inclusion agreement.
Now, I said at the outset, this is not about diversity, some initiative that's about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Rather, it's a public health crisis.
It's about a basic human right.
Everyone, especially in this great country we live in, no one should have raw sewage in their front yard, period, full stop.
So this is not about that, but they did categorize, this administration categorize that agreement as a DEI agreement.
And we do know that diversity, equity, and inclusion is under attack and under assault by this administration.
And unfortunately, you know, even the word diversity, equity, inclusion, it's as if, you know, Elon Musk and his Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency is what it's called.
Some of those, what they're doing is literally word searching diversity, equity, inclusion, and just terminating programs and attacking programs that just have those words in it and not evaluating whether or not these are programs that are actually delivering awesome outcomes that are affectuating our well-being as people.
And they're not taking that seriously.
And so it is, we have to push back on that.
We saw that not just in the area of wastewater with this agreement.
We saw it in other areas as well.
You will recall that they terminated the Tuskegee Airmen part of the Air Force manual because they said it dealt with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
It's not just about black history.
That's proud Alabama history and proud American history.
And when we pushed back against them on that, they restored it.
I guess what I'm saying is we all know and none of us want inefficiency or ineffective government.
None of us want that.
No one wants waste, fraud, and abuse.
Let me just say that.
We want effective government.
But there's a way to go about doing this.
And unfortunately, this administration has a chainsaw approach.
They're cutting everything and wondering if it will stick.
So we have to amplify our voices as American citizens to push back when we see injustice, when we see things that are being terminated that shouldn't be terminated, like the Tuskegee Airmen.
We also saw that on the eve, actually the same, the day, March 7th, I'll know it, March 7th, which was the 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March, we saw that the Doge folks had put on a list of 500 properties, federal government properties that were up for sale.
And it included the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, which serves as the Freedom Rides Museum.
Once again, we spoke up, spoke out, we held press conferences, you all wrote letters and emails, and we got that restored.
So what we have to do in fighting against some of the injustices that we see coming down because of the ineffectiveness of this administration of doing targeted cuts.
I mean, nobody wants ineffective government.
I said it once, I'm going to say it again.
Your congresswoman does not want waste, fraud, and abuse.
Nobody wants that.
But there are ways to go about doing that.
And it's not as if other administrations haven't done it.
The Clinton administration went after waste, fraud, and abuse as well.
And they studied it for six months and they made every program administrator come and validate and justify their cost, expense, and what the goals were and where they met.
And they made targeted cuts focus on those programs that do provide the inefficiency and are duplicative.
And so I think that all of us are just concerned.
Nobody wants that waste, fraud, and abuse, but there's a proper way of going about doing this.
And unfortunately, this administration seems to have a shotgun chainsaw approach versus a more targeted one.
And I think a more targeted one would be much better.
But the lesson I think that we as citizens of this great nation, the lesson that we should take from that, is that when we see something, what did John Lewis used to say?
When you see something that's not right, that's not just, that's not fair, we all have a moral obligation to push back, to do something about it, is what he said.
And so I want us all to remember that so that in times like this, it's more important than ever for you to be civically engaged.
That's why I'm so excited to see all of you here today at this community conversation.
And I'm very grateful to serve you as your member of Congress and to listen and to interact and partner with these organizations that are here to help deliver better services to you.
And so we have to be more civically engaged.
Those letters, those calls matter.
Every one of us, every member of Congress office logs those calls and those emails.
And so don't think that your reaching out to your elected officials go in vain.
They do not.
It's really, really even more important during times like this that we do that.
So thank you.
unidentified
So Congressman, I think we have, again, if we didn't get to your question, a lot of them are about the same thing.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Let's do another one, please.
unidentified
Yes, I think we have time for two more.
This one is from Ms. Harriet Means.
What can be done to make an impact or encourage Congress and our legislators to pass bills for rural and impoverished areas such as Fort Deposit and other communities in the Black Belt?
