CM Morales, CM Sawant announce acceleration of tax on Amazon, big business to fund COVID-19 relief

Council Member Morales, the floor is now yours.

Thank you, Jenna.

Good morning, everybody.

Thanks for joining us in this new world of virtual conferences.

I'm Tammy Morales, Council Member representing Seattle District 2, Chinatown International District, and South Seattle.

Since the civil emergency was declared on March 3rd, our office has been flooded with calls and emails.

Our neighbors are calling for rent assistance, for food assistance.

We've got small businesses asking how they can continue to pay their employees.

Seniors calling, asking for help paying for their prescriptions.

It's really clear that this public health crisis has quickly become an economic crisis too.

We have seen that the projection for unemployment rates across the country may reach as high as 30%.

And here in Washington, unemployment benefits have risen by 843%.

So, we understand that, you know, elected officials across the cities and states are trying really hard to pass policies that address these issues.

We also know that the existing resources aren't enough.

In times like this, when there is a shock to our systems, we have to act swiftly to provide relief to our constituents and to our neighbors.

We also know that the typical response from those in power is to look out for the big guys, for the big corporations who employ people rather than the people themselves.

And we've already seen this, right?

We've seen big windfalls and bailouts for large businesses on the federal level, while our neighbors will be getting one check from the feds.

And while those checks that are going to be going out next month will be helpful, we know that for those who are struggling paycheck to paycheck, they will need more than a one-time payment if they're going to be able to weather the storm here.

So our proposal addresses some of these issues by aiding 100,000 Seattle households with a $500 a month check for 4 months.

And we will do this by modifying the previous progressive revenue proposal we had talked about but still taxing only the largest percent of big businesses in Seattle.

We're going to have to center equity and acknowledge that our most vulnerable populations We'll have no who have no income need to be included in this process.

That includes our neighbors with no house to sleep in.

Our undocumented neighbors.

Seniors.

And many more.

And that's who is intended to be the recipients of this assistance.

Now I do want to say that Council Member Sawant and I realize that $500 a month is not nearly enough to cover rent in Seattle.

But it can help buy groceries or diapers or help cover healthcare costs.

And it's going to be important to help people stay in their homes while they're where they are safest during this crisis.

We also know that there will be a long-term effect of the COVID-19 crisis.

And I want to say I look forward to working with our council colleagues to pass this bill knowing that the revenue it generates can be used strategically to rebuild our communities.

And to do it in a way that ensures resilience for our neighbors.

That ensures worker protection.

Small business sustainability.

And that protects the rights of our low-income neighbors and our Black and Brown communities to stay rooted in their neighborhoods without fear of displacement.

We're we're already seeing attempts at disaster capitalism.

We know that elders in Central and South Seattle are being harassed.

to sell their homes in this crisis.

So I want to make sure that we're working with our council colleagues to stop these efforts in their tracks.

As chair of the Community Economic Development Committee I'm committed to this work knowing that we have to find solutions that are going to respond to the scale and the urgency of this crisis.

But we need to do it in a way that is strategic and equitable because once this public health crisis ends We have to rebuild more housing for working families.

We need more services for our houseless neighbors.

And we need to move toward greater climate justice to create the financial security that all Seattleites deserve.

That's our commitment.

That's why we're doing this work.

And I want to thank Council Member Sawant for leading the charge on this work and and allowing me to be part of this effort.

We're excited about the opportunity to provide for our neighbors not just in the future as we rebuild our community but right now with some cast assistance to help them weather the storm.

And I will now hand it over to council members to walk.

Thank you Council Member Morales for those extremely important words and good morning and welcome to everybody who is on this phone call.

Today is the 1st of April and we are in the middle of this deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Tens of millions of people around the country are now at home.

Some of us have been at home now for a month because public health scientists have strongly and correctly urged that we need to be serious about social distancing to control the spread of this disease that has already taken 4,000 lives in the country.

And the prediction is that 100,000 to 250,000 lives are going to be lost.

But workers and the most vulnerable amongst us are facing a double crisis, coronavirus and capitalism.

People experiencing homelessness who on a normal day struggle to survive.

are finding it even more difficult as community centers, parks, libraries, and their basic services, services that have been the lifeline for them, have been forced to be shuttered.

