| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Discusses U.S. military action against Iran and Trump administration defense policies. | |
| 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. | ||
| Today, the Faith and Freedom Coalition hosts its annual conference focused on increasing the GOP majority in Congress. | ||
| Some of the speakers attending the conservative gathering include South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. | ||
| From Capitol Hill, watch live at 2 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| The U.S. Conference of Mayors hosted several discussions in Tampa, Florida during their annual meetings. | ||
| Next, two of the discussions: one on how participating in international diplomacy affects local municipalities, and another on municipal water infrastructure. | ||
| This is about an hour and a half. | ||
| Yeah, we had it between us, we needed to use that louder. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Well, since a lull, I think we can get started. | ||
| I call this meeting of the International Affairs Standing Committee to order. | ||
| To remind you, sort of how our standing committees work. | ||
| The president names the members. | ||
| We do not need a quorum of all named members to take action. | ||
| That would be impossible and unlikely because there's actually, I've got a list here. | ||
| I mean, we've got a good maybe 30 or 40 mayors who have been named to this committee. | ||
| All we need are those like you who have come and shown up. | ||
| And we appreciate that. | ||
| We are also honored to be joined. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Are we doing like something really important here? | ||
| We got the president and President Genter here, and we have the CEO, Tom Cochran, as well. | ||
| I do think we should run around the table, and I believe everybody who has a name plate is a member, and make sure that everyone introduces themselves. | ||
| And maybe we'll start here with Mayor Guerrero. | ||
| Mayor Martha Guerrero, West Sacramento. | ||
| I'm Tom Cochrane, staff guy, and this is Lena. | ||
| Good morning, show. | ||
| Yeah, Lena does all the work. | ||
| You should know, Lena. | ||
| Barbara Buffalo, Mayor of Columbia, Missouri. | ||
| Brian Burnett, Mayor of Rochesters, Michigan. | ||
| Matty Parker, Mayor of Fort Worth, Texas. | ||
| Hey, Maddie. | ||
| Hey, David. | ||
| Jim Hovani, Dana, Minnesota. | ||
| Dennis Clough, Mayor of Westlake, Ohio. | ||
| Friday Craig, Mayor of Hanover Park. | ||
| Oh, I think Mayor Bulwaj, maybe it'd be you. | ||
| I'm Chris Ballwage, mayor of the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey. | ||
| Tetyana Егоровolcenko, regional Kharkiv, Ukraine. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Awesome. | ||
| Welcome. | ||
| And we will love hearing from you, I think, in a few minutes. | ||
| Police Pardon, Mayor of City of Casey, South Carolina. | ||
| Quinton Hart, Mayor of Waterloo, Iowa. | ||
| Sharona Nazarian, Mayor of Beverly Hills. | ||
| Elizabeth Couts, Mayor of the City of Burnsville, Minnesota. | ||
| Thank you, and past president. | ||
| Yes, and past president. | ||
| Andre Beseden, head of the Citi Coupland Military Administration. | ||
| True Dilkins, Mayor of the City of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. | ||
| Andy Ginther, Mayor of Columbus. | ||
| And again, I will point out Lena and forgive me. | ||
| Tim, our parliamentarian, you're always with us every year, aren't you? | ||
| We see you once a year, are pretty important people to the functions, at least here initially at the beginning. | ||
| I will say I have regretfully, I've been serving as vice chair of this committee for several years, usually the acting chair at the meetings, and I regretfully have submitted my resignation effective on Sunday as I ascend into a new role here at the conference. | ||
| So I just want to say what a pleasure it's been. | ||
| I've really enjoyed this committee. | ||
| Thank you for the presidents who have named me to this role through the years. | ||
| And I'm glad to be here one last time, at least in this capacity. | ||
| And by the way, I do have to leave in a few minutes for a different commitment, but after we're done with the resolutions, Mayor Guerrero, we are missing everyone else who has a named position in this committee, but Mayor Guerrero stepped up and is going to be our acting chair here in a few minutes. | ||
| I do want to send regrets on behalf of Mayor Bowser, who is the chair, Mayor Bowser of D.C., and our other vice chair, Mayor Yemi of Colorado Springs. | ||
| Okay, let's see. | ||
| Why don't we dive into our business? | ||
| We do have to handle our resolutions up front, and then, of course, we will have some very special guests speaking to us from Ukraine and Canada. | ||
| Our first item in business, though, are the consideration of resolutions. | ||
| This standing committee has before it four resolutions for consideration today, which were all submitted in a timely fashion. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You will find copies of resolution number 21, number 35, number 36, and number 37 in front of you. | ||
| In a moment, I will provide a summary of each resolution. | ||
| Under USCM rules, mayors can add their name as a co-sponsor of any resolution through community.usmayors.org or directly in your mobile app until the time the resolutions are considered in the business session this Sunday. | ||
| Using the same website or app, are you all listening to every word of this? | ||
| I hope using the same website or app, mayors also have until the business session to register a no vote on a specific resolution. | ||
| So you have until the business session to register a no committee vote if you so desire. | ||
| Of course, after business session, if the resolution passes, you have the opportunity to register a no vote as a member of the body as well. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| While any mayor who is a member in good standing of the Conference of Mayors can participate in discussions about any of the resolutions before the standing committee, only mayors who are officially members of the International Affairs Committee may vote to forward these resolutions on to the body. | ||
| As far as I'm aware, we don't have any mayors in here who are not committee members currently. | ||
| In addition, only mayors who are members of the International Affairs Committee can pull for discussion, offer amendments on, make motions on, vote on, or introduce new resolutions. | ||
| As I mentioned, all resolutions we have in front of us were submitted in a timely fashion. | ||
| There's some language here about new resolutions. | ||
| Does anyone have a new resolution that's beyond the four that we have listed here? | ||
| All right, then we'll skip that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Now I will read a summary of the four resolutions that have been previously submitted. | ||
| Resolution number 21. | ||
| This urges President Trump to exempt critical building materials from all existing and future tariffs. | ||
| This resolution calls on the President to remove tariffs on key building materials to help lower housing costs and boost affordable housing construction. | ||
| Resolution number 35 urges the federal government to oppose harmful tariffs that undermine the economy, employment, and consumer interests in America's cities. | ||
