Future Forum: 2015 Launch & Looking Forward
17 of the youngest Democratic Members of Congress engaging millennial Americans on issues & opportunities important to our generation.
Future Forum Members care about the issues facing young Americans, because we are young Americans. We’re recapping our first year and asking for YOUR input.
Millennials are collaborative by nature. After all, we’re the family cellphone plan generation. Driving change in Washington will also take collaboration, so we need your feedback. Take our poll to tell us what Future Forum should focus on in 2016 and comment on this article with a legislative idea for us to pursue.
Click here to take poll: What issue should Future Forum focus on in 2016?
2015 in Review: Launch and Action
After launching in April 2015, Future Forum Members traveled across the country on a listening tour, visiting New York City, Boston, San Francisco, New Hampshire, Seattle, DC, and San Diego.
Watch this video recapping the 2015 Future Forum events:
In each city, we met with millennials at co-working spaces, universities, start-ups and established companies. Over the year, we engaged with over 1,990 college students and 540 young professionals who shared new perspectives and their unique personal experiences. While locations and audiences were diverse, we heard common issues and challenges that Congress must address: tackling student loan debt, expanding millennial entrepreneurship, acting on climate change, and taking money out of politics.
Here’s a recap of our events:
New York City
NYC was our launch site, where Reps. Grace Meng (D-NY), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Steve Israel (D-NY), and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) traveled to District CoWork in Manhattan to hold a town hall with young innovators and entrepreneurs. We heard the struggles many face in starting a business and the frustration with the slow regulatory speed of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding investment crowdfunding rules.
We listened and took action. In October, five Future Forum Members sent a letter to the SEC requesting that it release rules on investment crowdfunding without further delay. After sending the letter, the SEC released its final rule on Title III of the JOBS Act to allow investment crowdfunding for businesses. Read more here.
Boston
In Boston, Reps. Seth Moulton, Joe Kennedy (D-MA), and Eric Swalwell to talk with young professionals at Thermo Fisher and Greentown Labs. We also traveled to Tufts University for a roundtable with students. Combined, the students participating in the roundtable have $375,000 in student loans. This is a recurring issue we heard throughout our meetings and tours — millennials are frustrated with how student loan debt is limiting their options and opportunities for the future.
San Francisco
Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and Eric Swalwell in the San Francisco Bay Area— a center of innovation — to meet with students and young entrepreneurs. At Chabot College in Hayward, students shared personal stories of living at home and working (sometimes multiple) jobs to offset the high cost of college. We also met with young entrepreneurs at the coworking space Impact Hub San Francisco. Many shared that the burden of student loan debt is keeping them from investing in their business, saving for retirement, and buying a home.
We heard your concerns on student loan debt, and we have taken action. Many Future Forum Members support legislation to reduce the high cost of student loan debt by calling for student loan refinancing. If you can refinance your car and your home, why not your student loans? Permitting the refinancing of student loans would help students save on interest payments and better explore their dreams.
If you have ideas on how the Future Forum should continue to help borrowers with student loan debt — please comment at the end of the article.
Make Progress Summit — Washington, DC
In July, Reps. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), Seth Moulton, and Eric Swalwell spoke with a group of millennials at the Make Progress Summit. Millennials are the largest, most diverse, and most educated generation America has ever seen. It was invigorating to talk with students who shared a passion for public engagement and a vision for creating a brighter future.
Did you know?
Student loan debt now totals $1.3 trillion and has now surpassed credit card debt. Student loan debt has increased 325 percent since 2004.
New Hampshire
Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH) hosted Future Forum events in New Hampshire. We held a roundtable with young entrepreneurs from the Nashua region and discussed how Congress can help lighten the burden of student loans, support young innovators, and improve the transition from school to professional life for millennials and middle class families. We also toured Dyn, an innovative internet performance company with a millennial workforce.
Seattle
Rep. Derek Kilmer hosted an October Future Forum trip in his home district with Rep. Ruben Gallego and Rep. Eric Swalwell in the Seattle area. In the morning, we held a roundtable with student veterans at the University of Washington — Tacoma Campus. Veterans shared their transition from military to civilian life and ways we can better support young veterans. As a veteran himself, Rep. Gallego shared his experience transitioning out of the military, and the struggles many face. Among the top issues at the veteran roundtable were entrepreneurship, access to health care, and college affordability.
We then traveled to the University of Puget Sound for an open forum with students. Many were concerned with the rising cost of college, inaction on immigration, and access to women’s reproductive services.
We finished our listening tour in the Seattle area with the first ever millennial employee town hall at Amazon. Employees asked us about climate change, student loans, and access to affordable housing.
San Diego
In November, Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) hosted Future Forum events to meet with young entrepreneurs in San Diego. First, we met with student innovators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Qualcomm Institute, a university incubator helping students develop their ideas and get their businesses off the ground.
We also hosted a student town hall at UCSD and used text polling to create a word cloud of the top issues from the audience. The larger the word, the more popular the topic among students. As you can see, jobs, debt, and climate ranked among the top issues for UCSD students.
After the UCSD student town hall, we met with a group of young San Diego business leaders at Zeeto in downtown San Diego. We heard how student loan debt is preventing these entrepreneurs from buying a home or expanding their business. And, many feared that a lack of action to improve our education system will have long term negative impacts on our country.
We need students that are prepared and ready to contribute to the 21st century economy. That’s why, in San Diego, Rep. Peters and I announced two new pieces of legislation to help student innovators by starting a competitive grant program to open and expand university business incubators and to identify best practices for incubators.
Next Steps: Help Future Forum drive change in 2016.
We are facing challenges that we cannot afford to ignore. The good news is our generation gets it — we know it’s more important to build bridges instead of walls. Together, we can generate collective solutions to create a brighter future for this generation, and the generations to follow.
We need your input: What issue should Future Forum focus on in 2016?
Student loan debt? Homeownership? Entrepreneurship? You tell us!
To keep the conversation going, use #FutureForum to tweet at us, or comment below with legislative ideas you want the Future Forum to take on.
