advocacy groupses known as dark money and their efnght on worker rights. and heard it will from an arizona teacher a home care provider, and the president of the american federation of teachers. this one is an hour and 40 minutes. all right, well we will call the -- briefing here to order. i appreciate very much that our witnesses are here. we will be joined by randy fairly soon she's in the building having a meeting and when she joins us we'll put her into the order but i think -- we can move fairly quickly to witnesses it is timely for us to be doing this hearing right now. in the week in which president trump has announced a new

nominee for the supreme court. someone whowh will protect the 4 republican that so reliably delivered decision after decision after decision for the republican party's election interests. and for the corporations financial interests. so we have a lot that -- is relevant to today's conversation because the genesis case tban with highly unurge invitation by one of the five republican justices on the supreme court to change this aspect of a decision that was in their confirms guide through what they call binding president we need to follow precedent part of our conservative doctrine and, of course, on the government

smashed it right front and center on way to delivering results for republican election interest and corporate financial interests. so we're getting a little tired of seeing that. this then rolled on with essentially foe litigation with a foe parties backed by big republican special interest bringing cases that they ask it lose so they could move rapidly through the litigation process to their destination at the supreme court where they believe that five welcoming justices awaited them to deliver the promised outcome. of course, the at the time of justice scall why interfered with that little scheme and at 4-4 the challenge failed but it took almost zero time after discoure gorsuch was put for dark money interest to get back up to come racing become to the court now with new --

plaintiff but court overlooked with a project wases to get rid of this source of funding for unions. and that's where we are today. that rolls over from political into the personal and we havee the teacher of the year from arizona and a home care worker as well to talk a little bit about the personal side. but let me ask professor nancy maclaine author a of a terrific book about dark money influence and the way in which -- very, very big money has infiltrated our public debate over many, many years and tried to control the narrative for big special interests. so we'll start with a professor mcauthor of democracy and chain a truly remarkable book ppg >> good afternoon, thank you senator white house, and senator who i understand will be with us presentlyhi for inviting me to participate in this crucial conversation.

i'm a u.s. historian at duke university author most recently as he said of a book of chains that bears directly on our toic. i've spent better part of last decade rrnlging and unraveling the historical roots of the ideas that the libertarian radical rights fund by charles koch and his network of dark money donors are applying to transform our country. this antidemocratic libertarian right consist of literally hundreds of organizations including national bodies, such as the cato institute, the heritage foundation, the the american legislative exchange counsel, and federalist society, state level organizations who does work aligned through state policy network, organizing enterprises including americans americans for prosperity concern veterans of america, the leba initiative and opportunity and campus based centers of a faculty. most of us who are critical of the change coming from today's

rights, have not really grasped what this apparatus is speaking nflt one top coke official gloated at a donor summer in late 2015 i quote that we're close to winning while network's critics he said still don't have the real. i found that path in my research so i would like to open today by iching some key elements of this cause is belief system and then discussing what that means for policymakers here in washington. without this understanding we view cases like this in isolation let me explain. many americans have interpreted the janice decision as pure and simple case of union busting. however, this litigation was a crucial piece the lad rile rights stealth plan to take power out of of the hands of ordinary citizens and public officials alike.

and make sure that that power never returns by radically altering rules of our democracy as enshrined in our constitution. stealth is critical to their success, about i learned from reading thousands of pages of documents that this cause has produced over half century. why?ag because they understand that the only way they can achieve their radical antidemocratic transforms ofey american government is by putting their plan in place, piece by piece withoutt announcing their true intent. and setting all of this no notion, in fact, two decade ago charles koch began with presumption that i quote we are greatly outnumbered. we are greatly outnumbered to win therefore he said his cause lymust overwhelm the other side with what he termed interrelated plays. so let me guide you -- to six key elementses of the radical rights over arching

which link the link plays that we have been seeing in this country especially since 2009. first, market forces should alone determine social outcomes with no interference from government. government has only three legitimate roles for this cause. enforce the law, ensure social order, and defend us from foreign enemies. everything elseoc should in time be eliminated because it interferes with property rights, and economic liberty. second, any attempt by the people to use their numbers to modify markets as labor unions and government policies like minimum wages do is illegitimate and to gangsterism coke team believes that we should only have the right to act as individuals. not muster any collective counteravailing power to that of corporation as americans have been accustom to doing for

generations. free speech is not the end goal of the janice case. that goal is breaking down the collective power to block implementation of thehe radical libertarian program including ultimately privatization of public information social security, medicare, and medicaid and more. third, democracy does not require majority rule. in fact, the democracy is not an especially desirable form of decision making. r the the radical antidemocratic libertarian cause believes in unanimity. only if everyone above all the very wealthiest among us supports a particular policy and voluntarily agrees to pay for it can it be said to be truly representing the common good. ... agrees represents a calming degrees. that's why they ate aligned

individuals and officials are working hard to limit voting's. including african-americans, latinos, low-income whites and elected officials do not really care about the common good. they only care about getting reelected using other o peoples money to dole out favors to ensure that. that's why we t have deficits en in times of prosperity. if, because the people cannot be trusted to restrain the claimshe on the wealthy and elected officials cannot be trusted with the power to tax and spend, ironclad binding restraints must be put on both. the nobel prize-winning economist whose ideas have been weaponized by the koch network, james buchanan, said the changes were so extensive that they the amount to come in his words, a constitutional revolution. that revolution would put shackles on what government could do, including by making

mandatory balanced budgets, making , making balanced-budget mandatory, imposing congressional term limits, limiting the right to vote and requiring vast super majorities for any change of substance after the constitutional revolution. most telling, the oy way to achieve this is by writing misinformation and relying initially on the branch of government easiest for those to capture and deploy. that is state government. since the 2010 midterm and the gerrymander that followed, state policy network in north carolina funded by the ba bay -- to keep

future voters from reversing all the radical changes they have made, they have put not one but six constitutional amendments on the docket this fall, including voter id and a cap on top income rates. with these elements in the grand strategy of context let me turn to three key implications. first, what has made this audacious enterprise possible and ever more effective is something we have never seen before in american history. that is, a concerted project by one extremely right-wing multibillionaire who has taken upon himself the network he has built to radically alter our world. let's be clear, never before has this much money, time, and political power been wielded on

behalf of individuals on elected and on accountable to the people. second, gaining control of the courts is vital to this project. the court will decide how the law is going to be applied in the battle against democracy as we know it. they miss to overwrite how democracy works from how we vo vote, to what we are allowed to vote on and how we are represented. one of the greatest victories in this class would be something almost no one has been talking about this past week, it's a key part of why the koch network is working to get him confirmed. the koch cause speaks to the commerce clause that has enabled all federal regulations in the 1930s. it is a legal strategist left behind in the attack on private-sector unions explained.

