Rep. Torres on Generational Differences in Politics, and More

Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Coming up later this morning, we'll conclude our series of midterm election call-ins for people of different generations. If you've been listening we started on Monday asking what's your number one midterm elections issue if you're in your 20s or below. We've gone up the generations all week and today, we'll wrap it up with a call-in for people in your nineties or above, that'll be around 11:30 this morning. I don't think we've ever had a caller to this show who identified themselves as 100 years old or more.

Maybe today will be the day. If that's you, tune back in at 11:30 and be ready to call in. We will invite you to say what you think the most important world events of your lifetime have been, or just pick one, and what midterm election issue you're most interested in for 2022 that's coming up. For those of you in your 90s and 100s around 11:30. Also, with the reversal of Roe versus Wade, more people are seeking vasectomies and tubal ligation, according to news reports. We'll talk about how to make those decisions at different points in your life.

Also how to go apartment hunting like an investigative reporter. Our guest for that will be an investigative reporter Lisa Song from ProPublica who's got some tips for finding out everything from the legal maximum rent, to whether the building is infested with raccoons, that's one of the stories in her piece. That's also coming up, but first, today, Congressman Ritchie Torres joins us now. The freshman from the Bronx recently tweeted that at age 34, he's an infant in Congress. He's making news for a stand on congestion pricing to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street.

It could be bad for asthma in the Bronx, or it could be done right. He's asking the government to publish demographic data on who's getting monkeypox, and I assume who's getting monkeypox vaccines. They don't seem to be equitably distributed so far. We'll get his take on the census data, we talked about on this show earlier this week, child poverty in the Bronx, certainly including his district actually went down in the first year of the pandemic, that's counterintuitive, but it's probably going up again. How can that improvement be made permanent and more. Congressman, always good to have you on, welcome back to WNYC.

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Always a pleasure to be here.

Brian Lehrer: Since different generations is a theme of our show this week, want to start with that tweet of yours, that at 34, you're an infant in Congress. What was the context for that?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: I meant it as a playful tweet, but it's certainly the case that Congress is a gerontocracy government by the elderly. The three leaders of the house democratic caucus or above the age of 80, all but a few of the committee chairs are at and above the age of 70, and so even though the caucus is at large is quite diverse. It's often said that more than 70% of the house democratic caucus is consist of members of the LGBTQ community, people of color, and women. The leadership has far less diversity than the rank and file including age diversity, which is lacking. I would love to see over time, just a new generation of leadership in the United States Congress and elsewhere in American politics.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think there are meaningful generational differences among the members of Congress of different ages? I don't want to be too reductionist or stereotypical here for younger people or older people. Bernie Sanders won the under 30 vote in so many primaries, for example, as we know, but do you see trends in Congress on the issues or the tactics people use that tend to run by age?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Yes. I want to be careful not to suggest that the young members are a monolith. There's ideological diversity among the young members. I do have the impression that the young members are more willing to play the outside game, more inclined to cause good trouble. When you've been entrenched in Congress for a long time, you become an insider and you're inclined toward the inside game. I think there's a stylistic difference between the young members and the more established members.

Brian Lehrer: On one particular issue that I'm curious about because our callers seem to suggest and polls seem to suggest that intensity about the climate issue runs somewhat along age lines, you just passed, and President Biden just signed that historic climate legislation. Is it your observation that younger members of Congress push that to success or do older Democrats have a similar passion for that issue that would've driven it to the top of the mountain anyway?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: No, there are certainly older Democrats who care deeply about issues like combating climate change, but it's worth noting that the largest demonstrations in American history have all happened in the past few years, whether it's demonstrations for climate justice or racial justice or gun safety and those movements tend to emerge spontaneously on social media and tend to be driven by young people. I do feel like young people have outsized role in playing the outside game that creates space for those of us in Congress to advance progressive change.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, that's your main message here. It's really interesting. The outside game versus the inside game, and people's willingness to play outside when they're young. Do you think younger Republicans you work with there are any more, any less inclined to repeat Trump's stolen election lie, or to see our electoral democracy crumble by canceling election results of the future.

