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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning everyone and Happy Birthday George Washington. Once upon a time, February 22nd, today Is February 22nd was the national holiday called George Washington's Birthday. Weirdly, now that it's become Presidents Day, it can mathematically never fall on Washington's actual birthday because it's observed on the third Monday in February, which cannot be any later than February 21st. Do the math. That was part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971 but it's today, not last Monday that George Washington turns 289, some national holiday trivia there to start your week.

As for today, politicians and viruses are on the move. While Senator Ted Cruz went to Cancun to wait out the crisis in Texas, a member of the New York delegation went to Texas. In fact, Queens and Bronx representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has raised nearly $5 million in relief for people hard hit financially from the storm. Here she is on Saturday, outside of Food Bank in Houston.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: When disaster strikes, this is not just an issue for Texans. This is an issue for our entire country and our whole country needs to come and rally together behind the needs of Texans all across the state. As mentioned earlier, disasters don't strike everyone equally. When you already have so many families in the state and across the country that are on the brink that can't even afford an emergency to begin with, when you have a disaster like this, it can just set people back for years, not just for days.

We have tragedy in this state. We need to rally around the state. We need to rally federal support for Texans and the state of Texas and we need to make sure that we make short and long-term policy decisions so that this kind of preventable devastation never happens again.

Brian Lehrer: Bronx and Queens Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Texas. Another representative from Queens, Tom Suozzi, whose district runs along the North Shore of Long Island Sound from Eastern Queens to Western Suffolk County tweeted this, "Catastrophic hurricanes, tropical storms, forest and brush fires, droughts, flooding, and unprecedented freezing in Texas this week, the Biden administration has put climate change back on the government agenda, and not a moment too soon."

Joining us now is Congressman Tom Suozzi on that, and the Coronavirus relief bill that's getting close to passage, and more. Congressman, always good to have you on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Tom Suozzi: Hi, Brian, thanks for having me on.

Brian Lehrer: Some people have wondered, what is the freak cold spell and snowstorm in the south have to do with global warming? It would seem to run in the opposite direction? Have you answered that question for yourself based on your tweet?

Tom Suozzi: It's not just global warming, it's climate change and everything's changing. The earth was historically able to take all the different injuries that we inflicted upon it as human beings, but it can't take it anymore and it's reacting to it very dramatically. Human beings have existed for about 800 generations and in the past three generations, we've had the industrial age, and we've really piled a lot on the earth in a very short period of time, and it just can't take it anymore. We're starting to see the impacts and we need to react to it.

Brian Lehrer: Some people call it global weirding because as the temperatures get warmer, it affects the wind patterns, it affects the amount of moisture in the air. Things like that that can cause even this freak snowstorm in places like Houston, Texas. What do you think of your Queens delegation colleague's relief effort? It's striking that a New Yorker is taking a leading role on this.

Tom Suozzi: I think it's wonderful that she's doing that. Alex is a very thoughtful person and the fact that she would do something like that using her "celebrity" to try and help people is really what this business is all about and I applaud her for it. During Hurricane Harvey, we collected foodstuffs and sent down tractor-trailers worth of food and other supplies down to Texas, but I'm not nearly as well known as she is and I think it's really wonderful that she did it.

Brian Lehrer: In the clip we played, the Congresswoman seem to be making the point that not only is emergency relief needed now, but to focus on climate policy too and also on inequality. It's as usual, the people already with the least, got hit the hardest like happened here with Hurricane Sandy, and lots of other things. What policy implications do you think that might have?

Tom Suozzi: Well, that's a big, big question. There's a lot of different points to hit there. One thing I want to emphasize is, New York has been hit very hard, for example, by the Coronavirus as has many places in the country. When we hear elected officials talking about blue state bailouts, it's really very irresponsible. We here in New York say, "Listen, we've got to help our brothers and sisters down in Texas, especially those that are the hardest hit people."

