to fill those jobs. i will work hard to provide funding for education. my opponent, education funding, both in the house of representatives and in the congress. in the house she cut from the school budget and in the congress, she voted for an $800 million cut. against any voted amendment that would provide stem grants for women, minorities and low income students. that is the kind of thing we simply cannot do if we are going to move forward into the 21st century. moderator: thank you. 90 seconds. i'm the only one who has been involved in virginia public schools and universities. the fairfaxs in system and my mom is the teacher and a librarian. i've already worked with state and local officials. many of my colleagues -- many of

my colleagues are here. chaired fed committees on education. so i have the working relationships on education. stemve already past education bills which was part of the education reform. we had a major bill when i was in richmond and a delegate. we stopped $120 million in cuts in 2010. one of the first things that i dealt with when i became a delegate. my opponent was not here working with us on these issues but what she is talking about would have spent more money downstate while we were going to increase taxes. right, tom? i'm the one with relationships with george mason. on research and technology. on lowering the regulations so

they can really research. i have a stem bill for young women, i did it by myself. it is already out of the senate committee. moderator: thank you. 60 seconds. bennett: budgets are about priorities. joe biden has a great line he likes to use. and it is from his dad. he says jelly, show me your budget and i will tell you your priorities. educationprioritize and we need to do that in congress today. education is an investment. you and i coming from the business community means we know the difference between investment and spending. infrastructure is an investment in our country. we need to invest in our country, just like you and i invest in our businesses, to grow. education will make us more competitive. we need to fund these programs. moderator: congresswoman

comstock, according to our friends at the northern virginia transportation alliance, more than half of the region's population lives outside of the capital beltway. the pattern will continue as projections indicate that most will occur inowth the outer portions of our region. particularly in northern virginia. for this reason, the business community has been calling for an upgraded american legion bridge and a new northwestern potomac river crossing. do you support the additional northwestern potomac river crossing? and if so, what would you do with congress to bring the project to fruition? if not, why? time in: for the first 10 years we passed a transformation reform bill without raising taxes. and i was proud as a member of the transportation committee to be on the conference committee to get that done.

as you know from having the aamber, they recently had discussion here with the virginia governor and maryland governor and the d.c. mayor, those are challenging issues. and we also know that having worked with state and local officials, we need more core doors. but we have to work from the ground up. it isn't like the 1970's when you could come in and draw lines and have people not include the public. route seven, we worked on that to make sure we got that right. i will sit down and work with my colleagues. i will go to these meetings and map them out and work with them to make sure we get those corridors that we still need. in thedo have money current transportation budget to start that process. that was something we did, but we have to get agreement on the ground level.

and that requires the kind of collaboration and leadership that you have when you have worked with the people who are key players. from state and local officials. from people coming up with new technology, like we have a george washington university, and how we can relieve congestion and find a better way to have our congestion relief and get good transportation. ms. bennett, 90 seconds. musttt: the congresswoman you talk about the legislation she was a part of passing. the problem is the congress hasn't passed appropriations process in six years. that is unbelievable. if that happened in your business or my business, we would be out of business. we need a congress that will pass an appropriations bill. how mucht matter authorization legislation you pass because if you don't fund it, it can't happen. so i say we need a big change in congress. factikes to talk about the

that my business is located in washington, d.c.. and works regionally. i think in this case, that is really an advantage. i have a long-standing relationship with people in maryland and in d.c. and in virginia. the transportation solutions for this region will have to be negotiated regionally, with regional cooperation. will belationships hugely beneficial when it comes time to talk about the hard questions that have to be answered. for upgrading our infrastructure locally. it is critically important. all of us know that you cannot separate transportation from economic development. they are joined at the hip. address theto transportation issues in order for the northern virginia region to continue to grow. thank you. congresswoman comstock, 60 seconds.

