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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now it's time for our monthly call your Senator segment with New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, which happens to come this month on a surprisingly very busy pre-Christmas news day. We have Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a suddenly announced trip to the US, just announced yesterday to address a joint session of Congress tonight.

The House ways and means committee releasing seven years of Donald Trump's tax returns now that they got permission from the courts. The first headlines from that are just coming out this morning after Trump had managed to hide his taxes unlike other presidents and presidential candidates. The full January 6th committee report being released today as well. There are The New York Times revelations about a newly elected congressman from New York Republican George Santos of Queens and Nassau, possibly making up many, many things on his resume, like where he went to college and where he worked.

Congress is finishing a bipartisan spending bill for the remainder of the fiscal year, more than 4,100 pages that most members won't even get to read as they try to vote by tomorrow to go home for the holidays. As part of that bill, we have Senator Schumer now announcing a big check coming to New York City in the hundreds of millions of dollars we think that Mayor Adams has been desperately seeking to help with the flood of migrants coming up from the southern border.

All of that news in just the last few days. On top of all that, Politico has a story just out this morning called Gillibrand's Big Year, about a list of bipartisan successes that the Senator led the way to. A new anti-gun trafficking bill. Funding for veterans made sick by toxic fumes from burn pits. Reforming the military justice system, especially for sexual assault cases, and a new law just signed by the president last week that limits the use of confidentiality agreements. You know those NDAs that prohibit sexual harassment victims from speaking publicly about what happened to them at their companies.

With all that going on, Senator Gillibrand, happy holidays and welcome back to WNYC.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Thanks, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, despite all this news that we're trying to get to as much of as we can, this is still our monthly call, your senator segment. The phones are open for questions for the senator if you're an actual New York constituent or even if you are not at (212)-433 WNYC, 433-9692. Or you can tweet a question @BrianLehrer. Senator, I will give you your props and start on Politico framing this as Gillibrand's Big Year. Is there one of those bills I mentioned that you're the most proud of?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I'm proud of all of them, but one that took the longest was the gun trafficking bill. I wrote that when I first was appointed to the Senate when I met the family of a young woman who was killed by a stray bullet [unintelligible 00:03:16]. I'd worked with her mother, Jennifer, over the last decade to make sure we continue to shine a spotlight on why these guns have to be taken out of the hands of criminals. Trafficking is the main source of guns used in crimes in New York. Something like 90% of the guns used in crimes come from out of state. Almost all of them are illegal.

We made sure we were going to lift up her memory and try to protect others from having to suffer what she suffered. That was probably something I worked the longest and hardest on. I'm really proud of all the changes, especially the military sexual assault bill which I also spent about a decade on.

Brian Lehrer: We've talked about that so many times on the show and all the stop-and-start frustrations in the Senate along the way.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Yes. Then just getting the burn pits done for our veterans really matters because the people who fought the war on terror over the last 20 years, many of them were exposed to toxic burn pits and are now suffering through cancers that are very similar to the 9/11 cancers. The same group that worked on the 9/11 bill came back together again to work on this burn pits bill. We got that across the finish line too.

Brian Lehrer: On the gun trafficking bill. Some of our listeners may be thinking, "Wait, wasn't gun trafficking already illegal?" What's new here?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: It was never a federal crime and it was basically a paperwork violation, a misdemeanor. Now, it's a federal crime with penalties of up to 25 years. You can actually arrest King Pins and straw purchasers and give them serious federal criminal sentences. That will stop the flow if we start prosecuting these cases. I've met with the head of ATF in New York and said, 'I need you to start bringing cases, and let's test the law and make sure it works because we got to get these guns off the streets."

Brian Lehrer: How will the confidentiality agreements law work? We know it's fairly common for settlements of sexual harassment to come with these NDAs, non-disclosure agreements. What was wrong with that and what can or cannot the parties do now?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: In the workplace, if you are harassed or assaulted, you used to have to go to a mandatory arbitration proceeding. Arbitrations are largely paid for by the company. The companies tend to win. It, unfortunately, shelters predators, and part of those mandatory arbitration clauses were non-disclosure agreements. Both of those provisions we had to get taken out of people's employment contracts. We separated it out, we did two separate bills, we got them both done this year.

