Remarks by Vice President Harris at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th Annual Leadership Conference

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.

12:48 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon.  Good afternoon.  Good afternoon, everyone.  (Applause.)  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.) Good afternoon.  Please have a seat.  Please have a seat.  Please have a seat.

Oh, it’s good to see so many friends.

AUDIENCE:  We love you!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Oh, I love you back.  (Applause.)

 I want to recognize Chair Barragán — where are you? — my dear friend, fellow Californian.  I want to thank you for all that you do — (applause) — and all that you have done.

CHCI Chair Espaillat, thank you for all that you are.  He — you know, I — he spent — both of them have spent time with me at my house, and we’ve — we’ve shared a lot of good stories together and — and many meals together.  And I just want to personally thank them both, because they really, as you know, are extraordinary people and extraordinary leaders and they do so much on behalf of so many.  So, thank you both for your leadership and for hosting me this afternoon.

And to all the incredible leaders here, it is an honor to be with you again.

And to everyone, happy Hispanic Heritage Month — (applause) — which, in my book, is every month of the year.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.) 

So, this is a room of long-standing friends.  And many of you know my background.  My mother arrived in the United States when she was 19 years old by herself.  And I spoke about it recently, actually.  You know, my mother — I was the eldest child.  And as the eldest child, those of us who are, you know you see a lot of things in terms of what your parents go through. 

And I would often see how my mother was treated.  She was a five-foot-tall brown woman with an accent.  And I would see how the world would sometimes treat her.

I’m going to tell you something, and this where I come from.  My mother never lost her cool.  She never defined her sense of dignity based on how others treated her.  She was a proud woman.  She was a hardworking woman.  She had two goals in her life: to raise her two daughters — my sister Maya and me — and to end breast cancer.  She was a breast cancer researcher. 

And growing up, our mother taught us certain fundamental values: the importance of hard work; the power of community; and the responsibility that we have to not complain about anything, much less injustice.  Right?  Because “why are you complaining about it,” she would say.  “Do something about it.”  And that’s how I was raised: Do something about it.

And those values have guided me my entire career, from, as you heard, being a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, California — (applause). 

 AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Bay Area! 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Wh- — Bay Area.  (Laughter.)  106.1 KMEL.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  That was our local radio station for hip-hop.  (Laughter.)

But doing that work — you know, part of the background on why I became a prosecutor was actually when I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being abused — being molested by her stepfather.  And when I learned about it, I told her she had to come and live with us.  And I called my mother, and my mother said, “Of course she does.”  And she did.

And so, I decided I wanted to start a career and do the work of — in part, just doing the work of making sure that we protect the most vulnerable.

And so, I started my career as a courtroom prosecutor and took on those who would be predators against the most vulnerable.

As attorney general of California, I took on the big banks and delivered $20 billion for homeowners who were middle-class families who faced foreclosure because of predatory lending practices.  I stood up for veterans and students who were being scammed by the big for-profit colleges, knowing the — and many of whom were — had an immigrant background and were just simply

trying to — to do the best they could to invest in themselves and their family for their future and — and the subject of — of awful scams.

 I have stood up, in my career, for workers who were being cheated out of the wages they were due and for seniors who have faced elder abuse. 

 And I say all that to say: When I stand here before you today, this is not just something that I decided to do but really is about a lifelong career that has been about fighting for the people — for the people.

And for years, I have been proud to fight alongside the members and the leaders of this incredible caucus — (applause) — in almost all of that work.  And the work we have done together has been about so much I just talked about.  It has been about defending workers’ rights.  It has been about expanding health care for more Americans, including DREAMers.  (Applause.)  It has been about forgiving billions of dollars in student loan debt, including for many of the folks that we know — friends, relatives — who, again, have been burdened by that heavy debt and just needed to be seen — teachers, firefighters, nurses. 

 The work we have done together has been to create the National Museum of the American Latino and — (applause) — and, of course, last year, I was proud to be with a lot of the leaders here in Houston for the CHC On the Road tour.  (Applause.)