we want to withdraw judicial support. my last and final point in all of this, what should be the goal of those who believe in government of, by, and for the people? inform, inform, inform. of course, inform your colleagues and constituents, but do not stop there, all americans need to understand how this libertarian system is at odds with our system. i'll close as i started. the janus really cannot be fully understood without recognizing the larger radical right that produced it. if that project is not stopped soon by making use of the democratic tools that we still have, we'll find ourselves living in a country that none of

us would recognize and one by design that would be impossible to change, even with superrich majority demand. thank you for your consideration. >> thank you very much. we also have christine marsh who teaches high school english at a high school in arizona. she is a member of the national education association, she sees firsthand the effect of janice, she was the arizona teacher of the year in 2016 in a democratic candidate for arizona state senate now. we welcome her to this proceeding. >> thank you senator for giving teachers a voice in this very important discussion. my classroom is set up in a circle, kind of like this, very much for that reason, giving students a voice.

i want students to know they have a voice and to know their voice matters. the same philosophy has propelled me through 26 years of teaching, it's probably one of the reasons i was named 2016 arizona teacher of the year, giving teachers a voice is one of the reasons i belong to the association and the arizona association for 26 years. during my tenure as teacher of the year, i went to the arizona state capitol almost every single week. i met with legislators on committees. someone from aea was almost always there. they were fighting first students just as i was. witnessing that firsthand has made me more loyal member. in the post janus world, i expect educator activism to grow. i know from first-hand experience that teachers are not

going away, they are not going to be silent. if anything, the have started to recognize what professor mclean has referenced, this spring, before janus was decided, the aea teamed up with a #, red fred movement. for the first time in arizona history, educators rocked out of the classroom and gathered at the classroom to protest working and learning conditions, nearly 70000 people, mostly teachers took part in the weeklong protest, and help them realize that they do have a voice that i referenced earlier. they can indeed use that voice. now, the numbers of educators involved in related activities like ballot initiatives and legislative cantee campaigns cos

to grow. the red fred movement gives me hope. i hope it gives some of you hope as well. we need that hope in this post janus world, world in which teachers and all public employees are under attack, in response, we are becoming more engaged, speaking out, and organizing both locally and nationally. as we have seen in arizona and on the national level, we are fighting groups with endless amounts of money, again, professor mclean has referenced and they will not be given up there chance. but, we also know that no amount of money can silence america's teachers. we'll continue to fight to keep education thriving and ensure educators and students get respect they deserve. want to close by thinking he for

inviting me and teachers in general to be here and by assuring you that educators will fight any and all attacks on public education. thank you. >> thank you. we are delighted to be joined by melanie, she is a member of fci you. she is a homecare worker in illinois, she wrote an op-ed earlier this year featured in the hill that discussed the difficulties of serving as a homecare worker and discuss the attacks on homecare worker unions. please proceed. >> good afternoon. my name is melody benjamin, i'm a homecare worker from chicago aside and a proud member of sei you healthcare in illinois. i want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to allow me

to why hit and what have in a union means for working people means. and why the efforts to divide us hurt our country. in our union, we have the same as homecare workers, invisible no more. that is because before that, brave homecare workers back in the late '80s organize the home care workers. they were only making as little as a dollar an hour. nobody was recognized how hard overwork it is and demanding it is. and basically give us real wages. nobody here has more homecare workers have joined together in my union, we continue to speak out for better wages, and other improvements. for the work that we love. alone we are invisible, but together were unstoppable. like those who allow people with disabilities to live in home, i

have been through this, i was 28 years old when i was studying to become a surgical technologist in 2008. my mom started getting sick. as the years passed she later had to have a bypass surgery on both legs because her arteries had blockage. after both that day both their lives change. my mother cannot live alone. i left school and became a full-time homecare worker. at this time i was only making $11.55 with no benefits. of course caring for my moms a 24 hour job. but i don't get pain as much for overtime and i'm under pay. most the times i have to babysit just to make ends meet.

so i belong to a union not only to have better wages, but i joined to basically for other week and people like myself as a homecare provider, basically we're underpaid and overworked, i quickly found out that my union was doing so much and making a difference in this industry, through my union we were working to lift up other homecare providers out of poverty. together with disability allies we join forces and we started advocating for better wages, increase were chaining and opportunities and affordable healthcare. right now, $13 an hour and were shooting for $15 an hour. my union also gave me a sense of hope, when i started the program i thought i was alone. and then my union, and out i met other homecare worker providers that do the same work i do and going through the same struggles.

together we identified what needs to be changed in this profession. that gives me the confidence to talk to my elected officials, my family members and neighbors to create a program and system that works for everyone. in this industry it's played by high turnover rights. were hoping to train new worke workers, the demand is exploding. consider 10000 people turn 65 every day. also consider this is the fastest pace growing jobs in the country. there's simply not enough homecare workers, well-trained or well-paid workers. we have a care crisis. we have a care crisis. you would think that people who want to solve these crisis with support our rights and choose to join unions and make her job better and improve care.

wrong. billionaire funders like say policy network and freedom foundation have serious attacks on working people like myself. these attacks include power and influence to push places like janus versus -- to the supreme court. from the efforts of this they help support a thriving middle-class that we all count on to be there. this includes efforts to repeal the affordable care act with no replacement. and medicare and social security. and using this i'm sorry, with comments basically trying to keep us quiet. president trump nominated brett kavanaugh last night and confirmed that he would be first

-- among working people. he had cited tide and time again to get's working people like myself. and you and your colleagues, please don't forget that the decision directly affects me in my community. the supreme court make make decisions here but the rest of the world has to live with the consequence. in closing, no amount of money, dark money will stop us. we will continue to fight to provide care. fighting to protect medicaid for the people we care for, the freedom to come together and the union is a basic right. it's about our future and how her country will take care of our seniors and loved ones. we need to stand up for those who use their wealth and power, by making it easier for working people everywhere to join a union and have their voices heard. we won't be invisible anymore.