As you pointed out, people with the lowest incomes are some of the people that are the hardest hit by these types of tragedies. Well, the same thing is happening in New York and that's why we need help, as part of the Coronavirus relief package that President Biden has put out for state and local aid because we've been hit so badly by sales tax diminishment in our state, which affects our state, affects our school districts, affects our city, affects all of our local governments.

There's so many different issues that we need to address. I think we're going to be talking a lot more about policy going forward, and hearing about a lot more upsetting things, because Trump is no longer dominating every single minute of the news every day. It's giving us all a chance to actually look at all the things that are happening around us and climate change, inequality, income inequality, racial inequality, the funding of governments, these are all things that are serious policy issues that need to be discussed on a regular basis.

Which we haven't gotten around to because we've spent all this time on this showman's back and forth, fostering an environment of fear and anger and you can't solve complicated policy issues in an environment of fear and anger. You need smart people of goodwill to sit down and talk to each other and try and find common ground.

Brian Lehrer: There's a little breaking, Trump's Supreme Court news just before we went on the air. I don't know if you would have even seen this yet. We'll throw in an extra little segment on this later in the show. I don't want to get bogged down on Donald Trump when there's so much actual business of the country of the moment to do. We'll talk about the COVID relief bill in more detail in a second but the Supreme Court just a little while ago refused the Trump organization's plea not to have their tax returns turned over to prosecutors here in New York. Any quick reaction to that?

Tom Suozzi: I think that that was inevitable and I'm happy to hear that.

Brian Lehrer: The COVID relief bill, some of these provisions that people are counting on will expire in mid-March but some of the provisions are still being debated. How close are you to passing this?

Tom Suozzi: The Congress and the Senate have really been working very, very rapidly in a methodical way to get this done in time for March 14th. The budget committee has taken all the work done by the House committees of jurisdiction on Ways and Means. $944 billion of the $1.9 billion package came through the Ways and Means Committee, for example. All the different committees, I think it was nine separate committees of jurisdiction, have given all their work, their markups to the Budget Committee.

The Budget Committee has been working. They're going to finish up hopefully today, to put it all into a complete package, 600 pages of budget package. That will have to go through a process in Congress through rules and et cetera. We'll hopefully be voting on it on Friday and may slip into Saturday. Then it will go to the Senate, and then we'll have to reconcile the two.

Brian Lehrer: You mentioned Republicans who are saying blue state bailout and things like that. Here is Republican House whip, Steve Scalise, on ABC this week yesterday, with a variety of his party's objections to the bill and its current form. He's responding to the host, noting that the Democrats version has been very popular in the polls.

Steve Scalise: If you said, do you want us to borrow that money from your children because that's what this is. I think their answer might be a lot differently and especially if you told them a fact that there's over a trillion dollars of money unspent from previous relief bills that were bipartisan. The money's still sitting in a bank account and we're going to pass 1.9 trillion of additional spending to bail out failed states to raise the minimum wage. What does that have to do with COVID? It should be focused on helping families and small businesses who are struggling, not bankrupting our children.

Brian Lehrer: Congressman, you're in the moderate caucus known as the Problem Solvers. Do any of those objections speak to you?

Tom Suozzi: No. This is something we must do. We must do this package. The only mistake we can make now is not to do it big enough and not do it soon enough. As you pointed out, this is very popular with the American people and I think that Steve Scalise and other Republicans are objecting to this bill at their own peril. Every single president is going to have the opposite party try and tear them down, that's just the nature of politics.

Some politicians, some presidents are effective at overcoming that and getting things done. President Biden has developed a comprehensive plan here. He is out selling it to the American people. The American people are in favor of it, including Republicans, Independents and Democrats and this needs to be done. People want some relief, they want a comprehensive approach [sound cut].

Brian Lehrer: Whoops, did we lose Congressman Suozzi's line? I think for the moment, we've lost Congressman Suozzi's line. Here's what we'll do, folks. We'll open up the phones. We were going to do this anyway. I presume we'll get him back in a second. You can give us a call and ask a question of Congressman Suozzi on the things that we're talking about, aspects of the COVID relief bill, the storm in Texas and the implications for larger policy, ALC's trip down there.