| This resolution urges the federal government to protect and promote trade with all global trade partners and support fair trade policies that sustain economic growth and stable family supporting jobs in U.S. cities. | ||
| Resolution number 36. | ||
| This is in support of mayors in Ukraine. | ||
| This resolution affirms the Conference's solidarity with Ukrainian mayors, endorses the creation of the USCM Center for City Partnership and Solidarity, and urges increased federal support of Ukraine's local leaders. | ||
| And finally, resolution number 37. | ||
| This urges the United States to lead the world back from the brink of nuclear war and halt and reverse the nuclear arms race. | ||
| This resolution urges the U.S. government to engage in good faith negotiations with the other eight nuclear armed states to reduce nuclear arsenals and urges all USCM member cities to join the organization Mayors for Peace. | ||
| We have one amendment to number 37, and so why don't we handle that? | ||
| Mayor Hart and I have an annual conversation about some of the more in-the-weeds language of this resolution. | ||
| I think everyone is on board, always has been, with the language about nuclear war, but sometimes we disagree about how some of the language might be perceived as it relates to a broader commentary on military spending in our country. | ||
| And so he and I have discussed clause 7 and have a new version that I will read out loud directly from the text we exchanged at like, I don't know, 5 this morning or something. | ||
| All right, so this would be a new clause 7 that would replace the existing number 7. | ||
| Whereas for decades across administrations of both parties, federal funding allocated to the military and its support systems, including Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and the proposed 2026 upgrades to our nuclear arsenal has often come at the expense of other critical federal agencies and social services. | ||
| I will spare you like all the nuance of how we arrived at that and that we borrowed from old language and but basically trying to get it to a place where we feel it's not as antagonistic towards existing military spending. | ||
| I believe the primary author supports it. | ||
| I do as well. | ||
| Would you be willing to make a motion, Mayor Hart, to make that change? | ||
| So moved to make that motion to redo the number seven as you just proposed. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Is there a second? | ||
| All right, we have a motion and a second. | ||
| Tim, can we just do a voice vote? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| All in favor say aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| All opposed say nay. | ||
| Motion carries. | ||
| The resolution is so amended. | ||
| All right, yeah, it's amended. | ||
| So now we need to vote on the resolution. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Before I get there, are there any other amendments to any of the other resolutions or the one that we just discussed? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Do we need to vote on that one separately? | ||
| We could vote now on all four. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, we can take, as I'm told by Tim, one vote on all four resolutions. | ||
| That would again be resolution number 21, resolution number 35, resolution number 36, and the amended resolution number 37. | ||
| Is there a motion to adopt? | ||
| Second. | ||
| We've got a motion and a second. | ||
| All in favor, say aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| Aye. | ||
| All opposed, say nay. | ||
| The motion is adopted, and the four resolutions, one amended, go to the full body on Sunday morning for consideration with our recommendation of approval. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Mr. Chair? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I just wanted to inquire as to whether we could comment on after the fact on some of these resolutions, particularly number 36 with respect to Ukraine. | ||
| Sure, go ahead. | ||
| Many of us in this room have not only been concerned about Ukraine for years relative to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, but some of us in this room have also been privileged to attend the Yale Mayors College, where I think twice we've seen live the ambassador from Ukraine to the United States, Oksana Markarova, and then we had the virtual meeting with the President Vladimir Zelensky a couple of years ago. | ||
| And I think it just can't be underemphasized the level of support of American mayors for Ukraine and their struggle against Russia and their struggle to maintain their democracy. | ||
| We think this is so vital and so important to the entire world that we are strongly committed to this voice that they are raising about the importance of maintaining their democratic integrity and the integrity of their country as a whole. | ||
| So, just an add-on comment to reinforce the folks that are here from the Ukraine that the American mayors are strongly committed, strongly, strongly committed to their war with Russia. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Are there any other comments on the resolutions just adopted? | ||
| All right. | ||
| If not, then I've got to step away. | ||
| You've got an all-star cast of speakers coming up, and we're very grateful for that. | ||
| And I'm going to turn it over now to walk you through that to Mayor Martha Guerrero, Mayor of West Sacramento. | ||
| You have the floor. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor Hope. | ||
| And it's grateful for your presence here and getting us through the first part of our agenda. | ||
| Just anything we hear you better. | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| So, as we proceed, in a world marked by rising tensions and global challenges, mayors are stepping up as frontline diplomats. | ||
| And the session will highlight how mayors are stepping into global leadership from disaster preparedness in Kyoto to resilience in Ukraine, trade negotiations with Canada, and navigating complex geopolitical case crises. | ||
| We'll hear how U.S. and international mayors are forging cross-border partnerships and shaping foreign policy from the ground up. | ||
| So, our next, our first speaker is Mayor Barbara Buffalo of Columbia, Missouri. | ||
| She chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors Environment Committee and was part of the mayoral delegation to COP28 in Dubai. | ||
| A longtime climate leader, she previously served as Colombia's first sustainability manager and led the city's climate action plan. | ||
| She is here to share insights from a recent climate convening in Kyoto focused on disaster preparedness and municipal resilience. | ||
| Mayor Buffalo, the floor is yours. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor. | ||
| Yeah, so I'm honored to be here today talking with such a great group of people talking about especially our conference's role in these sub-national relationships that we have. | ||
| I'm here to share a recent visit that I had in Kobe, Japan, just outside of Kyoto, as far as a representative of the United States for the U-7 meeting. | ||
| In Kobe, Japan, it's a city that transformed itself after tragedy and continues to re-educate itself and others on the importance of disaster recovery and preparedness. | ||
| So, on January 17th, 1995, at 5:46 a.m., Kobe experienced one of the most devastating earthquakes in Japan's history. | ||