And this is also backing more about the septic system or the wastewater sewer system here in Lowndes County.
But this question is what can citizens do to encourage and to impact Congress to pass bills that will support rural communities?
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Well, I'm going to actually, I'll take that question and I'll answer it.
But I want to just say that the thing that you can do is what you're doing now, and that's being informed.
There's nothing, to me, the worst thing is to have a citizenry that's uninformed or misinformed.
And in this day and age, when we get our information from that phone, from social media, and sometimes we only watch those stations that feed into our own personal philosophy, the danger is that we don't have a shared understanding of what's really going on.
And that's why coming out to community conversations and town halls like this are so important, because we as elected official, we have to be held accountable to our people who elected us to tell them what's going on, to share with them the concerns, to take back their concerns to Washington and to fight for resources and opportunities that address those concerns.
And so what you can do is what you're doing now, being an informed citizen, it means making sure that we're not getting disinformation and misinformation, that we're really seeking to find out from the source itself what's going on.
And I also want you all to know that we have in our midst these great organizations up here on the stage that do provide services and making sure that we understand what those services are.
And so the answer to that question is what I've been saying, which is that the best way to tell Congress is to come out and tell congressmen and women and senators what our concerns are and how we want them to be addressed.
And I think that knowing that right now, in the beginning of the budgeting process for 2026, because that's where we are now, we're in 2026 budgeting.
Understanding that we have a proposal on the table, a plan of action that was actually adopted by Congress.
The Senate had theirs, the House has theirs.
They're going to reconcile the two.
And they're going to come out with how they're going to cut.
They've told us $4 trillion worth of cuts.
Please, to all of you, I'm saying stay tuned, stay engaged, stay connected, stay informed.
That's what you can do.
And making sure that you're letting your voice and you're amplifying your voice and making them being heard to your elected officials at every level, not just the federal, the state and local level as well.
And remember, our district is a district that was born out of civil rights and voting rights, a proud history of fighting ordinary people fighting for civil rights and voting rights.
And so we have to vote in every election, whether that's school board, yes, come on, school board, state, your county commission, your local mayor's race, all of those are important.
And please, please continue to do that.
With that, I want to thank our guests.
Please, please give a round of applause to our guests.
I want to thank my amazing staff.
Please thank the staff for their wonderful efforts.
And, you know, these are our taxpayer money that pays for our staff.
And they have been an amazing staff.
We are all an extension of this great staff.
I want you all to stay tuned and stay engaged and stay informed.
And I want to thank you for the opportunity to represent you in Washington.
unidentified
Thank you.
Let's give the panelists a hand.
We appreciate you being here.
And let's give it a big hand to our wonderful congresswoman who fights 23 hours a day for the 7th congressional district.
We're going to ask Mr. Boone if he would come to give us a closing prayer.
We want to remind you that our staff is here.
The panelists will remain.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
And your congresswoman will remain to answer any questions that you did not want to share with the public but want to have.
We will stay around.
Thank you.
unidentified
Thank you.
Closing prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to gather here, Lord.
And Lord, I ask that you touch everyone, Lord, as they enter their vehicle, Lord.
Get them traveling grace to make it home or to their destination.
Yes, sir, in Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
terri sewell ▲ ● ▼
Amen.
Thank you very much.
Thank you all.
Thank you for a successful and a very informative panel.
unidentified
Thank you for being here.
Coming up this morning, we'll look at the latest voter analysis and shifts in political polarization with the Cook Political Report's David Wasserman and Amber Duke, senior editor at the Daily Caller, talks about media coverage of the Trump administration and press access at the White House.
C-SPAN's Washington Journal, join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern this morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org.
Lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill from their district and state work periods on Monday for a busy week of legislative business and votes.
The House gavels in Monday at noon Eastern.
Later in the week, members will consider bipartisan legislation supported by First Lady Melania Trump to combat online deepfakes and revenge porn, as well as legislation to repeal Biden administration emissions standards.
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