comstock: as i have mentioned, i have worked with you on these issues over the seven years as a legislator and also when i was a senior aide. so i know how to cut to the gridlock because i have been part of the bipartisan governing authority. there's only one person on the stage who will be in the majority. we don't need another minority who cannotongress add to the region here. hasn't worked, i don't think she has imparted the virginia chambers and i have worked with my maryland colleagues. we know we need to have that type of cooperation. that is why you had the recent forum on having that discussion and getting that done. that is why i provided a long-term bill, the first time in 10 years that we got a wegtime transportation bill provide a congestion relief provisions in there. i was very proud when i went up to the research center to see a

young man working on driverless bills with my bill sitting on his desk. moderator: thank you. ms. bennett, for the latin county parkway -- excuse me, the loudoun county parkway and favorites county, they are two of the fastest growing counties in the state. do you support the by county parkway? say inwhat role can you bringing that to fruition? and if not, how would you propose to bring about a much-needed north-south connection between loudoun and prince william counties? bennett: i do support the by county parkway. i also support the widening of route seven. it is about to begin which i think will be a great boom to continuing moving traffic from london county through the region. that widening is being supported

from the transportation bill that the congresswoman did vote against. you know, transportation, we need multimodal transportation options. we need to do all of the above. bus service, bike trails and road improvements. we need a safe and reliable metro. my concern with the silver line stops, when they open in 2020, we have to connect to a healthy and reliable system. if we don't than a huge opportunity for growth is going to pass us by. so i will work to ensure that metro gets the funding necessary to make this a safe and reliable system. and it will take federal involvement. i have watched the metro hearings and i have seen the congresswoman question metro officials. and all i seen is criticism.

i see no solutions. you can afford to just be a critic. you have to find solutions. we have to move this forward. thank you. congresswoman comstock, 90 seconds. earlier: as i mentioned from our relationships in working with people, we do have local officials here from prince william, this is something you have to work from the ground up. the reason that the initial to help out with that did not work is because officials from the state level did not go and work with the local delegates or delegation and we have to do that. we can find consensus when we work that way. with route seven, i've already worked on that. i sit with my predecessor as a delegate and vince callahan was still there with us. and we celebrated how we came together and worked on working

out the issues. opponent, she has been endorsed by a dysfunctional union but is being sued by the obama administration. how bad do you have to be as an administration if they are suing you. and this is an administration who won't work with our new general manager. mention we got the crime reporting changed. i can assure you that the new general manager who comes out and works with us on a weekly and monthly basis appreciates that i am engaged and involved. he is a critic with what is going on in the metro. if you are not a critic of the safety culture of the metro, you are not seeing reality. but we are coming up with solutions. we had a hearing and i talked about -- well, i will be happy to talk to that again. moderator: ms. bennett, 60 seconds. bennett: i like to address the

issue of the fact that congressman comstock says she's going to be a member of the majority. first of all, it's a big assumption at this point. i think it is kind of up for grabs who will be in the majority in the house. and second of all, to be a member of the majority that works less than half the business days in a session and gets less done, passes no appropriations bills, doesn't have any significant or very little significant legislation, i don't know what that does for any of us. i believe that we need to work. think congress should have a minimum number of days that they should have to work. congress should go to work. congress needs to go and get the work done for the american people. the republican-led congress is simply not doing that.

you need people who are going to change it. moderator: congresswoman comstock, the next is for you. stephen fuller. from george mason identified the following seven sectors as target and her she's for growth. the question will be, which of these sectors do you view as the biggest opportunity for growth in northern virginia, and how can you support that growth in congress? advocacy. information and communication technology services. science and technology services. biological, health and technology services. business and financial services. media and information services. and business and leisure travel services. so, advocacy information communication technology

services, science and technology services, biological, health and technology services, as is and financial services, media and information services and is is and leisure travel services. how can you support that growth in congress? comstock: i've worked in all the sector throughout my career. so i wouldn't select just one. our region is so talented. and that's why we are growing in all these areas. the regional growth in our area, thanks to the permanent research and development tax credit that we passed in the $600 billion tax relief package last year is providing more innovation. so we have great innovation in all these areas. have worked five hearings on my research and technology hearings. loudoun, we had john would come and testify for us. and i'm proud to have his support on how we can use the