| A magnitude 7.3 quake struck nearly directly under the city. | ||
| So, over 6,400 lives were lost, and more than 640,000 homes were damaged. | ||
| Entire neighborhoods burned in the aftermath. | ||
| So, this wasn't just a seismic event, it was a turning point for Kobe. | ||
| The city's leaders, much like the ones in this room, were called upon to respond, recover, and rebuild in ways that would protect future generations. | ||
| The response went beyond physical rebuilding. | ||
| The disaster sparked a civic movement in Japan, where over a million volunteers mobilized to help. | ||
| This led to formal legislation supporting nonprofit activity and community-based recovery efforts. | ||
| What struck me most when I was visiting is how Kobe leveraged this moment to instill a culture of preparedness, not just in policy, but in everyday life. | ||
| From community groups to national legislation, the emphasis became through resilience, through collaboration. | ||
| So in May, I was able to visit with mayors from the other G7 countries. | ||
| One of the most powerful experiences from my visit was here. | ||
| This is the Earthquake Memorial Museum, formerly called the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution. | ||
| And you can see lines listed there. | ||
| They have the different levels for where water was at that time. | ||
| So 1995, you can see that blue line. | ||
| That is where the water came up along this area. | ||
| They have items recovered from the earthquake on display for community members and visitors to see. | ||
| And along with each one, it tells the story of the person who collected that article or that item. | ||
| And these were really moving. | ||
| And they had, I'll point out to this, they also had interactive displays where you could hear the voices of the families and really talk about things with their community leaders. | ||
| But it's not just a museum for memorial, it's also an education hub. | ||
| So this is not the most exciting of people taking pictures of slides, but it's an interactive exhibit where they teach students about risk and resilience. | ||
| They have a clear message throughout that the goal is not just to remember, it's to prepare. | ||
| They say we never forget, and Kobe adds, and we never repeat because we prepare instead. | ||
| And it was more than just these, it's more than just having that museum and that educational institution. | ||
| They also have events and expos. | ||
| So I was there when they were having their Disaster and Future Expo, and it's held in the spring, and it's community-based, family-friendly, and focused on passing on knowledge. | ||
| What you can't tell in this picture is that these family members are learning how to move a body. | ||
| They're learning how to help prepare and people connect and move this. | ||
| And so what are the best tips for that? | ||
| That kid is three. | ||
| And so they really involve the whole family in these things. | ||
| And they have city departments and scientists and businesses participating in sharing practical disaster preparedness knowledge. | ||
| And it was like a citywide civics lesson focused on survival and adaptation. | ||
| And to the point we always talk about how you take things home, I'm looking to do something similar to bring something back to Columbia. | ||
| And so one of the other things that was moving to me, this is Merricken Park, which yes, it's spelled differently, but it's America. | ||
| American Park. | ||
| And it's a tangible reminder of what was lost and what was rebuilt. | ||
| So this is a preserved section of the wharf after the earthquake. | ||
| And it shows the force of nature and allows you to walk around it and see the lessons that they learned. | ||
| And for them, it was important to have these public spaces to carry this memory, but it also has hope. | ||
| And so here is, this is the B Kobe, which was put in 25 years after the event. | ||
| And it's a mix of mourning and motivation. | ||
| It's something that all of our cities can learn from. | ||
| And so for me, it was really empowerful to think about how I could learn from this and bring it back because their transformation was born from disaster, but its legacy is one of innovation, resilience, and inclusive education. | ||
| So we know as mayors, we are often the first responders, and we're also the longtime stewards of our city's future. | ||
| And so Kobe, for me, reminds us that investing in community memory, education, and infrastructure, it can save lives, and it can also build stronger, more connected communities. | ||
| So thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor Buffalo, for sharing your important perspective. | ||
| It's very insightful. | ||
| Next up is Mayor Andrew Ginther, President of our U.S. Conference of Mayors, where Mayor Ginther recently returned from Warsaw, Poland, where he met with the Ukrainian mayors and signed a formal memorandum of understanding to strengthen city-to-city recovery and engagement. | ||
| He also signed a second MOU with the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils, creating a platform for long-term cooperation and exchange. | ||
| Mayor Ginther will also share key takeaways from a recent Canada-Mexico trade summit hosted in April by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where mayors from across North America came together to oppose harmful tariffs and identify new ways to strengthen cross-border city relationships. | ||
| Mayor Ginther, we look forward to hearing your remarks. | ||
| Thank you so much, Mayor Guerrero, and I will make my comments very brief because we have some dear friends who have traveled from far away that I would love to yield the balance of my time to to share their thoughts. | ||
| As Mayor Guerrero mentioned, I was able to meet in Warsaw with our Ukrainian partners, and when we spent time together in hearing their stories, their most recent updates from this incredible, unjust and reckless war that's been waged upon them by Russia, the displacement, the impact on families, schools, healthcare facilities, just some devastating, devastating impacts. | ||
| I really appreciate their willingness to share, but also their willingness to engage with us to make sure that we are making very clear our commitment to their efforts to protect freedom and democracy. | ||
| That visit helped shape the idea for the mechanism of regular communication and sustained support for Ukrainian cities during rebuilding. | ||
| To formalize that support, I proudly signed two MOUs, as was mentioned, one with Ukrainian mayors, another with the Association of Ukrainian Cities, whose Executive Director Tatiana has joined us here today. | ||
| We're also honored by the presence of Mayor Besanin from Kupiensk, a courageous leader, courageous leader from one of the cities most affected by this war. | ||
| We're committed to working alongside both our Ukrainian mayors and leaders, and I know Mayor Barnett will speak a little bit more to our engagement with the Canadian mayors, the trilateral summit, as well as our visit to the Federation of Municipalities in Ottawa earlier this month and our ongoing work there. | ||
| Obviously, we'll hear from Mayor Dilkins as well. | ||
| But at this point, if it's all right with you, Mayor Guerrero, I'll invite Mayor Bezedin to share some comments and thoughts and welcome him officially to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. | ||