>> thank you. i appreciate that. >> ms. weingarten has arrived. she is still getting herself sorted out in her seat, i will let her take a quick breath, randi weingarten who taught history in brooklyn wrote to become the president of the knighted -- of teachers. she is now the national presidents of the american federation of teachers, representing a significant population that is directly affected by the janus decision. we are delighted you are here to make your comments, let me say that the order of arrival with senator clover shari and shaking, senator udall, senator reid and her own oh, and senator murray, and at the conclusion of

ms. weingartner's remarks so returned to senator clover sure. >> thank you senator. >> i am honored to be here. i am here on the eve of our convention which is happening in pittsburgh. what we are seeing is an amazing sense of our members that they are sticking with the union. something has shifted in the last few weeks and months. frankly in the 20 years, the 25 years of union efficacy that i have done, i have never seen one i've seen now. i want to start with that there is a lot of hope in a very dark time.

we are union of teachers, bus drivers, school staff and health professionals, and adjuncts in public employees. what we talk about this year's caring, fighting, and showing up not just for members but for the community we serve. ultimately, this is what we are seeing, not just in the state where there were teacher walkouts, but through millennial's, others, people get that unions are the best vehicle working people have to make a difference in their lives in workplace. unions, as you know negotiate everything from manageable class sizes to safe staffing and healthcare facilities to ensuring that special needs kids have the services they need to safety on the job and in communities. workers covered by contracts in somewhere between 13 and 20% more on average than non-

workers. they're more likely to have health insurance, paid leave in retirement. what we are seeing is that even in the places where the lowest is, where there is very little that helps people in terms of loss like him west virginia and oklahoma, like in arizona, people are willing to reject despair at the strategy and are saying enough is enough. while we are also seeing is that the state that most of you come from, the states that are invested in the states with the greatest union density in the best services. so, simply put it is not just that our members get it,

communities get it, even in this hugely polarized country we have right now even in the midst of teacher strikes we saw some polls that people supported in teacher unions and agreed that teachers were not paid enough. that's a huge difference than ten years ago. the janus case came out as we had expected. but justice kagan nailed it in her dissent when she said her colleagues were overthrowing a decision entranced in this nations law and economic life for more than 40 years. as a result, prevents the american people from making important choices about workplace governments. it was there were it's not mine which she said the majority was weapon icing the first amendment, and amendment

perverting the amendment that is intended to securing political freedom necessary for democracy. not an amendment intended to equate money to speech as senator whitehouse has said. let me just ended my last minute about what i started with. the same day that janice was decided, 2400 faculty at oregon state university joined and right now, we are at our largest numbers ever, ever. and we have been preparing for this for quite a while. what it has done for us is it has change the nature of our union from one where the unions saw that they outsource their power to where the elected leaders to wear members see power within themselves. as a result, the decision of the 800,000 people who are affected

by this, over 500 30,000 have already signed new union cars. the day after the decision, the mackinac center supported by jesse devoss, they had teacher e-mails across the country, one should wonder how that was allowed. what has happened is people are pissed that they would use their school e-mails, regardless in our union meeting if there's ten people there you'll get 20 opinions. what they don't want is the koch brothers or others to take away their powers and rights. that's where were seeing. people are not dropping, their joining. you hear the defiance in my voice, it is because people are sticking to their union because

they understand that what we can do together is impossible for people to do alone. thank you. >> we have the ranking member on the health education committee and a senior member of the democratic leadership in the senate. >> thank you. i just want to say few things. thank you for organizing this and for witnesses for being here today. and to share your stories on house dark interest money campaigns are hurting our economy, we know that for more than a century unions have organized to lift up the voices of average workers who otherwise would not be heard and look at

their benefits, we know that unions help create the 40 hour workweek and strengthen the middle class, they are essential part of our families in this country. we know that unions are empowering workers every day to have a better workplace, better pay and including the countless teachers we are amazed to watch. meanwhile, we have seen corporate special interests spending billions of dollars on political campaigns and lawsuits trying to chip away on these. we see decline in union membership, were thinking this will create a backlash to this. were seeing wages stagnant for families. meanwhile, the billionaires are getting richer. this is a very important hearing. we appreciate your participation. i do want to mention the supreme court. were obviously here talking because of janice, we have a new

nominee. i've to say that judge kavanaugh has a long history of ruling and favors of corporations at the expense of our workers. we are fighting back, but we need people to understand this. your voices will be critical. i am proud to introduce the work workers freedom to negotiate act we understand how important this is. your stories and compelling testimony will help us make the case. thank you for being here. >> thank you. the. >> thank you so much to the white house for holding this important hearing. i also wanted to mention the fine work with the public freedom to negotiate act. i am proud to be a cosponsor.

>> i myself was looking at some of justice kagan's remarks including what she said during the oral argument. that these would be unconstitutional, contracts are invalidated. and they cover millions may be over 10 million workers. i am so glad to hear that people are joining the union. what are some of the strategies you are dealing with, not only from a union perspective but from your incredible members and for teachers across the country, even though not in your union. thank you for that. >> i actually think it comes down to one word, engagement. with member engagement comments community involvement, it's people understanding what the stakes are, it is creating

pathways, it is getting through the fear and frustration and the polarization and re-creating trusts. in february 2015 we came to an executive council meeting. we had an intense conversation about how to reengage in a different way, how to look at this notion that the leader can do it all for the members, how to create different pathways of engagement. we started with one-to-one conversation. we have had over a million one-to-one conversation. in january, february 2015 on, given what we saw in the brief,

we said, let's not wait to re-sign up people, let's take the risk of having a recommitment strategy in the 23 states. so, that gave us a good way of doing education and also engagement. so, we are doing a clearinghouse legal work, guess for example we had a conversation with about 60000 members, andy pallotta was on, our leaders from a couple of other states wrong, the doing other things you would expect, but it is really this engageme engagement. >> thank you. i want to say thank you for your good work.

