CSPAN - Washington Journal Reid Wilson

All Episodes

Previous Next

Oct. 9, 2025 11:34-12:05 - CSPAN

30:58

Washington Journal Reid Wilson

Participants

Main

mimi geerges

cspan 06:05

Appearances

sean duffy

admin 00:32

Clips

johnny olszewski

rep/d 00:17

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Show episode speakers

Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		Democrats, their biggest issue is that if we make a deal, does the deal stick?
		I mean, is it going to hold?
		We've made a pact.
		And as someone said since March, some of these agreements have fallen through.
		Money has been embargoed or, you know, held back.
		That's not dealing fairly.
		That's not being above boards.
		And, you know, what happens is you're forced to do things like shut down the government as a bargaining chip because agreements have not been held to by my side.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Jay.
		Joining us now to talk about the impact of the government shutdown on states is Reid Wilson.
		He's founder and editor-in-chief of Pluribus News.
		Reid, welcome to the program.
		Can you just remind us about your outlet and what your approach is and what you cover?
unidentified		Sure.
		Pluribus News is the only independent nonpartisan news outlet in America specifically dedicated to covering what happens in state legislatures across the country.
		That building behind you, you know, there are a lot of reporters up there, but Congress isn't doing a lot.
		What's happening in the states these days is really driving public policy across America, and it's the foundation for a lot of what becomes big federal policy.
		Think about welfare reform in the 1990s, right?
		A project of four Republican governors in the Midwest before Bill Clinton made it his signature domestic policy achievement.
		The Affordable Care Act, which you were talking about a little bit in the last half hour, came out of Massachusetts.
		Don't tell Mitt Romney.
		And then the one big bipartisan thing under President Trump in the first term was criminal justice reform, which was a bipartisan project of, if you can believe it, the Koch brothers and George Soros together in places like Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas.
		And those kinds of legislative trends that start at the state level and move to the federal level are happening now in areas like digital privacy and social media and nuclear energy and a whole host of issues that start at the state level and filter up to the federal level.
		As Lewis Brandeis said, the states really are the laboratories of democracy, and that's what we cover.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, let's talk about the impact on states of the federal shutdown.
		What do you think?
		We're in day nine now.
unidentified		Yeah, so we haven't seen a ton of impact on the state level yet because a lot of the benefits that states administer where they get money from the federal government have been covered for the first couple of weeks.
		So think about the Women, Infant, and Children program or SNAP benefits, food stamps.
		Those checks go out on the first of the month.
		So the money has to be in state hands well beforehand.
		So those benefits are basically covered for the first couple of weeks of the program.
		Where things get to be a problem is when we get to later in October or in November when the next round of checks need to go out and there's no federal money coming.
		A second area is things like national parks, where there are a lot of national parks that end up being closed.
		Those national parks in some states are big economic drivers.
		I mean, think how much, say, the Grand Canyon means to Arizona and its economy.
		Or in West Virginia, there are a number of national parks that get tons of visitors.
		And of course, all the businesses around those national parks thrive off of that vacation money, that tourism money.
		So a lot of those states are making early appropriations to keep those parks open.
		In West Virginia, the state says that they've got enough money to keep the national parks open for about two weeks.
		In Arizona, they're moving to keep the Grand Canyon open, which is what they've done in earlier shutdowns.
		They really don't want those parks to close because it means so much to their local economies.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That's what I was going to ask you about the economic impact of those parks.
		It's not just the tourists being turned away.
		It is all the businesses that depend on those parks being open.
unidentified		Right.
		Think about the hotels nearby.
		Think about the restaurants where a visitor needs to go.
		You know, airlines, somebody flying to Flagstaff to go see the Grand Canyon or renting a car or anything like that.
		These, I mean, parks are a billion-dollar business here around the country, and especially some of the bigger ones.
		So the federal government has kept some national parks open, but not to their full extent.
		State governments are stepping in to fill a lot of those voids.
		You know, because, and by the way, especially in a place like West Virginia, here we are in early October.
		The leaves are starting to change.
		Now's the time when you want to be up in a gorgeous area like that, like the New River Gorge or Harbor's Ferry, something like that.