| Today we get here to speak about the future, a future we are building together one that rises from the ashes of the war and shines with the light of hope and prosperity. | ||
| I speak of the future of Ukraine and of one of its integral communities, the city of Kupansk, which has endured unmanageable destruction and preserved the unbreakable spirit of its people. | ||
| Kupansk is not just a point on the map of Ukraine. | ||
| It is a city with a rich history, a strategic location, and tremendous potential. | ||
| Before the full-scale invasion, Kupansk was an important transportation hub, an industrial centre, and a stronghold of agricultural development. | ||
| Today, much of the city lands in ruins, but it's hard communities to beat. | ||
| To illustrate the scale of distraction, since the beginning of twenty twenty five alone, Russian forces have carried out twenty two seven attacks against the settlement in the Kupens community using heavy weaponry. | ||
| Eight hundred and seventy air guided airline bombs of various calibres and types have been dropped. | ||
| The community continues to suffer from airstrikes, ballistic missile attacks and relanced drone assaults on a daily basis. | ||
| This had resulted in casualties and injuries, along with the destruction of critical transportation, engineering and social infrastructure, as well as business and residential buildings. | ||
| I invite you to become part of the shared investment, an investment in people, in resilience, in recovery and in hope. | ||
| Our goal is to create conditions for dignified fall lives for those most affected by war, including internet displaced persons and vulnerable groups. | ||
| Despite the enormous challenge, we are talking about first steps. | ||
| I am proud to share that we have sent a memorandum of cooperation with the City of Columbus, a leader in implementing social projects and community development. | ||
| We are deeply grateful to Mayor Andrew J. Ginter, President of the US Conference on the Mayors, for his vision and support for our upcoming initiatives. | ||
| Among our top priorities in the creation of medical center, they will include a dedicated rehabilitation unit. | ||
| This facility will serve as a lifeline for thousands of individuals who have suffered physical and psychological trauma from the war. | ||
| It will provide essential medical, psychological and social support and help them reintegrate and rebuild their lives. | ||
| We are also committed to restoring and advancing education, particularly through partnerships with the international community. | ||
| We firmly believe that access to quality education is key to rebuilding society, especially for children and young people who learn has been dropped by war. | ||
| Investing in education is ultimately investing in the Ukraine's future and in the generations who will lead our country towards renewal. | ||
| These projects are not just another set of programmes. | ||
| These investments in people, people who were forced to leave their homes, a remaining department to live, work and rebuild the future. | ||
| These initiatives offer hope and tangible opportunities, showing them that they are not alone in their hardship. | ||
| Our cooperation and our partnership are a reflection of a shared committee to peace, justice and reuse for every Ukrainian. | ||
| Thank you for your continued support and solidarity. | ||
| We are proud to study shoulder to shoulder. | ||
| I am confident that only together we can overcome darkness with light and autocracy with democracy. | ||
| Glory to USA. | ||
| Slawa Ukraina. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I want to introduce at this table with the Steel Head of Delegation, Ms. Stetiana Ivora-Valusenka, visit President of Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils, Head of Kharkiv Region Consuls. | ||
| Well, joining us today is Tom Cochran, our Executive Director, who is also here with us regarding this particular matter is important to him. | ||
| Tom, would you like to share any words since you've been, along with Mayor Ginther, have been very supportive of Ukraine since day one. | ||
| We're so pleased to have you here today, who represents the cities of Ukraine. | ||
| And we were very fortunate to have the relationship we have with FCM, which is a Federation of Canadian Municipalities. | ||
| So we continue to struggle with the Ukraine issue in our own government, but I think you can feel the love and respect inside this organization for what your country is going through. | ||
| We will continue to work with the mayors on your side and our side to give you strength, and you can count on it. | ||
| Now, we will also, we had a trilateral summit, one in Washington with the Mexican mayors and Canadian mayors. | ||
| We went to the FCM, which is a Federation of Canadian Municipalities. | ||
| And we've also been invited by Claudia Scheinbaum, who is the President of Mexico, to come there in September. | ||
| And Mayor Ginther and I met with the Economic Minister in February. | ||
| And so that will complete our relationship this year with the three countries: Mexico, Canada, and Ukraine. | ||
| So with that, thank you for being here. | ||
| And let us continue. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Tom. | ||
| And thank you, Mayor Ginther, and Mayor Besidin and Tatiana. | ||
| Thank you all for your powerful testimony and resilience as shown by the resolution that we have just passed. | ||
| America's mayors stand firmly with you and Ukraine and are committed to supporting your country's recovery and reconstruction from the ground up. | ||
| Thank you for joining us today. | ||
| And now we turn to Rochester Hills Mayor Brian Barnett, past President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. | ||
| He recently attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Ottawa and the U.S. Conference of Canada, U.S. and Mexico Trade Summit. | ||
| Mayor Barnett, who recently hosted a delegation of Canadian mayors, will discuss the importance of cross-border connections, municipal diplomacy, and navigating trade challenges. | ||
| Representing a city near the Canadian border, he has been advocating for fair trade to protect businesses and consumers. | ||
| Mayor Barnett, over to you. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor. | ||
| Boy, whoever set up this speaking lineup did me no favors here. | ||
| Mayor Besiden, thank you for your comments and your powerful words. | ||
| We're reminded that we all have struggles, but sometimes when we hear those of others, particularly of our brother and sister mayors in Ukraine, we realize that we might not have it as bad as we think we do. | ||
| Thank you for your continued leadership and for being here today. | ||
| I appreciate that. | ||
| Yes, and thank you, mayors, for just a few minutes to share about something I'm really proud that the U.S. Conference of Mayors has taken a leadership role in. | ||
| And I think it is a natural place for the conference to lead on because if you see what's happening across much of the globe, you see cities leading in many ways. | ||
| There is a lot of frustration at the federal level and where you see the private sector, where you see industry, and where you see other people connecting is really at the sub-national level, where cities are working with other cities to get things done. | ||
