so representative heard it's

great to see you again. it's great to see you and please call me will wil >> representative great to see you again. >> talking about your book the guide to getting big things done why did you write this book? >> i wrote this book. i had someone approach me about writing abe book and i said no. he said if you were, what would it be about? i said the things that i tried to talk about with the things that were important for the country to move forward and evolve but not always the things that were reflected in social media or cable news. so the concept is five generational defining

challenges to prevent america from being the leader the rest of the century is the framework of how i came up with the idea. then ultimately i put pen to paper because 72 percent of c the country the countries on the wrong track it has been growing over the years. we cannot sustain the path we are on. and then the chapter is that the second lesson at the supersecret training facility where i was a member. now it's on google maps. [laughter] i wish that was the joke. and the taxes the location in the last place you want to be is where it is going down so move.

and that iss how i start with the book that's the moment within our control we have to change we have to exist for another 247 years down to the border stick a black republican in the lead on —- latino district. [laughter] all of that massive space along the mexico border what happens in vegas stays in vegas it impacts the rest of the b country so what we make of that?

so what is happening right now is a crisis. it's the worst it has ever been. it will haveec tectonic impact on elections when you are on the border that means public safety so when you think of the mayors and the county judges and councilmembers to deal with the last two years. not just the illegal immigration crisis but with covid and those communities along the border. 50 percent of your income comes from taxes that was shut down for a year and a half. so these study on —- cities had to cut half the budget. dealing with a growing a growing illegal immigration crisis all of those things. and this is this is the powder cake that we're seeing along those communities. what should we do about it? and in my context so 825 miles

of the border is what i represented that is 2,000 miles between the united states and in mexico. i spent nine and a half years as an undercover officer in the cia and my day job may or may not have been stamping visas in some locations. i may or may not have had to travel in alias and violate board other countries borders. and so i have a unique i may or may not have a unique perspective on on these issues. and and so step one stop treating everybody that comes across the border as an asylum seeker. good. this was something that started under the trump administration. and the trump administration did this in order to gum up the system. now this has been continued under under president abide. and why do i say that asylum is a very specific thing. you have to be a member of

protected class usually, you know. gender sexual preference your religious, you know, you're following us a specific religion. and so you have to be part of a protected class in your government has to be persecuting you because you're part of that protective class. or your government is not protecting you from somebody who's persecuting you as part of that protected class. coming here, just because you want a better paying job is not a reason for for asylum. so stop treating everybody as if they're in asylum seeker point one point two, we have to dismantle the human smuggling networks throughout central and south america that are moving people here to the united states. it is hard to get from tagusi galpa. to acuna in and so there is there is a lot of infrastructure.

there are you know payment systems buses that get you from point a to point b there is halfway houses where you get to stay. let's start this we have a lot of that information and we should be working with our partners to dismantle those things. that's point two point three. how about we streamline legal immigration? every industry requires people and so let's streamline legal immigration on the same time and then address the root causes in those areas. those are the four steps we can do concurrently in order to address. this is something i've been advocating for a long time and immigration support. it's actually the longest chapter in the book because of the importance of this to our country. so when we talk about a border crisis. and i've spent a lot of time on the border. yeah, you know many years working on the border living on the border and in mexico living in mexico and covering these issues. i wonder you know, is it because we can't take everyone in the

country and i know what you're saying that we can not everyone should be treated with this as an asylum, but they we have laws in place that when someone approaches and says i want asylum they get they get a certain amount of treatment from our immigration system and that system that's in place right now under law. can be turned off and on at will you know, we have to we have to deal with the system that's in place right now that's buckling under the strain but you know congress has been reluctant to actually address those issues. i don't disagree with any of that. the one point i would maybe push back slightly on is the current statute allows for a flexibility of an individual border patrol agent to make an assessment on credible fear. it just like a consular officer in an embassy that is that is having having someone come in and going through and trying to get a b1 b2 visa. there is an incredible level of responsibility and flexibility from that individual to make