		So the state is actually spending its own money to keep those parks open and keep the tourism dollars flowing.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, on the first day of the shutdown, the Trump administration announced it would be freezing $26 billion in federal funding, mostly to blue states on energy and infrastructure projects.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What are those projects that are being suspended, and what's the impact of that freeze?
unidentified		Yeah, so a lot of these projects were approved under the bipartisan infrastructure bill that both parties voted for and that President Biden signed, what was that, 2022, I think it was.
		And a lot of these programs that are being frozen are what you said, the sort of new energy projects, solar, wind, things like that.
		These are projects that President Trump has long opposed.
		And he is, the Trump administration is suspending them now, including things like a wind farm off the coast of New England and things like solar projects in the West, things like that.
		The impact in, you know, it's not entirely clear that these projects will actually be canceled.
		A lot of these states are going to court to try to keep the money flowing.
		They're arguing that, you know, Congress already appropriated this money.
		It is something that the federal government is obligated to do because Congress has the power of the purse under Article 1 of the Constitution.
		So it's not clear that the projects will be completely suspended, but at the very least, the court cases mean they're losing out on time that they might need to actually keep the money flowing and keep the projects on track.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Reid Wilson is our guest.
		He is founder and editor-in-chief of Pluribus News.
		You can join our conversation if you've got a question for him or a comment on how the shutdown is affecting the states.
		You can call now.
		The lines are bipartisan.
		It is Republicans are on 202-748-8001.
		Democrats 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		Reid, federal employees are scheduled.
		Many civilian employees are scheduled to have their first paycheck impacted tomorrow.
		It would be a reduced paycheck because of the shutdown.
		They would generally be able to apply for unemployment insurance.
		Tell us how that works.
unidentified		That's a good question.
		So in a lot of states, a federal government shutdown temporarily furloughs these employees.
		That makes them eligible for unemployment benefits or for other state programs.
		So for example, in Maryland, Governor Wes Moore's administration has made short-term temporary loans available to federal workers who were impacted by the shutdown.
		Of course, you can imagine Maryland and its proximity to D.C., there are tens of thousands of government workers who are now furloughed and who are going to see reduced paychecks.
		So they can apply for short-term loans.
		I think it's $700 that they can get in a loan from the state government that would then be paid back once their checks come through, if the federal government reimburses those furloughed federal workers for the money that they're missing.
		Federal law requires that furlough, that money, that back pay to be filled in under a law that President Trump signed during his first term in office in, I think it was 2019 when he signed that bill.
		But Speaker Mike Johnson, who you're going to have on next, has brought up the notion that those federal workers might not be paid for the furloughed time.
		We'll see how that plays out over the next couple of weeks.
		A really interesting thing that I'm watching here is how this all plays in a state like Virginia, which where voters go to the polls, they're actually voting early voting is happening now in critical gubernatorial and legislative elections that are coming up this year.
		Virginia, like Maryland, has a ton of federal employees and not just in the northern Virginia area that's close to Washington, D.C. There are a lot of troops based in Newport News or Hampton Roads, and those districts are potentially competitive districts.
		So who gets the blame for a shutdown like this if federal workers, including members of the military, start losing their pay?
		With an election right around the corner, that's going to matter a lot.
		And who voters decide are at fault for this shutdown is probably going to be the party that suffers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Reed, how do states pay for the support that they're providing federal employees, furloughed employees?
		I mean, they didn't budget for it.
		So how are they paying for this?
unidentified		So a lot of states use their rainy day funds.
		The bad news from the last recession was that states realized that they had not saved enough money to operate over the long term in case the economy went south.
		The good news is that in the decade, decade and a half since that recession, states have really spent a lot of time bulking up their rainy day funds.
		And state, those sort of extra coffers are in better shape than they've ever been before.
		States have saved more money than they ever have before.
		So they can tap some of that money to pay these federal workers.
		But again, the benefits that those federal workers get is not huge.
		I mean, the tens of thousands of workers in Maryland are eligible for a $700 loan.
		In the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot of money.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That's a one-time loan, Reid?
unidentified		Yes, it's a one-time loan.
		And especially if this shutdown drags on for longer than we're at eight days now, if it starts dragging on to two weeks, a month, two months, that's going to be a real hardship.