And as Council Member Morales mentioned, communities of color and the most vulnerable amongst us, immigrants and refugees, domestic violence survivors, people living in the shadows of society because they lack documentation, they are even more vulnerable now.

The millions who are at home now have either, workers who are at home now, have either been fired outright, or have no income, and have no income, or have been fired, but don't have paid leave.

There are thousands of food service and hotel workers, Uber and Lyft drivers, teachers, small business workers, and others who suddenly find themselves out of work, some eligible for unemployment, others not, and also the unemployment has been very difficult to get.

It's not going to be enough.

A few weeks ago, back in early March, I met with a group of Uber and Lyft drivers who told me about how ridership had already, at that time, basically vanished.

One of the drivers told me that to save money, he had stopped eating breakfast.

If this crisis continued, he said he would stop eating lunch and only eat one meal a day.

And many of the drivers are immigrants and refugees and families with children and elderly family members.

Today tens of thousands of working class people in Seattle are waking up to this new pandemic reality that they will not be able to pay their rent or mortgage this month or next month or the following month or who knows how many months.

As Council Member Morales pointed out we are not just facing the health crisis but we are heading into a deep recession with dire prognosis of the unemployment rate in the coming months.

On the other hand frontline healthcare workers Food service workers, delivery and bus drivers, warehouse workers, grocery workers, sanitation workers, and others are bravely putting their lives on the line to care for the sick and to provide for all of us with essential services that we are relying upon at this moment.

The for-profit corporations like Amazon and the for-profit companies that local governments have contracted with in the wave of neoliberal privatization are exploiting their workers, denying them even basic protective equipment, let alone paid sick leave and hazard pay, and making it very clear that billionaire wealth and profit is more important to them than the safety, health, and lives of the workers.

As Amazon warehouse workers who organized a courageous walkout yesterday at the Staten Island warehouse said, workers are refusing to accept this false choice between getting a paycheck and keeping our health.

We need and deserve both, and we are not dying for Wall Street.

Meanwhile, big banks and billionaires are getting a trillion-dollar-per-day bailout from the Trump administration.

And even after the precipitous plunge in stock prices last month, today, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has increased his wealth by $6 billion since January.

This is absolutely shameful.

Action is urgent in Seattle, cities like Seattle, which is home to some of the richest billionaires in the world and some of the most profitable companies.

For too long, Seattle and Washington State have served as a convenient tax haven for big business.

We have the most regressive tax system in the nation.

And now with the coronavirus ravaging our community, it's just even more pressing that we need to tax those who have extreme wealth so that we can assure that the rest of our city can have food, shelter, clothing, and other basic necessities of life.

And I was pleased and honored to be able to unveil our tax Amazon legislation with my colleague Council Member Tammy Morales in February and March.

And at that time, our legislation taxed the biggest 800 companies in this city, the top 2%, to fund a massive expansion of affordable housing and the Green New Deal.

And if passed, our legislation would have started the tax next year.

Then the coronavirus crisis hit And we quickly realized that next year was not soon enough.

Our community needs the resources right now just to barely able to survive.

And the two of us agreed to advance this tax this year and to dedicate the first year of funding $200 million to emergency COVID-19 relief.

Emergency cash payments for up to $500 a month to up to 100,000 low-income working-class households.

Hopefully in May, June and July and August but of course that depends on when the City Council passes this tax.

This alone we know will not rescue individuals and families who are struggling today as Council Member Morales said but it will help fill the gap between what people are getting through federal and state benefit programs, remaining paychecks, unemployment and other sources and what they need to survive.

This money is absolutely vital for our community members.

And we need to do this because it will not only help them survive it will actually save lives.

That is why it is all the more important that we pass this task immediately.

In the first year in 2020 the tax will provide basic life support and will go on to 2021 and subsequent years to fund a massive expansion of permanently affordable rent-controlled social housing and major investments in Green New Deal as we had proposed in the past.

Some of you may be wondering why Council Member Morales and I have raised the amount of tax from our original bill from $300 to $500 million per year.

I think the answer is self-explanatory.

When this pandemic hit, we have all, of course, recognized the depth of the crisis demands that we do more.

Even $500 million is not going to be enough.

We absolutely need this.

And on top of that, we need major action at the state level, closing corporate tax loopholes, taxing big business at the state level, taxing wealthy households at the state level, and we need major action at the federal level.