that call the current statute. gives that flexibility to border patrol agents dhs as an organization has interpreted that ability in a very narrow in a very narrow way. and so so right now as things are written this notion of stock treating everybody as an asylum seeker can be done without additional legislation. it would require dhs to change kind of how they implement the the implementing language of the legislation that is already passed. so as we speak monday would have been the date that title 42 would have been lifted that was a rule a law. that was put in place by the trump administration. i was supposed to prevent people seeking asylum at the porter due to concerns about covid-19 now covid-19. we're kind of, you know past covid-19 pretty much and people

are saying okay so lift title 42 because it was covid george restriction, but we have people and the right side saying no keep it in place. these are the same people who say you don't have to wear masks on an airplane and you know covid was a hoax and these other things so is title 42 about immigration or is about covid and is it disingenuous trying to use it as a way to keep people from coming into the country and seeking asylum? well, there's an absolute lack of ideological consistency on those who are supporting it and not supporting it and and those most people are viewing this as a way as another tool to prevent illegal immigration from coming in the country. dhs's own projections? that if title 42 was removed you get potentially have 400,000 people a month coming to our border legal. this is their projection. this is this is not my projection. to give some context the first year of donald trump he deported

for the entire year 200,000 people. so that influx would have been would have been pretty pretty significant pretty serious and one of the things i get frustrated on this entire immigration issue, is is that lack of ideological consistency on both sides of this one of my the things that i was most frustrated with when i was in congress was not getting a solution for a daca for dreamers that the kids that have only known the united states of america as as their own a couple of us renegade republicans. we're trying to jam republican leadership at the time and we came to in essence two votes away from pulling something off where we would have been able to introduce legislation. that would have gotten over north of 250th votes and it likely would have passed a senate as well and it was a bill that would have been signed in a law by donald trump and to me was so frustrating, but guess

what? that same bill is still on a table somewhere and the current leadership of congress the democratic leadership of congress could bring that forward and you would be able to get a supermajority in order to pass that and this is those this is one of those issues that when you look at it as a political issue 70 around 70% of democratic voters, if not more believe you know, you know, we should be solving, you know some of these problems 70% of republican primary voters are actually supportive of things like i'm keeping giving a permanent legislative fix a daca kids. men and women, excuse me, and instead nothing happens. because people would rather use this issue as a political bludgeon against each other other than rather than going and trying to solve the problem. so to that point about the political aspects of this looking at this as a republican and you've seen how democrats use immigration as an issue, i

mean don't you see it as a loser issue for democrats frequently that this is more to unite the right against them than actually accomplish anything it is going to be something that is going to be used against democrats in this upcoming election if you look at just the border of texas. five members of congress represent the border and i was the only republican of those five my predest. my successor is the only republican now, but there is a scenario in which three of those five seats are going to be represented by republicans after this next election. and it goes back to the fact that you have democratic mayors and county judges and elected officials along the border that are tired of this of the of the lack of anything getting done and it started with this issue of defund the ice and look the median democrat.

does not believe in to fund the ice. but because of the far left wings that are talking about that the entire party gets gets painted with that the just like the median democrat doesn't believe in defund the police, but the fact that there's enough people on the far left that are doing this and when you have crime and other issues so all of these things are going to play in in the elections coming up in in november where you're going to see especially in south and west texas if not record near record latino turnout for republican candidates in areas that most people wouldn't expect it and it goes with not solving an issue that could be something could be solvable. so we've seen this has been called the redshift on the border how we're seeing counties that have been solid blue making huge transitions to support the republican party in the last election and one of the issues was immigration the issue was

support for law enforcement to other was issue for turns about how the greening of our energy economy would take away the few jobs that they have in these areas. so you is that a good thing that people are voting this way or will vote voting for republicans going to help these people because others see it as that it's not in their best interest. well, it goes back to here's a thing that i learned when i was when i was in congress. nobody thought a black republican could win a 71% latino district? and in the reason i the my my strategy was simple. i was going to be everywhere. the 23rd 29 counties two time zones. we said earlier 825 miles of the border takes 10 and a half hours to drive across it at 80 miles an hour, which is the speed limit in most of the district, but nancy over there and bianca found out that it's not the speed limit in all of the district.