		And states don't have a ton of money to backfill and support these federal workers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Now, states have already seen cuts to the federal workforce from the deferred resignation from Doge and early retirement.
		Is the shutdown compounding those positions that have already been lost?
		The effects of the US.
unidentified		We haven't seen that yet.
		So President Trump has threatened to fire, he's threatened these sort of mass firings in the midst of the shutdown, but he hasn't actually gone through with it yet.
		We'll see if that was just a bargaining chip that he was trying to put on the table as a sort of a gambit to force Democrats to take action, or if it was serious and if the administration plans to actually continue its cuts and make steeper cuts.
		We have seen tens of thousands of government jobs cut over the first, what are we, 10 months into the administration, nine, 10 months into the administration.
		Interestingly enough, though, state governments have been bolstering their workforces and hiring a lot of those fired federal workers.
		Governors in places like California, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Maryland too, Westmore, have all set up sort of state initiatives to hire a lot of those federal workers.
		They see this as sort of a brain drain at the federal level that they can take advantage of at the state level.
		Suddenly, there are a whole bunch of really qualified people who are on the job market who states can snap up to help run their governments.
		The lesson that a lot of states learned from the last recession was that firing a whole bunch of state workers when they had to make budget cutbacks prolonged that recession and prolonged sort of the slowness of the recovery.
		Nowadays, states are not cutting those budgets, those state workers, and instead they're hiring a lot of the feds.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to callers.
		William in Johnson City, Tennessee, Republican line.
		Good morning, William.
unidentified		Hello, sir.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I'm wondering why we are all being ordered about by billionaires like the 26 billionaires that funded the Democratic Party, with the exception of the 27th being Tom Stryker, who made this money by slandering oil and coal and then made billions after he did that.
		And George Soros, who has been trying to destroy this country like he did to England and Greece.
		Why are we allowing billionaires to control us?
		If we get together and tax at a higher rate for billionaires than the common man and graduate up, we can control the billionaires.
		It's called the plunder tax because they're plundering the country by not paying taxes.
		All right, well.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk about that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Reid.
unidentified		So I'd point to a couple of state-level initiatives, and I'll stick with the state level.
		That's my sort of my remit here.
		There is a new measure in Massachusetts that taxes people who make, I think it's more than a million dollars a year at a substantial level.
		And interestingly enough, you know, a lot of the wealthiest Bay State residents threatened to move to some other state after this tax was implemented.
		But then again, the amount of tax revenue collected was much higher than initially anticipated from state coffers, which tells me that not a lot of people moved and that actually the tax collected more than anticipated.
		There have been similar initiatives to tax the ultra-wealthy in states like Washington, California, Oregon.
		Not a lot of those have come to fruition yet, but I think that's going to be a conversation that state legislatures, especially in blue states, have in the coming years.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Denise in Glen Burney, Maryland, Independent.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Denise.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		My question is twofold.
		One, thank you for the gentleman.
		He bring the perspective of how states handle their budget.
		My comment is it would be good if this Congress could operate like a business in solid plans, like the examples the man is given by the state.
		September 30 comes the same time every year.
		You have the same topic, the budget.
		I just wish they would just go to work and do their job and remember they're there for the people and stop punishing federal workers by sending them to work, not being paid.
		People who want to go to work, not getting paid, but they're getting full salaries.
		And it's just disappointing year after year that Congress cannot act like a solid business or doing the practices like the man talking about how the states handle rainy day funds.
		How did you help your citizens?
		And then my second question is, you're doing a good job of showing the sources of your information.
		Could you look up the next time when the Senate is going to be in session voting on the bill if you haven't already done so?
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Reid.
unidentified		Yeah, I just, I love her line.
		September 30th comes the same time every year.
		That's a great line, Denise.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is Stephen, York, Pennsylvania, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Stephen.
unidentified		Hi, how are you?
		A couple things.
		I did break away from one party.
		I got independent.
		I don't think any of them really care about the American people.