Now, people who inadvertently signed these non-disclosure agreements and mandatory arbitration clauses, they're no longer enforceable. That changed about 60 million employment contracts overnight.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Now if you are harassed or assaulted in the workplace, you can sue that person in the court of law, name your harasser, make sure other people aren't being treated the same way. It's a huge chance for justice for victims. Having a court case usually allows them to get a greater jury reward for their suffering. It's going to bring more justice and it's going to get rid of more harassers and predators who never were revealed. They got to stay in place because these things were all done behind closed doors.

Brian Lehrer: I read that this law invalidates even pre-existing non-disclosure agreements not just prevents new ones. Are past sexual harassment victims beginning to come out of the closet about what happened to them at their workplaces?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I'm not sure yet to see whether this law has had the intended effect, but if you had signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of your settlement, that doesn't get taken away because you signed it as a contract, [crosstalk] but if you have it in your employment contract and you are harassed or assaulted even if you signed that employment contract a long time ago, those clauses are officiated.

Brian Lehrer: Is there a story before we start taking some callers and also talk about some of these news stories today, I'm curious if you've gotten a look at President Trump's tax returns yet or the conclusions from the House's ways and means committee about that or what you're expecting to hear from President Zelenskyy tonight. Is there a story about the Senate here in addition to your accomplishments leading these four bills to passage that even in these hyperpolarized times and where 10 Republican votes are needed for all these things because the filibuster rules, the bipartisanship that we think doesn't exist, does actually occur sometimes or that there are ways to make bipartisanship happen?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Yes. All my bills are bipartisan pretty much. I work on a bipartisan basis all the time in my committees. As a consequence, when Chuck was in charge as majority leader, I finally got to vote on these bills. A lot of them had sat waiting for a vote for years and never got a vote. This congress under President Biden and under Senator Schumer has been extremely bipartisan. I've been working, for example, on the Intel committee on creating the first ever cyber academy, which would be free college for kids that want to go into national security-related cyber jobs.

That's basically an augmentation of the GI Bill and that's in the defense bill this year. A number of other cyber protections. I also worked with Senator Rounds on to get in the defense bill. I work all the time on the agriculture committee on a bipartisan basis for food security programs. That's always been something that we fund every year and next year we're going to do the Farm bill, so we'll be able to get more resources into funding.

The big infrastructure bill we just passed which was bipartisan. I had some good provisions in there for a build local hire local provision, meaning that if you're doing a new infrastructure project in your town or city that local people can be trained and hired. Particularly when we're getting rid of the Robert-Moses era type of infrastructure that really harmed low-income communities and communities of color, that those individuals particularly would get the chance to be trained and do these jobs.

All that was done on a bipartisan basis. We really do work well together. I think the vitriol is really more on the campaign trail, but in the day-to-day getting things done, I have a lot of strong relationships with Republican colleagues. All the bills I mentioned had strong Republican leads. The gun bill was Conan. The sexual harassment in the workplace bill was Lindsey Graham. The military sexual assault bill was Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz-

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: -and Joni Ernst .

Brian Lehrer: Yes, you got some of the most Conservative Republicans.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Rubio was with me on the burn pits bill. I can work with anyone on something that's a shared value, and so I know the country thinks we don't work together, but we really do, and that's why we've gotten so much done this year.

Brian Lehrer: We will note, though, as Politico does in its article saying Gillibrand's Big Year, that there is one big disappointment on your legislative list that you were hoping you would get additional funding for 9/11 survivors. Of all the Americans you think are universally sympathetic, why couldn't 10 Republicans get on board with that?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: That wasn't the issue in this case. We had a consensus that this would be part of the year-end bill, but for some reason, in the final hour Senator McConnell and the Republicans had a list of things that they were not going to agree to, and this was among them, and it was a huge surprise to all of us yesterday that it wasn't part of the collaborative effort. I don't know what the opposition is, but I'm working right now to find out what the opposition is so that I can call a vote. I'm going to try to get a vote as an amendment to the omnibus today so that we can actually put it back in.