it's sorry ladies and the the a third of the digital doesn't have have cell phone service. but i would go to i would go everywhere. whether it was the colonia's of el paso or the dominion here in san antonio, i was everywhere and when you actually shut up and listen to what people are talking about you find out everybody talks about the same things they care about putting food on their table a roof over their head and making sure they people that the people that they love are healthy happy and safe when you talk about those issues you can be successful and let's talk about energy policy and it's not necessarily the you articulate as the greening of energy policy. most people on the board. it's a number, you know, the number is somewhere let's call it 40 ish percent of people in south and west texas or somehow connected to the energy sector. you have the permian basin in west texas eaglefred shell in south texas to them. this is about their livelihood

and getting rid of their livelihood and so that's why people are very like these are folks that are trying to impact me when you talk about defunding the police or defunding law enforcement the number of people that are in south and west texas that are that were have a family member working for border patrol or the sheriff's office or local pd. that's a large. that's a large group of people. so it is this a salt on their ability to to provide for themselves. now here's what's going to happen. it's it's almost accepted. it is accepted that republicans are taking house back in 22. if we had a vote today, some would say likely to send it as well. this is not a mandate from the american people being like hey gop. we love you. yeah for those that are watching on tv everybody laughed here and and and republicans come in and

don't have a vision of how we're going to solve some of these problems if we don't if we only talk with the things that we're against all of the problems that we're dealing with right now in a country that are being blamed on donald trump. excuse me on on joe biden and the democratic party is going to be blamed on on the republican party. so so we have to have a vision on what are we going to try to solve and it starts with having elected leaders that are willing to inspire rather than fear monger and and this is you know, we're going through through here in texas. we're going through a primary runoff elections. in the primary that was earlier in march 3 million people voted 1.8 million republicans, 1.2 million democrats. that's three million people out of 30 million. but that's terrible. we're going through a runoff election. excuse me a runoff for the primary right now.

maybe on the republican side you're going to have 750,000 people vote. which means 375,000 people are probably going to decide a lot of our statewide elected officials because it is texas and that's what's going to happen in the general election. so so we need more people that are in spying people to come out to vote the first time when was in congress. i spoke at south by southwest, you know the the music tv a music movie and technology conference in austin. i'm on a panel with a number of youtube stars. four of the other panelists combined had 1 billion youtube subscribers i had 64. and i see seven of those people here here in the crowd right now and and one of the people that was there was the digital director for for the rock and

joane johnson, and this was when the moana was coming out. and she says if moana fails at the box office are we going to blame the consumer the moviegoer or are we going to blame the product the movie and she's like, of course, we're going to blame the product. we're gonna say it's a crummy movie now. i'm not saying moana as a coming movie. i thought it was very delightful movie. and i think it had success at the box office. but she went on to say politics. is the only industry. where we blame the consumer the voter? rather than the product the politician and so i think the future the opportunity. is for people to do things a little bit differently and inspire rather than fear monger and that's why i wrote this book american reboot. the most important real estate that we have in america is the

kitchen table and every home in america. and that's where we're seeing prices are going up. when i was a kid, i did my homework at the kitchen table when we had family meetings talking about maybe we got some good news. we got some bad news. it's all come together for the kitchen table. everything happened at the kitchen table. what are we doing to make the kitchen table a happy place? look that that's that's going to be the big question, right and and so for for me and and i i get in this talk about my kitchen table with my parents. my my dad's black my mom's white. they met in la and got married and moved to san antonio and in 1970 looked about a house in 1971 and in my father was a traveling salesman. and he it was not in vogue. to be an interracial couple in south texas in the 70s. and and so seeing some of the

things that they deal with my parents have lived in the same house for the last 54 years. it was the only neighborhood in san antonio that would sell. to an interracial couple which meant those were the oh that neighborhood and the schools that service that neighborhood were the only schools my brother sister and i were able to go to now i turned out. okay, right. i'm a proud. i'm a proud john marshall ram, you know about aggie proud aggie in in so whoop is right and and so so for me seeing that growing up and the opportunity for my dad my mom started a business when he retired for my sister to go and become a partner and an engineering firm for me to get exposed that southwest research institute to robotics and want me to be you know, computer scientists. we were lucky to have those

