00:00Thank you so much to all of our speakers and to everyone who's joined us this morning.
00:04Is there a question or two from the media?
00:06On topic, please.
00:09Good.
00:11Are you preparing for any contingencies if federal funding is cut?
00:16What's the plan for that?
00:20The language of the letter from the Attorney General's office
00:24makes it just up to the line that they are trying to use every source of pressure
00:34and leverage to coerce cities who will not bend to their will.
00:38We have seen that already in a number of different instances
00:41where we've gone to court or we have worked with our Attorney General,
00:46Attorney General Andrea Campbell and her office and the governor
00:49and all of our sister cities across the Commonwealth
00:51to put a stop in some cases to that unconstitutional overreach.
00:56With the example of our Continuum of Care funds,
01:00there were $40-some million in annual grant funding
01:05that the City of Boston receives every year to tackle homelessness
01:08and to address issues for all of our community members
01:11who are experiencing housing instability.
01:15With a new directive that those funds then had to be compliant
01:19with executive orders that would prevent them from being used,
01:23for example, for our LGBTQ and trans neighbors
01:27or on black and brown community members,
01:29we went to court and said this is unconstitutional
01:32and the courts agreed.
01:34And so those funds have been able to be used
01:36as they have been to take care of Bostonians
01:38and everyone who finds themselves in Boston.
01:40We have a similar situation with some of the public safety grants
01:45that have come up, the UASI grants, again,
01:47that the City has received for 22 years now
01:50to address counterterrorism, border security,
01:53and provide regional infrastructure for things like regional radio access
01:59so that all of our public safety agencies can communicate with one another.
02:02Now this year they are attempting to add a requirement
02:05that a certain percentage of those funds must go to complying with border security
02:11and they suggest with ICE.
02:13We have done our own legal interpretations
02:15that what we already do to address border security
02:18in patrolling the harbor and taking care of our residents
02:22in the same ways that we always have already satisfies border security.
02:27So we are going to continue to apply for those grant funds
02:30and if they are rejected,
02:32although they have been awarded for 22 years for the entire region,
02:35across greater Boston,
02:36we will go to court again
02:38and we will prepare those filings.
02:41So where possible, we are leaning on the law
02:45which is in our corner because Boston follows the law.
02:50There is some level of uncertainty
02:53and the cruelty and uncertainty is the point
02:58from this federal administration.
02:59But when we are confronted with these impossible choices,
03:04do you stay silent and comply to try to avoid some unknown, uncertain, huge threat?
03:13Or do you take the risk but stand up for your community, for your people, and for what is right?
03:18I don't feel that I have a choice as mayor of this city.
03:24This city dates back nearly 400 years.
03:27This city has a history of standing up for what's right, of refusing to back down.
03:31Just a couple months ago, we were all in the North End
03:35celebrating the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride.
03:40And we heard from local historians,
03:43we heard from community organizations
03:45about what was running through Paul Revere's head,
03:50what was running through all of those Bostonians' minds 250 years ago.
03:54When he left his home in the North End,
03:57he had no idea if he would ever return to his wife and children.
04:01He had no idea if he would survive that night,
04:03much less live to a ripe old age,
04:06into his 80s in the city of Boston
04:07and do a lot more good for our country.
04:10All of the founders that we think about now
04:13as founding fathers and the mothers whose stories weren't included,
04:17the people of color whose stories weren't included,
04:19all of those founders had no idea
04:24that their actions, first with the protests,
04:29then with some tea in the harbor,
04:32then standing up, pushing back,
04:34would lead to a skirmish, a battle, a war,
04:37in which over the course of eight years,
04:39they would give birth to a new country.
04:41All they were thinking about in that moment,
04:44that night, deciding whether to ride out,
04:47hang the lanterns, and spread the word,
04:49they were trying to do the next right thing
04:52for their families in that moment.
04:55That is who we are as a city,
04:56and that is what we are doing today.
04:58We are doing the next right thing
05:00for our Boston families
05:02and for our community members in this moment,
05:04and that is what we are going to continue to do.
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