expertise in our private sector and bring that into the government. he was a great advocate for us. on the science and technology area, we have to partner with our universities. that is why having the kind of leadership that we have and those relationships, i don't start fresh. i have a lifetime of relationships in the public on biology,stem, i'm so excited with what is going on with the new cancer center in innovaro. leader in our area. todd stottlemyre, leading that has been a leader in the business community. and all the above, i would not select anything. we have the town to grow in all these areas. bennett: if we are going to focus on any sectors, i would focus on the sectors we re: have

a really good core infrastructure in. and certainly, information technology and cyber are two areas that will be growth areas. information and technology is a big sector. cibertechnology and is a real o. to, in our military fund the wars of today and tomorrow. and they will be fought in the technology space. i am large. having them we need to find our cyber sector. we have great companies. we have great companies that are located right here in the 10th district. this is a great opportunity for the 10th district. biotech is a gray area as well. center and research a know about.

center and a know about. we have great institutions. we need to make sure we get the proper funding. health care will be a growing sector. these are great opportunities. there is one you didn't mention that i would like to mention and that is the opportunity in an alternative energy sector. we are in an energy transition. and supporting energy technology and manufacturing -- wind turbines and solar panels. a real opportunity. moderator: thank you. congresswoman comstock, 60 seconds. comstock: in order to get the pipeline to have great stem jobs and information technology, we have been working hard to support with the education reform bill to get more local control. we have a great place, we know that we have tj in fairfax and in latin may have the munro technology center and they are expanding into special academies of science that will be in the actual school.

my opponent wants to cut defense. she is fundraising on the basis of cutting defense. if you cut defense you won't have the money for cyber that you need. i would also like to mention, and i hope we discussed this, the 21st century will which is about innovation. that is why we get that here with nih locally. ofcould have an explosion biotechnology through the region and i think we should look at it regionally as well as just virginia. promises thatpite things will be different, the house only approved five of 12 appropriation bills and only one was enacted into law on time. federalult, the government is once again being funded almost entirely through continuing resolutions. until the summer night. as resolutions do not provide long-term certainty that many of

the companies in the region need to do business with the federal government to invest in the workforce and grow their companies -- without blaming the other party or the senate for the house's failure to approve -- whats, question needs to change for the two andies to work together start developing and passing budget and appropriations bills on time? and how could you reach across the aisle to get this done? and who would you work with? needs to change, how would you reach across the aisle and who could you work with on a bipartisan basis? needs to change is our leadership. we need leaders who actually want to get something done. we don't have that right now. want toleaders who obstruct and not take any hard vote. this is because we are so driven by politics and not what is good for the american people.

we need leaders who are willing to tell the truth to their constituents about the choices that have to be made. i will work with anybody. when you are in the business , you and i all know that you have to work with anybody to get solutions to problems. times out of 10, maybe 10 times that of 10, you're working with somebody you don't agree with. solve problems by talking to your own caucus and your own friends. you solve problems by talking to the other side. and you have to listen and you have to hear them. the democratic party doesn't have all the solutions. the republican party has good ideas as well. we need to work together. we need to form public-private partnerships. i think the business community has lots of good ideas. the government and the business community need to work together.

democrats and republicans, we need to work together and i intend to do just that when i go to congress after november 8. moderator: 90 seconds. comstock: i was one of the 75 republicans who voted to keep the government open from the very beginning and i have been part of the governing majority both within my caucus and within the congress. which is why i've been named one of the 20 most bipartisan members of congress in the republican caucus because, and i think, a top 100 in general, because i have already establish that i have the working relationship. when i was in the statehouse, my bills were almost exclusively bipartisan bills. and i had all the right to work legislation that we work together on. the datacenter bills that we worked to make sure data centers were going to local economy. iparty demonstrated that. you have good ideas and build

coalitions for areas of the economy and more so people who i've worked with -- i mention lipinski. my minority member chairman. we work together with the medical community and research. he was a professor. we worked together on how we can get metro solutions using technology. using congestion relief solutions in terms of technology. so i am the only one on the record who is actually done what my opponent only talks about. i practice what she preaches. you haven't heard any examples about how she has gotten results for northern virginia. moderator: 60 seconds. hasn't: our congress given us many results either, to be quite honest. you know, you are not a bipartisan when you sign ideological pledges. like the grover norquist no tax pledge. it causes you to take bad votes.