646-435-7280, 646-435-7280 with your questions for Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, Congressman Tom Suozzi, 646-435-7280, or tweet @BrianLehrer. We'll watch our Twitter go by for questions for the Congressman. I think he's back now, Congressman, are you there?

Tom Suozzi: Yes, I was talking the whole time. I don't know what happened. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: That's what Congress members do, you talk the whole time. No, I'm kidding.

Tom Suozzi: We keep talking. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Let's see, where were we?

Tom Suozzi: I don’t know how far I got.

Brian Lehrer: Well, you were talking about that the bill is popular with the American people. That's about where some Republican with a wire snippet cut you off at that point.

Tom Suozzi: Well, I think that the Republicans are opposing this at their own peril. Every administration, every president is going to face the opposite party, is going to try and beat them back, try and cut them down. That happens with every president. I don't care who it is, from Clinton to Bush, to Obama, to Trump. The opposing party always does that. Some presidents, some politicians understand how to get things done, even in that environment.

I think that we will find that President Biden will be very consequential in this respect, that he understands the policy, he understands the politics. He knows the people on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Congress, of the Senate and the House. He knows how to get things done. The people, the American people support this bill, and he's out there selling it. They want a comprehensive plan. They want something done that's going to finally beat back this virus, and he's out there demonstrating that he is getting things done for the pe--

I remember my first term I ran for Congress, my campaign theme was “Suozzi gets it done”. I want to get things done. Biden wants to get things done, he wants to actually deliver for the American people.

I hear Democrats all the time saying, “Enough with the messaging bills, let's actually do things that help people.” That's what this $1.9 trillion package is all about. Every economist has said, “The worst thing you can do is not spend enough money or not do it quickly enough.” I think that President Biden gets that, and I think Republicans are making a big mistake in not helping get this done.

Brian Lehrer: You make an interesting point about unity, about the nature of unity, and what we should even mean in the media or anywhere else when we talk about unity. Could it be that unity, meaning more people supporting the same thing in our polarized country, could it be that unity will come more from ambitious policy that helps a lot of people, than from compromising with Republicans for a bigger vote at the moment, but that does less and touches fewer lives?

Tom Suozzi: It's going to be different in different circumstances. Sometimes, you need to just get something done. This $1.9 trillion package, we just need to get this done. We'd love for Republicans to cooperate with us, but if they're not going to cooperate, we're going to just keep on working to go forward. Every Democrat who's been around for a while in the Congress, Schumer, Pelosi, even Biden around, they go back to 2008 when Bush was leaving office after the 2008 meltdown.

Well, when they passed the bailout package to save us after the fiscal meltdown in 2008, it was with 179 Democratic votes and only about 80 or less Republican votes. When Obama got into office and he said, “Listen, we have to continue to do this bailout, we have to continue to address the stimulus for the meltdown in the economy.” They tried to cooperate with the Republicans and the Republicans led them along, and they delivered zero votes, zero votes. The Democrats had to do it all on their own.

People are very, very affected by that. Listen, I'm the first person who wants to work across party lines. I'm always trying to do that, I'm always trying to build relationships, but when you need to get something done, you need to get something done. This is one of those instances, and when we come back after this and talk about infrastructure and try and work together with the other side, we absolutely will try and do that but we're going to get something done.

Brian Lehrer: Sandra in Huntington, you are on WNYC with-- I think you're a member of Congress, Tom Suozzi. Hi, Santa.

Tom Suozzi: Yes, I represent Huntington.

Sandra: I'm just calling with regard to contributions to the state of Texas or any place individually, that we can send some contributions monetarily. If you have a list that you can send to us or say on the air, that would be great. Thank you very much.

Tom Suozzi: Well, put something on our webpage. Right now, you should just look to the traditional sources like the Red Cross, but we'll put something on our congressional website later today or tomorrow. That's wonderful that you're thinking that way, Sandra. Again, remember when we went through Hurricane Sandy, everyone's favorite politician Ted Cruz was saying, “Let's not give any money to help New York during this difficult time.”

