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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. By now, you know that Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring. We'll talk in this segment about his legacy and whom might replace him. We'll talk, I should say later in the show, about who might replace him. We're going to talk about other things right now with our first guest. Give me a minute because this is one of those moments, folks, where I thought I had all my notes in the right place, and I don't.

Let's start that over. It's the day after we all learn that President Biden will get an opportunity to fill a Supreme Court seat and everyone reminding him that he promised during this campaign to appoint a Black woman. This could also be lucky political timing for the Democrats, if you haven't heard this angle yet for the midterm elections, with a likely accomplishment just when they need one and the Supreme Court hearings being a reminder of what's at stake for all kinds of rights and justice.

Of course, it's Justice Stephen Breyer who will be retiring at the end of this term, 83-years-old, appointed by President Clinton. Justice Breyer was on this show back in 2011, a rare interview for a sitting Supreme Court justice anywhere, and one of the things he talked about was the importance to democracy and the non-violent rule of law of respecting Supreme Court decisions as binding, even if you disagree with them. He reminded us of what happened after one of the court's most important decisions, Brown v. Board of Education against segregated public schools in 1954.

Justice Stephen Breyer: Guess what happened in 1955? Answer, not much. Guess what happened in '56? Same answer, very little. Then in 1957, a federal judge in Little Rock said, "We will have integration beginning next September," and the Little Rock Nine, nine brave Black children prepared to enter a white school. The school board was ordered to let them in and September rolled around and the governor, Governor Faubus said, "Maybe the judge thinks they're going to enter, but I'm the governor, and I control the state police, and they're not going to enter."

Brian Lehrer: Justice Breyer here in 2011. That story ends, as many of you know, with President Eisenhower, having to send US troops to Arkansas to enforce Brown v. Board of Education. It was the Little Rock Board of Ed in that case. Of course, it's the court gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act a few years ago that is front and center in America right now, and that has caused my next guest to get arrested last week at a protest for voting rights.

He is Democratic Congressman Jamaal Bowman, representing parts of Westchester and the Bronx. He also now has introduced a bill called the Heating and Cooling Relief Act, and that is very timely right now, not just because it was around 18 degrees in the city when most of us woke up this morning, but also because of the deadly fire in the Bronx, started by a space heater that had reportedly been running around the clock in that apartment.

Congressman Bowman's district covering parts of Westchester and the Bronx might change with the once-a-decade redistricting process now taking place. There was news just yesterday in the Yonkers Times that a Yonkers city official might primary Bowman from the right. We'll talk about all of this now. Congressman Bowman, always appreciate you coming on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Of course. Great to be with you. Good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Can I start with the Justice Breyer news? It's the Senate, not the House, of course, that gets to confirm a replacement. Do you want to say anything either about Justice Breyer's legacy or who you would like to succeed him in that seat?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: I would love to see a Black woman succeed him. I am part of that push. It would be incredible if that were to happen. Hopefully there will be no hiccups considering Democrats are in the Majority and Senator Schumer is the Majority leader. Hopefully, President Biden's nominee, and I believe he is looking to nominate a Black woman, is going to be confirmed by the Senate, and just to make clear, this is not only about identity politics. This is about a person's lived experiences.

As we know, race has played a pivotal role in our country's history. We have all been impacted by it explicitly and implicitly, live with it and deal with bias and all those things. That's why we are pushing for a Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. No specific names. Can't comment on the retiree's career. That's not my area of expertise. I'm an educator, but I'm looking forward to the Supreme Court just being more balanced, and more progressive because the conservative Supreme Court has obviously given us a lot of problems.

Brian Lehrer: Did you say what you just said about lived experience versus identity because you're anticipating some pushback from the right that might go something like, "What do you mean you've predetermined that you're going to appoint a Black woman? Didn't Martin Luther King say we should judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin?"

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: I don't know if that would be the exact pushback, but I think we need to begin to have more nuanced conversations about the truth of our history, the truth of who we are, the truth of humanity, and be honest about the impact of race and gender and class on our lived experiences and how those lived experiences influence our career pathways, our policy making and our engagement with one another. I'm just trying to promote honest conversations. Who knows what the pushback might be?