We're proposing to tax companies with large payrolls at a rate of 1.3 percent.

We've structured the tax to exclude the bottom 98 percent of companies.

Also all small and medium sized businesses grocery stores nonprofits public employees all employers all will be excluded.

And we should say of course that the small businesses actually have suffered dramatically in this crisis.

Many have been completely wiped out and will not see the light of day again and others are struggling to maintain a foothold.

So the only ones who will pay this progressive tax will be the 800 or so largest businesses in Seattle like Amazon and big developers like Vulcan big downtown law firms big telecommunications companies internet and real estate companies.

These companies can afford to pay this tax.

It represents a tiny sliver of their revenue.

And frankly, this is the least they should be asked to do, but it should be much more.

This tax Amazon legislation proposal is part of a citywide movement that hundreds, if not thousands of ordinary people have been active in.

After Council Member Morales and I made our original announcement during this crisis, My council office launched a petition a few weeks ago demanding that the city council pass this act as soon as possible.

And in this short while of a few weeks we've already gathered nearly 7,000 signatures on their petition.

We will need this movement to become even more powerful starting today if we're going to make sure the City Council does the right thing and passes this tax without delays and without watering it down.

That's very very important.

No delays.

No watering down.

And words are not enough City Council.

We need action.

Our people need action.

To show this movement and the people who have been behind this struggle and fighting day-to-day fighting for renters fighting for working people we have community members who are joining us today.

We will start by hearing from Violet Lovatay Executive Director of the Tenants Union of Washington State.

This organization has been on the front lines of this fight helping tenants who are in desperate circumstances to organize and fight back to stay housed and safe.

Violet please go ahead.

Thank you Council Member Salma Salwant and Tammy Morales.

My name is Violet Labatay and I'm with the Tenants Union of Washington.

I am here to speak on behalf of the community and the tenants rights organization that I represent.

I am here to speak on pushing forth this important legislation.

What I want is to plea and ask all council members that expand with the community and with our citizens.

Supporting this legislation will help thousands upon thousands upon families who are low income and those are our most vulnerable communities, senior citizens and the working poor.

This legislation will help thousands of people from experiencing homelessness.

still have some of our brothers and sisters on the streets now and with this legislation it will help thousands of people not go on the streets.

What we are asking council members is to stand with the citizens of this great city.

The rich and the poor are hand in hand.

You either if you live in Seattle you're either really rich or you're really poor.

What we're asking is to change the dynamics of this is to push this legislation forward.

The big businesses always get the bailout.

What we're asking is what about the people.

What about the people getting the bailout.

This legislation will help thousands of people who are experiencing right now through this epidemic where is their next meal going to come from.

Where is the next you know money coming from with rental assistance.

There is multiple tenants who call our hotline, which we operate still as of today.

Right now, the plea and the need is right now.

And we're asking that council members take action immediately.

This is not one of those things that we're gonna wait for in eight months.

We need action now.

And if you take action now, council members, and this is a plea to all council members, if you take action now, you are standing with the citizens of this great city.

You're standing with us and saying, let's push this legislation forward because we need to expedite it and do it now.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Violet.

Next, I want to introduce Amzai Zeft.

a rank-and-file activist in UAW 4121, the Union of Academic Student Employees and Postdocs at the University of Washington.

Even in normal conditions, AMSAI and the 6,000 members of the union are under tremendous pressure with low pay, high rent costs, and huge demands to teach students and conduct research.

They work all hours helping deliver a world-class education to tens of thousands of people and conducting vital research projects, including projects that we hope will find the solutions to defending pandemics like this one.

And those pressures that these student workers face has only increased another order of magnitude with coronavirus.

Amzai please go ahead.

Hi this is Amzai.

Thank you so much for that.

As you mentioned the coronavirus crisis has created huge stress and uncertainty in every workplace and UW is definitely no exception.

People are worried about how to keep up progress in their degrees.

Our grad students are facing pressure to continue lab work and continue going to campus, even those who are not classified as essential.

And, you know, UW is continuing to charge us fees for campus facilities that we don't actually have access to right now.

And as grad students, you know, on the housing side of things, we're often forced into cramped, low-quality housing.

A majority of us are rent burdened, and many pay even over half of our income at rent.

