and conferences these days and this was exceptional. i think i would say that as people think about the oversight board and do their evaluation of it it should be, i think, yes, mindful of the humility that helle was talking about land and a way that at least at the outset the limited framework that it has but i think that people will need to stick with the story foror a long time to e whether the approach -- >> this entire conversation is available online at c-span .org. we leave it here for live coverage of the senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee on economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic at the local level. >> that will help us if there's a technology issue and we will move to the next senator and cameron is so good at this and he will help you fix that but we

will move to the next senator and witness until it is resolved to keep things moving. each witness will have five minutes to speak before your statement of course and all senators will have a five-minute clock and it applies for questions and you can see the five-minute clock on the screen for most of you. with 30 seconds remaining and the chairman set this up and you will hear a bell ring and you should each year and we will all hear it to remind you your time is almost expired and some people have trouble seeing the clock. it will ring when your time has expired. senator to me and i have agreed to go by seniority not time of arrival as we do in person but seniority for this hearing so thank you for going through all of that and welcome to all of you in the hearing members and witnesses. it should not be a surprise that her first hearing is about the coronavirus and it has affected every american home and family

and work life and it's obviously affected the entire economy for nearly the last year. on this and all the issues that come before this committee we will get to work for all the americans have not had much in washington or in our economy. ohioans and working families all over the country know what that is like when they have too much experience watching the largest multinational corporations glide while her communities and falls businesses get left behind. before the great recession our trade and tax policy abandon the industrial heartland and working-class towns and neighborhoods all over the country and frankly too often with bipartisan support. communities from to the newark, ohio to newark, new jersey all watched factory after factory close with no plan to rebuild our local economies. entire neighborhoods and entire towns hollowed out. people felt like their hard work no longer paid off and for black and brown workers it had never really paid off like it should

and they were the first to be preyed on by shady mortgage lenders in the first to lose their jobs, the first to get foreclosed on and now they feel like they're watching history repeat itself. my colleagues on this committee have heard me say that the epidemic has been the great revealer and it is laid bare with so many americans already knew that millions of workers have little economic security and can't get a moment or ahead in this economy no matter how hard they work. so many families are one emergency away from returning to a payday lender or getting evicted. if the bus crits running after 10:00 o'clock and she can't make it to her night shift she loses her job and if the restaurant cuts back his hours he has to choose between paying the rent or paying the electric bill. last year i was talking to a worker in southwest ohio they call me essential but i feel expendable and they don't pay me much or protect me to work great it's not a coincidence that many of the workers corporations

treat as expendable black and brown workers and so often they are women in the pandemic has not just exposed racial disparities and income inequality in general disparities and gender disparities but is made them worse. black and brown americans are more likely to work in frontline jobs that can't be done remotely but more likely to be exposed to the virus and the anxiety that they bring home with them. they're less likely to have paid leave making them more likely to lose their job if they get sick or if their child gets sick. they are less savings to fall back on because of generations of wealth inequality, lack small businesses have closed at twice the rate of white small businesses and this estimate has been making it harder for them to pay off and put their lives at risk for generations long before the virus appeared and the told the pandemic has taken on women ask any mother how she's doing that and american women now have three jobs for the last 11 months. full-time caregivers, teaching their children, doing the job

they had before the pandemic and notice only one of those three jobs actually comes with a paycheck. for 23 million women they simply cannot do all three and they have been forced out of the workforce and altogether that's 2.3 million families scraping by trying to figure out how they will pay the mortgage or pay for the health insurance or groceries. it is always the same story with the biggest corporations in the largest banks need help their allies in washington spring into action but the rest of the country needs investment and support and they present we can't afford it. today under new leadership this committee we have a core message in those days are over. we will not settle for less. black and brown workers do not have to settle for a system that treats them in their lives as expendable. they should not have to settle for doing three jobs with no help. we do not have to settle for scraps while they watch corporate profits soar. ohio and the rest of the country

do not have to settle for wall street first recovery with the world's richest country in the world world's largest economy and have the resources to meet the challenges for everyone. that is what president biden is doing with his rescue plan and what we will do in the committee starting today. our witnesses will make clear the importance of the recovery that supports all americans. [inaudible] working to keep his members safe amidst great difficulty. we are here for the small business owner struggling to keep the doors open and his workers in his job it we will hear from a legal services lawyer from columbus who has spent much of his time trying to help people stay in their homes with the mayor of an industrial town that is suffered [inaudible] for decades and is now facing the same challenges that cities and towns and neighborhoods and all of our states and these are voices that been ignored or shut it down

even ridiculed by corporate elites and their newspaper of record into many [inaudible] and we will get help to people for people to stay in their homes and pay their bills and we will keep the doors open minority owned businesses and on for numerous have worked their whole lives to build. we will keep our buses and trains running and keep those workers on the job. it's not about recovery but empowering all americans, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what kind of work you do it's about investing in all communities and we will show the emergent people that their government for a change and the government is on their side. it is time to get to work. senator toomey. >> thank you, chairman brown. less than one month ago president biden in a call for unity and promised the covid's strategy based on truth, not politics, based on science, not denial. it is what makes it so disappointing that our democratic colleagues in the white house are pushing this

