Some of the things that I would do to assist small businesses is to increase funding available from the Small Business Administration, the SBA. I would try to streamline the application processes and make sure that there are low interest rates that are fixed. That would make it easier for small businesses to start and also to acquire funding whenever they’re ready to expand or if they have any new project.

Similarly, I would want to make it easier to file and remain compliant for Subchapter S corporations as well as for partnerships. This would make it much easier for all small businesses to operate and to stay compliant with federal regulations. I would also increase credits for those small businesses if they want to provide, say, retirement plans or other kinds of benefits to their own staff.

I would like to generate more grants for local businesses that they could apply to, that could be easily funded and administered without much difficulty. One of the big problems that small businesses face is compliance and being able to obtain funding. I would like to streamline the funding process and the application process for Build Back Better projects. We had a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan that was approved by the Biden administration. However, the Trump administration has clawed back much of the funding that was already dedicated.

Certainly here in Philadelphia, we have many projects that could be done for infrastructure, and I would like to make it easier for local businesses to apply for those funds to do the projects and make sure that the union jobs are created in the construction projects. So these are some of the ideas that I would have that would help local businesses thrive.

Question 2 - The Chestnut Hill Conservancy: How would you support federal funding and policy that help communities preserve historic buildings, protect open space and watershed resources, and expand access to local history?

First, I would like to increase funding for the preservation of historic buildings. As we filmed this morning, we are actually in a designated historic building built in 1880 that commemorates some of the history of Roxborough. This building was part of the Manayunk project for the canal. I have a very personal interest in preserving history, but having said that, I also have experienced some of the impediments that face landowners. So first thing, I would like to see the landowners who may be affected have some kind of right to compensation under the Fifth Amendment, because there is, at least in theory, a takings issue.

I would also like to incorporate the educational purposes. For example, people on Ridge Avenue may not know that this was part of the Manayunk canal development, and that is why these buildings are historic. I would want everyone in Philadelphia to understand the rich history that we have here. As far as doing more to designate, I would like there to be a more integrated process between, say, local municipalities like Philadelphia as well as the federal government to make sure that any federal funding that is available, is available to the municipality whenever they are reviewing what should be considered historical.

I would like to comment on the open space and watershed resources. I appreciate the fact that we are in Philadelphia and where we have the largest municipal park in the world, with Fairmount Park, the Wissahickon Creek park less than a mile away from where we’re filming. All of these things make our city so rich and sort of so great for living and working in this area.

Question 3 — Face to Face Germantown: What laws do you think Congress can pass in the current political environment to increase housing supply for low-income renters?

I have several thoughts that I think could use existing law and existing precedent to help make life easier for low-income renters and for our population in general. The first thing I would want to mention is that we need to stop private equity from buying up real estate and creating an entire country of renters. The American dream is for home ownership. Because billions, $10 billion alone, just a BlackRock, have been acquired by private equity, it keeps most people out of the housing market.

For people who are renters, I would like to add a new entitlement under FICA [Federal Insurance Contributions Act]. FICA being the Medicare and Social Security that is designated for housing, specifically. Knowing that people who receive Social Security are either elderly or disabled in many cases, or widows or the orphans, so those people have fixed incomes that are limited, I would like to create a new FICA entitlement. Locally, I would like to provide more funding to the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Where I live is actually in a PHA project. I am very concerned and care very much for the PHA, similarly, Project Home and many other organizations throughout the city that are working to provide affordable housing.

I would like to acknowledge that homelessness, as well as just housing, is not identical throughout the country. We have different concerns here than we do, say, in LA or Seattle or San Antonio. So most funding, in my opinion, should be block grants, so that the local governments or the local municipal organizations can make decisions for their area.

Finally, I would like to mention that all mortgages are underwritten by the federal government. So I would like to see there be fixed rates that are not subject to market volatility.

Question 4 — Friends of the Wissahickon: As flooding, extreme heat, and biodiversity loss intensify across Pennsylvania, what role should urban forests and watershed parks play in the federal climate strategy, and what concrete steps would you take to increase federal investment in places like the Wissahickon Valley?

I hold the Wissahickon Park and the valley and the creek very dear to my heart. My very second date with my wife, before we got married, was to go hiking along the Wissahickon Creek. I care very much about this area. Also, as we film here today, it’s less than two miles away. Every summer I go there frequently.

Specific to this question, it is important to note that, as you have identified, deforestation is one of the biggest risks that we have for global climate change. This is not just an urban issue, but it’s actually more importantly an issue of agriculture, because we have subsidized the agricultural industry to where it is way cheaper to mow forests than it is to rehabilitate agricultural land. On a grand scale, I would want to focus on rehabilitating and using the existing agricultural land more efficiently, so that we are not promoting deforestation. That would be essential to any comprehensive global climate strategy.

Specific to our local area and the many parks throughout the country that help preserve watersheds and local forests, I would want to make it easier to streamline any kind of grant process. Also, I would like to see some kind of partnership between the Department of Interior that regulates national parks with municipal and state parks so that we can take advantage of tourism, of grant programs, the very things that make national parks economically feasible and make them available to municipal parks as well as state parks. I think this is a comprehensive plan to preserve our existing watersheds, both locally and nationally, as well as our existing forests.

Question 5 —- West Mt. Airy Neighbors: Can you recall a moment from your career where you wish you did things differently? What did you learn from that experience?

I am grateful to have had a varied career over the past 25 years or so since I went to law school. I have had the opportunity to represent criminal defendants and make sure that they were given due process. I’ve had the opportunity to defend the environment by suing polluters in both the Bay Area, San Francisco, as well as Western Pennsylvania, protecting landowners from the oil and gas industry that was exploiting very old leases.

Likewise, I was able to serve our state as an appeals referee for roughly 15 years, deciding unemployment appeals and most importantly, getting to know many of the people here in Northwest Philadelphia, particularly in Roxborough, where we have operated USA Tax Service. I’ve helped several small businesses, hundreds of small businesses, and thousands of local residents resolve various tax issues.

But if I were to identify one thing that I wish I had done differently, I wish that I had used my legal background and my legal acumen to focus more on protecting the environment over the past 20 years, as well as promoting the welfare of working-class Pennsylvanians and working-class Americans. Over the past 20 years, we have seen degradation of our standard of living as the wealth gap has increased, affordability has reduced. More and more people are struggling.

If anything, my decision to run in this campaign is a reconciliation of my abdication of that responsibility over the past 20 years. That is why I am now dedicated to fighting for working-class Americans as well as for the environment.