Because I just was not aware there was any opposition to this bill up until literally yesterday, and so people had not made their views known. It's also been a bipartisan unanimous bill the three times we've passed it. There's just not a basis for someone to oppose this. I'm going to do some deep diving to find out who is opposing it, and what their basis is and try to meet those questions or their concerns directly.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, what a weird mystery. Since there's almost unanimous support, maybe McConnell's playing some game to try to get something else in the omnibus, and that word listeners, omnibus, that's the big spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year that they expect to pass by tomorrow. Is there a deal he might be aiming for here or? Sounds like you still have hopes for it though, by tomorrow.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: McConnell's voted for it every time, and I spoke to him yesterday and I think there may have been some misunderstandings amongst the Republicans about the nature of this bill and why it's urgent. We basically need to restore some resources because the cost of inflation for healthcare was higher than the inflation for everything else. What I think they didn't understand is that if we don't put this money in now we will have to start cutting back on what services we can provide by the end of next year. It's much shorter in time than they thought. I think they misunderstood and thought this would go to several years out, but it's not several.

It's probably fully solvent for another year, and then people then have to start cutting back on what healthcare services can be provided. That misunderstanding I'm going to try to explain to whoever the Republicans were that blocked it or put it on the list of things that couldn't be supported. Senator Schumer and I are working very hard to make sure we can get a vote on it today. I have a lot of work to do in the next several hours to find out which Republicans are concerned, but I will find them and I will try to get at least the 10 Republicans we need. At least 15 Republicans have voted for this most recent bill, and so I'm optimistic we can get at least them.

Brian Lehrer: We have a little time yet with Senator Gillibrand before she gets back to that deal-making with the Republicans on 9/11 funding, and we're going to start taking your phone calls for the Senator right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC with our monthly call, Your Senator Segment with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Maryanne in Nassau County, you're on WNYC. Hello Maryanne.

Maryanne: Hi. I don't know if the Senator knows about the changes in Medicare law that came December 1st, where Medicare will no longer pay for breast cancer screening tests other than mammograms unless the most recent mammogram indicates something abnormal. At the same time, we have the New York State Breast Cancer Detection Law that says that a radiology report after a mammogram must state the degree of breast density found in that mammogram.

For example, my report states "Your recent mammogram is normal. Your mammogram shows that your breast tissue is dense. Dense tissue can make it harder to find cancer on a mammogram and may be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. This information is given to you to raise awareness. Use this information to talk to your referring physician if more screening tests might be useful based on your risk."

Brian Lehrer: Your question for the senator is if she's aware of this particular change in the Medicare law, Senator, are you and does it go along with any larger set of changes?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I didn't know that they're not covering your mammograms, and I think that's outrageous. I will look into this, and if you can leave your information with Brian.

Brian Lehrer: I think she was saying things other than mammograms are what's not being covered, right?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I'm not sure. I will look into her case specifically to see what's not being covered and why, and I will look into the issue more broadly if really essential care's not being covered. Breast health is essential for women, so we need to make sure that it's being covered. I will look into this and if you can give Brian your information after the call we'll be back in touch with you.

Brian Lehrer: Maryanne, hang in there. Our producer will pick up and we'll get your contact information for the Senator's office if you want to leave it. Just hold for a second. David, in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Hi, David.

David: Hi. I'm calling because Senator Gillibrand was behind a landmark amendment to the 2022 NDAA that required-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: That's the National Defense Authorization Act, the money for the Pentagon and the military.