$1.9 trillion spending bill. they're using a process that is designed to not find common ground and designed to be purely partisan and it is not informed by any objective measure of means and the only organize in civil seems to to spend as much money as possible and willfully ignore the adverse impacts of these policies. covid has been an extraordinary crisis, no question about it. congress responded in an extraordinary way when the government shut down the economy because of covid in march or april of last year and produced a crisis that congress responded to with over the course of last year with overwhelmingly bipartisan bill on almost $4 trillion in relief and one of these bills was signed into law less than two month ago and now after some time the economy has been in recovery mode. in april the limit rate was 14.8% and in january of this

year it sound 6.3 and 18 states up on up limit rates below five. gdp growth in the last two quarters has been extraordinary and the consensus for this entire year is to have extremely strong economic growth that could be as much as 5%. there is certainly serious suffering occurring in those industries among workers and in the industries that have been hard-hit with fatality, travel and leader but this bill isn't targeted at them but this bill is a wasteful not at all targeted and largely unrelated to covid bill just consider some of the so-called universal stimulus checks in the vast majority is 160 million americans there received checks never experienced any loss of income. under president biden's plan if they follow the eligibility criteria of the first few rounds they will be families with six-figure incomes, no loss of income and they will receive another $10000 plus in checks. extra on employment will result

in about half of all beneficiaries getting paid more not to work then they get paid to work and how does that respect the dignity of work and a minimum wage increase of $15 that the cbo projects will cost 1.32 1.7 million jobs and deny so many young people especially that first step on the economic ladder and we have witnessed today and he will tell us first hand kind of impact on his employees of the 15-dollar minimum wage he has been subject to state and local government and another terrible idea driven by apparently a desire to bailout fiscal year responsibility cities and states and consider this in the aggregate state and local governments for 2020 took in an all-time record amount of revenue. let me say this again paid there was no huge collapse of revenue

in 2020 state and local government sent a new all-time record high revenue. that does not count the $572 billion that we sent them anyway over the course of last year and now we are told we need to send them another three to $50 billion on top of that. transit, $30 billion and congress already provided 89 billion for transit of which 14 billion was appropriated just two months ago and we are now supposed to send yet another $30 billion and housing, $40 billion for housing assistance and we have provided $40 billion in response to covid and 25 billion for rental assistance again. that is less than two months ago and that is all of course on top of the eight teen hundred they provided an stimulus checks and unappointed insurance benefits to cover expenses like runs and mortgages. mr. chairman, it's disappointing to me that the president's call

for unity is starting to rain hollow. all five of the relief bills enacted to date were overwhelmingly bipartisan and there is a reason that this one is not and it is because there is no rational economic justification for what is in it. this is still not about covid and not about economic recovery and not about stimulus but it appears to be more about connecting a long-standing democratic party wish list. the focus of congress should be working to return the economy to the pre- covid strength where we were at record low unappointed levels and there were more job openings and worked looking for jobs and that's what we need to get back to one of the things that we should be insisting on is that schools reopen and the president says he will be guided by science and cdc research shows it is safe to reopen schools and it is necessary for the sake of our kids that we do so. these closures have been harmful to student performance and well-being in a variety of ways.

mr. chairman, i think the focus should be on the actions that will help this economy recover instead of using the pandemic and the past economic crisis. the justified partisan priorities. >> i will introduce the five witnesses and then we will begin in the order of introduction. i will start with mr. costa and then you will go first. [inaudible] [audio difficulties] [audio difficulties] welcome and thank you for pushing for a better way for safer working conditions for the transit workforce. mr. brown is the 51st layer of

the city of youngstown, ohio and prior to becoming may he was deputy treasurer overseeing day-to-day operations of the treasury office and human relations for the city of youngstown last year my inspire staff and committee staff met with mayor brown where he led of panel talking about the challenges facing the ohio cities. has been staff attorney at the legal aid society in columbus, ohio with the housing team at the legal aid society since december 2016 and plumbers has been the 14th largest city in the country and thousands of its residents are struggling to pay the rent, pay the mortgage, pay their electric bill and. [audio difficulties] 's a strong advocate for advocating that court and understanding how housing relates to everything else in people's lives. welcome and nice to see you.

president of the american action forum and served in a variety of policy positions inside and outside of government, chief economist and director of the nonpartisan congressional budget office in the first time i ever interacted with him he was director of domestic and economic policy and the commissioner of the financial crisis inquiry commission. i know we don't always see at the same way but i thank you always for your passionate response and is the chairman does and ranking member does too and we welcome you back to our committee. lastly, whom i have never met manager of the family owned new nod in new york. it's a real tail wholesale bakery that supplies the public and distributors with italian cookies, pastries and bread. welcome to the banking housing and i thank you for joining us and sharing your story which is very important to us.

mr. costa, if you could begin. >> okay, every time i hit it, he hits it. mr. chairman, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. transit workers have been true heroes during this pandemic and they put their lives on the line each day to keep america moving. on behalf of the entire transit industry and our writers thank you for providing the funding necessary for transit to survive and without the 39 billion in emergency aid we would have come to a grinding halt. the buses and trains have kept running so grocery store workers keep the shelves stocked with childcare workers keep our workers safe and nurses keep us alive. you also saved our jobs and we are sincerely grateful.