And you know personally I've had to move every single year since I came to Seattle to try and find like a safe affordable place to live.

And that's that's no you know no aberration.

That's a common situation for graduate students.

And now this quarter we're being asked to continue doing our research to continue teaching all remotely while we're confined in these you know overcrowded houses for months on end.

And many of us are living with people who have been laid off with literal little or no notice who are worried about how they're going to pay their rent.

And it really is like a deeply frightening and uncertain time for folks over at UW.

And, you know, even before this, we were already in a crisis and COVID has just kicked it into really high gear.

So I'm here to express our union support for the tax Amazon legislation, which we know is really, really urgently needed to provide relief for working people like us in Seattle.

And as union members, we stand in solidarity with everybody who's fighting for relief in this crisis.

We know that we can't afford this crisis and neither can other ordinary people in Seattle.

And there really is only one way out.

We need Amazon and big business to pay their fair share.

And like Council Member Sawant said, we need action right now.

And we urge all of our city council members to pass this tax immediately.

Thanks.

Thank you, Amza.

And finally, I want to introduce Matt Smith, an Amazon cargo handler.

Matt has been delivering Amazon packages to people throughout the region for low pay and without adequate protective equipment.

And that's true for his co-workers as well.

He is intimately familiar with the desperate situation that many Amazon workers find themselves in today and have been in for years, and why we need to tax companies like Amazon to provide basic life-saving assistance to working people, and also explain why it is that Amazon workers themselves support this tax.

Go ahead, Matt.

Hi.

Thank you to everyone for being here.

My name is Matt Smith.

I work as a contract handler for Amazon at a delivery station in Kent.

I'm also a member of Socialist Alternative.

The COVID-19 outbreak presents a new crisis for all of us that we urgently need to address.

On the one hand, the past weeks have seen unprecedented numbers of working people in Seattle and across the country get tossed into the unemployment line.

Hotels, restaurants, bars, casinos have all been shut down.

Airline workers and entertainment workers have lost their jobs or been furloughed.

Even those of us who are still working like me we're seeing the impacts of these layoffs.

My roommate lost their job which has made it more difficult for us to pay rent this month.

Family and friends are losing jobs are getting hours cut.

Tens of thousands of people tens of thousands of households in Seattle are wondering how they're going to keep the lights on.

Meanwhile those of us who still have a job are working harder than ever.

We're working harder, not just to provide essential services like health care and delivery, but also to support our family, support our friends and roommates who have been laid off.

Every single one of my Amazon coworkers is feeling the impact of this crisis.

But let's also be clear about something for working people like me.

This is not just a new crisis.

It's the deepening of an already existing crisis, which many people have already spoken to.

Even before this pandemic my co-workers and I were struggling to deal with skyrocketing housing costs in Seattle.

There have been months where I personally have paid close to 50 percent of my income just in rent.

And I'm not alone.

Before this pandemic almost half of renters in Seattle paid well over 30 percent of their income in rent.

And in the context of these layoffs and reduced hours that number is almost certainly much higher.

And it's not just a statistic that we're talking about.

It has become a grim reality for people that without major intervention many people in Seattle will not survive this crisis.

But while working people like me suffer through this crisis, Amazon's corporate executives and shareholders are thriving.

They've seen a surge of demand for a whole range of items that I deliver every day to my quarantine neighbors.

Amazon's whole food delivery business has become more lucrative than ever, and Amazon continues to rake in enormous profits from its cloud computing business as more and more of our daily activity goes online.

Amazon is more powerful and more successful than ever, and billionaires like Jeff Bezos are profiting from this crisis.

But my co-workers and I were not seeing the benefits of Amazon's success.

Neither are the thousands of people who have been laid off in Seattle and Washington State.

And so while Amazon thrives we suffer.

Not only that but as an Amazon worker I pay more in taxes on my small income than Jeff Bezos pays on his billions of dollars in profits.

That's unacceptable.

That's why as an Amazon worker I strongly support the legislation that Council Member Sawant and Morales are unveiling today.

Working people need to need immediate relief.

from this crisis and gigantic companies like Amazon need to pay for it.

In the context of this crisis that we face this is a small but critically important step towards addressing the literal life or death needs of our community.

If City Council doesn't vote yes on this Amazon tax it would be an absolute betrayal of the people of Seattle.

