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Floor Speech

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Ms. SANCHEZ. Thank you for yielding me the time, both Mr. Payne and Mr. Goodlatte, and good morning to everyone. What a pleasure it is to be here and to speak to you on one of our greatest programs, the Congress to Campus program.

As Bob mentioned, the program continues to grow and to reach wider audiences. It is great because we get to educate and to inform our youth.

Thanks to a grant from The Park Foundation these past 2 years, we have actively reached out to minority-serving institutions, such as historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, women's colleges, community colleges, Tribal colleges, and service academies.

The Park Foundation is a nonprofit, and it is dedicated to advancing a more just, equitable, and sustainable society and environment, both nationally and in our local communities.

They are committed to challenging the powers that threaten an independent media, a robust democracy, and the future of the planet.

The Park Foundation helps with funding, specifically for these minority-serving institutions, to put the program on their campus.

This year, we had 32 schools reach out to FMC to bring the program to their institutions. Seven of those were at these minority-serving institutions. The past spring, the number was four, and the fall before that, the number was three.

The word is getting out about our Congress to Campus, and it is spreading, and I think it is making a difference.

Most of us would agree that some students, or at least where I come from, I am a Latina, they don't get the opportunity to connect with current or former Members of Congress. Some don't even know what it is, quite frankly, and they want to be engaged. They want to be mentored, especially once they find out about what we are all doing here.

The program allows them to have one-on-one experiences, to inspire them, to show them the path that leads to public service.

A new vision and a possible extension of our current program is an idea that is called the Congressional pipeline.

FMC will expand and build upon the current program we have by encouraging the next generation of public servants. That is what we are really about, getting people excited about doing what we have done or being a staffer here or being in our Federal agencies. We want them to want to be public servants and demonstrating how respectful debate and a focus on solutions is really the root of our American democracy.

It is also going to provide unparalleled resources and opportunities to college students who participate in our Congress to Campus program and then want to take additional steps to become a public servant.

We envision accomplishing these goals by bringing some of these students who have experienced our program, for example, at an HBCU or an Hispanic-serving institution to Washington, D.C., for the total Washington experience.

The pipeline will do five things: It will provide equal access to opportunities for a wide range of students, including those students, like myself, who would have never had an opportunity to visit here or our district offices.

It will provide Congress to Campus students with information and resources on pursuing public service career paths, both in person and virtually.

It will facilitate opportunities for students to meet with individuals currently serving in Congress, and also the former Members because we are still important, including our staff, both in Washington and in the district offices.

It will create a one-semester fellowship for four and six students, which would include a semester internship at the FMC office here in downtown Washington, D.C.; scheduling meetings each week with current and former Members and staff and ambassadors and embassy staff here in D.C. on how to pursue the careers in public service; of course, free time on weekends so they can go and see everything that you Irish leaders all want to go and see.

It will establish a network of Congress to Campus grads and FMC fellows who, in turn, will help other students who are interested in following in their footsteps by becoming speakers, reaching out in their own home districts, et cetera, so that we can continue to move people into public service.

We ask you to be a part of our Congress to Campus program, to help us to identify students, to help students seek bipartisanship and civility, that they are still alive and thriving and that this is the way forward, especially during a time that has been a difficult time for our Nation.

One big testament to the program is our before and after surveys. I don't know about before, but 100 percent--imagine that--100 percent of students on their post-event survey say that their mind has actually changed for the better about Congress.

The 76 percent--and I don't know what happened to the other 24, but 76 percent say they want the Congress to Campus program to come back to their school again.

I love this program. I love it because it makes me younger, right? When you are interacting with the young people, it makes you feel young. You hear their voices, their ideas. You hear their dreams about a better tomorrow. It makes me feel better about what kind of world we are leaving for our kids. They inform me. They inspire me. I see them, their minds clicking, thinking about how they can shape the world.

Many of the students come up to me afterward and they say: How do I get involved in politics? And I hand them my card, and I say: Let's keep in touch; and we do. Many of them are working in their local areas now to become politicians, and they are not afraid of it. It is not a bad thing to be a politician.

If you want to get involved, please contact Patricia Ochs, our Congress to Campus program manager.

L.S., let me thank you again and echo what Bob said earlier about your exceptional leadership at FMC, and thank you for the opportunity. I really think it is a godsend to be able to participate in the Congress to Campus program. Thank you also for giving me the opportunity to report on the program.

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