		And sometimes I think the American people are ignorant.
		You came out, you just said something about taking money from the rich.
		I'm not rich.
		I'm a middle-class individual.
		A problem is in this country: they did a party.
		Well, that's why I broke away from one of the parties.
		They don't care about the American people.
		All they do is fight and argue and everything else.
		You don't want to talk about things out.
		But there's too much false news coming out telling us this and this and the other thing.
		What I'm hearing so far is a bunch of same stuff that I've heard for years.
		I'm almost 79 years old.
		They don't care.
		My personal opinion is if they don't want to work, let's fire them or let's get a bunch of airplanes, send them over to Iraq or someplace else for them to argue over there.
		Because we're getting hurt here in America.
		Because one of the things I don't agree with is the governments are unionized.
		They should not be unionized.
		We voted you in to do the job for the American people.
		And why do they have to keep getting raises when they're not doing anything at all to help us at all at all?
		It's a Ponzi scheme in my book because the money coming into this country, do you realize that 47% of the American people today do not work at all, but they get free handouts?
		They don't pay any tax, federal taxes at all.
		It's a rest of them.
		And the top 2% or 3% pays for 50% of the income coming in.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Stephen, what did you say?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How many, what's the percentage of Americans that don't work?
unidentified		About 45 to 47%.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are you conflating that with the 100%?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yes, I think you're conflating that with people not paying federal taxes because their income is too low.
unidentified		Yes, sir.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, go ahead, Reed Wilson.
unidentified		Well, I would question those numbers.
		I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the workforce participation rate is somewhere in the low 60s.
		Yeah, I'll just leave it there.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Denise had asked about the Senate schedule.
		If you go to senate.gov, you will be able to see all their scheduled hearings, their floor proceedings, their schedule, senate.gov.
		Also, stay with us on C-SPAN 2.
		We have live gavel-to-gavel coverage of anything that happens in the Senate.
		They are gaveling in today at 10 a.m.
		So, right after this program, you can go over to C-SPAN 2 and watch the Senate.
		Here's James Decatur, Arkansas Republican.
		Good morning, James.
unidentified		Yes, we got a problem over here in Decay and Arkansas.
		We don't have no law enforcement over here.
		We don't have nobody to get these immigrants out of here out of Arkansas.
		The sheriff is nothing but a stew pigeon over here.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Any comment on that, Reed Wilson?
unidentified		You know, Arkansas's budget is remarkably strong.
		I keep seeing, you know, in our daily, we write a daily newsletter on what happens in the state governments.
		I hope everybody subscribes at pluribusnews.com.
		Shameless plug.
		But one of the things that I see in the clips every day is how state budgets are doing.
		And remarkably, Arkansas's tax revenues have been up higher than anticipated for quite a while.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Now, regarding the impact on airports, TSA workers, FAA workers, they are still required to show up for work.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to play a short portion of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy talking about that from Monday, and then we'll discuss it.
sean duffy ▲ ● ▼		So we're tracking sick calls, sick leave, and have we had a slight tick up in sick calls?
		Yes.
		And then you'll see delays that come from that, right?
		Because again, our priority, again, I want to see your flight not be delayed.
		I don't want you canceled, but our priorities are safety.
		And so if we have additional sick calls, we will reduce the flow consistent with a rate that's safe for the American people.
		So we've had a slight tickups and they've been in certain areas, and we are managing that following that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What have we been seeing, Reid, around the country as far as the airports?
unidentified		Yeah, so as of yesterday, there were about six FAA centers.
		You know, the FAA uses the sort of regional centers to manage the flight traffic around the country.
		And by the way, this is mostly a federal issue rather than a state issue.
		No, it's not mostly.
		It is entirely a federal issue.
		And so there are about six centers that are understaffed, which means we're seeing delays in a lot of places in Newark and in Los Angeles and here in Washington, D.C. I happen to be a bit of a sort of an aviation geek, a flight nerd.
		And as I'm watching the apps, the planes are circling for quite a while before they're able to land because there simply aren't enough air traffic controllers.
		The interesting thing about those air traffic controllers is that in recent shutdowns in the last 10 or 15 years, so maybe just when I've been reporting on these things, the air traffic controllers are sort of the ones who can force action by Congress.
		You know, either when Congress is coming back to D.C. or leaving D.C., if their flights are delayed, they don't like that.