If they vote no or if they water this down they will make it clear that they represent the interests of big business and the wealthy not working people.

We need action not words from City Council.

I hope the rest of the Council stands with Councilmember Sawant and Morales and will pass this bill as quickly as possible.

Thanks.

Thank you so much, Violet, Amza, and Matt.

I want to recognize the incredible and amazing work that our City Council Central Staff has done, working along with our two Council Offices in the last weeks to craft this legislation, working all hours, really.

Kirsten Aristid, Director of Central Staff, and also Dan Eder, Ali Panucci, Tracy Ratliff, Amy Gore, Tom Mikesell, and Jeff Simms all have worked tirelessly through the weekends and nights to put together this urgently needed legislation.

I want to recognize the tremendous work of the council communications team, Dana Robinson-Sloat, Stephanie Guzman-Barrera, and Joseph Peja.

And the community organizers and socialists in my council office as well, Adam Zimkowski, Jonathan Rosenblum, Ted Verdone, Nick Jones, and Sasha Sommer, who have all been willing, working diligently with the community day and night throughout this crisis.

Next, I want to welcome Council Member Morales to make any closing comments and then over to Dana to field questions.

Thank you so much.

Am I muted?

We can hear you.

Okay.

Sorry, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

I just want to say that we recognize that this is a huge amount of money that we are wanting to put forward for our community.

This is not just a crisis for now.

We know that we have had a need in this city and in this state for a more equitable way to finance the work that we have to do as city council members in this city.

And it's going to be very important for us to find ways to support this effort so that we can ensure the safety and provide some immediate assistance to our neighbors.

And so that we can be very thoughtful and strategic about how we rebuild our communities once this crisis is over.

We are committed to doing that work, to answering questions, to finding the solutions that we need so that we can move this forward and solve these problems for our community, not just now, but for the foreseeable future.

I believe Dana is going to field the questions and help us navigate the next piece of this conference.

That's right.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

So at this time, we'll respond to questions that were submitted in advance.

And the first question comes from Natalie Graham.

of the stranger, and she asks, how will the 100,000 households be selected?

And also, when will this be introduced to the council?

I'm happy to take the first question.

So we are Using, as Council Member Selwant and I discussed, we are prioritizing folks who are low income, who have been impacted by the crisis, who have been laid off.

We wanna make sure that folks who are undocumented, who might be falling through the cracks of other kinds of particularly federal assistance that are coming down, are able to benefit from this.

So we have some existing infrastructure in place for folks who are participating in other city assistance programs.

And then we are working through how we make sure that we're capturing other folks who, for whom they might not be participating in those programs, but who still need the assistance.

And I'm sorry, what was the second question or second part of the question?

The second part of the question from Natalie reads, when will this be introduced to the council?

We will be introducing this on Monday.

And if I might add a few thoughts to that.

Uh, we obviously, I've got to say there are there are so many households.

And community members who are chronically in crisis, because that's the way the system.

Works and so even before this pandemic, there were many who were already suffering and now that misery has increased.

tenfold, and so all of the communities that Council Member Morales will mention will definitely be part of the target population for the funds generated through these big business tax avenues.

I should also add that many houses, many workers have become destitute overnight.

You know, as we've noted, the majority of America lives paycheck to paycheck, and if you don't have a paycheck, you are in major crisis.

And so we will need in the coming days, we will be finalizing the, the, the language of the legislation to make sure that all those houses that normally under, you know, in a non pandemic situation are not.

Households that seek the federal or state level assistance will also be considered, you know, as I mentioned, right share drivers, they're not going to, they're often, they're not in normal circumstances, not enrolled in any kind of benefit program.

They are also not going to be eligible for unemployment assistance because they've been misclassified as contractors.

They're really workers who are being exploited.

and now they have no income virtually.

So we need a way for workers like them also to be recognized as people who need this assistance.

But I will also reiterate the point that we don't think this will be enough.

We don't think $500 million will be enough.

But we do think that winning this $500 million will make a tangible difference in people's lives.

And furthermore, it will be a powerful example of how a mass movement of working people can win, even in the days of social distancing.

And as far as introducing the legislation is concerned, absolutely, we want to do it as soon as possible.

because we want to win the taxes as soon as possible.