when you make commitments to the gun lobby, which cause you to vote 25 times to block legislation from coming to the floor that would keep guns out of the hands of people on the terror watch list -- this is common sense. we need to use common sense in this country. be genuinely bipartisan. not just in name. the congresswoman won't even sign on to don byers freedom of religion bill. i mean, freedom of religion -- who could be against that? but she won't sign it. so i don't buy it. moderator: congresswoman comstock, the next question is for you. would you be willing to put ,verything on the table discretionary spending, entitlement spending and taxes sensible style long-term budget deal that provides greater stability to northern virginia instances and

reduces deficit in a broader and more equitable manner then the discretionary spending cap that we currently have under the budget control act or sequestration? 90 seconds. comstock: yes, and i've demonstrated a record of that. was they top priorities sequester cuts which were crushing our local economy and were devastating to the national security. so yes, i'm willing to work on all of these things. we are already doing that. you talk about ideological things, my opponent is already said that she supports $1 trillion in taxes and she has said that congress needs to do whatever hillary clinton wants. i don't think you need a congress that is whatever hillary clinton wants. i'm going to be, and iparty demonstrated years work that will work for you. and i am willing to stand up against my own party as i did when they went after federal

employees. i said, i would not vote for a budget if they are going after federal employees in the way that they wear. so they knew that they had to come and negotiate and work with me. i worked with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis. were in the statehouse, we went and asked our state agency people to work with us to find savings. and we said, we will give you a bonus if you can find places to and over several years who were able to save all hands of money and give our employees a bonus and let them be part of the solution. so iparty had a demonstrated record of working to get everyone together and get them to the table. that is why i have been part of the governing majority with 75 publicans or 100. to get a budget passed. moderator: ms. bennett, 90 seconds. a sense andm for bolts type plan to reduce debt.

we cannot pass on the level of national debt to our children and grandchildren. his is one of the reasons i'm running. my candidacy is about the future. this is about the world that we leave our children. and one of the main things that we are doing is leaving them a lot of debt. we have to fix this. gimmicksnot for is like sequestration that only come about when you can't pass a budget. and when you play be zero-sum games. i am also not for government shutdowns. it's bad for our economy and it is bad for business and it is especially bad for northern virginia. business needs certainty. and what that means is that they need the government to set the rules so that they know how they can invest in their companies. and i understand that. unfortunately, the congresswoman doesn't. the games that we play in congress are the worst thing for

our businesses. we need certainty. to pass legislation like comprehensive immigration reform. that will fix our broken immigration system. majord bills like infrastructure funding sources. that will invest in our infrastructure and create jobs in the short run and then fund infrastructure improvements and improve our economy. moderator: thank you. we have already started on tax or formally passed the $600 billion tax relief package that had the permanent tax credit. and i should mention that when i there was statehouse, a tax credit in virginia. that helps the economy. we also need to have the certainty. is what we did with the tax bill as well. permanent expensing for small businesses. creditnent child tax because we know the cost of kids

is pretty permanent. i also introduce something to double be credit. i also cosponsored a bill that the tax credit because it hasn't been an index since my children were young. and we need to do that. and that is not the way you will provide certainty to businesses. businesses,o the iparty been there and i hear, thank you for providing certainty but you have to give us more. have some who work on a bipartisan basis but they are trying to add more tax increases. moderator: thank you. ms. bennett, there are an estimated 874,000 virginians who are uninsured and health-care premiums continue to increase much faster than wages. what would you do in congress to address these issues? 90 seconds.

bennett: one of the biggest things that would help immediately would be to pass medicaid expansion. it would immediately address the 400,000 uninsured virginians. and it would address this by sending money back to washington. right now we have the worst of all worlds. the congresswoman has voted that.t and it shows a breathtaking lack of understanding in budgets and economics. is that we now have the affordable care act. the affordable care act has addressed the access issue. 47 million had uninsured americans. we now have 20 million more insured americans. we need to do more work on the