Congressman Ritchie Torres: But for a few of the Republican party has essentially become a cult to personality around Donald Trump. I've seen no evidence that younger Republicans are more rational than their older counterparts.

Brian Lehrer: One more like that. How about abortion rights? National opinion polls show, generally, younger people tend to be more pro-choice, but we have these horror stories now, like in Florida, maybe you heard this one this week, this is active right now. It's unresolved. Where a 16-year-old orphan has been prohibited by a court from having an abortion she is seeking because the court says she is too immature to make that decision, but apparently, the court in Florida thinks she's not too immature to be forced to give birth and become a parent. Do your Republican colleagues in their 30s support that kind of thing any less than your Republican colleagues who might have been fighting to overturn Roe since there was Roe?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: As far as I can tell, Republicans and elected office across the age spectrum are far more extreme in their opposition to abortion than most Americans, including most rank and file Republicans as evidenced by the referendum results in Kansas. The Republican Party is radically to the right of the American mainstream, including within their own party among rank and file voters.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, your call is welcome here for Congressman Ritchie Torres on generational differences in politics, how to fight child poverty in the Bronx, which we're going to get into. Releasing monkeypox demographic data, which he wants the government to do, or anything else relevant to Congressman Ritchie Torres freshman Democrat from the Bronx. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer.

Congressman, you may know, maybe your press people told you, that we first invited you on for this segment last week when we saw the story on the nonprofit news organization The City on the census data that showed child poverty in the Bronx went down by six percentage points in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. Counterintuitive maybe since unemployment went up so much at the time, New York Congressional District is usually called the highest poverty district in the country. Did you observe that change in child poverty in 2020?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: The numbers make sense to me only because it speaks to the success of government intervention in 2020. The PPP program was effective at preventing even more mass employment that would've otherwise taken place, and the eviction moratorium was effective at preventing mass displacement. When you keep people in their homes and you keep people in their jobs, you're going to have less poverty, and if you displace people from their jobs and displace people from their homes, you're going to have more poverty, and you're going to have more structural poverty that will persist for the long run.

The recovery from the 2020 recession was much more robust than the recovery from the 2008 recession because there was much more government stimulus in the economy, and when you strengthen the social safety net, when you provide more social support, places like the South Bronx benefit disproportionally because we have the greatest need.

Brian Lehrer: As pandemic supports are expiring, is it going back up? Can you say either statistically or anecdotally?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: The greatest achievement of the Biden administration was the expansion of the child tax credit, which cut child poverty by 50% not only in the South Bronx but across the country. The greatest tragedy was the expiration of the child tax credit, largely because of Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin has been spreading vicious lies and racist stereotypes about the child tax credit, claiming that those dollars are spent on drugs and alcohol and all the rest. The research is crystal clear that the most common uses of child tax credit dollars were housing, food, and energy which are the essentials of human life. I consider the expiration of the child tax credit to be a tragedy for the country and a tragedy for the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: Not just the child tax credit in the compromise with Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, but as you know President Biden's push for really transformative economic opportunity legislation of various kinds that were in the original Build Back Better like the child tax credit, but also paid family leave, universal pre-k, home health aid supports for the elderly, they all got wiped out. Biden was trying to set himself up as this generation's FDR or LBJ.

I wonder since those things like abortion rights, common sense gun regulation tend to be popular in public opinion polls. If you all are talking about any standalone bill like paid family leave is such an overwhelmingly popular item in the polls, could you break it out, maybe it's still late for this election year. Could you break it out as a standalone and put Republicans and any Democrats like Sinema and Manchin who might oppose it as well on the spot to take a position as a standalone bill?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Look, if we were to break down The Build Back Better Act into individual pieces of legislation, all of them would be subject to the filibuster and there lies the problem. The best hope was reconciliation, which is exempt from the filibuster. I'm disappointed with the fair to pass Build Back Better, but having said that, The Inflation Reduction Act is a monumental achievement. It would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

It finally empowers the federal government to negotiate more affordable drug prices for senior citizens on Medicare. It caps the price of insulin at $35 a month for senior citizens on Medicare. Those are bonafide breakthroughs for clean energy and greater affordability. Powerful case could be made that President Biden has, in fact, lived up to the FDR moment.