		And if their constituents' flights are delayed, the members of Congress start to hear about it.
		So air traffic controllers tend to have more power than pretty much any other federal employees to make it clear to the American people that a government shutdown is happening and is becoming a problem.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Emery calling from Alexandria, Virginia.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, hi, Emery.
unidentified		Hi there.
		I'm calling because I wanted to make a comment.
		Listening to C-SPAN, there's been so much just back and forth about misinformation, flights, half-truths, things like that, that I think we should absolutely expect our representatives to be telling us the truth.
		They have a responsibility to us to not twist the truth.
		And I think that we should actually expect them to be fined or have some sort of penalty structure for creating these half-truths that they're delivering to the American people.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Any comments on that?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Reid?
unidentified		I think the First Amendment might have something to say about that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Well, let me ask you about local housing markets and the impact that the shutdown is having on that.
		Can you explain what's happening with the National Flood Insurance Program?
unidentified		Oh, gosh.
		No, actually, I'm sorry.
		I have not read up on that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And what about the federal aid programs that are impacted?
		Can you talk about that and what states can do to alleviate some of that?
unidentified		Sure.
		So we've actually started to see a lot of this even before the shutdown happened.
		A lot of the budget cuts that happened under the reconciliation bill that President Trump signed on July 4th cut a lot of money to the states and sort of reallocated the way a lot of states are funded.
		And we've seen some states already coming back into special session to try to backfill a lot of those programs.
		New Mexico just finished a special session on some of those cuts.
		Massachusetts lawmakers this week, I think, are expected to override some vetoes that Governor Mora Healy made to backfill some of those programs.
		So this is a bigger deal than just the government shutdown.
		This is, you know, there are programs from SNAP benefits to Medicaid cuts to a lot of these sort of these big programs that the federal government funds, but states administer.
		The states have stepped in to try to alleviate some of those cuts and to backfill them.
		That's, again, everything from food stamps to Medicaid programs and health benefits to education funding.
		So I think what we're going to see in January when a lot of these state legislatures come back into session is going to be efforts to further backfill those, especially in the blue states.
		They're going to try to use some of their rainy day funding to make up for what the federal government has cut.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And that's Reed Wilson, founder and editor-in-chief of Pluribus News.
		You can find his work at pluribusnews.com.
		Reid, thanks so much for bringing you on the program.
unidentified		You got it, Mimi.
unidentified		Thanks so much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to Washington Journal.
		Joining us now is Representative Johnny Olszevsky.
		And he is a Democrat from Maryland covering Eldersburg, Towson, and Baltimore.
		Welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thanks for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I just want to start with the government shutdown.
		It's day nine.
		What's your level of concern that this is going to continue for the foreseeable future?
unidentified		Well, I am deeply concerned this is going to continue for the foreseeable future because leaders aren't talking to each other.
		The president's not in the room.
		The speaker has canceled votes now for the second week.
		And I think it's irresponsible to not be at the table when hundreds of thousands of federal employees are working without pay.
		Our troops are serving without pay.
		And we know that there are three big issues here.
		One is that our federal employees are not political pawns and they're being treated as such.
		Two, Americans are being impacted.
		Their services across this country are being not, their needs are not being met.
		Services are not being provided.
		And three, we're not going to have a deal if we're not negotiating and we're not talking.
		And that's something that I think is very basic for leaders to do.
		And so I'm very concerned about where we go from here.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So are you seeing no negotiating, no talking?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Is there even informally, are you guys talking?
unidentified		Yeah, informally, there are some conversations happening.
		I think that's especially true with some members of the Senate.
		Unfortunately, as I said, much of the House, in particular the Republican conference, is out of town.
		They are not here working.
		The Speaker has, again, canceled votes.
		We are not swearing in Representative Electrohalva.
		We're not taking action to pay our troops.
		I know that there was a letter mentioned earlier today.
		That is a vote that would overwhelmingly pass both the House and the Senate.
		It would not be a performative act.
		We can and we should be making progress for the American people, for our federal workers.