cost side. it does need to be fixed. this is the kind of bipartisan work that we need. not voting to repeal it without any sensible replacement. 65 times. that is a total waste of time. not only are they working less than half the time and then when they are there, they are taking silly votes. like repealing a major piece of legislation rather than finding ways to make it better. moderator: thank you. comstock: i guess that is at least an improvement. we are not hearing that obamacare has made health care more affordable. but we see the exchange is collapsing around the country. we see that premiums are skyrocketing. if you have a $3000 deductible and you are somebody who has a modest income, you don't have access to health care, in essence. i think we need to buy across state lines. we need to be a look to have a health savings account so people

can put their money aside when they are young. we also need more community health centers. and i have voted for having more communicate -- more community health centers that provide one-stop shopping for low income people. doctors come in and provide charitable care and it is a place for people can go to get health care and family planning and packages and all kinds of primary services. and that is what we have done. obamacare was totally partisan. not one republican voted for it. so what we need is to have bipartisan solutions where we sit down and work with people across the aisle and get it done. people pleaded with the president at the time to do that. moderator: thank you. another healthis

care issue that we feel acutely here in northern virginia and across the country and it is the opioid and heroine problem. congress has passed a bill but they haven't funded it. foradministration asked $1.1 billion in funding to address this crisis that we are seeing in the country. and i believe they passed $37 million, finally, in the continuing resolution. this is the kind of legislating that we need to stop doing. we need to, when we passed bills, if these crisis is are happening, we need to address them quickly and we need to get them adequate funding in order to solve the problem. the zika virus was another one. it finally got funded but we had a zika crisis this summer and not only was it not addressed in this congress but he took off for five weeks and the and address it. finally, a bill was passed this fall and funding with but in the

continuing resolution. in the meantime, people were suffering and children were being affected. our congress has to do better than that. congresswoman comstock, the next question is oh, i'm sorry. your response? comstock: i would be delighted to work and talk about the heroine issue. i had my first hearing in winchester where we first saw problems and now they have spread around the district. i have worked with numerous task forces. they're in loudoun county and fairfax county. we have done right around with the drug force. there are great in fairfax, they are working hard. we know baltimore, that is the main avenue for bringing her when down here and that is why i was part of the caucus in congress to get this important legislation passed.

i had a proponent for more funding in drug trafficking areas. we already are here in the fairfax area. so i have worked on a bipartisan basis with everyone we can. i have regular meetings with the commonwealth attorney. this is going to be an integrated thing. i expect that in the lame-duck we will get more money there. moderator: we will move on, did you want a response? ok. comstock, maryland has traditionally received a substantial amount of research dollars while virginia have like time in funding for conducting research. with the emergence of george mason, an investment that innovative making in personalized health and the work being done at the george loudounon college

county, how can you help bring more research dollars to virginia? comstock: as i mentioned earlier, i have been working on this particularly as the chairman of the research and science subcommittee. we just had a woman in bio event. where we went and talked to women about what they need in research. my bill reduces the amount of paperwork that researchers have that means that genius researchers that we have, we have more money when we were in the state house right, tom? and they are a leader now in that area. we have a woman researching there who has been named one of the top 40 most brilliant people in the country or the world. and she is working on nanotechnology.

they are doing urine tests for lyme disease and for breast cancer. imagine how exciting that will be to have the breakthroughs? and they are going on in our own region. that is my the 21st century chores bill will be a great way to get more research through. and i have heard he voted for more funding and i would love to get that into this region. moderator: ms. bennett, 90 seconds for you. believer inm a big research. we, in the private sector, who run businesses, know how important that research and development is to the growing of our businesses. it is equally important to the growth of our country. so we need to vote to fund research dollars. this congress has not voted to do that. it cut funding for nih and all kinds of research facilities. we need to fund the research necessary.

agree that we need to get our universities to work cooperatively and share information. we need to prioritize this. it is something that i would certainly do. and thank you. congresswoman comstock, 60 seconds. comstock: all of us deal with cancer and diabetes and all those diseases. i am sick of getting those calls, when you're friends tell you they have been diagnosed with a chronic and deadly disease like cancer. i have already worked on these things, as i mentioned. we have increased the funding of nih. we have had the increases and i still think it needs to be more. that is why we put and aided funding into the cure's bill. it is expected to pass through the senate will take it up in the lame-duck.