When you consider American rescue plan, the bipartisan infrastructure investment, the bipartisan gun safety compromise, the bipartisan research, and development bill especially for semi-conductors, and The Inflation Reduction Act, those are landmark legislative achievements and many of them were done on a bipartisan basis in a period of peak partisanship and polarization. That level of legislative productivity would've been unthinkable after January 6th.

Brian Lehrer: 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer with Congressman Ritchie Torres from the Bronx and Anthony in the Bronx you're on WNYC. Hi, Anthony.

Anthony: Hi, Brian. Hi, Congressman. I have a question concerning education. What do you think about the mayor's proposal to cut the budget for education in the city instead of enhancing the curriculums and increasing the liberal arts classes for the kids in the public school system?

Brian Lehrer: Anthony, thank you. That, of course, is technically a city council issue, not a congressional issue, but of course, you were in city council before you were in Congress. Have you weighed in on this controversy?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: I have weighed in. A number of members of the congressional delegation including Jamaal Bowman, myself, and others sent a letter to the mayor strongly opposing those cuts. I'm concerned that those cuts are too destabilizing for schools that are already under-resourced. We have provided the City of New York with billions of dollars in education funding, much of which have gone unspent. I see no reason for those draconian cuts that will only undermine the quality of education that our children receive.

Brian Lehrer: The mayor says those federal supports like the ones we were talking about before are going to expire and the city will be facing deficits and they'll have to control spending on education. Like everything else, education is, by far, the biggest share of the New York city budget. He wants a promise from council that if they restore that funding right now with the unused federal relief money that there be an understanding, that if enrollment keeps going down, then the funding is going to have to go down with it. Does that sound like a meaningful compromise?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: It might look, there's no telling what the future's going to hold. I would negotiate the budget on a year-by-year basis, that's how you typically approach this. Hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts in the public school system, it's a shock to the system. It's too much for most schools to absorb and it's going to lead to a further decline in the quality of education.

I'm concerned about the loss of learning during COVID. We saw during COVID the digital divide deprived students of their fundamental right to an education. I worry that the loss of learning during COVID will have profound consequences that will endure long after the pandemic is gone. That loss of learning is only going to be compounded by these draconian cuts to the education budget.

Brian Lehrer: Ross in the Bronx you're on WNYC with Congressman Ritchie Torres. Hi, Ross?

Ross: Hello. I have a question for him. It pertains mostly to illegal immigration. We're having a terrible problem here in New York City. Over 6,000 people have come from Central America, South America, now they're being housed in hotels, yet, last week, homeless people who were there because of the virus circulating have been removed. Do you think that's fair? Why is this government including our federal government, why do they take better care of illegal immigrant than they do their own poor citizens?

Brian Lehrer: Well, Congressman, first, I assume you don't accept the premise?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: The treacherous journey that undocumented immigrants take is far worse than certainly anything most people experience here in the United States. What we found is Governor Abbott has been sending people here to New York City often against their will and dropping them in the middle of nowhere without shelter or services.

New York City has been overwhelmed with unexpected immigration. We need more support from the federal government. Ultimately, immigration is the purview of the federal government. I consider the wave of immigration that has swept New York City to be an emergency and FEMA should provide an emergency grant to the Department of Social Services so that it can manage immigration.

Brian Lehrer: Has Mayor Adams also failed to address shelter needs of New York City's homeless population, even before this wave of immigrants? Currently, there are housing advocates who say, if we were better prepared in the first place, then it would have to be one or the other. They wouldn't have to be converting hotels into temporary shelters.