of course, the downside of staying on the job as a bus operator is that we are continuously exposed to covid. it is no surprise that thousands of transit workers have tested positive. we drive ten cans with bad air circulation. 118 new members have died from this virus. dw has lost even more. nearly 300 families will never be the same. it doesn't have to be this way. with proper precautions transit service can be delivered safely but the previous administration let us down from the beginning. fda told us that masks were not recommended and we pleaded with them to get ppp to the transit systems. they ignored us. we went out and got gloves and masks ourselves. we also asked for help on social distancing and contact tracing

and other protective measures but fda voided out the guidelines so each day more of our members and passengers died and we are still paying the price and president biden was left with no plan to get shots into arms and no reserves. in my home state of new jersey transit refrigerators, vaccines or members could get the shots right on site but they have been empty for more than one month. we wait for the shots and putting our lives on the line every day and yet today another new jersey transit operator, our member, passed away due to covid-19. in addition to driving a bus or members are also masked police trade they get attacked for enforcing rules and trying to stop the spread and we had a baseball being back speeding in

california and we had a knife attack in texas. a bone breaking sucker punch in new york and it is happening everywhere. president biden's mask mandate is a great start and we just need help enforcing it. social distancing on a bus is very hard to do and passengers in many locations are allowed in the front row too close for comfort and we are now collecting fares. a lot of our buses have shields due to covid and it's better than nothing but it still leaves a gap exposing us to attacks. our maintenance and cleaning members who do amazing job wiping down the surfaces in our buses and while ridership is way down buses are still jammed into cities or people don't have a choice, not just places like newark where i am from but it's the midwest, the south and people have to go to work. they still have to come to work

and they don't have a car. essential workers like healthcare workers service jobs workers grocery store workers and people who clean buildings mostly of color and in receiving the vaccine it is because many are suspicious of the government but access is key factor in it plays a huge role. transit systems across the country are now giving free rides to vaccination sites and or members are proud to play a part of this effort. but we can't do it without funding and that's where you come in buried local funding and fare revenue is way down and we are going to need federal operation to assist for a long time. acu is calling for an additional 39.3 billion in emergency funding and we appreciate the 30 billion in the new bill and hope it gets spread around the whole country.

we need to continue to provide essential services in places like providence, charlottetown, baltimore, nashville and of course, youngstown. i want to give a shout out to the local 272. transit depends and more will die due to this pandemic. we can't leave anyone stranded. congress should do the right thing and provide paid for front-line workers who have put their lives on the line during the epidemic. people call us heroes but we can't change what is happened in our members and our passengers we have lost are not coming back but we continue to support the transit and it plays a strong federal role in the safety measures [inaudible] we can work our way through these challenges and safely deliver the transit services that transit needs. thank you.

>> thank you very much, sir costa. mayer brown. >> thank you chairman brown and ranking member for inviting me to testify before the city on banking, housing and affairs. i'm the mayor of the city of youngstown and we are a small city in the midwest of a population of about 57000 and this is the 44 years that the closure of steel mills in the city. as a legacy city and faced a history of corrupt corporate politicians and governmental missteps among our community. my administration has had to overcome obstacles and inadequate resources, lack of livable wage jobs and have always had historical problems in our community. further hindrance to the efforts for recovery is behind the housing stock and transportations for those who need access to employment. the current global pandemic has

hit this community harder than ever and covid-19 has been a great revealer of the health, social, economic, racial disparity of our community. small to medium-size business are also feeling the impact of a pandemic, especially minority owned business and many of whom did not have an established relationship with the banking institution prior to the pandemic. we need to tell the city of youngstown and we are no different across the nation. when the city has barely rebounded from a 50 year economic [inaudible] those rebounds have been eviscerated by covid-19. and whatever federal assistance is provided in must be a long-term coordinated strategy to get the resources they need to address the impacts of

covid-19 and housing and transportation in small business efforts are included in federal rescue plans and any component is ignored the entire community structure will likely fail and all cities particularly have been hard-hit by the economic downturn of this pandemic and this is because cities in ohio rely on municipal income tax as a primary source of revenue and it's much more susceptible than economic positions as a postwar property tax revenue stream. youngstown has felt the impact or standard we are the town called mahoney town and one of the highest unpleasant rates in the state ranking 75th out of 88 in the county. when unemployment is up tax revenue is down in these economic challenges have rippled all across the regional economy

from housing to public transit to the economy activities that sustains our small business and in order to truly recover from a pandemic leave has to happen in our neighborhood and community were it will not survive but thrive. cities do not have an opportunity to flounder for another 50 years. federal resting plant must include build back better legacy cities like youngstown, ohio. this should include an outline of president biden for distribution of covid-19 vaccination and transcendent assistance to keep buses running so essential workers can continue to work, direct revenue replacement for cities and small businesses support for hard-working business owners that keep their workforce and they should be flexible, free of bureaucratic red tape so that the pace of recovery is not

signing a federal mandate. transparency of local government spending should be the mandate to reinforce accountability and build trust with small business leaders [inaudible] the impact of covid-19 is still affecting many of the citizens i represent and we need immediate relief during these difficult times and i and a long-term recovery plan to build back thriving communities. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mayor. please proceed. >> chairman brown, ranking member to me, thank you for inviting me today to speak.

i am a staff attorney at the legal aid society in columbus a ohio nonprofit the fights legal assistance to low income clients. i run our eviction product tenant advocacy project where my team and i represent tenants at courts. every morning monday through friday we watched tenants and landlords check into court and about 90-100 eviction trials are scheduled per day all for 9:00 a.m. before [inaudible] in our court uses a system where tenants families, landlords and attorneys wait in the atrium for the cases to be called one at a time for trial that typically last only a few minutes. we tried to help as many families as we can is gavel for solutions and partner agencies try to connect them with systems but it's not always enough in many still end up being evicted. even before the pandemic over 54000 low and moderate income households in central ohio spent

more than half of their income and housing and when they lost their jobs or their hours were cut due to the pandemic they were forced to rely on erratic spurts of stimulus checks, on the plemons and rental systems with little certainty about how much wood, or when it would arrive. not everyone is guaranteed assistance because there just isn't enough to go around. even when assistance is available many income people are paying off old debts leaving nothing to pay next month's rent. they are not hanging by a thread but comfortably waiting to be turned out. covid only makes it worse. he cannot pay rent when the catch covid and miss work. they cannot even attend court when covid put some on a ventilator. we recently asked the landlord attorney to reschedule the case until they were well and the attorney refused and applied back although unfortunate they still pursue with evicting the tenant because that's the right of the property owner and that is how it always has been.