, you know the nominee had been focused on healthcare, i think you look at the pattern of his decisions. one was to look at the consumer protections. and something that was set up to save the average americans a bad behavior of wall street banks and the like. >> politics are looking at the issue of the court in quite different ways. what one sees on the moderate side of the focus on particular issues, whether healthcare, abortion or workers rights, what you see on the right is a systematic and steady focus on framework.

the framework that supports all of the issues. as a historian i'm concerned as a watch this judicial nominee and the conservative all movement that's so heavily funded by the dark money network convened by charles koch and others, people are not getting this is really an effort to transform the constitutional framework of our country. these are smart people in strategic. it's an integrated plan and you don't go to the most extreme thing right away. it is systematic. i want to give you another quote so you will understand this meant that millions of americans got healthcare for the first time. their children could get healthcare. everything they regard. here is what the legal

strategist set up the aca. i won't use the first word. but they said this has to be killed as a matter of political hygiene. i do not care how it is done, whether it is dismembered if we drive a straight trance state. heart, or whether we strangle it. this is a law professor and the koch funded law firm talking about a bill that brought health care to millions of americans. that tells us a lot about the strategy of this network. ultimately the one undermined this. it sounds so extreme and trust me we had those moments doing

this research. >> i also want to thank you for your good work in teaching. my mother taught school but until she was 70. a proud member of her union. thank you for your work. i will ask about the silver search that were seeing later. the aging community and how that will affect the need for their workers like herself. >> thank you very much for holding the hearing and thank you to our witnesses for your testimony. professor mclean, i want to follow up on the emotion. the average american does not believe this and one of the challenges we have is how to convey to them that this is real

and that we need to do something about it. i was particularly struck by your last, that if we don't do something soon it will be irreversible. have you thought about how to get across the message to americans that this is happening and how to persuade them that it's real? >> is such an important question. i don't know that my experiences necessarily representative but or been talking all kinds of audiences and i have been stunned and inspire to the degree to which americans of all walks of life and commitment different churches and community organizations, people are understanding that something is going radically round. that our democracy is being rigged and strangled. i find people in red states understand this particularly

well. they seen it happen. many done in secret in the dark without the usual procedures. i think the american people might understand more than we give them credit for. i don't even know if the pollsters know how to ask the questions. it's quite interesting that two of the surprise presidential candidates in the 2016 election both have a message that the system was rigged. i think it is extremely important that we approach this with a sense of how much we have built together of the people throughout the years. pleased to have -- the started on fire, we don't have that anymore. i don't think we've taken adequate credit or understood how important government is to that.

it's very important to reclaim that receipt so that people understand if we are not in this together, we are all on our own. you're on your own for everything. if this libertarian cause wins and achieves what it wants to, you will be on your over everything. to pay for education because it will be private, to pay free your retirement because they will have privatize social security and medicare. and to not look to your fellow citizens for help. i think if americans understood it they would stop it. . .

i started my career as a teacher so i have an appreciation for what teachers do. can i ask you to talk about what a difference it has made being a part of your career field? >> being in the union has empowered me to not only be a strong voice for my family and community but as well as by other home care workers that provide the same care that i do. i joined because i wanted to be a part of the union. the work we do is very vital. we are able to join collectively

for better wages and benefits. health care some people just take for granted health care is paid and they provided that because members like me stood up and basically bargained for it. it gives us the right $15 an hour to have a living wage. they already passed in massachusetts, oregon, seattle washington, los angeles this gives us hope. being in a union as i kind of alluded to in my speech has given me a voice. i want to go through one anecdote that kind of delineates the power of unions took a. in the spring in arizona the

movement was taking off which was kind of going around the country and that was pretty much grassroots. aea, the arizona education association came in and supported the grassroots teachers that had enough and finally started to realize the nonsense that is happening so they are rising up without the infrastructure to really do anything, to have the resources to buy enough water to make 60 or 70,000 people safe. so the aea came in and offered that foundational support for the grassroots movement and that is pretty much what the union

has done throughout my career allowing devices to come forward by providing the foundational support a that they need in order to be effective. all four of your stories coming from a different perspective are inspirational. i don't remember that sticking with a union song. have you seen that what she's talking about over the last 17

months in this decision of things that have come down are the average folks getting riled up and really wanting to fight back? >> yes. the teachers are woke as the kids would say. [laughter] because of your action there is no doubt that is why you got the 20% raise in arizona. >> that is part of the false narrative, but yes that is why we got a significant rate. >> the workers are signed up talking to other workers and basically that is our only platform because it isn't anybody else giving us platforms to have a better way of living wage benefits.

so, yes they get it. once you explain how it is going to affect them directly, they get it they are ready to roll and they are not going to stop. >> you talked a lot about the coke brothers and the secret money and how they are hiding at all. this question goes to both you and randy very quickly. if you add all of the money in a scale fighting the battle my sense is that we are being totally outgunned on the money. is that your sense? all of these organizations have talk radio handle things like the universities to add up what we are doing on our side.

we are being outgunned by one other thing which is what i see changing right now which is frustration and despair because that's what donald trump did a that's what donald trump did and what the right wing does. they use the dog whistle. they used to spare. they use fear. in some ways immobilizes people. as christine was saying, when you had that human shield in arizona, if you were on the ground in arizona, oklahoma, west virginia, the human shield of that many people wearing the same color created a political

necessity for these right-wing governments to do something. and so it really is this kind of all time people versus money. i think we have to do three things at the same time. number one, we have to pull them out. and in our space people get it about betsy devos. frankly, because of the amazing hearings that senator murray and others did in her nomination. they get it about her. the koch brothers have now become a a household name. we are doing what professor maclean talked about before. we are exposing them, and so the education is important. and the second think that's important is, , i'm sorry i'm a broken record about this, is the engagement and connectingt the dots. and connecting it to the things that matter to people like the fight on pre-existing conditions.