Congressman Ritchie Torres: The challenge of homelessness long free dates Mayor Adams, so it's unfair [inaudible 00:18:33] him and it is worth noting. I remember when I was in the council, the shelter population was greater than 60,000, before the wave of immigration, it fell under 50,000. Strides had been made toward reducing the homeless population in New York City. One of the most important steps that the city took was to raise the city voucher program, the value of the city voucher to the same standard as the federal voucher Section 8. I think that will have a real impact in connecting the unstable house to permanent house.

Brian Lehrer: Monkeypox, you're asking the health and human services, department of the federal government to release demographic data. Why is that?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: We have demographic data on pieces, but we have none on vaccinations. We know from the experience of COVID that the lowest income communities of color face the greatest barriers to accessing the vaccine. Without demographic and geographic data, we have no means of holding the government accountable for ensuring the communities of color, the lowest income communities are sufficiently vaccinated. There's a powerful case to be made for transparency.

Brian Lehrer: You and Mondaire Jones this term became the first to openly gay Black members of Congress, you've talked about that a lot. I heard a report this week, specifically, I think to the point you were just making or suggesting that Black gay men are disproportionately getting monkeypox, but white Americans are disproportionately getting access to the vaccine. Do you believe that to be true, or do you have an equity fix for that if you believe that to be true?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: I know that to be true based on what I've observed on the ground, and it's a reoccurring story. We saw the same with PrEP early on, which is treatment for preventative against HIV, where wealthier wider communities have far greater access to PrEP than communities of color, and we see the same story repeating itself when it comes to monkeypox. In my view, if the government does not proactively prioritize equity, communities of color will inevitably be left behind. We saw it during COVID and we're seeing it during monkeypox. We have an obligation not only to expand vaccine supply but to ensure that there's equity and distribution.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take another call. Keith in the Bronx. You're on WNYC with Congressman Richie Torres from the Bronx. Hi, Keith.

Keith: Good morning, Brian. [unintelligible 00:21:18]

Brian Lehrer: Good morning. We got you.

Keith: How are you doing? Got two questions, really. The first one is about crime. I'm in your district 10467 zip code. There's a lot of crime out here, not per se in that area, but in general, in the Bronx and New York City. As a born and bred Bronx knight, aren't you appalled about this crime? I'm 64 years old. I was around when the Bronx was burning and all that. I've never seen it like this. There need to be a coming together of the communities, not only of the residents, but I believe the politicians walk hand in hand through the neighborhood saying that this is not right, that we need to take back our neighborhood. What do you think about that?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: I share your concerns with crime. It has spiraled out of control. I know from 2018 to 2021, the murder rate rose by 60%. Recently, the Bronx has been a third of all murders in the city. We've been hit the hardest. The part of the crime issue that we addressed at the federal level is guns. Obviously, we've had real trouble passing gun legislation. The majority of guns recovered in New York City are coming from the south, are coming through the iron pipeline.

Even though we have the strictest gun laws in the country, here in New York State and New York City, the state and local laws will only take you so far. There's no substitute for federal standards of gun safety. In a rational world, every gun would be registered and safely stored, every gun owner would be licensed and professionally trained, and every gun sale would be subject to a full and complete background check.

One Senator from a state smaller than New York City can filibuster gun safety for 300 million Americans, and it's communities like the Bronx that suffer the most. That's the federal piece of this. Obviously, a powerful case could be made that the defund police movement has had a demoralizing effect on the police force. There's some indication that the police might be pulling back. I do believe that COVID-19 has so radically restructured our society, that it's a factor in causing the crime wave. This is an issue where the government is failing miserably at every level. We see the results every day in the Bronx

Brian Lehrer: Congressman, on the police and you've made it clear on the show today and before that you don't support what you call the defund the police movement. When you say that on this show, you get some pushback on Twitter generally. What do you say to the way a lot of people have put it in the past? I've heard people say, when you're white in America, you only have to be afraid of the criminals. When you're Black in America, you have to be afraid of the cops and the robbers. How do you deal with that in your district? How does policy effectively deal with that if you accept the premise in New York City?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Officers who abuse their power should be held accountable. If there's no accountability, then there's no incentive for officers to reform their behavior. I'm in favor of reforming policing, not abolishing it, not defunding it, but reforming it. My belief is that most people want neither overpolicing or under policing, but better policing, more transparent, and more accountable policing, and I believe that's possible. It should be possible for government to strike a thoughtful balance between public safety and police reform.