Brian Lehrer: Before we move onto other things, for you as an educator, a former educator, you heard that Stephen Breyer clip from when he was on the show, recalling the resistance to Brown v. Board requiring federal troops to be sent in by a Republican president to escort Black children to school. What were you thinking about yesterday or today as you listened to that clip?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Interesting. You said a decision made by a Republican president. It makes me think of how far away we are from principled Republicans governing at a national and also at a local level. It also makes me think of how Brown v. Board sought to integrate the schools, but it also displaced tens of thousands of Black teachers when white people didn't want their kids taught by Black teachers. It makes me think of today how school board meetings are becoming volatile and people are even threatening gun violence at some of them.

All these years later, most schools are still segregated here in New York City. We're still having a fight over education. Obviously, a lot more work to do there.

Brian Lehrer: Did you have Martin Luther King or civil rights era nonviolent direct action in general, in mind when you were part of a group that got arrested near the Capitol in a protest for voting rights last week?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: I just wanted to do something and I just wanted to be there with them. This group and many groups across the country have put their bodies on the line, engaging in hunger strikes. I met someone who's been on hunger strike for 67 days. They were standing out there in the freezing cold the night before. I was with them trying to get the attention of any senator that would walk by. We were reading legislation from states regarding the suppression of the vote.

I just wanted to be present with them and I just wanted to give as much love and support as possible. As I gave that love and support, I had to cross a yellow tape police line and do it, which is what led to me being arrested with them.

Brian Lehrer: Where do you think that stands now? Manchin and Sinema are not going to vote to suspend the filibuster, it doesn't look like, so it's not happening in the Senate. The polls indicate that more Americans are seeing President Biden and the party as ineffectual, partly for not being able to get this done. Other Democrats could lose their House and Senate seats because those two are dissenting from them. How concerned are you about that?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: I think millions of people need to ascend on Washington in peaceful protests and to ascend or descend on local governments across the country in peaceful protests. I think now is the time, I know now is the time, for another civil rights movement. One of the reasons why the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed is because of that movement. Many paid the ultimate price during that movement, like King, X, Fred Hampton, Medgar Evers and Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. The students at-- I believe it was Kent State. Forgive me if I'm messing up the college.

That movement transformed America, but it only did it for a short period of time because we're several decades later still fighting for many of the same things. We need another movement right now, and we need millions of people to be engaged on a daily basis to force the Senate to do the right thing on voting rights on justice and policing, on women's reproductive rights, on immigration, on common sense gun reform. We need to become a country that reflects the ideals of our democracy and not the gilded age concentrated wealth that we have in this country and the militarism that continues.

We need the people to force us to govern in reflection of them and we need the people to take back the country.

Brian Lehrer: My guest is Congressman Jamaal Bowman from parts of Westchester in the Bronx. If you're just joining us, listeners of program note later in the we're going to go more deeply into the legacy of Justice Breyer and the potential nominees to replace him. That'll be coming up a little later, but right now we can take your calls for Congressman Jamaal Bowman.

Any thoughts on his idea, which we're going to get into of Heating and Cooling Relief Act? Who needs it in your own life on a day like this? 212433-WNYC, 2124339692 or you can start the conversation going and we'll take calls in both these segments on Stephen Breyer's legacy or replacement or voting rights or redistricting, or the mid-term elections for Congressman Bowman, 212433-WNYC, 2124339692, or tweet your thought or comment. You can always do that @BrianLehrer. You never get a busy signal on Twitter. Congressman, tell us about your Heating and Cooling Relief Act that you've introduced in the House.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: We have millions of people struggling with energy, poverty. Energy costs are way too high. Utility costs are way too high. There is help and assistance for millions of people across the country, but the majority do not access that help in assistance. Our bill seeks to add $40 billion to the program so it can have the robust funding that it needs to help more people, but it also cuts out a lot of the red tape, people have the opportunity to self-attest and access the additional resources so that they could properly heat their homes.

