James Talarico

I filed the bill because I think people shouldn't die because they can't afford their health care.

But whatever his reasons, we both supported the same policy.

So we got it passed to the House.

We got it passed to the Senate.

We got signed by the governor.

Now Texas is working on its application to the FDA to start importing these cheaper medications wholesale right here at home.

And I've done that work on other issues, child care, which is, if you're asking what a dream policy would look like for me at the federal level,

it would probably be universal, high quality, early childhood education for every single kid in this country.

One, as an educator, I think it could be a game changer.

Those first thousand days of a child's life, those first three years, that is when the architecture of the brain is being built.

And we as a society are really nowhere to be seen.

And it's something crazy, like a thousand neural connections are being formed every second in that period of a child's life.

And I see it.

I just became an uncle for the first time three years ago.

My baby niece, Jane, is going to turn three in two weeks.

And I just see how she is absorbing everything around her.

that everything is fascinating to her and that she's actually, she's able to pick up things so quickly because in that period, your brain is so much more flexible and malleable.

And so I think having that high quality early child education available to every single kid would be a game changer and it would reduce costs because you can either pay for this stuff on the front end or the back end.

and the cost for remediation in school the cost for criminal justice the cost for for welfare programs all of that i think you could and it's not just me who thinks that all the studies that have been done on this show that the return on investment for early child education programs is off the chart it's the best use of our money it's the best bang for our buck and it could transform our education system uh it could transform our economic system uh it could transform this country

The last one I'll mention, I know you asked for one, but the last one I mentioned is housing.