and the president has 30 indicated he would sign it. whenongly supported that some of my colleagues on my own side didn't. i think that is critical and it will reduce the deficit. these diseases are costing us so much in medicare. ms. bennett, what do you think our nation's energy policy, what do you think should be our nation's energy policy? how does it make a difference to the 10th district, and what have you done or will you do specifically to advance that? 90 seconds. majort: we are in a energy transition in this country and the world. i have the knowledge and experience to navigate this transition. on governor tim kaine's commission.ge a bipartisan commission looking for common sense energy solutions.

considerslitary climate change one of our greatest national security crisis is. and yet. votedngresswoman recently not to affirm the climate change -- affirm that climate change even exists. if we are going to move forward that we have to recognize that there is a problem. and we definitely have a problem. climate change represents a tremendous opportunity for our country. we should embrace the alternative energy. we should be a leader in the world in combating climate change. i think that we do need to be manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels right here. we shouldn't be buying them from china and india, as we are now. the energysupport transition. and it is a transition. it will happen over time.

and we need to reach train those workers in the 20th century and in our energy economy to provide work in the 21st century. congress among concept -- i think we have water for you? you 90 seconds on the same question about our nation's energy policy and what it should be? comstock: thank you. another area where we have worked closely with the chamber and all of the above energy community. it is why i have been supported by the chamber and business organizations because they understand that you can do the all of the above solutions. when i was in the statehouse i drafted a bill that was incorporated to the offshore drilling bill that we have already passed in virginia. my opponent opposes that. is provideould do royalties to go to transportation, a dedicated stream of money that we know it also provides

25% of research for alternative energy. a premium going to our own universities. you would have our universities getting this stream of funding to research and develop the next generation of alternative energy. some of my own party attacked me in-- but i am a coalition congress that is working on alternative research. but we can't have carbon taxes like my opponent supports. the commission she was on wanted carbon taxes. one of the many new additional taxes she had, we need to work with innovation. we have a great technology community here. we can take our community here and do offshore drilling. get new resource into alternative energy and it is a great way to create good, high paying jobs. moderator: 60 seconds. bennett: we need leadership in this area.

we are in a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. recognize the opportunities in innovation and manufacturing and we need to manage the challenges that any transition presents. this.do i've done it in my business several times. and we need to do this in government as well. my three sons who i mentioned earlier, all three of them have started their own businesses. so in our family we are a for business family. one of the businesses is an energy, technology company. conservation in commercial office buildings. i'm very proud of him, as i am of all my sons, but we do work in this area. this won't happen overnight but make no mistake, it has to happen. so let's stop fighting climate change and pretending it doesn't exist, congresswoman, and let's embrace this opportunity to grow

our economy by being a leader in green technology. congresswoman had the -- yes, she last word. a question for you. most federal contractors believe that the government process for acquiring goods and services is in need of dramatic overhaul. for companies in northern virginia in cyber security and other high-tech fields, the time it takes from identifying a need to awarding a final contract often doesn't keep up with the evolving threats and challenges, much less the private sector innovation needed to meet them. what committees do you wish to serve on in the next congress to betterposition you help overhaul be federal inuisition process

recognizing that this might take more than a year or two, would you commit to remaining on a committee long enough to see the job through to completion? acquisition reform is largely on the government reform committee, where i served as chief counsel in the 1990's. so even though i'm not on the committee right now, we do have working groups on all these issues. , years ago,y frank that you do not need to be on a particular committee to work for your community. so i been on round tables where i brought out leaders to talk about acquisition reform, because again, we need to be working at the speed of technology. and we have the experts in our region to help us do that. down with john would several years ago and going through on cyber and telling you need to work this more quickly. we also need to create the ecosystem where we have our big companies and we need to have our startups and we need to make

hear the mosti complaints is in the medium-sized businesses where they gotten help on the startups but when they get into the mid range, that is when the regulations hit them. so we are going to them as the experts, asking them how we can help and change. we did have acquisition reform in the national defense form. we are trying to work in a lot of different ways. having a relationship that i have with contracting communities and the experts has been a great asset for me to go to my colleagues and it changes put into action. moderator: ms. bennett, 90 seconds. a personalknow, in way, how difficult the acquisitions process is in the federal government. in my business, we competed for gsa leases over a time of 10-15 years. it requires that you hire people up front and that you expend an awful lot of capital to take