Brian Lehrer: Fidel in Jersey City. You're on WNYC with Congressman Richie Torres. Hi, Fidel.

Fidel: Hi. I just wanted to ask the Congressman, there's been a lot of conversation around the LGBTQI community in the monkeypox, and it is nothing short of insidious and dog whistle when it comes to, specifically, the gay male population. I wanted to find out from the Congressman, given the science that this is not sexually transmitted, it pretty much implies that heterosexual people when they have sex, they don't have any closed contact. It is insidious by nature. I want to find out if he plans on changing that narrative.

Congressman Ritchie Torres: It's a real challenge for the public health community. How do you acknowledge that monkeypox has a disproportionate impact on the LGBTQ community, and in particular MSM, men who have sex with men. For the record, I hate that term, but that's the official public health term. How do you acknowledge that reality without stigmatizing the LGBTQ community and without giving the rest of the population the impression that it's unaffected by monkeypox?

It is a fact that monkeypox has a disproportionately destructive impact on the LGBTQ community, but it's also a fact that anyone can be infected with monkeypox. If anyone of any sexual orientation were to touch the spilled lesion of someone with monkeypox, you're likely to be infected regardless of your sexual orientation. Everyone should take proper precaution, but I also think we have to acknowledge that there's been a particular effect on the LGBTQ community, and there should be a greater effort to ensure that that community has access to the therapeutics and vaccines that are necessary.

Brian Lehrer: Is there a better term than MSM, in your opinion?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Look, not everyone I identifies as male. There are transgender people who might object to the term. I would encourage the CDC to upgrade some of the language it uses. I'm not aware of anyone within the LGBTQ community who uses that term.

Brian Lehrer: Congestion pricing, the scenarios the MTA is considering for car and truck tows drive into Manhattan below 60th Street, that's congestion pricing, of course. From what I've seen, both the opponents and the supporters are using you and an appearance that you made about the congestion pricing proposals from the MTA on Monday as an argument for their cause, supporters and opponents alike. Want to tell our listeners exactly where you stand?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: I am a proponent of congestion pricing in principle, and I have been from the moment I entered public office back in 2014. I recognize that the MTA is the lifeblood of our city. The MTA is in crisis. It has future deficits of about $2.5 billion annually. The MTAs ridership remains stagnant at 60% of its pre-pandemic levels. There's a real need for a long-term bondable revenue stream that would fund the MTA's capital plan. Having said all that, I'm not advocating for the end of congestion pricing, I'm advocating for a form of congestion pricing that is fair to the Bronx, an environmentally just version of congestion pricing.

The MTA's environmental assessment for congestion pricing projects the opposite of what we were promised. We in the Bronx were promised less congestion and less pollution. The environmental assessment projects more congestion, and therein lies the problem. I find it frustrating that government often preaches, but rarely practices environmental justice. We're in danger of continuing along and ugly history of treating the Bronx as Manhattan's dumping ground for air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and diesel truck traffic. That is utterly unacceptable to me, and it's utterly unacceptable to most elected officials in the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: Can they set congestion pricing rules or do things like enclosed the Cross Bronx Expressway, since that's at least under one scenario and they haven't landed on which scenario for congestion pricing, they'll actually try to adopt? One scenario says the truck traffic would increase tremendously on the Cross Bronx Expressway, obviously asthma implications for that in an area that already has the worst asthma rates.