 So, I say that to say that, CHC, our work together has always been guided by shared values and by a shared vision.  However, at this moment, at this moment, we are confronting two different — very — very different — visions for our nation: one focused on the past; the other, ours, focused on the future.  

We fight for a future for affordable health care, affordable childcare, and paid leave.  We fight for a future where we build what I call an “opportunity economy,” understanding that the people of our country, the people we know, have extraordinary ambition and aspirations and dreams of what they can be, what they can do, are prepared to do the hard work and put that hard work in, but don’t necessarily always have access to the opportunities to achieve and realize those goals.

 So, I see an America where everyone has an opportunity to own a home, to build wealth, to start a business. 

 I believe in a future — we, together, believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families so that people have an opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead. 

 And so, with the work we have done together and going forward, we will continue to lower the cost of groceries, for example, by taking on something that I think is very important to deal with, which is price gouging on behalf of big corporations.  (Applause.)

 You know, I’ve — I’ve seen that happen before.  Many of you who — who have — and are coming from states where y- — we’ve seen extreme weather conditions — in California, wildfires, and other parts of the country — or even in the pandemic, where people are desperate because of these kinds of emergencies, desperate for support.  And then some, you know, corporation — and it’s very few of them that do this — but then jack up prices to make it more difficult for desperate people to just get by.  We need to take that on.

We need to lower the cost of housing.  We don’t have enough housing in our country.  The supply is too low, and it’s too expensive both for renters and for folks who want to buy a home.  So, we will build together millions of new homes and give first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down payment assistance.  (Applause.) 

Because, look, people just want to get their foot in the door.  I — my mother worked hard.  She saved up.  It wasn’t until I was a teenager that she was able to buy our first home.

And the American dream is elusive for far too many people increasingly.  And that’s why it is part of my perspective that’s let’s just do the work of giving first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment assistance.  (Applause.)  Let them get their foot in the door.

We need to lower the cost of health care and continue to take on Big Pharma and cast the — cap the cost of prescription medications, yes, for our seniors, which we have done together, but for all Americans.  Because when we look at drugs like insulin, everyone here knows — first of all, Latinos are 70 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes.  And with the support of the CHC, we were able to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for our seniors.  (Applause.)

In fact, recently, I was in Nevada.  I’m — I’m in these streets.  Let me tell — I’m everywhere.  (Laughter.)  But I was recently in Nevada, and a woman came up to me with tears in her eyes, and she showed me the receipts for her mother’s insulin.  And it used — she show- — and I was — she showed me many papers, and I said, “Tell me what these are.”  And she said, “Well, these are the receipts, and I want you to see where it used to cost us hundreds if not a thousand dollars a month, but no more.” 

The work we are doing together, the very purpose of CHC and all of the leaders here includes have a real impact on real people.  And I have the blessing of being able to travel our country and see it every day.  It’s extraordinary work that is happening because of the leaders here.

We, because of our work together, have finally given Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices with Big Pharma. 

And understand, if my opponent, Donald Trump, wins, his allies in Congress intend to end Medicare and end Medicare’s negotiating power.  As they remind us again this week, they are essentially saying — check this out, because if — because, you know, you have to ask why, right?  So, why would you want to end Medicare’s negotiating power against Big Pharma?  And essentially, they’re saying that it’s not fair to Big Pharma.  (Laughs.)  That’s essentially what they’re saying.

But I’ll tell you what’s not fair.  What’s not fair is that our seniors for too long have had to cut pills in half because they cannot afford their full medication.  (Applause.)  That’s not fair.  It’s not fair that our seniors have had to choose between filling their prescriptions and putting food in their refrigerator or paying their rent.  That’s not fair. 

And that’s why we will continue to do our work together, including fight Project 2025, an agenda that would cut Medicare and increase the cost of health care in our country.  (Applause.)  Because we stand with the people and on the side of the people. 

We will cut taxes for working families, including restoring and expanding the Child Tax Credit.  (Applause.)  Because we know this is the kind of work that must happen if we are to be true to our values and be true to understanding that — that parents, in particular young parents, need that support.  We — when we — when we extended the Child Tax Credit, cut child poverty by 50 percent — by half.  Think about what that meant for so many families.