| And I think perhaps the greatest example of that has been the newly found friendship relationship and maybe newly discovered relationship with our friends in Canada. | ||
| Of course, we had, as President Ginther said, a wonderfully successful trilateral summit in DC with a group of Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. mayors. | ||
| And I think that the remarkable takeaway for me in both that meeting and conversations with those mayors, as well as the visit that we took to Ottawa a month or so ago, was just how much we have in common. | ||
| We were able to sit in for a little bit of the FCM. | ||
| I see some of our FCM friends on the side over there. | ||
| And it was remarkable how, with the exception of the flags behind us, the issues were the same. | ||
| It was public safety, it was communicating with residents, it was housing, it was support for or lack of from the federal government. | ||
| And you just found yourself saying, yeah, we get it. | ||
| We feel the same thing on our side. | ||
| And perhaps the issue that's brought us most together has been the issue of tariffs. | ||
| And I've been fairly outspoken on this. | ||
| And really certainly wasn't something I came into office on or was passionate about this six months ago, but just I think our role as mayors is to storytell and to tell the impact of legislation and discussion at the federal level on our residents. | ||
| And as I began to talk to my residents in my city, and particularly my business owners, in a city that is in the shadows of the Ambassador Bridge across the way from Windsor and Canada, is our number one trading partner in the state by far. | ||
| It's probably yours too. | ||
| If you live anywhere north and east of Colorado, it's probably Canada. | ||
| And my businesses said this is horrible. | ||
| This is detrimental. | ||
| These aren't left-wing university activists. | ||
| These were largely conservatively leaning business owners who probably voted for the president, who were sharing the challenges of tariffs. | ||
| We did a survey among our business community, and they said that 30% of my businesses, employees from 10 to 1,000, were planning on laying off in 2025. | ||
| They were anticipating 25% reductions in sales. | ||
| And the number that hit me the most was that over 50%, almost 60%, had zeroed out all capital investment in 2025. | ||
| And that, to me, in a city, is where innovation happens, it's where growth happens, it's where new jobs are created. | ||
| And that made that personal to me. | ||
| That made that not a national issue, but it made it a local mayoral issue for me. | ||
| And what could I do to begin to combat that? | ||
| And it started as just getting to know some of my neighbors, Mayor Dilkins, who you'll hear from in a minute. | ||
| I think I've spent more time with Mayor Dilkins than I have my kids this year. | ||
| That's probably more a comment on my parenting than it is anything else. | ||
| But we've developed a great friendship and one perhaps that should have been developed years ago, but sometimes opportunities arise. | ||
| And then through the leadership of the conference, we've developed some stronger partnerships with FCM and with our Canadian neighbors. | ||
| And I think we're making a difference. | ||
| I think folks are hearing. | ||
| And you've seen, and again, the biggest challenge with this is the uncertainty, right? | ||
| I said this in the comments the other day. | ||
| Imagine if you're the CEO of a small company with 25 employees and you're making a product with products from Canada or Mexico or really anywhere in the globe. | ||
| The other part of our study was that only about 20% of the companies in my city get all their products from the U.S. | ||
| So tariffs affect 80% of my businesses. | ||
| That's a lot, right? | ||
| Imagine trying to predict what that product is going to cost to build in three months and then what it's going to cost to sell, what you can sell it for in six. | ||
| There's just no way with tariffs going from 10 to 20 to 50 to 130 back to zero, being appealed by a court, being reappealed, being reassessed. | ||
| It's just an impossible game. | ||
| And so I'm using my voice with the strength of the Conference of Mayors and many of our mayoral colleagues joining with our Canadian brothers and sisters to just share the challenge of this and to storytell about what this is happening, what the ramifications are in the streets of a city that is a very purple city and a very purple state, and hopefully get as many ears to listen as possible. | ||
| So I appreciate the support of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. | ||
| This is an area that we can lead. | ||
| We have credibility. | ||
| We have resources and a deep history of leading on issues like this. | ||
| Proud to add my voice to that and proud to introduce Mayor Dilkins to share perhaps a little bit more on the Canadian side of this. | ||
| Well, thanks very much, Mayor Barnett, and I appreciate your leadership on the U.S.-Canada file, but also the friendship that we have developed. | ||
| I think I've spent more time with my kids, so I'm not sure where your kids are. | ||
| It has been a pleasure getting to know you, and we appreciate all of your advocacy quite sincerely. | ||
| As border city mayors and mayors whose communities are really deeply impacted and affected by tariffs, especially as it relates to the automotive industry in particular, I want to say thank you for all of you for stepping up. | ||
| I sit on the Big City Mayors Caucus in Canada as part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and I'm joined this morning by Donna Riordan, who is the mayor of St. John, New Brunswick. | ||
| And her community in Canada on the East Coast was identified as the one that would be hardest hit as a result of tariffs put on by President Trump as it relates to Canada. | ||
| And so we're here for one reason, just to continue to keep building the strong relationship between our two organizations, to seek your continued support to end the ongoing trade dispute between Canada and the United States. | ||
| And for decades, for decades and decades, heck, go back before Mexico was part of the equation. | ||
| It goes back to at least the 1960s. | ||
| Canada, the United States, and now Mexico, we have created quite a remarkable trade relationship. | ||
| And we have had this trade relationship as a result of choice. | ||
| We have done this because it's been better for businesses in all communities in all countries. | ||
| It's been better for families who benefited from those business relationships. | ||
| And it's good for government. | ||
| It's good for communities. | ||
| We're stronger together. | ||
| And we're stronger because of that formal trade relationship that we have developed. | ||
| The USMCA, which was signed by President Trump during his first term in office, the one he called the greatest trade deal of all time, and just a few weeks ago, he re-enunciated when Prime Minister Kearney visited the President at the White House, said he loves USMCA. | ||
| That's fantastic, so do we. | ||
| And it's been working quite well for quite a long time. | ||
| And so those supply chains, as a result of the agreement that we signed, those supply chains are tightly integrated. | ||
| On the automotive side, and I'm Mayor of the City of Windsor, Ontario, which is the automotive capital of Canada, directly across the river from the motor city in Detroit. | ||
