maybe about nine and a half years, that, then, i occupied the office as the director of intergovernmental affairsi will never forget that day when i came in. i was sitting across the table from stephanie, cecilia muñoz, who--this was her office--she, at the time, was director of intergovernmental affairs; and jon carson, who was the director of the office of public engagement. and it's the first time that i had three people interviewing me at the same time, so i was definitely intimidated being at the white house and being in front of, just, real icons. you know, cecilia had a long-standing career in the--you know, working on behalf of civil rights, in particular, for latino community at--for nclr, now unidosus. jon carson ran field for the obama campaign in 2008, and was just known as, kind of, the "organizer of organizer," and so, you know, given my roots, and, you know, being an organizer at heart, i was just so excited to have that opportunity, and, fortunately, you know, i was hired not that long after. damian: you know, it was those roots but maybe being genuine and straightforward. is that

you have the intergovernmental affairs office led by tom perez, and that is someone who has kind of ledns with these governors and talks to them pretty regularly about the issues that they are having. and array of issues, not just this, and so -- and there are multiple other people that have been in touch with governors across the country. look, let's not forget we provided a billion dollars to those counties, states, cities, who are dealing with this issue, right. and so we have been -- we have been very engaged, whether it's to the governor in illinois or the governor in new york, on how to move forward to really deal with the issues they are dealing with on the ground ineffective ways. so that's what we are going to continue to do. you know, and -- you know, it is -- it is an issue that's incredibly important to this president, and that's how we are going to continue to move forward and have those engagements and conversations, and figure out what ways the federal government can help them on the ground. >> thanks, karine. two questions, one is about commander. are there more dogs of

at the agency, having previously served as the department's director of legislative and intergovernmental affairs. in august of 2023, ms. biser was elected to serve as president of the environmental council of s tate, a national nonprofit association, agency leaders working to improve the capability of the state's environmental agencies. thank you for joining us today. please proceed. before you do, maybe i should introduce the other two witnesses. no no, we will hold off. you go ahead and we will let ben introduce ms. powell. >> thank you, senator carper, members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to be with you today and talk about the infrastructure investment and jobs act and the transformative investment it has helped enable in north carolina's water infrastructure. one of north carolina's top priorities is ensuring that everyone in our state has access to clean drinking water and reliable water infrastructure. because without that, nothing else matters. i want to start by sharing with you a story about the community in north carolina. the residents have been fighting for decades

minister of foreign affairs of our country , sergei oleinik, described the interaction between belarus and equatorial guinea. today is the first meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. the tone was set during the historic visit to minsk of the president of equatorial guinea. now we need to transform the fundamental agreements between the presidents into specific economic projects. between our leaders needs to be converted into promoting specific projects in the field industry, technological development , agriculture, healthcare, science, technology, education, culture, construction, and of course, our common task is to ensure the progressive growth of goods. our two countries to bring it out and bring it into line with its potential. the main expected result is to reach the development of a roadmap for the development of bilateral cooperation, which will be proposed for signing by the president of belarus in equatorial guinea. agriculture is the priority area, information technology, healthcare, education, tourism, construction, development of the service sector and creation of production. processing tree. every belarusi

creation of the tro union was the result of the signing of an intergovernmental agreement that was prepared by the ministry. foreign affairsrstate structure, today we are in cooperation with the foreign ministries, this is primarily the work that is being carried out, let me emphasize once again , by the ministry of information of belarus and the ministry of digital development of russia, who have reached a common position on the algorithm for presenting those projects to the council of ministers of the union state and the supreme state council decisions without which a new media holding cannot be created, now you ask me, i’ll probably guess the question: these are all your concerns, the preparation of regulatory documents, the proposals of the foreign ministers, the proposal of the ministry of information, the position of the standing committee, taking into account the means of possible increase that should be presented according to the articles, and when will we begin to understand and perceive that information , which should be on everyone ’s desk or if it’s a newspaper. on the internet, having removed it from our more

affairs of states. countries also take a unified position in the international arena. belarus and equatorial guinea held effective negotiations. a meeting of the joint intergovernmentalommission on trade and economic cooperation took place in minsk. the parties paid special attention to the topic of food security and the experience of the belarusian state in the development and mechanization of the agricultural complex. the belarusian side confirmed its readiness to provide. rural development farms of equatorial guinea. the topic of elections in poland and the abuses of duda morowiecki's party are not left on the information agenda, listed in the preliminary osce report. it is noted that the ruling regime has gained a clear advantage due to undue influence on the use of state resources and public relations. intolerant xenophobic and misogynistic rhetoric was used. besides. as noted in the osce document, the campaign for a referendum in poland was supported precisely by the law and justice party, which allowed her to bypass funding laws, the principle of voting secrecy was also violated in the elections, polling stations were overcrowded, people voted outside the boot

intergovernmental council, the council of heads of government of the commonwealth of independent states and the council of heads of government of the shanghai cooperation organization. sco plays an increasingly significant role in international and regional affairsring sustainable economic growth. the resilience of our countries to global challenges, to reliably protect citizens and businesses in conditions of increased competition and turbulence, as well as tightening protectionist measures and illegal sanctions that lead to disruption of supply chains of goods and services around the world. within the framework of the sco, participants discussed further steps to deepen trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation. at the meeting of the eurasian the intergovernmental council discussed the implementation of the priorities of the russian presidency in the bodies of the union, which were outlined by the president of russia, and also agreed on a declaration on the further development of economic processes within the framework of the union - the eurasian economic path. the rules for mutual trade in electricity within the eurasian trade were also approved. economic union, agreements were reached on the determination and distribution of interstate inf