eviction moratoriums are effected in preventing these scenarios and the spread of covid but only if they are enforced. moratoriums under the cares act and cdc have provided tremendous relief to many tenants. however, those moratoriums have had loopholes that have allowed devastating levels of eviction and it turns out moratoriums have little oversight and delegating enforcement to the self regulation of landlords. the cdc moratorium allows landlords to continue to file evictions but when we ask for protection under the cdc moratorium the tenants was have a truthfulness hearing to prove that they are truly poor enough to qualify. these clients lost his job to them endemic and was supporting himself and two kids on 98-dollar weekly on employment checks. landlord filed eviction for failing to pay rent and that trial the landlord's attorney willed him why he can spend any of his unlimited towards rents. client responded all went to food and utilities. the attorney argued for the

court that our client should've paid some of the unemployment towards rent and the court declined this argument and use the moratorium however, the landlord then filed a new eviction against our client claiming that he was now a holdover tenant. this client is one of the lucky ones for it over 4000 evictions were filed and recorded between september and december of 2020 in less than 20 were halted by the moratorium. evictions and covid are hitting the black communities the hardest. but 50% of our clients at eviction court are blocked while black residents make up only 24% of the population. you also twice as likely to die from covid if you are black than if you are white. in my clients chose to be poor or to die more easily from covid. the rest of us have a choice neither taking action or being a bystander to the consequences of this pandemic and we need more intervention, including the effective moratoriums. [inaudible] 14 million

households nationwide face the same peril. these do not even account for the millions of homeowners facing similar threats foreclosures. displacement of these families will devastate our nation for years to concord we must do more to ensure that everyone has a home, not just because it's right but -- thank you and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you. [inaudible] >> chairman brown, ranking member to me and thank you for the privilege of being here today. to date the response of congress to the recession has already been remarkable and that appropriately timed, appropriately scaled and had the appropriate target and composition unfortunately the rescue plans do not meet any of these criteria and it is not

appropriately time but this isn't march of 2020 when the economy was falling at an annual rate of over 30% and since then recovery has begun with headstrong growth in the fourth quarters of 2020 and cbo projects that 2021 the economy will grow at 4.6% and the federal reserve bank of new york as an out tapped estimate of this year at 6.7% and federal reserve bank has its gdp estimate of 9.5% so this is not an economy in recession and need stiffness but an economy that is growing rapidly and just received nearly $1 trillion of federal support in december of last year. the timing seems off. it is not an appropriate scale. 1.9 trillion is just way too large even given the advocates of the need for stimulus but the problem of going to the congressional budget office is that the economy is roughly 40 to 50 billion in $2012, four to

50 below the potential because we have means to keep people out of work and this is a 1.9 trillion response to that problem. it is far too large and the theory of stimulus is that when we multiply at more than a dollar of economic activity and income and i said in my written testimony if you assume the multipliers are less than one half the economy will overheat by the end of this year at 1.9 trillion stimulus aid. the scale is wrong and that shows some of the elements of the plan as well. ranking member noted the housing assistance in this bill combining the housing assistance from december with an additional proposed would give you something roughly double the problem as i estimated and that ignores any income support that state and individuals have gotten to on appointment insurance and economic support payments for check the house receives so the scale seems

wrong for the problem we have. the composition and targeting is at odds with the basic idea. i don't think it should be thought of as stimulus and the real problem is that the recession came from the disease and the coronavirus that is the problem what we saw in march and april of 2020 is people stop spending on services and do not engage in any service that would involve personal contact and risk transmission in particular the average household dropped their spending dramatically in that spending has not returned and there is nothing in this bill that would restore the spending of those affluent households. there is not a ui provision or attack or any of those elements that add up to 1.9 trillion that was all that problem. the problem gets solved only by

addressing the virus itself and we should support every effort on vaccination, on testing, on contact raising and on fighting coronavirus and that in the end will resort the economy. these will not print that spending is still missing in action. other compositional issues. this is not targeted on those who have suffered financial distress. it's a broad-based program and composition is some of the elements that are at odds with the economics and raising the federal bonus to $400 a week is simply too large and sending it through the end of the summer when we expect the labor market to have restored function because of the vaccination efforts will interfere with recovery and not supported. there is nothing about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the middle of this that will enhance recovery it will damage the small businesses a quarter of which have already shut their doors in america and there are

things in here that have nothing to do with what covid-19 and recovery from the recession and contains a bailout of the multiemployer pension plan that is a disappointment giving the bipartisan efforts to do that and it contains expanses of the child critics for example that our permanent policy and might make sense to have nothing with covid-19. i find this a disappointing effort and congress has done so well in responding to covid-19 thus far and i encourage the committee to look in another direction. >> thank you. welcome to our committee. thank you. >> chairman brown, ranking member to me and distinguished members of the senate banking committee. thank you for your invitation today. my family owns salinger's bakery in new york. cylinders bakery retail and wholesale bakery sells to the

public with italian baked goods. my father and his cousin immigrants from italy founded salinger's bakery in 1983 in brooklyn. our bakery was a staple in our community for nearly 40 years until we were unfortunately forced to close our doors of august of 2020. this bakery was her family's legacy and one filled with entrepreneurial spirit and rich with tradition, culture and love. it was the quintessential american dream for immigrants who came to this country to provide for a better life and they acted as a silent killer that caused our bakery to paris. covid-19 and the ends when lockdowns were not the main cause of our closures but was the straw that broke the camels back. coronavirus should not be seen as a scapegoat by policymakers to further explore the fact that small businesses are bandaging.