opportunities and we need to be making sure that we're providing the best opportunities we can start with education and and i believe look there's there it's not getting a lot of focus, but we're looking at number the the decrease and the number of kids in school across the united states. what the heck? what's going where are they? what are they doing? what's happening? because this is important because edge we have income inequality because we have education and equality. in and i think this is one of the things that we need to start we need to focus on and these are some of the stories i talk about in the book because the reality is we have to be preparing our kids for jobs that don't exist today. the technological change we're going to see in the next 47 years is going to make the last 47 years look like we're monkeys playing in the dirt with sticks. in and when it's when anything from bioengineering we can program the dna the way dna the

way we program computer code. i'm on the board of a company that is is going towards artificial general intelligence. we're in algorithm is gonna be smarter than most people on a certain thing. this is going to happen and we have to make sure that we have a workforce that's prepared for that and people that are currently in the workforce. we got to make sure they're ready for that that those issues. is what's going to drive those conversations on on the on the the kitchen table seniors and they're seniors that thought they had squirreled away enough money in their retirement account. they're having they're having a hard go right now looking at their retirement account treat. how are we making sure that american businesses that those 401ks are invested in are going to continue to be strong because this is not just about us achieving our best self. we are in a new cold war with the chinese government. this is this is this is not my opinion. this where the chinese government has said about themselves. they are trying to surpass the

united states of america in as the global superpower and one of the feedback i've been getting on the book a lot is people didn't understand that. most people are like hey will the things you talk about china and technology in the book is kind of scary. i said, that's just the tip of the iceberg. and so so this is what we have to be ready for and this is why we have to get beyond kind of some of these these political food fights that are not on solving some of these major issues because the reason that that we've been able to move up the economic ladder it's because we've created we've given opportunity educational opportunities for people to do that and when we fail that then we're going to fail the country. been watching was happening in the ukraine watching. it's incredible the videos that we're getting out of the combat and racine how the war is being fought and how wars being redefined these one thing is is freaking me out is these drones

these are high level consumer drones that have been modified to drop munitions bombs on their own russians and their tanks and blowing them up and i'm just going you know, what's to stop anyone in the united states from modifying drones that you can buy at best buy and turning that into a weapon and attacking a church or supermarket or time square. i'm not trying to freak everybody out. but nothing is preventing that from happening? that's why we have to be thinking through not only drone technology because look it's going to be awesome. when i'm barreling down i-10 and i can get a drone in my in my driverless car and a drone flies over and drops whataburger through my my sunroof, right? that's gonna be awesome. i'm ready to make that happen. but to your point that can also

be every tool every tool that's used for good can be used for bad. so we need to be thinking through so many strategies and if anybody wants to get freaked out when your doom scrolling on your phone phone search for it swarming drones. it's like these drones that operate and they use ai, and they look like birds like we know it's if you know, you're you lay that night and there's a birds are going there. and like how are they moving that way to get drones to be able to do that, but it's not just that let's talk about okay, covid-19 was that design in the lab? i don't know. we're not gonna we're not gonna know. but covid 47 may be and it will be designed in the lab. and it's going to be designed to have you know, a greater impact on people that you know in north america based on our dna sequences. we can do that that technology exists today in in so so but but when ukraine what's happening and we this is why what the were

doing in syria? the russians were using some of the latest drone and a thomas technology in syria in order to perfect it to use it for other for other warfare, and we've seen some of those tactics techniques and procedures that they were doing in syria. we see that now in in the ukraine the future of conflict. is going to be driven a lot by by technology and the future in a of that technology. is is a lot of it works because we have stuff in space. and so space is as important to what's happening on the ground as the ground is in all of these things are are connected and we have to remember the united states of america has been we have had an edge and we became a superpower because we had an edge in advanced technology since the end of world war two that edge is decreasing. and if we ever get to the point where we're on the losing in