| And these auto supply chains are amongst the most highly integrated of any industry in our two countries. | ||
| Between our two countries, in fact, Mexico is a significant part of the integration, the vertical integration, of those supply chains. | ||
| Two and a half billion dollars worth of goods cross the U.S.-Canada border every day. | ||
| Eight million jobs in the United States are connected to trade with Canada. | ||
| Canada is your largest export market, and we are your largest export market as well. | ||
| We sell more goods to you, and you sell more goods to us than any other countries on the planet. | ||
| The USMCA, for the most part, has greatly benefited all three countries. | ||
| That changed at the end of January of this year. | ||
| And again, as Mayor Barnett had said, it's all about the uncertainty. | ||
| People aren't making investments. | ||
| They're pausing decisions. | ||
| And that certainly is impacting the book of business for businesses on both sides of the border. | ||
| And it's the on-again, off-again tariffs, that ever-shifting deadlines that are put forward. | ||
| It's resulted in all of that investment being paused, jobs lost, and increasing costs on both sides of the border. | ||
| And we need to stand together and encourage our governments to get back to the negotiating table to help resolve these disputes. | ||
| We know that the U.S. Conference of Mayors has been active on this file from the very beginning. | ||
| Your resolution in March hosting a Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade summit, along with your letter of support for Senator Kaine's resolution calling for an end to tariffs on Canada, was greatly appreciated. | ||
| And I thank my friend Mayor Ginther from Columbus for leading the charge on that front and everyone else who's played a part in getting those issues across the finish line. | ||
| We acknowledge it, we recognize it, and I'll tell you, it means a lot to all of us in Canada to see our friends in the United States standing with us. | ||
| The trade resolutions you consider today also show your partnership, but we have more to do together. | ||
| This past week at the G7 in Canada, President Trump and Prime Minister Kearney said that they would work to reach a conclusion to the outstanding issues over the next 30 days. | ||
| And I hope that that's true for all of our sakes. | ||
| On both sides of the border, we need to keep up the pressure on our political leadership. | ||
| I know that the staff at the USCM and FCM work very closely together to monitor the opportunities to influence, but I'm also asking that each of you keep up the pressure with your senators, with your congressmen and congresswomen to end the trade dispute. | ||
| It's bad for business, it's bad for families. | ||
| Ultimately, it's bad for communities. | ||
| On our side, we commit to do the same. | ||
| Thank you very much for inviting us here today and for your continued partnership. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor Dilkens and Mayor Barnett, for your invaluable insights here on unwavering commitment to this critical issue, sharing with us your personal experience and what is going on in your jurisdictions, and keeping this front and center as we continue to move forward and our mayor's leadership on this. | ||
| This is incredible. | ||
| And we'll continue to work with you. | ||
| Next, we will have, to close this session, Melanie Moranpal, Chief Engagement Officer with the American Jewish Committee. | ||
| Melanie will provide an update on the evolving Israeli-Palestinian crisis and its implications for U.S. cities, including how municipal leaders can foster dialogue and community resilience at home. | ||
| Melanie, thank you for joining us. | ||
| Please go ahead. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Thanks for the opportunity, and it's good to be with you all today. | ||
| And what I'm about to talk about also underscores what you've also been discussing, which is how important it is for mayors to be at the forefront of what's happening around the globe and to really lean into your role as international leaders, because we know that what happens globally impacts you locally, and what happens locally can have global impact. | ||
| So, again, I want to thank you for this opportunity. | ||
| I'm the chief engagement officer of the American Jewish Committee. | ||
| We are a global nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. | ||
| We are an advocacy organization on behalf of the Jewish people, and we're a proud partner of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. | ||
| I will do my best to give a high-level overview of the most complex conflict in the most complex moment in that conflict in the most complex part of the world in about three minutes. | ||
| So, bear with me. | ||
| And when we first discussed this presentation, it was really focused on an update on the situation between Israel and Hamas and what's happening in Gaza. | ||
| Obviously, since then, Israel has launched a preemptive strike against Iran, and Iran has responded. | ||
| So, there is now a full-blown war between Israel and Iran. | ||
| And it's important to understand how this is all truly interconnected. | ||
| So, a few points to bear in mind: the Iranian regime is the world's foremost state sponsor of terror through its network of proxies: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the popular mobilization forces in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen. | ||
| And Iran and its terror proxies have launched attacks in Europe, in Latin America, in Asia, across the Middle East, and have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. | ||
| The Iranian regime is also an egregious human rights abuser, including the suppression of protests, the persecution of minorities, and the discrimination against women, to put it mildly. | ||
| We know that Hezbollah, which is right on Israel's northern border, has held its people hostage essentially for decades with the support and backing of Iran. | ||
| And the Iranian-backed Hamas is responsible for the October 7th, 2023, massacre, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 250 were kidnapped, taken hostage into Gaza. | ||
| We know there are still 53, possibly 52, hostages remaining, and we think about 20 of those are still living. | ||
| The situation in Gaza is truly dire at this point. | ||
| As a result of the 10-7 attack and the reality that Israel could no longer accept a terrorist living right next door to it that was lobbing missiles at it and infiltrating its communities, and it's fighting against Hamas, which fully embeds itself both within and underneath its civilian population. | ||
| It's a very, very complicated and challenging situation. | ||
| It's not an easy way to fight any kind of battle. | ||
| And we know the civilian casualties have been enormous and incredibly, incredibly difficult. | ||
| So, why now with Iran? | ||
| What created imminence in Israel's response to Iran? | ||
| We know that Iran and all the intelligence has shown that Iran had been rapidly increasing its nuclear program and ballistic missile development. | ||
| The regime has systematically obstructed inspections, concealed nuclear materials, and operated covert enrichment facilities, and was actually for the first time formally censored by the international UN watchdog agency, the IAEA, on June 12th. | ||