He talked about how is again, a blue state bailout. We don't think that way in New York, we want to help people, even people from states that aren't necessarily sympathetic to New York. The fact that you want to do that and you're inspired to do that, is much appreciated, Sandra.

Brian Lehrer: Besides, the big organizations, there are lots of smaller mutual aid groups functioning in the hard-hit areas of Texas. I don't have a list offhand to reach you, but I know that's one of the things that Congresswoman, Ocasio-Cortez wanted to highlight were some of the smaller community-based mutual aid organizations. Again, I don't have it to give to you right here on the air, but there are ways to look for those. That's one thing you can keep in mind, if you want your contribution to go to a bigger or a smaller group as you begin to look for the right one.

Debbie in the Bronx, you're on WNYC with Congressman Tom Suozzi. Hi, Debbie.

Debbie: Hi, Brian, and hi, Tom. My question is, what about that Republican objection, why hasn't the previous bills on money's been spent?

Brian Lehrer: The particular stat that we have been hearing in the news, mostly from Republicans, tell me if you want to refute it, that-- I'm trying to remember the exact number, but some large number close to-

Tom Suozzi: A trillion dollars.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, a trillion dollars from the previous bill has not been spent, and now you want to authorize almost 2 trillion more. What's the story there?

Tom Suozzi: Well, there's a lot of money that has to go through a process, and that process takes time. You don't say the money is authorized and it goes out the door a moment later. Some things we're frustrated that it takes as long as it takes to get out the door. For example, the PPP program, which is the Payroll Protection Program for small businesses, there's lots of processing that's still going on, even though the application processes is over, to try and get those loans out the door through private banks. There's hundreds of billions of dollars that's still out there related to that money. That's just the way of the world with government.

When you talk about money for state and local aid, well, we really need that money for state and local aid and there hasn't been money authorized since early spring of last year. That's $350 billion of this bill. You need money for unemployment insurance that's expiring on March 14th, and that's hundreds of billions of dollars. I could go through each of the different items that's in the bill but I believe that all of these things are necessary, as does the President, as does the Democrats. Even a few Republicans believe the same way but they just may not be there for the votes when we need them.

Brian Lehrer: Dave in Old Bethpage, you're on WNYC with Congressman Suozzi. Hi, Dave.

Dave: Hi, how are you? I'm a big fan of yours, Brian, and I have to say the best compliment I ever received was when I met your mother, and she said I reminded her of you.

Brian Lehrer: Oh.

Tom Suozzi: Oh, that's nice.

Brian Lehrer: How about that? That's very sweet. Hi, Ma, I don't know if you know Dave, but there you go. Hi, Dave.

Dave: She wouldn't remember me. What I wanted to point out was, listening to Steve Scalise criticize the minimum wage-increase and talking about how the bill needs to help families, who does he think earns minimum wage? People with families, they're not all people living in furnished rooms on their own somewhere.

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Let me bring people up to speed on what that refers to, and, Dave, thank you very much. There is in this bill something that would seem to many people on the surface not to be COVID relief, that the Democrats are tacking on a big agenda item to this COVID relief bill, and that is a permanent hike in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 today, up to $15. What is it doing in this bill, first of all, and what do you say to Dave's comment and the Republican objections that it doesn't belong in this bill?

Tom Suozzi: Well, first, let's talk about how important increasing the minimum wage is. We've done it here in New York already, but you pointed out that the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. If you make $10 an hour, and you work 40 hours a week, and you work 50 weeks a year, you're making $20,000 a year.

At 7 something an hour, you're making $14,000 or $15,000 a year. Don't tell me that someone who works hard, works 40 hours a week, works 50 weeks a year is going to live the American dream, to have a place to live, to educate their kids, to buy health insurance, and retire one day without being scared by making $14, or $20, or even at $15 an hour, that's $30,000 a year. $15 an hour, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, that's $30,000 a year. We need to restore the American dream.