David: Exactly, and it requires that every October 31st through 2026 to provide updates to the public on UAPs, which are Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. I want to thank the Senator for taking the issues seriously. So far it's now December 21st, and nothing's been provided. I'm curious what she thinks is going on and if she thinks the Pentagon is taking it seriously.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I appreciate your call. Thank you. I met with the head Dr. Fitzpatrick about a week and a half ago to find out where it is, and he says it's soon to be made public. It's being through its final review by the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and so he thought it could be within the next few weeks or days, so it is late, which of course made me slightly concerned, but he said it was not intentional. It's just the first public report, so they wanted to make sure it was well written, and it should be out soon.

That'll be step one. I've obviously cared deeply about this issue from a national security perspective, but also from a personnel perspective. We want to make sure service members and other members of the military that when they come forward with data and information and videos that they can actually give this information without having their careers suffer and being dismissed or disregarded in some way. It's essential that we know what types of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon exist, and then we could do the rigorous scientific review to identify it.

Some may well be weather balloons. Some may well be drones. Some well may be adversaries like China or Russia. Some may truly be unknown, but we need to know the entire collective group of what have we seen, what are the concerns, what technology is it, and can it be identified. That work is being done by Dr. Fitzpatrick and his team. He's extremely serious and very focused. I'm optimistic that it will be a thorough and thoughtful approach and one that will have a public lens.

Brian Lehrer: Solange in Port Washington, you're on WNYC with Senator Gillibrand. Hi, Solange.

Solange: Hi Brian. Thank you so much for answering my call. We spoke like four months ago when Mr. Richard Torres was in the air and I was in contact with him but he couldn't help me, but they give me Mrs. Gillibrand from Long Island. I called there and I explained my situation. The situation is that my husband has Alzheimer's and we applied for the 212 waiver and we wait one year for the application to come back. It come back--

Brian Lehrer: For immigration status.

Solange: For immigration status. Now we have to apply-- To be honest, I didn't know. Maybe the lawyer told me, but I didn't hear it. Now we have to apply for another waiver, the 601, but that's going to take two years. I'm having a panic attack because I don't know what's going to happen in a month. Can you imagine two years? For me, this is life and death, and I need Mrs. Gillibrand. She always talks about compassion.

I'm really now trying to get her compassion to us and if she can help us to get this thing faster not waiting two years.

Brian Lehrer: Senator Gillibrand, can you intervene in an immigration status case like this?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Yes. Our office does that every day. If you could stay on the line afterward and give Brian's producer your name and your number, we can help you in your immigration case. We have a very strong team in the Senate office. Anyone who's listening who has immigration concerns, you could email your request to casework@gillibrand.senate.gov. That's a way to open up a file and let some of our constituent services staff reach out on your behalf. Please stay on the line and give Brian's producer your information and we can make a call and see if it's possible to help.

Brian Lehrer: Our producer's already on with Solange. That's good. That'll be coming your way. This is WNYC-FM, HD, and AM New York. WNJT-FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcom, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are a New York and New Jersey Public Radio and live streaming @wnyc.org. A few more minutes with Senator Gillibrand. Catherine in Mount Pleasant you're on WNYC. Hi, Catherine.

Catherine: Hello. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you.

Catherine: Okay, great. Hi. Senator, hi, my name is Catherine actually an ambassador for Alzheimer's. That last call was particularly touching and I feel for this poor woman. I advocate for this every day. In my role as an advocate, I meet a lot of federal employees, all of whom have had to go through extensive background checks in order to get their jobs. They are all baffled that their bosses are not subject to the same vetting.

My question for you is, would your office and work consider some mechanism to apply the same requirements to prospective members of Congress and even presidential candidates that they go through the same background checks before they can even qualify to get on the ballot?

Brian Lehrer: You're talking about the George Santos case where this new congressman-elect from Queensland Long Island may have fabricated a lot on his resume?

Catherine: Yes. His staff would never get to be his staff because that would be caught in the employment checks.

Brian Lehrer: Catherine. Thank you. Senator, should that be some requirement? If these things in The New York Times report get verified, these alleged fabrications on his resume should he not take his seat?

