00:09 - Representative Chrissy houlihan represents Pennsylvania's sixth

00:13 - district which is all of Chester county

00:15 - and a little piece of Burke's.

00:18 - Congresswoman tell US.

00:20 - About your district what makes it special.

00:23 - Sarah thank you so much for the opportunity to brag on the

00:26 - sixth congressional district.

00:27 - It really is a special place it's a place that's just.

00:30 - Due west or at least it begins the

00:33 - west of the city of Philadelphia

00:34 - although Chester county is included in the six of them as you

00:37 - mentioned a lower portion of berks county as well and

00:39 - because of the city of reading

00:41 - and so in looking at the map that you're showing right now

00:44 - what's really remarkable about the district

00:46 - is that it's very very.

00:48 - Elect suburbs bedroom community of.

00:51 - Philadelphia east of the in the eastern

00:54 - district

00:54 - and west and south in the southern part of Chester county

00:58 - all you have really really are rural areas we have butter of

01:01 - arms dairy farms and then north as I mentioned the

01:05 - city of reading very very urban

01:06 - so this is a very eclectic diverse and dynamic part of

01:10 - Pennsylvania and the commonwealth

01:12 - and it really is a reason why women are watching the news the.

01:16 - Results of elections

01:17 - it only started lands on this part of Pennsylvania.

01:20 - Because it's so eclectic and so dynamic.

01:24 - Speaking of elections you were just reelected to represent

01:27 - the district.

01:28 - In the next congress.

01:30 - What were some of the things that you heard from constituents

01:33 - as you were campaigning.

01:35 - Of course and so I think that that our constituency is

01:39 - diverse.

01:40 - We are a purple a community and by that I mean we are roughly

01:44 - evenly divided between democrats and Republicans that we have a

01:47 - very very large swath of independence

01:50 - and I think what unifies US all are sort of what I call or no

01:53 - da agenda basic human needs you know making sure that we

01:56 - have great jobs great education a safe community

01:59 - a safe planet.

02:01 - Making sure that we're taking care of each other as well and be

02:04 - being civil and decent is one of those things that I hear

02:06 - quite a bit from people in our community

02:09 - and so I think it's a matter of

02:10 - what we all have in common

02:12 - rather than like separates and divides US that we continually

02:15 - hear from art district.

02:17 - You mentioned those independents how do you appeal to them how

02:21 - do you get the people who

02:22 - don't identify with either party.

02:25 - I think getting back to sort of this conversation of civility

02:28 - and decency and pragmatism

02:30 - you know making sure there that I know that when I come here to

02:33 - Washington that I'm serving every person in my community and

02:35 - not just the people who voted for me

02:38 - I hope that people here are through our accessibility or

02:41 - availability in our transparency as an office and he as an

02:44 - individual

02:45 - you know somebody who's willing to really roll up her sleeves

02:48 - while I'm down here in DC and making sure that I'm

02:51 - working across the aisle consistently and also when I'm back

02:54 - home in our community that I'm physically present as much as

02:56 - humanly possible

02:58 - we've helped sixty eight I believe town halls and the three or

03:01 - four year

03:02 - that I've been in office that's more than one a month.

03:04 - We also just got an away word or of best constituent services

03:08 - and so making sure that we are broadcasting you know what it is

03:11 - that we're doing in DC and what it is that we're working on in

03:13 - our community to everyone.

03:15 - Independent of their of their political affiliation I hope is

03:19 - the

03:20 - secret sauce to making sure people feel welcomed and invited

03:22 - and included included in our Democratic process.

03:26 - How do you balance that.

03:28 - The the DC priorities say the

03:32 - part the priorities of your caucus

03:33 - vs the priorities of your.

03:35 - Constituents.

03:37 - So that's a turn the question and actually we we tried very

03:40 - very aggressively to be district

03:42 - and it's actually kind of one of our core values and so what

03:44 - does that mean.

03:45 - That means that we're

03:47 - going around our community whether it's me in person or

03:50 - on my team

03:51 - to try to make sure that we're understanding where the crushers

03:53 - are in our community and how they can be translated into

03:55 - solutions here in Washington DC see

03:58 - and so I'll give you an example from southern Chester county or

04:00 - from you know the more rural areas of our community.