tremendous risks to compete for these users. we need to streamline this process. we need to make it more predictable. and i am committed to doing that. it wellink i understand enough, having been through the process many times, exactly how to do that. one of the reasons the federal government is not able to be nimble and move quickly is the continuing resolution process. the amountso adjust of spending that are allocated to each agency. fund thehave to government at the same levels and in the same proportions that you did the previous year, you are not able to fund new things that come that are so critical. so you end up following. have the same budget we had in 2010 and that has to change.

we need a better process for running our government. moderator: 60 seconds. comstock: again, i've already worked in this area and worked with so many leaders who are dealing with this problem. i have an open door. i not only invite everyone to come in, i go out and visit companies and specifically ask, what do we need to change. what's regulations cause you problems in advancing technology and getting it into the field as quickly as possible. this is something important for the military, because we need to have the highest technology that we can in the field. so i have a record of already doing this. budget, thethe house often passes this budget. i've working to get budget through to support this and that is why i have always been a vote that they know to work together. it is one of the reasons i am one of the 20 most bipartisan

officials. i know that if your government is in working for you and we aren't using the talent we need to comment that moderator: is a detriment to the country. we need to is a detriment to our country. moderator: imagine you have been invited to dinner with the new president who is a member of your opposing party, donald trump, what one issue which you bring to discuss during your dinner meeting that would benefit the 10th district and that you could garner bipartisan support from. investment in our economy. this is something that president trump should understand. education funding and infrastructure funding. two of the critical things that we need to do in this district but in the country. i believe i can work with anyone. and i would certainly reach

across the aisle to work with the president to support this kind of thing. we need to rebalance our economy. we need an economy that works for everyone. as we are in this presidential election cycle, there is a growing number of american citizens who believe that they have been left behind. and there is some truth to that and both parties are at fault. we need to start to address the inequities in the growth since the recession. we don't need this to be to magic. and if we address this now, it won't snap back and overshoot. so i would work on rebalancing the economy and really work on investment in this country. and congresswoman comstock, you would be going to dinner with president clinton. comstock: i would like to see continuation of the cancer moonshot that the president announced this year. the cures bill.

that is one of the things i am most passionate about because i think it is an area where we can really change the lives of people through the community. and we have the technology in ,his area to marry health care technology and research and be able to change things over the next 10 years. the idea is to shorten the amount of time to have cures. i recently went to a cancer moonshot meeting with childhood cancer families. and those families are passionate and we have several of them in our district to our working to make sure we get the resources put in for childhood cancer. we will find out so many other things in that area. that is an area where we are ready have great bipartisan support that i think we need to have more resources. it's an investment that will actually end up saving us billions of dollars on the health care side if we get it right. and it is good high paying jobs.

there is a new center for cancer and his wife is the president of shenandoah university and they have started a new nursing school. so we can see all kinds of jobs and ways to help the economy expand through virginia and also for our entire region. moderator: ms. bennett, 60 seconds. bennett: i told you what i would work with him on, here's what i would fight. these are things that unfortunately, my opponent agrees with him on. onould fight with him women's health and paycheck fairness. the councilman has voted against that twice. and the 10th district has the highest pay gap between men and all 11 congressional districts in virginia. that has to change. i would fight for comprehensive

immigration reform. and not to build a stupid wall and pretend someone else is going to pay for it. we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform. and get past this broken immigration system. fight him to invest in an energy economy. and to a knowledge that climate change does exist. and mylled it a hoax opponent has called it a miss. and we have to move forward. don't have time for audience questions but we will move right into closing statements. so now, congresswoman comstock, you go first and you have two minutes. comstock: thank you. it's been delightful to get together with so many friends and people i've worked with through the years. seen thatday you have there is only one person here who has a bipartisan record of working across the aisle to get numerous results for jobs,