This bill also does not exclude undocumented immigrants, which is huge because they are the engine of our economy and need to be supported. We're very excited about that. This also helps to deal with anyone who's in debt because of utility payments and it also provides opportunities for weatherization of buildings as well, which will help buildings to stay warmer during the winter and cooler in the summer because listen, at the end of the day, no one should need a space heater because our buildings should be properly heated. The fact that they are not is because of energy cost and energy scarcity, which shouldn't exist because we should give people what they need to live comfortably and with dignity.

Really excited about this bill. It's a bicameral bill with Senator Markey and has a lot of support so far and hope it'll grow that support going forward.

Brian Lehrer: Did you come up with this in response to the space heater fire are in the Bronx, or were you getting this ready to go anyway?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Oh, we were ready to go. I would like to write a bill in a day or two, but it's pretty hard to do. Unfortunately, this horrible fire occurred in the Bronx and as you know this just seems to happen annually. There was another fire in Yonkers that happened a week before. I think the Bronx had another explosion a week or two after this fire, but no, we had the bill ready to go and we were going to introduce it. When we actually introduced it, it just happened to line up immediately with the fire that happened in the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: I see one of the quotes on your press release about the bill is that the act would end energy poverty in the US by providing that-- no family would spend more than 3% of their family's budget on home energy and would provide states with the flexibility to weatherize up to a million homes per year. Talk about that 3% cap. How would that work?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Regardless of your income, you'll pay no more than 3% of your income towards energy costs. What we've seen over the last several decades is on average, real wages have been stagnant, but the cost of energy, the cost of childcare, the cost of transportation, education, all of these costs have gone up. Just like we're trying to cap childcare costs at 7% and trying to cap housing costs at 25% of income, we're trying to cap energy costs at 3%.

Right now, the costs are way too high and we have energy companies like [unintelligible 00:15:26] and others making huge profits off the backs of working class and poor people. They've made even more profits during the pandemic. That cap as we re-imagine and redesign our economy is critical for energy and utilities, but it's also going to be critical in childcare, housing, in other areas, we're going to look to attack in the next coming months.

Brian Lehrer: The 7% cap on childcare expenses as part of the Build Back Better Act. We'll see if that ever gets through. For this 3%, would you require proof of income through tax returns or something like that and then showing the government your energy bill? Or how would that actually work?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: The nerds in this area will deal with the details on how to make a it work, but it will not be means-tested in a traditional sense because we don't want to exclude people who do not have particular paperwork that a state may require in terms of a means-testing program. We still got to figure out what the 3% will look like, but this provides the guardrails that can be a guidepost towards getting us to the 3%.

Brian Lehrer: I'm thinking about the New York City context where it's so often the landlord who actually pays for the heat as I believe was the case in the Bronx, for example, in that building and is very common. When you're talking about heating relief, does it go to the landlord?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Landlords are part of this conversation as well. Yes, absolutely.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Let's take a phone call. Let's see. Who are we going to start with? How about Gunar in Brooklyn? Gunar, you're on WNYC with Congressman Jamaal Bowman. Hello there.

Gunar: Hi, thank you so much for taking my call, Brian and also I'm very thankful for the Congressman to put out or make these comments. I would like to add on this comments of the segregated school system in New York. I think what we need to put out more in public is first the gerrymandering of school districts. For instance, if you compare District 1, that's where my kids go to school and District 2, that is far bigger and has so much more options for kids who graduate from elementary school, they will go to middle school, high school. I think it's the board and I think we need to change that-

Brian Lehrer: You're talking about within the city schools, changing the school districts?

Gunar: Yes, I would say so because as you see, District 1 is very small and it's just [unintelligible 00:18:19] around public housing. If kids there are predominantly, kids of color, as they want to go to a good middle school, they just have a handful and compared to the District 2 that has some more options for predominantly white kids. It needs to be [unintelligible 00:18:40]

Brian Lehrer: If you were to change those lines. Congressman Bowman, for you as a former educator, and of course, we were just talking about school desegregation in the context of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, but as you point out we have de facto segregation in the city and elsewhere today.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Yes. I agree with any move towards the integration of our schools and not just racial integration, but economic integration and integration based on courses of study and interests, for example, high schools that focus on the arts, other high schools that focus on technical education, et cetera. The other thing we have to remember is one of the reasons why our schools continue to be segregated is because our neighborhoods are segregated and our communities are segregated and communities have been red-lined.