>> i think a tremendous amount of money is being spent on the right, as you say. that doesn't have a counterpart. and yet i would agree, the old adage that there's two sources of power, right, money and power, and the reason this koch network has mobilized billionaires and multimillionaires in the way that they have is because they disagree with the majority, a majority who believes in social security, the police and public education, that wants action on climate, the once to support teachers and all of these other things. they understand a can't persuade that majority so they're trying to go around that majority by funding all these organizations, by operating in stealth, i misleading people about theeo climate, boating, et cetera. so i do think we need to keep in mind that there is this layton majority that can be activated in the ways that my union

friends here at the table talking about. and would also i think could think more strategically going forward, because there's some oigood people on the other side. we are focusing on the issues of the homeless or more focused on issues involving police violence for women's rights, or what have you. we tend to be in silos and we can to be not in conversation, not in any alignment. one challenge that this presents to us but also maybe creates an opportunity for us, that we have to recover a narrative of who we are as a people. and as a majority together and the things we share, the values which are, our commitments to fairness, transparency, et cetera. we can do that. i think c also though as we do this work of organizing that people are talking about we also have to pay a lot of attention to this rules change. because that is the strategy of the other side.

the person i wrote about who trained these folks said if you don't like the outcome of public policy over long preacher done, and the libertarians don't like the 20th century, i'm serious, if you don't like the outcome of public policy over long period of time, think about the rules. so the strategy on their side is not to talk about personalities or who's going to be in office but who's going to get them the framework changes they want. i just think we have to also be laser focused on these rules changes like janus and order to stave off this effort. >> senator hirono. >> thank you very much for gathering all of us. there's a question that these kinds of rules changes has been a decades long effort by the extremely conservative groups in our country with a lot of money. in fact, millions of dollars were spent just to get neil gorsuch on the court and they are not going to stop with gorsuch. i did want to acknowledge

senator murray's bill that would strengthen the national basically the national labor relations act. i just wanted to mention thatt there is a counterpoint to that which is public service failed to negotiate act which many of my colleagues, 33 of my senate colleagues, have joined to me and basically this act sets some minimum standards that allstate should fall to enable public sector workers to unionize for better pay and working conditions. that's thehe really important marker for us to put, and i do thank all of you for being here. i'm really glad that the teachers are woke. they have been really leading the charge with all of their walkouts and all of that. i think it brings to the fore how important it is that our public sector unions and are workers provide that kind of services would all rely upon

every single day. i do wantve to ask ms. benjamin, and give a a much particularlyr you being here. i don't know how many home care workers are members of the seiu versus the number of home care workers are in this country. i am very aware of the importance of home care workers because in my own family i have a homecare person who comes to my house to take care of my mother 12 hours a day every day. i don't think we could even contend with the situation if it weren't for that. if you know how many people who do your you kind of work are ie union? and also with you and other members in your union have been contacted by these very conservative forces to stop paying your fees? >> yes, i don't know approximately how many homecare workers, like his first nationally but i know locally alone we have about 13,000 personal assistance in illinois. as far as being contacted, by

the right wing group, yes, i e-mails, mailings stating the you can opt out at the union and still get the benefits. incorrect. you know, it's just another way of them trying to cripple us. they are basically false leading other homecare workers that are really not into the organization that don't well enough education about it. but yes, they have reached out. they have reached up when it times. >> they're doing that, reaching out to all of the thousands and thousands of teachers across the country as well as all the people who would be impacted by the janus decision public sector union people. it is partt of the pitch they will say don't you want to have another $200 a year more to help your own family paperer grocery bills and all that? it's kind of appealing, the pitch they make? >> they basically, you put more

money into peoples pockets they will think about it. youu know, i'm going to have ths much in my pocket but in reality they don't know what's good for them. they're basically tried to keep them down. what the union has done thus far, we bargained health care. we bargain better wages. i see an improvement of peoples lives that never had it before and they are affected by it. i signed up. homecare workers back in 2014, for the fair share, and i signed up workers back in and they did know it wasn't a part of the union no more. did know what happened. once we educate them, let them know it's going on with the job and informed them, they signed up. they want the fight. they want toy keep their job. so yes. >> thank you. >> senator cortez masto and then senator hassan. >> senator whitehouse, thank you so much for t this hearing, and

senator stabenow as well. and thank you to all of you. you don't know this but i'm from nevada which is a right to work state but we have some of the strongest unions in the country and if do today because of those unions. everything you said today i experienced in and we're experiencing in nevada. that's why i'm so glad we're having this hearing and so proud to fight alongside of all of you. let me follow up on a conversation that you started with, senator hirono. about the koch brothers now after this decision, this janus decision that reaching out to public sector workers and saying you don't have to be a part of union. what are you doing to counter that, if anything, or do you see a need to counter it? is there any type of strategy that you looking at or taking, just curious? or is it something we don't want to share? >> well, i can tell you what some people have done. we have had members in various

different locals who have set back the e-mails that have gotten with words that come if i use them right now, as professor maclean said, i would have too much money in my square jar -- swear jar. so actually individual members and locals have basically sent a whole bunch of things back to these folks saying don't bother us, you know, i'm going to see you for invading my privacy. we are actually, that's number one. number two, we are actually looking at a bunch of different legal options. but number three, we are exposing it, and exposing who is actually doing this. and what's been interesting andn the last few weeks, as there's about ten lawsuits already, they

really want to defund and destabilize us. and they take a want to do it before the november 18 election. as professor maclean said, they are smart but it is for, think you said this, you can see there through light life is. they want people to have to fend for themselves. they want to disable everything that is about collective work which is why i also want to just say to senator hirono, the work you did the next after the janus decision with the press conference call all of you on the bill, was so important because that sins a counter message. someone, we expose it. number two, we are actually cheering on and telling these stories about post janus and, frankly, most of us are not even using the word janus anymore. we are in some ways just trying to think about how do we do back to school, how do we do engagement, how do we work with

governors and mayors and others who want to work with us, and how do we actually show them that their misuse of the law and of the courts are not going to defy people who want to join together. >> and that's great because i think that is the answer that we all need tot be doing is shining ba light, and showing who is really behind these activities in education. your discussion earlier on now we need a strategy to focus on education and engagement is key. and i think that's why we're all here. want to make sure we're partnering with you and you are also telling us what we can do to continue to support education and that engagement. >> educate, expose, and power. >> thank you. i think that's it. ms. mclane, thank you for the

work that you have done. i think theor challenge, when io to the state and that if people know who theop koch brothers ar. i canan tell you in my race, maggie will say the same thing, senator hassan, the koch brothers spent millions to defeat me and there's a reason why. it was the own political gain. we know that. the more we a shine a light, the more we isli happening here is going to be key to workers fighting, , the individuals fighting for the families, fighting for their communities. so ms. marsh, ms. benjamin, thank you for being here. seiu, , i sat down with our heah workers who had the same concerns that you do, and their strength in unity. their strength in coming together and we do, because of unions, once we have stronger unions we do have stronger communities and that is key. ms. marsh, i cannot think enough for that of being a in our system, and a public education system, but fighting for our kids and continue to fight for other teachers. so thank you for being you.