Can they set congestion pricing rules or do things like enclose the Cross Bronx Expressway, if that's not an impossible engineering project, that would allow the environmental advantages of congestion pricing to remain in the plan without more environmental injustice for the Bronx or is it necessarily a win here, lose their or proposition?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Look, we have a vision for improving the public health of the Bronx, a vision that includes capping the Cross Bronx and greening the Hunts Point Terminal Market, and closing fossil fuel peaker plants in the South Bronx, and electrifying trucking. We need support from the State on each and every one of those initiatives. Here's what I find particularly frustrating about the MTAs environmental assessment.

There's not a single scenario in the assessment in which congestion pricing has either a neutral or beneficial impact on the Cross Bronx Expressway. All the scenarios lead to increased diesel truck traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway. We have to ask ourselves a simple question, is it fair for Manhattan to reap the benefit of congestion pricing while the Bronx bears the environmental burden? That to me is not a triumph of environmental justice that is business as usual. That is a continuation of environmental racism.

Brian Lehrer: How do you make it not come out that way?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: I think the MTA has an obligation to create a scenario in which there is either a neutral or beneficial impact on the Cross Bronx. The State has an obligation to invest real dollars in public health initiatives like Capping the Cross Bronx, like greening the Hunts Point Terminal Market, a commitment to closing those peaker plants in the South Bronx. I want to see a greater expression of commitment to the environmental justice and public health needs of the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: You said greening the Hunts Point Market. Want to explain that for a second? People may hear that and think, oh, wait, if there's one thing in the world that doesn't need greening, it would be a produce market. Explain greening the Hunts Point Market.

Congressman Ritchie Torres: The Hunts Point is home to one of the largest food distribution centers in the country. It has the meat market, the fish market, and the produce market. The produce market makes up about a quarter of New York City's produce. We all have a stake in it. Since the capacity at the produce market, since the infrastructure is so Asian, the produce market depends on about a thousand diesel-powered refrigeration truck units that again, unleash huge amounts of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

We redevelop the Hunts Point Terminal Market to be cleaner and greener and to take those diesel-powered refrigeration truck units offline, and to replace them with green infrastructure. That would have a real impact in improving the public health of the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: We're at the end of our scheduled time, but I want to extend by one caller if you can because Solange in Port Washington is calling for help with a personal immigration issue. Let's see if you can help her or refer her to somebody. Solange, you're on WNYC with Congressman Ritchie Torres.

Solange: Oh, my God, I can't believe it. [laughs] I need help with my husband. He have Alzheimer's and the immigration is taking so long. I don't know how long he's going to be okay for the immigration to be resolved. I sponsor him, but he was the porter and ADA. We had to take that first step. The immigration we already applied two years ago, but with the COVID, and all of that is taking so long for him to take the first step in immigration.

The Alzheimer's is getting worse. I tried to get help from Mr. Suozzi but I don't know. They didn't call me back. I'm desperate because I'm going to be losing him. Maybe he wants to go back to Chile to see her parents. Right now, we cannot go back because we have to keep staying here. The lawyer say we cannot go there because we going to lose everything. We have so many issues that I need some help.

I know you, Brian, you talk to Miss Gillibrand every month. I always try to call you, but the line is so busy. I say maybe she can help me. She helps everybody. I wish that Mrs. Gillibrand can do something for us, or at least she can [unintelligible 00:35:54] us to the case. I'm sure she can do something.

Brian Lehrer: Well, I'm glad you got through today, Solange. I understand you say, Congressman Suozzi, you're in his district in Port Washington isn't being responsive, maybe because he's now a lame duck in finishing up his term in Congress. I don't know. Congressman Torres, is there anything you can do to help Solange or refer her to somebody who can help?

Congressman Ritchie Torres: No. I would ask her to just reach out to my office and we'd be happy to help you in whatever way we can. My office number is 718-503-9610. Brian, if your team can share her contact information with me, I can have my team reach out directly.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, we'll do that. Solange, hang on a second. If you want to give us your contact information off the air we'll take it. You heard Congressman Torres promise to connect with you. I hope this is helpful. Hang on. Our producer's going to pick up and take your contact information if you want to share it. Congressman, thanks as always for coming on the show today

Congressman Ritchie Torres: Always a pleasure.

 

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