Most of the anger that exists in our country, I believe, that gave rise to Donald Trump in the first place, and to Bernie Sanders to some degree is because people are just very unhappy, because they're working hard, and they just can't make it. We've created enormous wealth in the United States of America by the end of the late 1980s, the Dow Jones has gone up 15 times, 1500%, the GDP has gone up eight times, 800%, but people's wages have gone up less than 20%.

We're not sharing all the wealth that we're creating in this country with the people that go to work every day, and that's what we need to be doing. That's why we need to increase the minimum wage amongst a whole host of other things to support labor unions and to support collective bargaining and to try and get people to share their good fortune when they're making the money with the people that work for them during the process. That is key to the success of the United States for long term.

Why is it in this bill? People right now are especially in trouble at the lowest ends. $40,000 a year is not a lot of money that people make, but 25% of the people that make $40,000 a year, 25% of them are unemployed right now. We need to get those businesses reopened by beating the pandemic, by continuing the vaccine program, by continuing to wear our masks, by continuing to do contact tracing, by stopping the spread of different variants.

We need to beat the virus, but we also need to get people back to work, and when they get back to work, we need them to make sufficient wages so that they can live the American dream so that it's clear as day that working is a lot more attractive than collecting unemployment insurance. Having a $15 a year minimum wage is a way to do that. Now, the minimum wage will not go up immediately, it will be over a period of years that will take it to increase to $15 an hour, but we need to get started.

Brian Lehrer: I read that the Congressional Budget Office says raising the minimum wage to $15 would cost more than a million jobs. Is the more living wage for workers making the minimum a good trade-off in helping low-income workers with that many others losing jobs or not getting hired at all?

Tom Suozzi: First of all, I'm not confident that that trade-off will be the impact in the long term. I think the trade-off is important, and what we need to do is work on creating additional new jobs as part of the Biden Build Back Better program. When he talks about the infrastructure program for the United States of America, that will create millions of jobs in the United States of America in all kinds of areas, not just to traditional construction, roads, bridges, sewers, water, schools, broadband, but in green energy as well.

That's a way to address climate change, but also put people to work in the process. I think that this is not one thing will solve everything. We need to do a whole host of things, we need to have comprehensive solutions to the problems that exist. The $15 an hour minimum wage is just one piece of that puzzle.

Brian Lehrer: Richard in Plainview, you're on WNYC with Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Congressman Tom Suozzi. Hi, Richard.

Richard: Hi Brian. Carolyn Cosgrove in representative Suozzi's office can give him more details but my Holocaust survivor, a daughter, wife came here with a green card in 1948. The DMV denied her a REAL ID license required for flying about a year and a half ago. Come October 1st, the new deadline she won't be able to fly. She's been an American citizen since their Holocaust survivor parents were naturalized back in 1955, and she's being treated like somebody who's not a citizen.

Brian Lehrer: What's the issue as DMV describes it to you? Is it citizenship status or immigration status?

Richard: No, she's officially legally a citizen since '55. She doesn't have the documents that are required by Homeland Security. She doesn't have her parent's marriage certificate from war-torn Germany in 1946.

Brian Lehrer: You need that to get the REAL ID to fly? Congressman, you know anything about this?

Tom Suozzi: I'm not familiar with this particular issue, but we'll definitely work on this. Carolyn is a superstar. She's really good at navigating the bureaucracy. She'll help you figure this out, and I'll actually reach out to her today if she's not listening to the call now and make sure that she's paying attention to it. I'll get your name and phone number, give you a call myself about it later today.

Listen, my grandfather was born in Italy, joined the US Army for World War 1, and became a naturalized citizen. My father was born in Italy, came to the United States as a young boy. He really had no documents that said he was a US citizen anywhere because he was made a citizen because his father had been naturalized. I understand exactly the type of issue that you're concerned about, and I'm very empathetic to it and I will talk with Carolyn, and we'll do everything we can to help you and I will figure it out.

Brian Lehrer: Richard, hang on if you want. We'll take your contact information off the air and make sure we make that connection with the congressman's office. We have time for one more call back on provisions of relief and more breaking news about this. Apparently, the PPP, the loan program for businesses affected and to keep their employees on payroll is being refocused by President Biden now on businesses with 20 employees or fewer. That's just breaking this morning. 20 employees or fewer, but Ken in Bay Ridge has a question about the PPP. Ken, you're on WNYC with Congressman Suozzi. Hi.