As we look to integrate schools, we have to integrate communities, which means reinvesting in communities that we haven't invested in, in several decades and we've allowed to fall into poverty, violence, and disrepair. We have to deal with all of the above. Schools are heartbeats of communities and interconnected to communities in so all many ways, so as we integrate schools, let's uplift and rebuild and invest in our communities so that we can have the multiracial communities and schools that this country deserves.

Brian Lehrer: Craig in Queens, you're on WNYC with Congressman Jamaal Bowman. Hi, Craig.

Craig: Hey, good morning, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Happy New Year to you and Congressman Bowman.

Brian Lehrer: To you. You only get three more days to say, "Happy New Year," because after February 1st, the law doesn't allow it. You know that.

Craig: Brian, you always take my call if it's a new year. I commend Justice Breyer for retirement. He had made past comments about his seat wasn't a liberal seat and he didn't care for the fact that people thought that it was and he wouldn't for surely retire under Democratic president. I commend him for doing that. Justice Kennedy did that so that his seat could remain in- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Republican appointee, president appointee of the justice, yes.

Craig: Congressman Bowman talked about identity politics. The Democrats have to wear the big D identity. Republicans have no problem with saying, "We want this district to be Republican. We want this district to remain Republican. We want flip it and make it Republican." Democrats got to stop playing checkers. We got to start playing chess. We have to strategize. He wants people to get to the streets, but we hire the elected officials to do stuff. They have to strategize. They have to use whatever bully pulpit. If Biden has to sic the IRS on Mitch McConnell's wife business or offer Mitch McConnell a battleship to be named in his honor to get votes on the Democratic side.

There's buttons that they should be able to push. I know this guy for 20 something years in the Senate, he doesn't know how to backdoor deal wheel and deal. That's why we elected him because he said he knows these people. He could deal with them. We can't blame it on the times. Men and women always want something. It can't be up to the people always. We came out and vote during the pandemic and got people in office. They have to do stuff and can't blame it on those two people. They are there. That's my comment, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Craig, thank you very much. Congressman Bowman, you want to react to that at all?

Congressman Bowman: Oh no, absolutely. It's both and right. We in Congress have to do our job, use the bully pulpit, introduce legislation, advocate, do anything in our power and everything in our power to make sure we forward particular legislation. We have been doing that in the House to Senate, it is what it is. We need that and we govern for the people. If the people aren't consistently making demands on what we should be doing then we have an excuse not to do those things.

Yes, continue to vote in large numbers because when we do the righteous win, but also in between elections, consistently engage your elected officials at every level of government so that they know that the people are paying attention and the people are ready to mobilize and, if necessary, vote a particular person out of office. Both things in the democracy have to work together.

Brian Lehrer: Any thoughts on how the Dems can hold swing districts they won in 2018? Can they keep the moderates from thinking the party is going too far or is focused on the wrong issues? They'd rather hear you talk more about inflation than democracy, things like that and at the same time, key progressives like yourself satisfied that they're doing enough to bring change?

Congressman Bowman: If we all care about this country and we all care about the future for humanity and humanity as it currently stands then we can figure out how to have a conversation that crosses political ideology if you will. Principled Republicans and more conservative Democrats who claim to be principled do not want an insurrection, do not want a president like Donald Trump, do not want tens of millions of people to take up arms to defend their "freedom".

If you do not want those things, then let's come to the table and figure out what we do want and how to get there and stop governing based on headlines and fear mongering and govern based on the needs of the people and the love for humanity. That should be our focus. When I talk to my more moderate colleagues, that's what I'm talking about. Yes, I'm a progressive, yes, I have a majority-minority district, and in order for us to have a healthy democracy and economy, we have to equitably meet the needs of every person in our country. That includes the people in my district.

We're a big tent as Democrats and we have to figure out what this collaboration's going to look like because if we don't, the worst can occur, which will be Trump in office again in 2024 and Republicans controlling both chambers.