| It's also made it clear it's not particularly serious about diplomacy, about really making progress in any diplomatic solution. | ||
| And with that nuclear threshold coming fast, and for many of the mayors who have traveled with us to Israel and who have heard for decades that there will come a point of no return with Iran's nuclear program, that it absolutely cannot be allowed to reach weapons-grade enrichment, that point was reached. | ||
| And so, with that threshold approaching and Iran's clear endgame of the destruction of Israel, which they have said time and again, and they're very clear, and I want to note, as Jewish history has taught us, if someone tells you they're committed to your destruction, you believe them. | ||
| And unfortunately, that's the situation that Israel finds itself in now. | ||
| So, we know Iran and its proxies through Hezbollah, through Hamas, they're not seeking regime change in Israel. | ||
| They are seeking the full destruction of Israel. | ||
| The targets that Israel has identified have been military targets, intelligence targets, leadership targets, and they have actually done quite a bit. | ||
| They've had a lot of success by their metrics in terms of taking out a lot of the capacities and attacking some of the, not directly the nuclear sites, but where many of the nuclear production facilities and components of the nuclear program are housed. | ||
| Iran, on the other hand, has been firing hundreds of ballistic missiles at population centers in Israel. | ||
| Thankfully, because Israel has a strong air defense system, most of those missiles have been intercepted, but a good many have fallen. | ||
| There have been a number of casualties, as well as tens of thousands of homes and businesses and properties impacted and damaged. | ||
| So, it remains to be seen whether the U.S. will intervene, and if so, how. | ||
| But Israel has made it clear that it's created a strategic operational plan that it could execute without the involvement of any country. | ||
| I wish I could prognosticate on what will happen with the United States, but we know that none of us can. | ||
| I want to be really clear about one important point, and that is that Israel's battle is not with the Iranian people. | ||
| It is not with the Palestinian people in Gaza. | ||
| It is not with the Lebanese people on its northern border. | ||
| It is with these regimes that are all again backed, funded, and supported by Iran, that have held their own populations really hostage in these incredibly oppressive and violent leadership. | ||
| It's really, they deserve more. | ||
| They deserve to all live peacefully and prosperously, which is not possible with these current fundamentalist leaders in charge. | ||
| A quick word about the distribution of aid in Gaza, which I know is very important to everyone, is important to all of us, is really crucial to understand. | ||
| It is an incredibly challenging situation to deliver and distribute aid. | ||
| The logistics of it are very, very hard in a very active war zone and in a very complicated and small space. | ||
| We know that so much of the aid that has been going in, and there have been tons and tons and tons, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trucks full of aid going in that can get into Gaza, but the distribution has been really the problem. | ||
| It's been very difficult to find a way to mechanisms to truly distribute the aid in an effective way. | ||
| There have also been a lot of issues with Hamas stealing the aid, stockpiling it, warehousing it for themselves, and or then selling it to the population at exorbitant prices. | ||
| So, recently, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was launched in May of 2025 with the whole goal of finding new ways to distribute aid safely to the population and really work around Hamas so that they are not trying to go through them to distribute it. | ||
| There have been some horrific reports of mass casualties at distribution sites that many of you have seen. | ||
| These reports are all being investigated. | ||
| It's very hard to verify exactly what is happening because there's no media in Gaza. | ||
| But there is a lot of interest in trying to ensure that the people of Gaza are able to not just survive. | ||
| We all want to see them thrive. | ||
| We want to see this conflict come to an end. | ||
| We want to see the hostages returned. | ||
| And we want to see the beginning of a rebuilding of this important part of the region. | ||
| So, what does this mean for mayors? | ||
| I'll just say this quickly. | ||
| This is a time for vigilance. | ||
| You have all seen what's happening in your communities with the rise of anti-Semitism. | ||
| There have been attacks on certainly on Muslim communities. | ||
| If you have Persian-Iranian communities, I would also urge you to be reaching out to them too, just checking in, see how they're doing. | ||
| We know that Iran has proxies and people who have been fundamentalized and radicalized, who are all over the place. | ||
| There could be lone wolves, there could be people who are part of some small terror cells. | ||
| We know there are many around Europe, and we know they exist around the United States as well. | ||
| So, it's really a time to stay in close touch with your law enforcement, keep track of this news, keep in close touch with your Jewish communities, your Israeli communities, your Palestinian communities. | ||
| You are leaders, and you have an opportunity to help create that vision for a future. | ||
| Remind people that we have to stay in conversation with each other. | ||
| We are all part of communities together, and it is in our interest to make sure we are not alienating each other and that we're all working towards peaceful resolutions, both for our citizens here in the United States and certainly for all of those around the Middle East who are in such a volatile time. | ||
| It's a very changing, it's a rapidly changing time. | ||
| You know, if we want to be optimists, I really hope that this time next year, the Middle East will look somewhat different and that we will start to see those glimmers of possibility of what a better, brighter Middle East could look like. | ||
| And I just join all of you in wishing for a peaceful and prosperous future for everyone in the region. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Melanie. | ||
| That's a very important update that we all need to hear, and your guidance for mayors as we have people in our community that we need to stay in touch with and just make sure that our communities are safe and engaged. | ||
| We have a couple more minutes. | ||
| I wanted to open it up for any couple of questions. | ||
| If anybody has any questions. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Mayor. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| It's good to see you all. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| First of all, it's an honor to be here with Ukraine. | ||
| I have to share with you that since the war, we have, even though they've tried to ban us in Florida from flying flags, I hang a flag at my dais for Ukraine as well as Israel. | ||
| This hit home to me personally on Friday. | ||
| My dear friend is there. | ||
| They were in a bomb shelter on Friday in Israel. | ||
| This is real. | ||
| Israel has been under attack for over 3,000 years. | ||
| I think it behooves us to call out misinformation. | ||
| Stand up. | ||