that is what's going to that is what's going to erode our hard power across the world. so you're talking about an american reboot will hurt in your book, but i'm people are wondering if you're actually talking about a republican party. reboot. and what would it take to actually hit that alt-controlled delete on the republican party. and is that going to be the loss of elections? unfortunately, i think most people learn major lessons from a loss rather than a gain. and and so the first section of the book is about how the republican party doesn't look like america. and that that the republican party needs to start looking like america and i talked outline why that matters republicans should care democrats should care independent should care people that don't vote should care right because it's important to have two strong parties in order to have that competition of

ideas. so yes, i do believe there needs to be a reboot of of the republican party and it starts by getting back to being a party based on our values and that formula for the for the gop has always been simple. it's been opportunity. excuse me. freedom leaves the opportunity opportunity leaves a growth growth leads to progress. and when we talk about those issues. then we can have some success and so yes, i think and and what is it going to take? it's going to take a complete blowout now i can make an argument losing 63 seats in what it was at 2018. should have been a wake-up call. right didn't and and so so but i think as an also an opportunity where the system can be shocked from the outside and because the opportunity of getting new voters into primary is fairly significant.

the american dream. what's the still status of the american dream? look i think the american dream is is still bright and it's hopeful and the american dream is different things for different people and the fact that a young kid from north side of san antonio who had a big head size 13 shoe when he was in the fifth grade speech impediment messed up teeth and last name ryan with nerd was you shouldn't laugh at that. yeah. i shouldn't laugh at that. okay, you know that that you know to be able to be an undercover office in the cia and and work in some, you know, the back alleys of dangerous places to start a cyber security company. we've broken the banks and still their money, you know to then, you know represent his hometown in congress.

like that's that's awesome that this is one of the few places that can happen and one of the values for me having lived overseas when i was in the cia is seeing other people. views on on our country and that that the opportunity that you can do anything that doesn't exist in other places. and that's what what's exciting look. one of the things that i learned researching researching this book. america's power is in our values and the value we taught the world for the last 240 years. is that a government's legitimacy? and its ability to exercise power of the state flows. from the consent of the government we the people are sovereign not the government. that's a novel idea. that's why when we started everyone's like this is an experiment because it had been

1,800 years. prior for the last democracy. that was rome in julius caesar's screwed that up. it was another 60 years until there was another democracy on the planet, switzerland. there are only 14 other countries that have been a democracy more than a hundred years. we assume democracy is a fatal complex. that's all we've ever known. democracy is fragile. it always has been fragile and always will be fragile, but it's our system of government that we have shown the world that has allowed so many people to move the economic ladder and ultimately uplifted humanity. and so so i'm proud of that i'm excited about that and that is as real today as it ever has been i get to questions from the floor from our audience, but real quickly, so then what happened on january 6th, it was an insurrection. like and and it was it was it

was propagated by people that were feeding lives. simple but questions from the audience anybody have any questions you want to make and we have a we've got a microphone. let's bring it over to you so we can get that captured for everyone here. already in addition to the two things that you said the politicians product and the voter public. there's the third element of the republican propaganda and defunding the police the police only spent five percent of their time solving crimes. obviously there needs to be a term for social services for the other things that they do but for instance when aoc did the green new deal the republicans turn that into a curse word now, i'm just going to propose a ridiculously ideal solution the federal taxes of new york,

oregon, washington and california actually support the republican gerrymandered an actor andistic states of the south. what if the payers of the taxes since no rich people pay taxes actually designated what they wanted their taxes for and said not the military and not creationism and then those people it's always followed the money. they might change if there are funds were so what is your question? is there is there any way to get reason back in politics? and also i am legally old enough to vote by mail and they have made it so impossible that almost all the mailers have been discarded because they didn't fill out a font size six number. okay. so that's a texas issue. you know that that's what happened with greg abbott and the texas legislature the voting with by mail but to her other points, you know, so can we get

reasonable stuff in? yes, but guess what show of hands how many y'all have ever clicked on a news article that said congress worked? for those viewing audience we have one hand. okay, and and so so part of this is we have to model the behavior that we want to see. and in are there some are there some crazy politicians? absolutely, but there's some that are not right and on both sides. yeah on both sides for sure. but but are we are we promoting and encouraging the kind of behavior that we want to see or we promoting and encouraging that negative behavior and that we're that we're partaking in this and now that that is us as individuals and as voters as elect to the officials again. if you're selling a product. yes, you want to make sure the people that are buying your project product are still buying that product? but you also should be. trying to get new people to buy that product.