energy, education and i've had a lifetime of education working with health care. there's also only one person on the stage two is actually implemented equal pay. i not only pay women more than i pay men in my office, i have women in senior positions. my opponent does not. from what i can tell on the campaign, less than men. i'm the person who is right to increase defense spending. my opponent wants to cut it and is raising money on cutting our defense which would estimate our region. tax relief that my opponent wants trillions of dollars in tax increases and said it will help us grow jobs but i disagree and have been working on tax reform. i've heard he had the relationships working with the state, local and community in all areas of our economy on education. theaven't talked about nonprofit sector but the nonprofit sector is so vibrant

and so many companies give back and that is why we have such a great ecosystem here of getting things done. and i worked with leaders in every single area. thepponent has not had local involvement because she's been in washington, d.c. where she's been doing her entire career. as your congresswoman, i will be able to continue my work as a chairwoman, a leader, on transportation and science and technology on the economy and research and development and the whole innovation economy. and i'm the only one in the race who has already established a record of success. and we're just getting started and we will continue. moderator: ms. bennett, two minutes. thank you to the northern virginia chamber of commerce and to all the sponsors of today's debate. on the campaign trail, my opponent my said talk about making base hits. but that his thinking small.

america is a country of big ideas. we can do the big stuff. we've done it our entire history. we can solve the problems facing our country today. it's not a question of ability. it's a question of leadership. we need the right leadership. with the courage to tackle the challenges head on. we need a congresswoman not only willing to do the hard work but to take the hard vote. we can build an economy that works for everyone. and yes, that includes equal pay for women. we can pass comprehensive immigration reform, strengthen our infrastructure, reject all of our citizens and invest in education. don't tell me we can't do this. it is what we in the business community do every day. as a businesswoman, i know how to find the opportunities in challenges. how to solve problems and how to get results.

i know that government isn't the answer to all of our problems. but what it can do is strive to create equal opportunity for all of its citizens and all of its businesses to succeed. in northern virginia, that means access to high-quality education and skills training to meet the needs of the 21st century economy. it means infrastructure improvements that will shorten the commute time. and it means ensuring an opening a welcome environment that will respect all of our citizens. that is why i am running and that is why i ask for your vote on november 8. thank you. moderator: that concludes today's debate. [applause] therator: on the half of

northern virginia chamber of commerce, george mason university's school of public policy and government and our sponsors, we thank you for joining us today. have a good day. >> the washington post reported on that phrase in northern virginia, saying it is a tossup in the final three weeks of the campaign. ,or the republican incumbent barbara comstock has to worry that voters turned off by donald trump will stay home on election day and cost her her seat. hillary clinton holds an 11 point lead over donald trump in

virginia and a 21 point lead with women according to a new surveymonkey-washington post poll. years, theur presidential candidates turn from politics to humor at the alfred smith memorial dinner to raise money for charities. at the new york waldorf hotel -- >> i have traveled the circuit for many years and i have never understood the logistics of dinners like this. and how the absence of one individual can cause the three of us to not have seats. >> mr. vice president, i'm glad to see you here tonight. you have said many times in this campaign that you want to give america back to the little guy. president, i am that man. [laughter] >> it's an honor to share the diet with the defendant of the great l smith. and your great-grandfather was

my favorite kind of governor. [applause] >> the kind who ran for president and lost. right, a campaign can require a lot of wardrobe changes. blue jeans in the morning, perhaps. suits for a lunch fundraiser, scored codes for dinner, but it is nice to finally relax and where what we wear around the house. [laughter] -- watchthe l smith the alfred smith memorial dinner with donald trump and hillary clinton on c-span, c-span.org and listen with the radio mobile app. next, we take you live to cleveland where the candidates in ohio's u.s. senate race our meeting for another debate. current senator rob portman faces democrat ted strickland. the washington examiner is

citing a new poll, showing the incumbent, portman, leading by are than a 2-1 margin in district that ted strickland used to represent during his years in congress before he became ohio's governor. live coverage here on c-span. >> ohio counts. sponsored by the city club of cleveland. media partners include tbs and the 9/11 0.3. -- 90.3. and wcpo cincinnati 9 on your ide. >> i'm the bureau chief of the ohio public radio and television state house news video. >> we welcomeou