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  • joining us now by phone.

  • New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

  • Thanks so much for joining us, Senator.

  • My pressure New York State now has the most cases of Corona virus in the U.

  • S.

  • Governor Cuomo announced today all non essential businesses will close at 8 p.m. On Sunday.

  • Now we've heard from both Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio.

  • They've said that they don't have the resource is that they need.

  • In your estimation, is New York getting the assistance that it needs from the federal government?

  • No.

  • New York and every other state in the country still do not have the testing they require.

  • They also are experiencing shortages of masks and gloves and ventilators.

  • And so the truth is, the country was not ready for this on any level.

  • And the federal government has not done a good job in getting testing toe all states.

  • They delayed, first of all, by saying only tough could be done through the CDC.

  • Now, finally, the Trump administration has finally allowed every lab in America to do their own test.

  • But still, I was talking to my county executives from around the state today, and almost every single one of them said we are running out of tests.

  • We could only d'oh ah, 100 or 200 a day for For a community is large is a 1,000,000 people.

  • That's not sufficient.

  • Uh, so this, even statewide, they're lacking in the supplies and resource is they need to meet the need in our state.

  • And let's talk about meeting the financial needs.

  • Your colleague, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has proposed a $1 trillion stimulus package.

  • Do you plan on supporting that?

  • It Is that enough?

  • I mean, would that be sufficient to help a single mother in Albany who may now be out of a job for several weeks?

  • It won't be enough.

  • And unfortunately, Senator McConnell has the wrong priorities in his bill.

  • His bill is not pro family.

  • It is not pro worker.

  • It puts corporations before people, and it doesn't do nearly enough to address the public health crisis.

  • What I've heard from my hospitals around the state, they need a Marshall Plan.

  • They need a fusion of money to have the resources they need, the infrastructure they need and the support for the people that they need.

  • They also need thio hold these corporations accountable if we're going to help cos we have to make sure they don't have stock buyback, they don't have, um, CEO pay increases, common sense things that we can require if we're going to give them this kind of money.

  • We also the bill undermines paid leave and sickly.

  • We want tohave a national paid leave plans.

  • So for every worker that can take up to three months off to be with their families if they're sick to be the Children who have been sent home from school, parents need that flexibility and they need to be able to take time off of their sick.

  • We also want to guarantee two weeks of sick days for every worker.

  • So that stuff is not in McConnell's bill and so it's not nearly good enough.

  • I do think we're gonna need more than a trillion dollars in investment as time goes on, but the first in says it has to have paid leave.

  • It has to expand.

  • Resource is for hospital.

  • It has to have unemployment insurance for every unemployed worker and we have to make sure there's a really support for small businesses.

  • Do you support the government sending checks to Americans.

  • Some of your colleagues believe that Maur than that is necessary.

  • What's your plan to help struggling New Yorkers, for example.

  • So I think both paid leave unemployment insurance and sick days will be more valuable ultimately than just a check, for example, of every worker had paid leave, they have three months fully paid for her, and they'd be getting 66% of their salary up to $4000 so $4000 is better than $1000.

  • And you want to make sure that people have access to their income, or at least a portion of that.

  • Second, Unemployment insurance needs to be generous, far more generous, and unemployment insurance is in most states, and some states is as low as $500.

  • So we have to make sure that people are getting the kind of resource is they need.

  • Thio put food on the table and pay their bills.

  • We're also looking for some kind of, um, pause on mortgages on rent payments, some kind of legal ability for people to defer those payments till after this crisis and not something we could make.

  • Resource is available for us.

  • Well, I think it'll be very important that we make that possible and switching gears here.

  • Several of your colleagues ah, reportedly, Senator Richard Burr and Senator Kelly La Flor sold stocks after receiving a classified briefing about Corona virus.

  • They're being accused of insider trading or, at the very least, unethical behavior.

  • Burr says that he relied solely on public information, and La Flor says that she's not involved in decisions around buying and selling stocks.

  • Do you think that both or either should resign?

  • I think both of these allegations need to be thoroughly investigated by the Department of Justice.

  • I wrote the Stock Act, which is the law that says members of Congress cannot engage in purchasing or selling of stocks based on nonpublic information that they received because of their jobs.

  • Both of these allegations appear that they had nonpublic information, top secret briefings, closed door briefings well in advance of the American public, having that kind of information, and if they did by yourself stock with that information to profit themselves.

  • Obviously that needs to be thoroughly investigated as a violation of the stock act.

  • Well, considering that you wrote the bill, can you assure now the American people that you personally have not used inside information to sell off stocks or make a profit before the American public realized what was happening.

  • Yes, I can promise you that I don't own any stocks.

  • Very simple answer.

  • Okay, Thank you.

  • And lastly, what is the single thing that you're most concerned about is we go forward in these challenging times.

  • The thing I'm most concerned about is that people are safe.

  • It's important that we help our first responders have the tools they need to attack this virus head on.

  • We need testing every kind of testing.

  • A maid immediately available most places around my state testing is limited.

  • They're on Lee actually able to test the very sick.

  • So anybody who just has the symptoms of Corona virus can't just go and get a test, which means it's harder to stop the spread.

  • So until we have rapid testing and readily available testing for anyone who's sick, we have no chance of limiting the spread of the Corona virus.

  • Second, I want to make sure people have resource is so that if they have lost their job or need to take leave because their Children or home or because someone in their family sick, they need access to Riel National paid leave.

  • They need access to paid sick days, and they need access unemployment insurance if they don't have it.

  • And then if there's still people who are falling through the cracks, those individuals should be given employment insurance and just a straight up check written so they could stay afloat during these next weeks and months ahead.

  • All right, Senator Gillibrand, Thank you so much for your time.

  • My pleasure.

  • Thank you.

  • Hi, everyone.

  • George Stephanopoulos Here.

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joining us now by phone.

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