it's government regulations making it difficult to succeed. the declining growth and long-term viability of our bakery became evident during the first for years of minimum wage increases in new york. at our retail bakery we had three tiers of wages. third tier was art night speakers and they got paid a premium for differential. the second tier were dayshift bakers and the third tier were general laborers. general laborers are retail counter service and maintenance workers. these were individuals who typically consist of working students and entry-level employees an hourly staff. these individuals started and minimum wage as they began to learn the trade and advanced in their roles. as tier three minimum wage employees pay increase one dollar for fiscal year wages began creeping up to the tier two wages and this is where the problem started. you cannot justify the fact that working high school students and entry-level employees with no

prior experience should be making the same wages experience staff. it is neither fair nor ethical. as years passed by tier two workers began to take notice of the minimum wage increase in demand and more pay. to compensate for their experience and skill. it was soon the domino effect when the first-tier employees wanted raises and we found ourselves with our backs against the wall and the situation were all salaries needed to increase. this crippled us. to put it into perspective each year the minimum wage increased one dollar payroll for the year went up $40000. multiply that by the number of years it has gone up and we are now at $120,000 total and this chokehold was something that a small could no longer withstand. i needed to make up for these increases and the only way to do so was to pass it on to our consumers. how much is someone willing to pay for a loaf of bread or a pound of cookies? at some point people who were used to paint a certain price

for a loaf of bread were going to start to complain. that's exactly what they did. customers began to shop for their baked goods at supermarkets and large box stores in the stores offered lower quality versions of our products at a price point that customers were comfortable with. the corner bakery where they used to get their daily bread was now a luxury item only to be bought on special occasions and holidays. the big businesses benefited greatly from the minimum wage increases and continue to seek their valuations explode. they garnered more customers, our customers and replaced half of their minimum-wage staff with electronic kiosks and part-time help. it was a win-win situation for big business. to add insult to injury in 2020 the care zach provided additional [inaudible] to our employees exceeding their pay. we essentially lost our entire staff from march until july because employees were making more money staying at home blaming it on the virus.

even though receive nominal assistance from the paycheck protection program we told our employees to return to work if they did not. the economic injury disaster loan that they received did not even cover one month expenses. it became impossible to retain my workforce and productivity in turn a profit. i had no choice. the federal government provided more help to people to stay home then businesses stay open. small businesses created 80% of the jobs in this country and that's the backbone of america. a small businesses will close their doors this country will be harmed economically. thank you for the opportunity to share our experience and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you for your testimony. let me start the questioning with mr. costa. i wanted to express my condolences for the deaths of

the transit workers across this country. i know many members have passed away and hundreds of other transit workers in other unions so we send our condolences for the sacrifice you make. talk if you would about transit systems and the dire need they face. in my state the governor's budget cuts transit dollars from 70 million down to 7 million in these quick cuts clearly would have an impact not just of the drivers but on the public the needs transit to get to work and i explain why further resources are so essential to the transit systems at large and around the country. >> yes, mr. chairman. look, when the restaurants closed down and the bars closed down and the revenue was not

there. the last bailout gave us the opportunity to keep the jobs and keep the buses on the road and if we don't have another bailout it will just go back to the where it was. right now many of our authorities are waiting or responding and they need this funding and holding back on their budgets to see what is coming out and if they don't gef they don't get what they're waiting on, it's layoffs and cuts in service and which will hurt the economy and hurt the people relying on transit like we spoke before and so the need is there for more funding for transit and it's needed badly. my own state of new jersey they don't know whether they will lay off many other agencies are the same way. to keep the ppe and the buses

safe they need that money for that protection and the masks and the supplies are needed. it's funny, i listen to this and no one is debating on funding and when it comes to war on our own turf ear with this virus we have this debate and my family, they have small business to and everybody has been hurting and it's up to government to help these heroes a key part number safe and have no more of them die and the vaccines are much-needed, especially to my members everyday out there moving the front lines. >> thank you, mr. costa. mayor brown. [audio difficulties] >> it has been a great revealer. it is really exposed the underlying health issues that we talk about but it really put a

focus on those underlying health issues and most minority communities and they are dying at a greater rapid pace because of these underlining health issues. it also is the issue of having access to healthcare appropriate and better healthcare in their community or the lack of good healthcare in this community so the health issue has been a major, major issue to deal with in our community. >> thank you. sorry to squeeze your time but i'm guessing that most members of this committee or at least most members of the senate don't know or maybe a couple of people that generally don't know people that have got evicted and describe what happens to your clients life when first the threat of eviction and then eviction what happens to a family? >> yes, senator.

it makes it very difficult for families to operate with any normal expectation. kids can't do their schooling because they're bouncing around and moving out and even cook a cot hot meal anymore if you get evicted. they've crated so much chaos for families when they're being threatened to be kicked out or attacked like a victim. [audio difficulties] children leave school and put them behind and that has long-term consequences in the future for their ability to become employed or go to college and there is a lot of statistical evidence of time two negative health outcomes, increased rates of crime and this is such a systemic impact.