		And so I'm actually encouraged that some senators are taking it upon themselves with the president being absent, with Speaker Johnson being absent, with Leader Athune not convening the players to make a deal possible, because I think there could be a deal possible, a bipartisan deal that addresses the health care crisis and that also reopens our government.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So let's talk about the health care crisis.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What would Democratic leadership, House Democratic leadership, be willing to compromise on either the ACA subsidies or the Medicaid cuts?
unidentified		Well, I certainly can't speak for Democratic leadership, but what I can do is speak for this Democrat.
		And I believe that two things are true, is that we've already seen a president and this Republican majority who has taken cuts to a bipartisan budget that was previously enacted.
		We've seen a president who has illegally withheld funding.
		And we've seen cuts to health care for millions of Americans, both in the big ugly bill, as well as what's on the horizon with the expiration of these affordable health care subsidies.
johnny olszewski ▲ ● ▼		And so I would think that there is some room in all of that space to keep the government open, prevent those unilateral cuts.
unidentified		If we're going to have a bipartisan deal, we should have bipartisan protections.
johnny olszewski ▲ ● ▼		You know, I represent Baltimore, and the president has both explicitly threatened the funding for the Francis Scott Key Bridge, as well as Transportation Secretary Duffy has followed up with a letter.
unidentified		But I think we can put protections in the budget process and we can take steps, for example, on the health care subsidies.
unidentified		But none of that's going to happen again if we're not in the room actually having those conversations.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, let's talk about one of those things.
		Axios is reporting that Democrats are open to income cap on ACA subsidies.
		I don't know if you've looked at that or if you've talked with your colleagues about that.
		Would you be in favor of that?
unidentified		I would be open to any bipartisan agreement that takes care of the looming health care crisis where families are going to see their premiums double.
		That's thousands of dollars of increases for working families.
		And that responsibly reopens the government.
		So if there is a deal on the table that have appropriate income limits, that would be something that this Democrat would be open to negotiating because I think that's what this is all about is preventing, you know, the average family of four in America making $90,000 a year is set to see an increase of $3,000 a year on their health care premiums.
		If they're on the exchange, that will affect everybody else who has even employer-based health care.
		So we have to find a way forward.
		I think we can.
		If that's one of the issues we have to have the table, I say let's have that be part of the conversation so we can reopen this government and address this health care crisis.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join our conversation with Representative Johnny Olczewski, a Democrat of Maryland, you can do so.
		Our lines are Republicans 202-748-8001.
		Democrats are on 202-748-8000.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		We also have our line for federal workers.
		That is 202-748-8003.
		You mentioned the Key Bridge, just reminding people that that was hit by a very large ship and destroyed.
		Several people died on that bridge.
		Where does that stand now?
		Is that being rebuilt?
		What's the situation?
unidentified		So in the Baltimore area, probably the largest infrastructure project in Maryland, if not the East Coast, a multi-billion dollar project that has really devastated commerce, not just for Maryland, but for the entire country.
		And we are in the process now of dismantling the rest of the original Key Bridge.
		Even as we're doing that, we're designing and beginning construction of the new Key Bridge.
		And so that is something that is, as the federal government has always done, is at the table providing full funding after Maryland's insurance dollars run out and after whatever recoveries we get from the ship Dolly and its owners and operators for their irresponsibility in terms of what happened that day.
		That's been devastating for Baltimore and the region, even though we've had incredible resilience and we appreciate the ways in which people have stepped up to help us.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Now, there is a, this is the Weather Channel that cites that there is a storm coming to the East Coast.
		It says a Nor'easter will target the East Coast this weekend with coastal flooding, heavy rain, and winds.
		What happens when the government is shut down and there is any kind of a natural disaster or flooding or hurricanes or anything like that?
unidentified		Well, hopefully we have enough essential employees in place to respond to those crises.
		I think it reinforces the point that if we don't have those individuals in place, it's exactly why the House of Representatives should be in session right now so that we can respond to the pressing needs of the American people.
		And I'll say, unfortunately, though, it also highlights the point that you have a president who has already gutted agencies like FEMA who has said the states are on their own and they should have the responsibility.

▲