 The vast majority of parents have a desire to raise their children well.  They love their children but don’t necessarily have the resources to do everything their child needs.  I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community, and we should all have a vested interest in ensuring that children can go — grow up with the resources that they need to achieve their God-given potential.

 So, I know where I come from.  And we have to always put — and I know CHC agrees with this, and this is part of our collective life’s work — we have to put the middle class first; we have to put working families first, understanding their dreams and their desires and their ambitions deserve to be invested in and it will benefit everyone.  (Applause.)

And together, CHC, we must also reform our broken immigration system — (applause) — and protect our DREAMers and understand we can do both — create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure our border is secure.  We can do both and we must do both.  (Applause.)

 And while we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward.  We all remember what they did to tear apart families.  And now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation — a mass deportation — in American history.  

 Imagine what that would look like and what that would be.  How is that going to happen?  Massive raids?  Massive detention camps?  What are they talking about?

 They also will give billions of dollars of tax cuts to billionaires and corporations — massive tax cuts; pardon January 6th perpetrators who attacked our Capitol, not far from here.  They would cut Social Security and Medicare.  They intend to end the Affordable Care Act and threaten the health care of more than 5 million Latinos in our country.  All based on — I’m sure many of you saw the debate — (applause) — so, on that point about the Affordable Care Act — all based on “concepts of a plan.”  (Laughter and applause.)  “Concepts.”  “Concepts.”

 Their Project 2025 agenda would pull our nation backward.  But we are not going back.  We are not going back.  (Applause.)  We are not going back. 

Instead, together, we will chart a new way forward because ours is a fight for the future.  And it is a fight for freedom — the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to live without fear of bigotry and hate, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body — (applause) — and not have her government telling her what to do.  (Applause.)  

And understand, on that last point, how we got here.  Everyone here knows.  Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would do just what they did, which is to overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade.  And now, in more than 20 states, we have a Trump abortion ban, which criminalized health care providers — in one state, providing prison for life.

You guys may have heard the story — many here — about the stories about — the horrendous most recent story is about what happened in Georgia.

 Many of these Trump abortions bans that make no exception for rape or incest, it’s immoral.  It’s immoral.

 And today, 40 percent of Latinas in America live in a state with a Trump abortion ban. 

 So, imagine if she is a working woman — understand that the majority of women who seek abortion care are mothers — understand what that means for her.  So, she’s got to now travel to another state.  God help her that she has some extra money to pay for that plane ticket.  She’s got to figure out what to do with her kids.  God help her if she has affordable childcare.  Imagine what that means.

She has to leave her home to go to a airport, stand in a TSA line — like, think about this.  You know, everybody here is — is — you’re policy leaders.  I always say to my team, especially the young people I mentor, on any public policy, you have to ask, “How is this going to affect a real person?”  Ask how it would affect a real people.  Go through the details.

 So, she’s got to stand in a TSA line to get on a plane, sitting next to a perfect stranger, going to a city where she’s never been, to go and receive a medical procedure.  She’s going to have to get right back to the airport, because she — got to get back to those kids.  And it’s not like her best friend can go with her, because the best friend is probably taking care of the kids.  All because these people have decided they’re in a better position to tell her what’s in her best interest than she is to know.
    
 It’s just simply wrong.

And I think we all know one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling a woman what to do.  If she chooses — (applause) — if she chooses, she will talk with her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government telling her what to do.

 And I pledge to you, when CHC helps pass a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly.  Proudly. 

 So, friends, we have some work to do — in fact, a lot of hard work ahead of us.  But we like hard work.  Hard work is good work.  Hard work is joyful work, I say.  And I truly believe that America is ready to turn the page on the politics of division and hate. 

And to do it, our nation is counting on the leaders here, your power, your activism.  And so, I thank you in advance for your work to register people to vote and get people to the polls.  Each of us has a job to do.

As we celebrate this month, we know we stand on broad shoulders of people before us who have passed us now the baton — those heroes who fought for freedom who have now passed the baton onto us.

     And the bottom line is: We know what we stand for, so we know what to fight for.  And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

     God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

                             END                1:08 P.M. EDT