04:03 - Firing our workforce is a huge huge issue

04:08 - we hear about that all the time

04:08 - or whether mushroom farming or dairy farming there's real

04:11 - pressures on our farmers to get

04:13 - and keep labor this is an annual crop not

04:16 - a seasonal crop in the case of both dairy and mushrooms

04:20 - and so taking that and anxiety and concern

04:23 - that we hear consistently from our farmers and bringing it down

04:26 - to Washington and saying to people here

04:29 - on haters a piece of legislation it's the farm workforce

04:32 - modernization act it's now been voted on twice in congress

04:35 - on here in the house of representatives at twice it's been

04:38 - passed with resounding bipartisan support

04:41 - and this would provide relief for our bathroom and dairy farms

04:44 - and so now it's my job down here in Washington to advocate at

04:47 - the senate to the senate to say hey guys it's time

04:51 - you know it's now been three and a half four years where we've

04:53 - been talking about this piece of legislation that could help my

04:55 - community and we need to make sure it's pass pst

04:58 - and there is some opportunity some possibility that it will

05:01 - indeed be passed in the next couple of weeks as we close out

05:04 - this congress

05:05 - so that's an example of kind of listening to what's going on in

05:07 - our community

05:08 - and trying to bring it to reality here in Washington DC.

05:11 - For a statewide audience that might not think of it.

05:14 - As such but Chester county is very important to the

05:17 - machine from industry.

05:20 - Yes indeed it's sixty percent of the nation's mushrooms come

05:23 - out of Chester county

05:24 - and we want to make sure it stays that way and frankly we ought

05:27 - to want to make sure also that we're.

05:29 - Advocating for an export of our mushroom industry as well

05:33 - and so one of the things I was able to do is bring one of the

05:36 - ambassadors to Japan to long wood gardens

05:38 - we were emphasizing the the importance of our wonderful Chester

05:42 - county and the beauty of Chester county the beauty of long wood

05:44 - gardens but also the importance of trade.

05:47 - Between our two nations and one place that we could have

05:50 - terrific trade

05:51 - is indeed in the mushroom industry just as one example

05:53 - and so those are the kinds of things that you know by by

05:56 - elevating the beauty of Chester county and the importance and

05:59 - significance of it.

06:00 - Economic machine

06:02 - to international trade hopefully that will bring good jobs and

06:05 - continued.

06:06 - Viability to our industries such as the mushroom industry.

06:11 - Talk about your background because you have a varied background

06:13 - you have education background a.

06:16 - Business background and.

06:18 - Also military so talk about how those things shape

06:22 - the way you become

06:23 - the way you legislate talk about.

06:26 - Education for example.

06:27 - Sure.

06:28 - I was a high school chemistry too teacher.

06:31 - In north Philadelphia at a school called Simon gratz

06:34 - and I really learned a great deal from the experience with my

06:37 - kids in the classroom I taught eleventh grade.

06:40 - I learned is I'm

06:41 - deeply passionate about stem and steam education

06:44 - science technology

06:45 - engineering and math and the arts inclusive of the arcs.

06:49 - Really really hard to help eleventh grade kids

06:52 - embrace.

06:53 - Chemical chemistry concepts or science concepts.

06:56 - If they're struggling with literacy

06:58 - and my kids at gratz were really really struggling with basic

07:01 - literacy

07:02 - or they were reading largely the third and fourth grade level

07:05 - and so my experience in the classroom taught me that we really

07:07 - have a crisis in education ups is the cynical in literacy

07:11 - and I helped run a company that focused on early childhood

07:14 - literacy here in congress I'm also focused on

07:17 - literacy of all farms you know whether it's

07:20 - traditional literacy reading writing

07:22 - or whether it's new mercy and making sure that our kids have

07:24 - skills with numbers or Financial literacy

07:27 - and the ability to manage their finances and so so

07:31 - all of those kinds of things and I will add in their civic

07:34 - engagement and civic literacy too

07:35 - are things that I'm focused on here in Washington

07:38 - because I think this is part of

07:40 - creating a workforce that is competent and capable

07:43 - and creating as we talked earlier a workforce an entity and a

07:47 - population that cares about each other

07:49 - and has the capabilities of caring about one another

07:52 - so this is why

07:53 - having been an educator has been helpful for me and in here in

07:55 - Washington.

07:57 - Talk about also your

07:59 - military background as as a former air force.

08:02 - Member sure.

08:04 - So I

08:05 - had a scholarship and RotC scholarship in engineering I

08:08 - served as an engineer in the air force I in the late eighties

08:11 - and early nineties

08:13 - and I had the opportunity to work on strategic defense

08:16 - initiatives and so there was a cop

08:17 - things I could say about

08:19 - that experience I also come from a military family my dad was

08:22 - non eighty my grandfather Navy my brother army and I have many

08:25 - active duty cousins right now.

08:27 - What I would say is that there is a certain sensibility of a

08:30 - permission service for people who have served

08:32 - what I would also say is there something that I I hope that I'm

08:35 - bringing to congress by having a technical background something

08:38 - that very few people in congress

08:40 - have as a as an actual interest in education and in stem esteem

08:44 - issues and as you can

08:45 - probably appreciate that's something that we legislate on quite

08:48 - a bit.