[audio difficulties] >> go ahead and finish her sentence. >> oh, i did. >> i'm sorry, thank you. senator toomey. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i cannot see the clock so maybe if we could make whatever adjustment we have tried to do that in the past so that would be helpful if possible. let me pose my first question to the doctor. you know, the fact is in 2020 in the aggregate incomes did not collapse. employee composition was up 2%, wages and salaries were up 2.2% and this is during the peak of the pandemic savings rate reached an all-time record high and transfer payments were an all-time record high. let me just ask you this

directly, is it your view that the federal government's policies more than replaced the total lost income of american workers last year? >> thank you. i was needed by that host. yes, we saw hourly income rise over 2020 and this is an income related recession but the virus itself creates economic activity. >> right, so if we do another round of stimulus checks first do you agree with my assessment that a majority of those checks and up going to people who never had any lost income, no interruption of income and secondly, it is your view that that is not constructive for the economy for the government to be just arbitrarily sending money to people who never had any lost income? >> there is no targeting the lost income.

it was in this proposal and the vast majority are people who have never had a day of interruption in our actually relatively active so it doesn't make sense in the circumstances. i think a big risk that we will see this money go to savings accounts and then maybe i can get if i go into the stock market and maybe i can do my robin hood app with calls and 21st century recessions have been proceeded by financial volatility and i worry about the indications of hundreds of billions of dollars sloshing around the financial markets. >> yeah, we're seen strange various asset prices. let me ask about on the house inside the eviction moratorium and rental assistance. i like this and we've allocated a trillion dollars in direct assistance to individuals and

that is a big part of why in the aggregate household income is so high. let me ask you this. if landlords come to the conclusion that they will at least periodically be in a position where they have no enforcement mechanism on collecting rent what is the likelihood effect on housing and the cost of housing in response to that reality. >> the landlord would be a bad business to be in. they will exit and we will have less than housing supply and will be much more expensive. historically that is going in the wrong direction. >> the short version is [inaudible] higher costs for income housing. let me ask a question. i want to be clear about something, when the unappointed benefits were increased to the point where most workers got paid more not to work then they

got to work. did that create a difficulty for you in retaining your workforce? >> absolutely and thank you for the question but it was difficult because when employees are getting paid more to stay home why come back to work? with the policy are government put in place you had to accept these employees when they came back to work and you were they were guaranteed their positions. it's difficult when you have to try to prove if your employee has contracted the virus are not and i was given no evidence and when i contacted the department of labor and they contacted me telling me which employees were collecting assistance even after they told me that i have been in contact with someone while they automatically get two weeks at home and then in those two weeks they apply for the assistance and stayed home until july.

>> we are about to run out of time but quickly i want to be clear the minimum wage that you are subject to and if that were to be rolled out nationally isn't your view that that does not effect equally small and large businesses but rather puts a small businesses at a competitive disadvantage? >> absolutely. small businesses can't do the things that big distances are able to do to compensate for those wage increases. one of those things is big businesses can put kiosks out, self-service stations and customers can pay and not even be in contact with any employee at all with those big box stores. small businesses can do that especially food service businesses. i find that will be a very large gap in the future between small businesses and big business. big business will benefit. >> thank you, i'm out of time so thank you very much.

>> senator. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank the panelists. thank you for your good work in helping people and i think we have all concluded that one of the best forms of ppp is safe and affordable housing and we look at rhode island and discovered that among the homeless population in dollars and cents their annual medicaid course is about $14000 compared to the average course cost is about $8200 so if you are on the street you're costing everyone more money as well as exposing yourself to the covid virus. so, could you just tell me because you're so close, if we don't do more to help them i know there is a discussion of income growth that is not even across the population and low income people aren't seeing some of the benefits in terms of but

what is the impact if we don't act? >> thank you, senator reid for that question. the biggest consequences that we see is just instability with families and communities. if you have the community that is suffering high rates of eviction and high rates of displacement you see a lot of displacement that disrupts the community's ability to network and have members contribute to the community and looking at the problems that they have and addressing them. if you are addicted you don't even have a chance to and those are things that are absolutely crucial with people organizing around the challenges that they are doing as a community and what we see here is a lot of the evictions are very concentrated in specific zip codes and they

tend to be black neighborhoods as well and it affects so many different aspects of our society that are very difficult to even figure out where to start and one of the statistics i recently saw was that ohio experienced an increase of about 15% in 2018 and those homeless children and up experiencing a lot of problems that are by no means their own fault and it is upbeat they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. they are not getting education they need and they are not getting the shelter they need they are not getting the healthcare they need and these are all things that create new barriers for them they have to figure out how to overcome it on their own to even have a fair chance at being a resident of

columbus and these are things that we really should not expect, especially kids, that we should not be exciting people to have to figure out on their own. i think columbus is one of the fastest growing communities in the nation and we certainly should have the resources to be able to interrupt these problems but i think oftentimes we have this mindset that everyone is individually responsible for figuring out how to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps but even impoverished communities don't have boots lying around so one small example of different problems that these families and communities are dealing with, i could go into how this effects employment when employees don't even have stable housing to return to to rest after they work or once i get evicted they

and up having to drive further away because they moved in to a family member across town and there are so many different things that -- go ahead. >> just a quick word. i want to thank john costa and his colleagues for the work you've done and particularly on the local g3 and. [audio difficulties] one issue we are pushing and i won't ask the question but senator introduced a coronavirus and economic relief transportation services to help with the private bus industry and school buses which are critical parts of our economy and we helped the airlines and we hope we can help these kids rotation experts to but i just want to thank you and your colleagues for your great work. thank you john and thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator reid.

i see the names on the screen in seniority order, senator crapo and rounds and tillis and are they actually here? could you turn your cameras on? if not, senator daines of montana is next. senator daines, welcome. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ... >> bipartisan relief bill is

just frustrating to see mike collings on the side of the aisle trying to push forward a partisan, 2 trillion-dollar bill to continue to work across the aisle. and successfully of the course last year and targeted package that really helps with focus is needed most. is been less than two months ago though it has nearly 1 trillion-dollar relief bill. of which only about 50 percent has been spent so far. 50 percent. and right now we should be focusing our efforts tracking where that money is going. remote money might meet needed and also where it is not. any future relief must be targeted to those who truly needed the most . one part of the package is certainly isn't needed is a proposal for $360 billion for state and local, i hope you have not become desensitized by the size of the numbers. think about the discretionary budgets.