Ken: Hi. Congressman. I have noticed that the PPP loans are going to institutions and being spent on their full-time employees who work in the offices but for temporary employees or freelancers who still get a W-2 from these institutions aren't getting the money from them.

I'm a freelancer. I'm a union member. I'm a stagehand and I work at many different entertainment institutions in the city. What I've been seeing is, they've been paying their marketing employees, they've been paying all their employees in their offices, but their freelancers are not getting the PPP money. I'm wondering if there's anything in the COVID bill that goes directly to freelancers, even if they're not technically independent contractors, but more temporary employees?

Brian Lehrer: Congressman?

Tom Suozzi: You're with IATSE, I guess, right? The International Association of Stagehands Agent Theater Employees. I don't know the specific answer to that question, but I can help you find out the answer to that question. Maybe, Brian, if you could help us make that connection as well. A big challenge--

Let me just tell you that regarding the theater industry, regarding live entertainment venues, they've been some of the hardest-hit, not just Broadway, in Manhattan, but throughout my district. I've got all kinds of live entertainment venues that have been crushed by the Coronavirus. A lot of people like yourself are just completely out of work. That's your business and you're unemployed as a result of it.

Same thing goes for catering halls, many restaurants are affected this way. There's special provisions in this new package where $25 billion is going to go directly for restaurants, catering halls, and live entertainment venues. They'll be specific efforts to compare 2020 revenues to 2019 revenues. Look at what the difference is between the two, and then you can be eligible for grants for employers to give to their employees.

As far as gig workers or independent contractors, I guess you're not if you're getting the W-2, but let me look into your question a little bit more detailed after this show's over, and we'll get you an answer.

Brian Lehrer: Great. Ken, we'll take your contact off the air if you want to hang on. I know you got to go in a minute. Congressman, I just want to set up our next segment here, which is going to be about COVID, including the so-called South Africa variant now found in your county, in Nassau County. What do you think the implications-

[crosstalk]

Tom Suozzi: -in my district actually.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, really? What town was it?

Tom Suozzi: Glen Head.

Brian Lehrer: What are the-

[crosstalk]

Tom Suozzi: There's two different concerns. One you got the UK variant, and the UK variant is considered to be possibly more deadly than the traditional Coronavirus strain. We've got 20 of those cases out on Long Island already. I'm not even sure what the number is for New York City. We've got one case of the South African variant which is considered to be more contagious, but not more deadly.

Now, it's more important than ever, especially with these new variants arising, that we are doing the vaccines and doing the social distancing and doing the mask-wearing, that we're all so exhausted by and it's been going on for such a long period.

As we see the numbers coming down, we can't get complacent because we have to stop these new variants from spreading. If we had known about mask-wearing in the beginning, if we had done a better job with mask-wearing, if we had done a better job of social distancing in the beginning, we wouldn't have-- If we've done a better job with contact tracing in the beginning, we wouldn't have had this full-fledged pandemic. Now that we know this information, we have to use that information and stop the spread while we figure out exactly what these variants are going to do.

I know everybody's tired. I know everybody's exhausted. I'm tired and exhausted of it as well. Lost my father-in-law of Coronavirus. He was 92 years old. He died within 36 hours of contracting it. We've all seen people sick. I probably had it. I know my wife had it. She got the antibodies. My daughter had it. My son had it. My other son had it, we think but we don't know for sure. We're all sick of this, but the bottom line is, we've got to just hold on together.

Let's get through to the late spring, early summer, following the rules, wearing our masks, social distancing, washing our hands, do everything we need, get the vaccination when you can, we need more supplies. President Biden is using his defense authorization act powers to get more production done. It's all about production. Let's get through this and there'll be happier days coming summer.

Brian Lehrer: Congressman Tom Suozzi, we always appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Tom Suozzi: Thanks, Brian. Really appreciate it.

 

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