And I will also share with the media that I have urged Council President Gonzalez to allow me to chair this legislation in the committee I chair, the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee, which is also vice-chaired by Council Member Morales.

And it seems like the most logical fit, and I think this is also going to be beneficial to the movement that has fought for this tax for so long, three years now.

And unfortunately, at this moment, Council President Gonzalez has not agreed to that, but I'm hoping that there will be agreement on this.

And I've also offered that if it's not in the committee I chair, the Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, then it should be in a select committee that is chaired by me and Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The last question comes from Dan Beekman of the Seattle Times, and he asks, Is there a copy of the new or updated legislation.

And also what is the math behind the assumptions that council members have mentioned.

Sorry Dana could you repeat the question again.

Certainly.

Dan Beekman of the Seattle Times asked Is there a copy of the new or updated legislation?

And he also asked, what is the math behind the assumptions mentioned?

Okay, I can offer some initial thoughts on it.

As far as when the legislation will be released, as soon as possible, we have a summary from the city council central staff to acquaint the media with the very critical outlines of the legislation.

It is, as I said, the annual revenue goal is $500 million annually with no sunset.

And to our calculations, we have got it out that 800 businesses.

Will be eligible for this for payment of this tax.

So this is this is data that the city council central staff have arrived at using the employment security data shared by the King County office of.

Economic and financial analysis with the city budget office.

In terms of the math, you know, so, for example, first of all, the 98% of the businesses in the city will be exempted from it.

The exemption threshold is that the tax would apply to all businesses with annual payroll greater than $7 million.

And that is accounted for by the top 2% of businesses in the city, if you count by payroll.

And the actual tax bill, obviously, for each company will depend on the size of each company's payroll.

So a business with 200 employees that pays each employee $100,000 a year would have an annual tax bill of $260,000, which is calculated by 200 employees multiplied by 100,000 per employee and times the 1.3% tax rate that we have.

A list of businesses ranked by the amount of payroll is not available for us because the city does not maintain such a list.

The city does maintain a list of businesses ranked by taxable gross receipts, which I'm sure many of the media know.

But the information about the taxable gross receipts for individual businesses is highly confidential and we can't share that.

The proposed tax would take effect in June 2020, but the tax payments would not be collected until 2021 or 2022. Therefore, the 2020 emergency spending will require an inter-fund loan of $200 million, and the loan will be paid with interest beginning in 2021.

Thank you.

Council Member Morales, is there anything you'd like to add?

Yes.

Uh, sorry.

Um, the only thing I would add is that we, um, uh, understand that the crisis itself has created some uncertainty.

We know that there are, um, you know, uh, food service accommodation, other, uh, sectors who have seen a drastic reduction in their, in their revenue.

And so the, That is taken into account here with a 12% reduction to the payroll base.

So that that, you know, that particular shock is also already included in how we calculated what the rate would be.

Thank you.

Uh, at this time, no additional questions have been submitted.

I want to officially, uh, give the council members a chance to, to provide any closing remarks.

Um, and if not, then I can reiterate, um, both.

Emails and phone numbers were follow up class can be request can be sent by email or by text message.

And also to remind those on the call that we'll be issuing.

a press release and also the summary documents that were mentioned later today.

Council Member Swann or Council Member Morales, if there's anything more that you'd like to say, please do so or I can conclude the call.

I just want to thank again, as Council Member Sawant has already done, I do want to thank the central staff, the communication staff, My own staff, LaKeisha Farmer, has been working really hard throughout this process to make sure that we are understanding the process itself and really working with our community members to understand how they will be impacted and how they want to see this work unfold.

And just want to thank everybody for their participation on the call today.

And I also echo that Councilman Morales, thank you, everybody who joined us on the phone call and the many organizations that have been fighting on the front lines for the progressive revenues for years.

And also now you are all on the forefront of fighting for coronavirus justice.

I will also add that if media have more questions, which I imagine they would, please direct them to Jonathan Rosenblum in my office and our offices will coordinate and send your responses.

And we are also going to be sharing the summary shortly with you all.

So I'm sure many of those questions will be answered through that summary as well.

Thank you, Council Member Solan.

And thanks to each of you for joining us today.

We'll be issuing the release of the summary shortly.

Additional requests can be sent by email or by text message.

And with that, that's all the time that we have for today.

Thanks again for joining us.

by Nina.