entire budget is $1.4 trillion per unit that shows you the magnitude that we are talking about here . infecting 2020, we enacted approximate $60 billion in aid to state and local governments. i support this packages include that aid. however, when the state and local aid was passed, there was a lot of unknowns. the pandemic was a start. but about a year and we do know that in 21 states, as the ranking member mentioned earlier, 21 states actually had revenue growth since 2019 . back california, specifically looking at $25 billion surplus. so we do know now, there is more for state and local aid and was not needed to combat the pandemic. his son needed to make up for lost revenue because of the virus . revenues are up. with this new part of $100 million is actually doing, is going to help the states that

prior to the pandemic like new york and illinois, had problems due to the pandemic and i don't believe the montana should be footing the bill. on tenant tax payers to help the states can have long-term financial problems. the first question for the doctors there any way to justify sending an additional three and $50 million to the state and local governments. >> i don't think so. it at the brookings institution, very detailed state-by-state analysis of the income taxes and corporate income taxes and sales taxes and other fees. and it does not come close to that number. in shows the differences are very stark across the states. so if some state assistance as needed. it should be more targeted with places that have a problem. daines: so i think what we agree with is the vaccine

distribution. i work for procter & gamble prior to coming to congress . we work and fda regulatory products predicting than $10 million past back in march . fda clinical trials in supply chain and manufacturing and is about six - 12 months off the timeline, it shamed time off. thankfully, the distribution now. so we have made great progress. we have a lot more work to do but what concerns me is that trillion dollar package only about 1 percent of this package goes towards covid-19 vaccines. and only about 5 percent is truly is a public health name during the pandemic. and for going to stop the pandemic, we should be doubling down on those efforts . in an additional relief package should be targeted pending the pandemic which we would do with the vaccines. not an extraneous policy.

don't you think we should be prioritizing for vaccines in actual public health needs for these policies that have nothing to do with the pandemic. >> there's no question that should be a priority. the second priority should be targeted really for those who suffered great financial distress. daines: one question. in your testimony, estate in the small businesses about 80 percent of the jobs in this country. that's like the tax reform back in 2017, is focused on the smaller businesses. there are the backbone of americans . for small business continued to close the doors, we will be harmed economically in a permanent long-term consequences. i'm sure everyone in this committee would agree with that statement. more in unemployment and they

make in a job, that is helpful for small businesses. everyone wanted vaccine, can get a vaccine by the summer or even this year . when extra $400 a week of federal an appointment insurance since september which often time and enough to more than not being able to get to work . have difficulty think it would be to hire workers in that situation. >> thank you for your question. but i find that once the employees have access to the vaccine, i do not believe it would be as difficult to hire or bring employees back to the workforce. just bringing back a little bit to what you mentioned it. one of the things that i agree with you most is tracking where the money is going. if we are able to track as you said, where is all of this money being spent . which companies are getting it. employees can benefit greatly because they would have access to that.

daines: thank you. i am out of time. it's. [inaudible]. i believe another senator is here. from georgia. this is your first hearing and welcome. >> thank you and i appreciate it . thank you to our witnesses for your testimony today and i have to confess to being surprised to hearing some of the protest about this direct relief are the people. i think there is a reason that 90 percent of the american public supports this covid-19 relief legislation. and to address some statements made by a colleague earlier, working families in this country are not playing the stock market with his money. working families in georgia and across the country have had to

have extraordinary childcare constants syndicate loss of employment. medical bills and already were in a precarious financial situation to begin with in any cases. this is a bipartisan relief efforts and has the overwhelming support of a vast majority of the american people and i hope that the callings on both sides of the aisle can come together instead of becoming bogged down in fractional disputes and swiftly in the united way, move this legislation as a trend 20 legislation through the senate. i want to address a question to you mayor brown. and ask and then i would like as well for another two addresses as well. what are the forms of exploitation and of abuse that

the constituents that you serve the legal aid science that you are facing during this crisis. brown: senator, thank you so much for the question. i will start in the housing area. i spoke earlier about a town with a recovering economy. we have what we consider predatory lenders from foreign investors that would be in places like where they are saying. [inaudible]. but they're raising those dollars on the backs of the poor people there paying two - three times as much training in monthly than an average individual should have to do. we are finding also, that there are contracts that are not even binding for the stipulations if you miss a few payments that we've had and had several of our

local groups actually taken to court to fight for that . so the predatory lending about the rate and then we have the issue of where they are given this concept bringing here in youngstown, they want homeowners. when the contract is dangled it in front of them. if there is false pretenses, it causes predatory lending practices as well. >> thank you mayor. >> thank you for your question. i would fully agree with mayor brown's response especially in the housing area. we see some of the predatory housing practices. and it was even something that happened before the pandemic. it is become much more intense practice. a lot of that is due to homeowners are scrambling to

find something where they can. for homeowners who cannot pay the mortgage and not pay their taxes. they are looking for income to pay things off. and sometimes in know the consul clausewitz as a dumping a mortgage of the taxes are. and you get somebody recognizes that their desperate and will try to buy their property real cheap. by making these threats with the expectation that the mortgage taxes paid immediately. then there will be criminal consequences or some other type of civil legal consequences that will put them in the whole even further. the pain they end up just selling their home so they can get out of this hole. and their desperate to pay. much more likely to yield short-term loans . they're more

likely to start paying back on essentials like food and medicine and utilities. he creates very risky behaviors that a lot of these people are open to predatory behaviors that take advantage of their desperation. a. >> thank you. i yelled back. >> thank you. [inaudible]. >> thank you. i appreciate your holding this hearing today . make sure that they funds are reallocated for those who most need it. it also want to applaud mike callings in georgia for calling in a bipartisan approach to do this. the congress has proven its ability to approach this pandemic a bipartisan basis on a number of cases before.