i look for to continuing the collaboration of fighting alongside of you. >> thank you, senator whitehouse, , for convening this important hearing and thankt yu to all four of her witnesses for your work, for the efficacy, for your commitment to the people of our country and to the concept that when we are a self-governing people or self-governing union, we can actually come together and decide what we want to do as a team, as a group to make the american dream possible for all of us. and i thank you, too, for shining a light on the recent anti-worker supreme court decision. c is truly an unfortunate victory for corporate special interest at the expense of hard-working americans. it's that simple. the decision we can see the village of unions to bargain a fight for good wages and benefits workers undermining efforts to ensure that all of us at all workers in particular can share and economic growth. i'm going to continue to fight

to protect workers right to collective bargaining come to extend middle-class opportunity and ensure all hard-working americans have the ability to get it and stay had. i want to use the rest of my time today to focus on a particular workforce challenge that will likely impact every one of us at some stage of our lives, and that is the one that you represent, ms. benjamin, direct care for workers. you talk a little bit about what benefits you and your colleagues have been able to gain by membership of the union. i wanto to drill down a little bit on what the impact of receiving better pay and benefits means not only for the workforce but also for the people you serve in a that role. in new hampshire it's estimated that 70-80% of paid hands-on care for older adults and individuals who experience disabilities is provided by direct care workers, including personal care aide come , home h

aides and nursing assistants. asan the demand for direct care workers is expected to increase, 49%, 49%, between now and 2022 further exacerbated a workforce shortage that already exist in many communities across my state and across the country. ms. benjamin, from your own experience what do you believe are contributing factors to the shortage of home healthcare workers? and you believe that the actions taken to dismantle worker protections will exacerbate the shortage? >> i would say the reason why there's a shortage as far as being home healthcare worker provided, because you can't live off this work. there's no benefits. you basically have to have another job to just make ends meet. what i do believe is that all this money that the billionaires are putting in to tear this

program down, , take that money and put it into the program. put it into the community. >> in my experience, many families who are served by direct care worker are in a situation where if it were not for the direct care workers coming into the home, helping that loved one with a disability or chronic illness or disease or whor is aging, that direct care worker is enabling other familyc members to go to work and support the family, and my right? >> yes. .. and if they put them into an institution, that, too-- >> that's going to cost more money. >> we're saving money by keeping them in their home and giving them the dignity and

respect they deserve. so, in turn, i believe it's fair for direct care workers for teachers, for all of of our public servants, to be able to advocate and collectively bargain in return. that's what you're asking for. >> that's what we're asking for. >> thank you senator for convening this hearing again. >> senator. >> thank you, and thank you, senate stabenow for organizing this gathering. thank you for your testimony. i think it's important that we remind folks that unions have been the engine of economic opportunity in the united states over a very long period of time. it was the ability of people to come together to bargain with people who did not want to pay them more, that allowed more people to get more of the productivity that they provided back in the form of wages. we all know that as unions have diminished in power over a long

period of time that the productivity that workers put into their jobs has not been matched by constantly rising wages and i think that's the biggest challenge of our time. and it's been as you said, professor mclane, a very concerted effort, right? the people who don't want to pay workers more money are determined to undermine the vehicle that empowers those workers, which are unions. and you also see that to prevent class action lawsuits. if you're a big corporation and you take away the ability of a consumer to band together with other consumers to bring a lawsuit, it means that that one cheated person against a big corporation and they don't stand much of a chance. and so, we see this in many forms. i am really interested in a little more detail on how you were successful, all right? because we're looking at arizona. we also saw these teacher movements in west virginia, we

saw them in oklahoma and in the past, the sort of right-wing organizations have been pretty successful convincing some folks in the public that the unions are just out for themselves and you were clearly successful in persuading the broader public in arizona that the public had a stake in helping teachers to succeed because teachers were also fighting on the front lines to help students succeed. can you talk a little bit about how you were successful in converting your movement into public support? because that's going to be essential, to seems to me, in the battle over supreme court justices and making those connections and i'm really curious as to how you did that. >> i think a lot of what unfolded started years before.

we have a couple of local columnists who have been very much on teacher's side and publishing op-eds. i published an op-ed. there's been just a lot of kind of bubbling support for the fact that teachers are-- that in arizona we have a teacher retention crisis. i mean, we are at crisis proportions. we finished the school year with roughly 2000 classroom vacancies, which means roughly 60,000 kids, if you figure 30-- which is conservative, yet, my classes are not at 30 students per class, and i think that that narrative, teachers and the help of other more friendly powerful people really brought that attention up. so by the time redford ed came

and teachers walked out, we already had a great deal of public support and there was one other thing that we did that i think was probably a game changer, and i don't know if other states did this as well, but we had walk-ins. so we -- a week, a couple of weeks before our eventful walkout, we had walk-ins on wednesday morning, teachers were read, we had signs, we went out of school boundaries, invited the community and, you know, kind of held signs out in traffic for a while and then walked in, literally arm in arm, and walked back into campus, and i think that that visual of that happening across the state was incredibly powerful. like, really had a lot to do with the success and the

eventual walkout. >> and i see your testimony, you say you believe in the post janus world education is going to grow. >> absolutely. >> as ms. weingarten had said. now you realize you have a supreme court stacked against teachers and that message was sent loud and clear and so, i know we're all very focused on doing the kind of engagement that ms. weingarten talked about and hoping to have learned the lessons from your ability to let the public know that when you have all of those vacancies. >> it hurts kids. >> it's hurting the future of the state and the same is true when you've got hospital workers who are not being paid adequately, it hurts everybody. so, i know we're going to follow very closely what you did and i know, i look forward to continuing the conversation so we can learn those lessons because you clearly connected the, you know, low pay for