Brian Lehrer: Alan in Brooklyn wants to continue the conversation on school desegregation. Alan, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Alan: Good morning, Brian. Thanks for the great work continuing. I'm talking as somebody who lived through a very odd part of history on the race issue. They talk about Goldilocks planets being a place where it's just not too hot, not too cold for life to exist. I went through a part of the race change curve where in 1970, as racial content in our high school was shifting, it was almost exactly 50-50 and we had such incredible harmony and great energy out of that.

We have people who were still close friends on both sides of that divide today because it was a marvelous time, but of course, that process was part of gradient caused by white flight where a few years later the ratio in the same school was more like 80-20, and people reacted to too much forced integration by moving. I'm just wondering, how can you address, in the modern age, the issue of trying to have it both ways? You want to have the integration, but you don't want to have a process that will inevitably lead to de facto segregation a few years later.

Brian Lehrer: Good, complicated question. Congressman?

Congressman Bowman: I don't quite understand how we would have integration, but then de facto segregation.

Brian Lehrer: He's talking about, I think the history of white flight. If the schools were integrated, if the neighborhood was becoming mixed, white people wouldn't stand for that for whatever reasons and so moved away and said, "School districts are by geography," as the previous caller is bringing up. Then you go back to de facto segregation without some other thing to prevent it.

Congressman Bowman: Here's the thing. There are many white people, millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of white people who don't mind integrated neighborhoods and integrated communities. If there are others who don't and don't want to live with people of color that's their choice, they don't need to live with people of color. The majority of the American people want us to evolve as a multiracial democracy and they know that's going to include integrated neighborhoods, integrated schools and us truly coming together and working together.

This is what happens when you don't have honest conversations about race and class ever as a nation, you have people engaging in white flight and other things because there's a lot of misinformation and miseducation and ignorance when it comes to racial and ethnic differences and what they mean for us individually, for our children, for our communities and what it means collectively.

Me going to school in integrated spaces enriched my experience growing up and helps me to be comfortable in multiple settings talking to multiple people because I'm able to recognize our shared humanity because I went to school with Irish, Polish, Italian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Jamaican, African, Ghanaian, whatever. I went to school with all kinds of people and you realize very quickly, and kids realize this too which is why I love kids in education, if they're not taught about these differences and put in competition with each other, they live together, they play together, they work together and they get along fine.

We need to shift the consciousness of all people in our country, but someone wants to be a part of white flight, that's their choice to do so.

Brian Lehrer: I think we have time for one more call for Congressman Jamaal Bowman and then we're going to have the new head of the MTA, Janno Lieber joining us. Listeners, people always are very interested when we get to talk to bus and subway and commuter rail officials so get your bus and subway and Metro-North and Long Island Railroad questions ready for Janno Lieber coming up in just a couple and minutes.

Dan in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Congressman Jamaal Bowman representing parts of Westchester in the Bronx. Hi, Dan.

Dan: Hey, Brian. Morning, congressman.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: I have a lot of personal experience with the issue of gun violence. My brother was shot in the shooting that happened on the observation deck of the Empire State building in 1997 and then I became leader of one of the big, national gun violence prevention organizations. There's been a lot of talk locally about gun violence over the last few days since the mayor has announced his blueprint to do something about the issue.

I'm wondering what the congressman thinks his role is and the role of federal government is in making our city and our area safer from gun violence. Just one area of suggestion based on my experience and that doesn't get enough attention when we talk about gun violence locally is the flow of guns from other states. We know who the states are, we know who the gun dealers are. I've always called them bad apple gun dealers because they spoil it for the rest of the gun dealers that actually don't trade in largely illegal guns and wondering what the Congressman thinks, about, overall what we can do about the issue of gun violence on a federal level to impact us here locally, and then specifically about that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Dan.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Great question, Dan. Sorry to hear about your brother, what happened with your brother. Where you just went with the question is where I always go with the conversation, especially coming from a federal perspective. The House passed HR(8) in March out of the House, which is Common Sense Gun Reform legislation. Jim Clyburn also had a bill I always mix up the number, I think is 1446 that passed at the House, which is also a part of the Common Sense Gun Reform legislation, which will close a lot of loopholes, deal with the issue of ghost guns, and deal with the issue of trafficking in many ways. Those bills are both gathering dust in the Senate.