08:49 - And so the last thing I would say it is helpful is that I hope

08:52 - that by having served the way that I have

08:55 - having been raised.

08:56 - In a service fam only that I bring

08:59 - that sort of sensibility to Washington and try to

09:01 - bring people together

09:03 - I helped found a caucus called for country

09:05 - and for country as a group of members of congress who are

09:08 - both democrats and Republicans who have worn the uniform

09:11 - and what's interesting about that group is that we have very

09:14 - little in common ideologically other than that

09:16 - but we work together const distantly

09:19 - to make sure that we're finding

09:20 - pathways for common sense solutions

09:22 - and so I think a military heritage helps our down here

09:25 - in the DC area.

09:28 - Is that caucus growing are you seeing more veterans get into

09:31 - politics and doing what you did.

09:33 - Unfortunately the level of

09:35 - veteran participation in congress is pretty low right now it's

09:38 - I think somewhere around twenty percent of the body

09:41 - and I think at one point in time around seventy percent of the

09:44 - members of congress had

09:46 - had been in the military in the past

09:48 - so I of course would like to see more members of the military

09:51 - more people who have that service background and.

09:53 - Focused.

09:54 - On be able to serve and to be honest quite hard.

09:57 - To to

09:59 - be elected with a service background I think we're.

10:02 - Excuse me incredibly hard on our candidates

10:04 - many people who are in the.

10:06 - Military understandably have.

10:08 - And outside of their community it only.

10:10 - After their career maybe perhaps move back

10:13 - and that I think unfortunately

10:16 - the electorate sometimes punishes

10:17 - but we really should be on the lookout for people with diverse

10:20 - backgrounds and being a military in the military I think is one

10:23 - of those things that.

10:25 - Makes solutions a little bit easier

10:27 - when you're working elbow to elbow in a place like DC.

10:31 - And finally.

10:33 - Your business background how did that how does that shape the

10:35 - way you.

10:37 - Look to affect the business climate for businesses in your

10:40 - constituency.

10:42 - Sure and.

10:43 - I've been out of the military for nearly thirty years but I've

10:46 - been an entrepreneur.

10:47 - For most of my adult life a lifetime and in fact right before

10:50 - this interview I was sitting with the small business

10:52 - administration

10:54 - because I started on the small business committee

10:56 - and so a lot out of my entrepreneurial background is something

11:00 - that I hope is helpful here particularly during

11:03 - what was one of the biggest stressors to our economy that we've

11:06 - seen in our lifetimes and.

11:07 - Possibly in generations that the koga pandemic

11:10 - so a business background experienced an entrepreneur as an

11:13 - experience and having been

11:15 - you know they're trying to make payroll trying to figure out.

11:18 - It's trying to grow an organization to be profitable

11:21 - I think is is helpful here and in Washington DC.

11:25 - Just as there are not very many people with military

11:28 - backgrounds in Washington there are also frankly not very many

11:31 - people with actual business

11:33 - acumen and business experience in Washington

11:36 - and yet we are asked to make disses asians and and hopefully be

11:39 - helpful to businesses

11:41 - all the time not just on places like the small business

11:43 - committee but other places as well

11:45 - and so I think it's helpful to be able to bring that.

11:48 - Sensibility of what it meant to sign up on

11:51 - my house a way to be able to lease a copying machine you know.

11:55 - As a as a young entrepreneur and have.

11:58 - You know in the back of my mind whenever I'm helping our

12:00 - businesses bro.

12:03 - What would you still have a couple of minutes left.

12:05 - Before we go tell US.

12:07 - Some of your favorite things to do in Chester county.

12:10 - While you.

12:12 - Along with gardens is possibly one of my favorite places my

12:15 - husband might have

12:16 - made levin even more than ninety we have a membership the

12:20 - annual membership and we go.

12:22 - Probably more than once a month.

12:24 - Just to see how the exhibits have changed

12:26 - I love all the paths and trails that we have in our community

12:29 - we are runners as well and so spend some time trying to explore

12:32 - those two.

12:34 - There are terrific opportunities to.

12:37 - Each industry.

12:38 - And I think that we all enjoy everything from.

12:42 - Soft pretzels and gelatos to them or fancy cuisine that's

12:46 - available in our community farm to table cuisine

12:49 - there's just a ton to do in Chester county it's a beautiful

12:52 - place as as Burke says as well

12:54 - I would encourage people I recently went to a place called gaba

12:58 - works up in berks county

13:00 - to do a craft project with my family that

13:02 - that is a very cool place as well so.

13:05 - Explorer.

13:07 - We're current congresswoman Chrissy who

13:09 - thank you very much.

13:11 - You're welcome thank you.