| We need to unite. | ||
| I want to thank the many, many clergy that have united with the Jewish community, many in my community as well as I'm sure in yours. | ||
| I have a mosque. | ||
| I have four square miles. | ||
| I have 20 churches, Catholic church, a Chabad, a Jewish center. | ||
| So we are very diverse and a very welcoming community. | ||
| It is the first time in the history of my city on Wednesday that we had two armed Uzi officers at my city hall. | ||
| We are one of the largest Jewish populations in South Florida. | ||
| We have helped our Chabad. | ||
| We have helped our mosque. | ||
| But please, if you know there's misinformation, make sure you stand up against it. | ||
| We ask you to unite with our Jewish and Muslim Brotherhood that are under assault. | ||
| I met a woman last month that I actually went to Cuba, two months ago I went to Cuba with on a federation mission that the Jews there had to leave and come either to Miami or Venezuela, and now they're in Miami. | ||
| But she was an Iranian Jew. | ||
| She was displaced from oppression. | ||
| We are talking about oppressive regimes. | ||
| We're not talking about the modernization. | ||
| We're blessed. | ||
| Brian and a group of us went to Saudi Arabia a couple years ago and looked at their progress and their openness and their acceptance. | ||
| Take note in their somewhat silence in working towards the abriotic, I never say, the accords. | ||
| It's not any surprise that on October 7 was happening when our ambassadors and people from all the Arab nations were uniting and discussing peace. | ||
| I feel your pain. | ||
| I feel the pain of Israelis. | ||
| We all need to not have disinformation out there. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you for your hard work. | ||
| I follow ADL. | ||
| Obviously, I'm Jewish, so I follow everything. | ||
| But ADL has great information, great, real snippets of factual information and response to over 10,000 acts of anti-Semitism. | ||
| That is a 200% increase in anti-Semitic acts that have now become violent in our communities. | ||
| If that violence hit the streets, it's going to impact everyone, whether you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim. | ||
| Think of Baha'i that was hit. | ||
| The religion, you know, Israeli is home to many religions, too. | ||
| So I got off my bully pulpit, but I thank you, and I thank you all that signed on with CAMS and continues to support those that are oppressed and under attack in this world. | ||
| So thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor Cooper. | ||
| And Mayor, would you like to introduce one more? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Anne-Marie Graham here at Canton Township, Michigan. | ||
| So as a retired fourth-generation autoworker and engineer, I really appreciate the forums that you have gone to because as you know, 20% of all Michigan jobs are affected by the automotive industry and even hundreds of thousands more. | ||
| So I know how it's affected my family over decades. | ||
| So thank you for doing what you're doing with the automotive work and the tariffs. | ||
| I truly appreciate it because the jobs are real and people are losing them right now. | ||
| I know I get, I'm retired, but those that are working with me are sending me their resumes because they are losing their jobs. | ||
| So thank you very much for that. | ||
| In terms of the interfaith work, we do, and Canton Township has mosque gurdwaras, Hindu temples. | ||
| So the interfaith group meets constantly. | ||
| So I do want to stress also, like you had said, it's important to constantly check on them. | ||
| So every month we're having meetings. | ||
| So, not only are our policemen watching over these houses of worship, but we are having joint meetings every month to talk about what's happening behind the scenes. | ||
| Because, as you know, your faith houses know what's going on in the community. | ||
| So, you can meet with the police, but they tell you what's happening on the ground. | ||
| So, I appreciate all the work this community is doing there. | ||
| And obviously, we also stand with Ukraine. | ||
| So, thank you very much. | ||
| Thanks for all your work. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor, for that information. | ||
| Oh, yes. | ||
| Go ahead, Tatiana. | ||
| I came together for some very important meetings. | ||
| I'm not only the head of Ukrainian regions, but I'm the head of one region next to the front line. | ||
| I want to say thank you for supporting Ukraine. | ||
| very important for us and this is very important for us, so you will support us till the victory. | ||
| I want to invite all of you, all mayors from the US. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And the thank you word from the Congress of Ukrainian Mayors. | ||
| I have it with me, and I want to give it to you. | ||
| We are thank you. | ||
| We are very thankful to you, and we are inviting all of you to Ukraine for the future collaboration. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| So I sincerely thank all of our speakers today, especially the mayors and foreign guests who traveled here from Ukraine and Canada and to all our U.S. speakers who make the U.S. Conference of Mayors such a special place to connect, share best practices. | ||
| and serve as a vital resource for local leaders. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| we are adjourned | ||
| Here's a | ||
| look at our live coverage today on the C-span networks. | ||
| The House gavels back in at 10 a.m. Eastern. | ||
| Lawmakers will work on legislation to deport any non-citizen convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. | ||
| We'll have that live on C-SPAN. | ||
| Over on C-SPAN 2 at 8 a.m., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Kane, will hold a press conference at the Pentagon to discuss the U.S. bombing of nuclear sites in Iran. | ||
| And at 3:30, the Senate's back in session to work on an executive nomination for an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for tax policy. | ||
| And on C-SPAN 3, a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing on vehicle dangers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. | ||
| Then at 2, several Republican lawmakers will speak at a conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. | ||
| And at 4, President Trump will talk about the status of his tax and spending cuts bill ahead of the deadline he's set to receive the legislation, the 4th of July. | ||
| You can also watch our live coverage on the C-SPAN Now app or online at c-span.org. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | ||
| Coming up this morning, the American Enterprise Institute's Philip Wallach talks about Congress and the War Powers Act, a Nixon-era law that limits the president's power to unilaterally wage war. | ||
| Then, Utah Republican Congressman Blake Moore on U.S. military action against Iran and the president's Big Beautiful Bill. | ||
| And Washington State Congressman Adam Smith, a top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, discusses U.S. military action against Iran and Trump administration defense policies. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Book TV. | ||
| Every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 features leading authors discussing their latest non-fiction books. | ||
| Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend. |