and there's this notion that has has come into our our political discourse will last 30 years that the only way to get big things done. is through one party rule? that's actually the worst way to get anything done any piece of legislation that we can name civil rights act of 64 voting rights act of 65 the clean water act the you know, every student succeeds act the first step act like you name all of these bills. they were passed one party in in the house a different party in the senate. and and so so that that is not one party rule is not the way it's not the way to govern and we need more people voting in primaries because that's where a lot of these decisions being made if i had a magic wand. yes, we should make registering the vote as easy as possible. we should be able to do it the same day. you should be able to do it online right like been shocked

when you're looking at some of these elections around the country that have decided by pluralities, right 31% is not reflective of anything. in and so so being able to do those things, right? so yes, we should be able to do that in this day and age we should be making it easier. we should be able to do it by mail. we should be able to do it online. we should be able to do all these things. okay next. yes, sir. we're gonna get a mic to you sir. let me get the mic to you. awesome. thank you. you had mentioned that how that there was a strength in a two-party system, but as it becomes more left and more right? do you see a centrist party developing like in europe? sure, so that the idea of a independent party or a third party. i think a third party. can it could win in the united

states of america? i think the model is macron in france and even amlo in in mexico, but the question i have about a third party system is over time. does that lead to better outcomes and does that lead to a country solving bigger problems? and i don't know if coalition politics like you see in the uk and israel is is better than the system that that we have now, and so but but what i think could happen. everywhere we talk about the 60 votes in the senate. here's a novel idea. forget the far left 10 and find 20 on the other side. they exist. it's possible. it exists in the house. it exists from the senate and and what what happens is when leadership in washington dc what i mean by leadership, that's the majority leader in the senate or the speaker in in the house. they drive all legislation now

rather than having stuff being a committees actually driving it where where you have people from both sides working to craft legislation that can get passed. and so if we only think that you know, nancy pelosi is bad is if she works with 20 republicans on a piece of legislation, her far left wing is going to eviscerate her. the far right did that to john boehner in and paul ryan when they worked with democrats in order to pass legislation, so that is a trend that i think is solvable and is more likely to have better outcomes than potentially a third party. but like i said i a third party is potentially doable. it's a logistical challenge at the national level in the united states, but i would love to see some more about what the longer term impacts are. so will heard former congressman. is there a future you used to be the future of the republican party. are you still the future? well, you don't have to be an elected office just to be the

future right, but i'm elected future. so here's what i would say. it is unlikely that my political career is over. i'm 44 years old, but if the opportunity for me to serve my country presents itself again, then i'll evaluated. i've been lucky to serve it and an amazing job like in the it was awesome. my hometown of san antonio and all the communities in west and south, texas and if there isn't if there's an opportunity only evaluative. well, there was some reporting that this book was a feelered to see if there was a lane for will heard running for the republican nomination for president anything to that. could somebody use these ideas and run for president? i think so. but this this is about look. vision process structure we don't have enough people

articulating where we want to go. and and the reason i call this american reboot is because the lesson i learned in my first job at texas a&m university working to computer lab when the computer wasn't working. i didn't know what to do. what did you do? you turned it off you hit reboot, right? so this is an it's about getting back to a fresh operating system. this is this is about getting back to those values and those ideas that have made us the greatest country on the planet. i want to see this experiment continue for another 247 years and i think that's that's why i put some of these ideas out there because we don't have to accept this feeling 72% of us feel at the countries on the wrong track. it's time to do something different. all right. the book is american reboot getting idealist guide a guide to getting big things done. the author is will heard and it

was great to have you to san antonio book festival. he will be signing books at the at the tent nowhere bookshop tent outside of the festival. hey, man, it was great talking to you.

my name is troy thiely said i'm the moderator for this session. i'm here with julie burwald.

i wan