teachers with the -- with the fact that people's kids and the education of their kids was suffering as a direct result, and we need to make sure we make that connection across the board. >> our last two members to engage who are senator wyden and chairman stabenow. senator wyden has a vital position in ranking member of the financial committee, i couldn't be happier that he's here and we'll follow up with the host senator stabenow. >> thank you for putting together the important hearing. i want to thank all of our guests as well. we've all been reviewing the record of mr. kavanaugh and he looks to me like, if confirmed, he would be a poster guy for powerful corporate interests and dark money. and you look at his record, for

example, his position on net neutrality, which looks to me like a glide path to higher rates for the working families that all of you represent. and it's not as if we don't have incredible challenges right now trying to keep dark money from seeping into the holes in the campaign finance law. we barely held off an effort to repeal the johnson amendment, which would have been the biggest gift to dark money from citizen's united, basically would have allowed the churches to be used to carry out this far right agenda by, in effect, abusing the tax laws. so, all of you have given us very thoughtful presentations and i think what i would like to ask of you, miss mclane, if

he's confirmed, what would you be most worried about with respect to expanding corporate power and dark money? for example, having listened to senator whitehouse and other experts, my sense is that a sympathetic court would take citizens united and say, no limits at all, no limits whatsoever, and in effect, senators could practically be sponsored by a powerful corporate interest. they wouldn't have it written on their hand, but for all practical purposes, that would be the case. so, why don't you, if you would, because you are really an expert on these issues, campaign finance, corporate power, dark money, tell us what you would be most worried about

if this individual was confirmed and seated on the court. >> i'm sorry, i would-- who can predict? but i think the affordable care act is going to be crucial and i think revisiting a strange piece of justice roberts' decision in the affordable care act case will be an occasion for, as i said, undermining interpretation of the commerce clause which has enabled all federal regulation. so justice roberts upset many of his colleagues on the right by supporting the affordable care act and yet he said something very unusual in his decision. he said the commerce clause may not be his exact words, but close, shouldn't be a license

to regulate citizens from cradle to grave. nobody suggested that, there was no reason to put that in the record, and he did put that in the record and some astute court watchers suggested that was creating a kind of precedent to be built on to undermine the affordable care act and one stanford professor actually called it a loaded gun, those were his words, a loaded gun aimed at the acommerce clause for the affordable care act and other-- >> can i ask you a question about that? i think that's very perspective. you have three members of the finance committee that care about the affordable care act. isn't it the case, depending what he did with the commerce clause in a case like the one that was making its way through

texas and we believe will end up in the supreme court, that could be used as a precedent in terms of the commerce clause stretch to do even more damage on health and environmental policy? and the reason i ask that, and senator whitehouse and senator stabenow, i don't know if you all got into it, but apparently late last night the white house sent out a sheet with respect to all the cases where mr. kavanaugh has ruled in favor of these far right corporate interests. so, i gather that you're concerned about the commerce clause both from the standpoint of the affordable care act as a precedent for more damage in the health area. >> and i understand it sounds wonky and might steer them away

from it, but it's a frame work what we have in our country and help the american people understand that. also i think there's another element involved here that we also need to have hard conversations with the american people about and that's the simple reality that a good and functioning, civilized society requires some elements of coercion to function, for example, traffic regulations, right? speeding tickets, things like that. this use of the first amendment to say no one should have to pay dues to a labor union because that violates their first amendment rights to freedom of speech, why can't that be used against our tax system? i would not be surprised if we see libertarian outfits attacking the requirement that people pay taxes for things that they don't support. that could easily be next. so, again, i would just come back to these frame work questions that i think we will not understand the game plan on the other side if we put these things into issue silos and baskets and instead, we need to think about what is the frame

work of jurisprudence for a healthy functioning, sustainable society in our period in the-- >> i'm over my time. i just want to tell you that i would be the first to say that you can't walk into a coffee shop and start people getting all interested in the conversation about the commerce clause, but i do think -- i do think that if people see the government from walking away from common sense, health and safety policies, that will be something that republicans and independents care greatly about. so, i hope that you will continue this work as we continue in the days ahead to examine the record of this justice who i believe, based on what i see, and your answers confirm it, really look like he'd be a poster guy for dark money and powerful corporate interests and the american people have the right to know the details about it.

thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for the extra time. >> now the chair of the dpcc, senator from michigan, senator stabenow. >> thank you mr. whitehouse, one of the opportunities that we have when we can't have a regular hearing before a committee on something as important as this, we do have the capacity through the democratic policy communications committee which actually the policy committees both republican and democratic policy committee is set up by rule in the united states senate and so, this is the one committee where we can actually hold a hearing and i'm so glad that all of you are here and senator whitehouse has done such incredible work so long for the question of dark money and what has happened for us. and i apologize for being late, but through the wonders of facebook live i actually have been listening even when i wasn't here, and so, we thank

everybody who has been listening to us as well. a couple of comments, and a couple of questions. when we really think about, really, step back and look at the years, actually decades of history now, of a few multi-billionaires, starting with the koch brothers who were concerned about inherited wealth and they thought they probably wasn't a great thing to try to get the average working person to really rally around, how to protect a multi-billionaire's inherited wealth, and then, as oil company owners and execs not liking it in the '70s when the epa was set up to actually look at how from a public's standpoint we could protect the air and water and the land and so on, they decided, well, we better start controlling the rules. and that's basically where this came, we should control what people hear, so they've

certainly outgunned us who owns radio stations and who owns tv stations and funded endowed charities at universities, they can say well, esteemed professor at stanford said, whatever they want them to say, right? and then going on to various systems, whether it's voter suppression, whether it's trying to rig systems around redistricting, we have certainly seen that in michigan and other things. so now we come to one of the most democratic institutions and that's organizing and unions, and so the freedom for somebody to decide they want to get together with other workers and be able to stand up for their safety in the workplace and their wages and be able to collectively bargain and so on. so, they've gone to the heart of what has been essential, really, for people to be able to stand up and be able to