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: The question about his seat, he would only not be able to take his seat if he committed a federal crime and committed fraud if he filed false federal documents. As a member of Congress, we have to file a financial disclosure statement every year so that we can have our finances have some oversight and accountability. I always post my taxes online as well for additional oversight. In this particular example, it's pretty outrageous how much he lied to the people that elected him.

I personally am going to work very hard to make sure he doesn't get reelected because voters have a right to know if you've made up a false story about who you are and what you've done, and then they vote for you I'm going to work very hard to get him unelected next cycle. I think your request is interesting. I'd have to think a little bit more about it to see whether it was constitutional or not. Our best lens for hiring and firing members of Congress is the elections. I hope that the voters show consequences for someone who lied to them in order to get elected.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to do a separate by the way, Catherine and everybody on this George Santos story and go through the details of all of what The Times found that he seemed to make up on his resume, and including something that he seemed to make up when he was on this show after he won his election. That's coming up in just a few minutes after Senator Gillibrand, I guess related Senator before we run out of time, the House ways and means committee just released Donald Trump's tax returns after a year-long battle to procure them and get the courts to authorize release after he refused to do what other presidents and presidential candidates have routinely done and make them public himself. Have you seen any of this yet, or have an impression? Much of this was taxes paid or not paid on money made and lost in New York.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: I personally post my tax returns every year, and I have for every year I've been elected to Congress. I think it should be required that all members of Congress post their tax returns every year. I think what President Trump did is fairly outrageous. I understand that it's normal for presidents to have their taxes be audited every year, and he skipped two years of his mandatory auditing.

Then also said during that time that he couldn't participate in any of these hearings or document requests because his taxes were being reviewed which was a false statement. I think it's very important that we have transparency and accountability. I think that the public does have a right to know about their president's finances to make sure they're not being bought and paid for, to make sure they don't have vulnerabilities. I think those issues are really relevant. I think it's right that they're going to release it. I hope that it becomes the law that all members of Congress have to release their taxes.

Brian Lehrer: Last thing, President Zelenskyy's first trip out of Ukraine since the war is a suddenly announced trip to meet with President Biden and then address you all in a joint session of Congress tonight. Listeners, we will carry that speech live here on WNYC tonight. What do you expect or hope to hear then we're out of time.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: President Zelensky has showed extraordinary resilience and leadership in his country and has not given up his fight against Russia. Russia as everyone knows invaded Ukraine without any provocation in a massive effort to acquire territory against all international norms. The United States has done everything we can to support Zelenskyy and his people in this fight.

We've given them billions of dollars of munitions and weaponry as well as billions of dollars of humanitarian aid. We've also made sure we could welcome more Ukrainian refugees into our country because they are a war-torn country, and we'll continue to do that. I expect he will give us an update on the war and will tell us what he needs to win. That's something that Congress stands ready to help him with. We've already put in several billions of dollars in this year, this year's Omnibus Bill that we're going to vote on. It's got about $44 billion of emergency assistance for Ukraine and our NATO allies. I think that will go a long way to helping him continue the fight.

Brian Lehrer: Is there a limit to that? That's a lot of billions when there are so many needs in this country and this war seems to be headed for a long, long term. It's going to go on for a long time it looks like.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Yes. President Zelenskyy has to determine when he believes he can negotiate for a path to peace that's up to him and his people. Hopefully, he will find a path to peace at some point in the future, but in the meantime, we will help him in his fight. The reason why even though it costs so much money it's important to stand up to Russia is because that kind of authoritarianism and belligerence has to be answered by the free world. If any country can just decide they're going to invade their neighbor to steal their land and to harm their people, that's not the international norm that we have grown to really support and love. We will welcome President Zelenskyy tonight and we will be eager to hear his words.

Brian Lehrer: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, we appreciate it. As always. We got to so much today with all this news that's breaking around us just this week and all the bills that you were involved with that actually got through in a bipartisan way in the Senate this year and answering our listeners' calls. Thank you for all of that. Happy holidays. Talk to you next year.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: Thank you, Brian. Happy holidays.

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