You're absolutely right; there needs to be mass mobilization pushing for these bills in the Senate to be passed because over 80% of the gun violence that occurs in New York City happens with guns that come from out-of-state. Absolutely, 100%, agree with that and we should absolutely talk more about that push for that. In addition to that, I've been doing some work with Governor Hochul and talking to other elected officials about our young people and the young people who are more vulnerable and susceptible to gun violence, and picking up a gun and using it.

What we found is these are young people who have struggled in school, have been identified as having a learning disability or what have you. There have been very little resources and support from an academic and mental health perspective for these vulnerable young people and then they ended up picking up a gun and using it. We have to have that approach as well, a true public health approach to public safety, where we are identifying those who are higher risks. The police already know who these people are. These are young people who have had a run-in with the law in one way or another. The problem is there's no connecting to services and resources so they don't escalate.

We have to stop the escalation and then they're less likely to pick up a gun and also deal with the traffic and the flow of guns, and also discuss why guns continue to flow into areas of poverty. We know why because those are the most vulnerable people. We have to deal with the issue of poverty as well.

Brian Lehrer: Reportedly in the Yonkers Times today, you might get primaried by a Yonkers official who calls himself a moderate and says you're too progressive for the district. The article says he might get police union backing, for example, as well, as they're hoping the redistricting to come, shortly, makes your district more conservative. The article in the Yonkers Times makes it sound like this person might run against you on the issue of crime.

I presume you don't support Mayor Adams wanting to change the bail reform law, correct me if I'm wrong, or wanting to reinstitute a plainclothes-anti-gun unit? Do you want to want to say anything as a last answer, either about Mayor Adams or the prospect of being primary within your own party from the right?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Well, I think those solutions by Mayor Adams don't get to the core of the problem because it hasn't been bail reform that has led to much of the violence that's happening in the city. The majority of people who have benefited from bail reform do not have additional interactions with law enforcement at all.

It doesn't get to the core of the problem. I think the core of the problem is a public health approach as well as federal policy that stops the flow of guns into the state as well as the issue of poverty, as I mentioned.

It's an issue that, like I said, I've been working with Governor Hochul and others on throughout my tenure this far because in two parts of my district, Mount Vernon, and in the Northeast Bronx, we have some of the highest incidence of gun violence in the country. I'm in constant communication with local law enforcement, with ATF, and others to figure out how to best approach this issue. I connected ATF with the 47 precincts so that they can work in partnership on this. We're just going to continue to do the work for the district and allow the results to speak for themselves. So far, things seem to be going pretty well.

Brian Lehrer: Just to cycle back to your Heating and Cooling Relief Act for one more answer, Senator Gillibrand is coming on the show on Monday, and I see she's sponsoring it in the Senate. Is this all just symbolic for right now, or does the bill have a snowball's chance in tomorrow's blizzard forecast with a 50/50 Senate?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Listen, there's always a snowball's chance. Unfortunately, to your point, Republicans have ceased to govern in collaboration with us, as Democrats. That makes everything more challenging. They just say no to everything. We're going to continue to work the bill. Introducing it is important for messaging as well as shifting people's thinking about a particular issue, but working it in the House and in the Senate to get support is what we have to do for every bill. We'll see. We're going to work it and see where it lands.

Brian Lehrer: Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Democrat from parts of Westchester in the Bronx, we always appreciate when you come on. Thank you so much.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Appreciate it. Can I say one more thing?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: I wanted to mention fair pay for home care and universal childcare, we absolutely have to have that as part of the state's budget. Our home care workers barely earn minimum wage, they need to earn the prevailing wage. We're calling on Governor Hochul and the state legislature to support fair pay for home care. We have it as part of the Build Back Better. We're going to be continuing to push it federally, but we also need to push it here locally. Please contact your local elected officials and the governor to make sure fair pay for home care is part of this year's budget.

Brian Lehrer: Part of that is home-health aides who work 24 hours actually live in with their clients only getting paid for 13 of those hours per day, right?

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: That's right. That's correct. Yes, sir.

Brian Lehrer: Congressman, thank you very much.

Congressman Jamaal Bowman: Thank you.

 

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