organize. and certainly, michigan is a proud state where unions created the middle class. we like to believe we've created the middle class with the automobile and the assembly line, but even in a place like michigan now, because of the way things have been so rigged, we've seen right to work for less laws pass and most recently elimination of prevailing wages on construction projects and so on. so, from my perspective, you know, i think people want to know that somebody's got their back, whether that's that the rules are fair, public rules, or whether it's a union. people want to know somebody's got their back and they're not in it by themselves. and the one other thing i would just observe is that the reality is, we know when collective bargaining unions go down and middle class and wages has gone down and we see in

michigan, when we debate things like nafta and our partners are canada and mexico. well, in canada, we have a problem because they have collective bargaining, they have unions, they have environmental rules and so on and so, we have similar standard of living. mexi mexico, different. in mexico, it's a race to the bottom. so when a plant moves to mexico, and i've had ceo's tell me, you know, michigan can't compete with a buck 57 an hour. actually had a ceo say that a few years ago. that's literally a race to the bottom in terms of standard of living and you wonder why people are upset and frustrated what's going on. so, there's a lot to this. this is a very, very big deal, which is why i'm really grateful that you're all here and that you have been doing wonderful work where you are and i'm wondering if just as we close things out, if each of

you could just, again, say what you would like people listening today on facebook live, as well as all of us, to do? what would you like us to do? what would you like us to know? what should we know that gives us hope that this can change? so ms. weingarten, let me start with you. >> and vote just started. >> and so the most important thing in my judgment is when people have the freedom to work together to aspire together, they can do what individuals can't, and the right wing and these dark money groups are doing everything in their power to disrupt that and defeat that at the bargaining table and the

ballot box, but if we expose them, educate members in the broader community, engage people so that they feel their power, not their powerlessness, they will be empowered. >> thank you. professor? >> mic? mic. >> you'd think i'd be trainable as a professor. anyway, i believe that the earn m people are good and fair-minded people and i believe that most americans are deeply frustrated on issue after issue, majorities have made their will felt. they want to take care of our school systems. they want to pay our teachers more. they want people to have the right to organize. they want to clean up the environment, again, all of these different things and yet, that hasn't been happening so there's tremendous frustration. i think what we can do is help people understand why the system is not working, how it's been clogged up, how it's been rigged and then ask people to come together and say, this is a crucial moment.

recommit to our society. you know? come together, care about one another, believe in this project that we have, and let's make it work. let's change the rules that they actually serve the people and don't serve these interests and let's figure out how to do that together. >> thank you, miss marsh. >> thank you for hosting this or being the starter of this. yeah, i think what i would want the community to know, the broader community, is two things. all of this is not a conspiracy theory. this is actually true. we were talking about this ahead of time, like some of our friends might think we're a little crazy. we're not. this is all true and it's happening. but more importantly, we flat-out -- and i know this is cliche, but we need people to vote. if democrats had voted when they should have for the last ten years, we would not be in this situation. it's the 60,000 people who were down at the arizona capitol actually voted and maybe all of

them spent one hour on a local campaign, because we can't fix the framework that nancy is talking about being so broken, but we can slow it down by electing the right people into office. >> thank you. yes. >> i'm going to piggyback on what miss marsh said, at the time of the election get out and vote. in order for change to happen we've got the to make it happen. we've got to have the laws work for us and not against us. and being the voice -- when i come knocking on your door, open it. because that's how we get down. >> thank you guys for having me here. >> let me wrap up, since we have just a few minutes left. this hearing has touched on a lot of topics, but it's related fundamentally to the janus decision and to the sentiment many of us have that that decision was perhaps a

political project by the five republican judges on the court, that they went out of their way to signal to the big special interest lawyers that they would undertake this task for their corporate clients and then we went through the whole fredericks saga and janus, so it's really a three-case long-term project that shows bizarre signals. i am a lawyer, i have been a lit gator. i was my state's united states attorney. i was legal counsel to the governorment i was a staff lawyer doing cases in the attorney general's office. i have never in my life seen a case in which somebody deliberately went into court to lose. please, your honor, let us lose so that we can rush up to what we think is going to be such a friendly reception at the supreme court that we're willing to have the record in this case have a loss below because we're so confident that these judges are baked in for

us that we don't care. that is a very peculiar set of facts and that ought to be an alarm bell about where the supreme court is. this is a supreme court that 5-4 installed a republican president in bush versus gore, stopping the national election process. we have a president right now who was not elected by the popular vote. our candidate won the popular vote. back in 2010, the jubdlear decision, judges opened up what was called the red map program. the red map program allowed gh gher-- gerry mandering and the follow-up for the red map

program, 2010 congress went democrat in popular vote. but went republican because of the gerrymander. and we've had the popular vote not with the presidency because of machine nations and we've had situations where the popular vote was not in the makeup of congress because of gerrymandering because of the decision of the supreme court, and right now the leader of the senate, the majority leader, mitch mcconnell is the majority leader because dark money, artillery barrages of negative commercials took out three senate candidates so early in the process that they didn't have the chance to get their campaigns up and running in an effective way and it was enormous amounts of the dark

money that the citizens united decision, the five judges. supreme court, had put in place, that to take out by strickland and feingold and had those three seats gone the other way, chuck schumer would be the majority leader right now and we wouldn't be having this conversation about a far right extremist being apointed on a mission given by the president to undo roe versus wade. and even though we still do not control the senate, notwithstanding all of this, nevertheless, democrats in the senate represent 40 million more americans than republicans in the senate do because of the built-in small state bias by the senate, largely in the american west. so we need to have the courage of our convictions to your point, ms. weingarten. we need to understand that we are really not in the minority. we got more votes for the

presidency than trump did. in the past we've won the house, but not actually got the house because of machinations and gerrymandering and right now in the senate we represent more americans than they do. so we need to be ready to stand up and have some confidence about who we represent and what we can do and what you have said and what we've seen the teachers do in states where many of us thought that was highly improbable has been just fantastic and inspiring and proves what can be done. so, thank you all so much for your testimony. thank you for participating in this hearing, and we will conclude with that. i'm very appreciative of all the witnesses and so many colleagues who attended. thank you so much. it was a really big turnout by our caucus. thank you. shows that it matters. with that we are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> president trump has begun his nato meetings in brussels, belgium. here is a look at some activities from this morning.