like to share one is able. in december of 2020, the senate asked an additional $900 billion in covid-19 relief on the vote of 92 - 6.1 of the things this package did is to set up emergency capitol investment programs. treasury will provide up to $9 billion in tier one capitol directly to the community development institutions and to minority so that they can provide loans, grants and forbearances of small businesses for minority order to businesses and for consumers. this program specifically targeted to those that may be disproportionately affected by the pandemic. especially those low income in underserved communities. however, is this the hearing, treasuries not even had a chance to put this capitol to work. this could make a significant difference in a races example is a believe that we've got to continue to work to ensure that the trillions of dollars the congress is approved, a bipartisan basis are based appropriately expeditiously and

intent tension continued to affect the american people. we must ensure that any additional taxpayer funds are not duplicative of existing used funds in the targeted programs that are necessary at the end of the pandemic, can get our economy going again. with that i would like to direct my first question to the doctor. thank you free time for being here. what i want to do is talk you think entered with you about the longer-term risk to our economy. including our financial stability. that come with an targeted oversight stimulus of this nature. i would appreciate your comments on this . >> even small multipliers. one half to an economy which is potential in the fourth quarter this year. and after that, it's about potential. i'm not deeply concerned about those prices at the moment. we've had limitations for the

decade, even this would not turn that around overnight. we seen this jumped dramatically in the aftermath. the cares act in particular. where those funds go, that becomes a concern. i think the biggest risk of doing too much as a risk to financial stability. >> thank you. and i would like to direct my next question and my condolences to your members who have suffered and lost their lives in this. i appreciate your frontline service. i want to ask you about specifically a letter that you drafted on february 1st. came from your organization and others from leader schumer and mcconnell to speak with pelosi mccarthy. united the public agencies based of projected funding shortfall of billions of dollars through 2023. how much of that is in short fall. was it pre-existing shortfalls ?

>> good question senator. most of it is due to the pandemic. ridership was down . if it wasn't for the bailout, the original idea is that they would have a massive of layoffs. they would cut service, they were mighty cut any workers jobs. thousands of them . and because of the bailout, is not the layoffs and secondly kept the buses in the writer say for drivers to save. because the service was cut . to answer your question, the pandemic, yes that was the biggest problem that we had. >> could you explain then how the 39 billion that was already appropriated. how did that impact the shortfall.

a. >> that money was spent to keep jobs there and keep the service running. and the equipment sanitized. in new equipment and first brought in from the system. the shields were brought in. millions and millions of masks brought in . gloves and sanitizer and all of that was money that was needed to keep us safe. >> my time is up. thank you. >> the 19th . >> thank you mr. chairman burning if you so good to be able to call you that. i want to talk today about essential workers. they are just that. they are essential. there people who are on the front lines and they're still showing up for work even as the death tolls in the united states, approaches a half a million people.

these are the people who are keeping our economy, our healthcare system in our education system going. without them, everything would grind to a halt . but this morning, millions of those essential workers woke up worried about contracting covid-19 on the job. for nearly a year, the federal government is treated these workers as disposable . these essential workers are disproportionately black and brown. 5 million essential workers do not have legal documentation and any are hardly making enough money to get by. the failure in fact the outright refusal for the best administration to protect these essential workers during the pandemic is naturally shameful. it is going to change . you represent transit workers. subway workers rail operators, school bus drivers. the biden administration has committed now to issuing an enforceable health and safety standards for all workplaces.

can you say a word about why that is so important to the workers you represent. >> thank you senator. thank you very much. like i said in my statement. we have push and push to get federal guidelines and the last administration did not get anything. it was watered down. the biden administration came in quickly. they reacted. the main a mask mandate for our drivers. it was huge. we appreciate that. the question about funding, we now need the funding on how to bring down and without using our members as i spoke about earlier. it's bad enough that we have members that are being pulled over. and i am sure. [inaudible]. i know that you know this. but now any of our members are being beat out or killed over

the debater politics that they have on the bus on the facemask. so the administration's reaction is greatly appreciated we appreciate that but now our focus is now going to be applied as how are we going to enforce an end he will do the enforcing. the money will be needed i believe for those agencies to be helpful to institute to save lives not only for my members but the public. a driver is inspected with a hundred people on the bus or even 50 people. they can be infected as well. >> that's very important in thank you. calling first safety standards are powerfully important. this one piece of the puzzle. an essential worker bill of rights outlining a whole suite of rights and protections. i believe that all essential workers be served.

that includes things like hazard pay, paid leave, healthcare protections. rep. and i are expanding it now to include priority access to vaccines. but i also know that we need to improve the workplace health and safety. that that that union workers are more likely to have basically an employer-provided insurance. right now, only about one in every eight essential workers is currently covered by union contract . so the essential workers rights also includes marketing agreements and for workers to join a union. there is another piece to this as well. we need to ensure the americans workers including who have battled this deadly virus every day in their workplaces are not earning poverty wages. there are some who say that now is not the right time to

increase the minimum wage. i would like to hear from you. would raising the minimum wage help promote an equitable recovery from this crisis that workers are facing. >> once again senator, thank you and thank you for supporting everything you just said. as far as the heroes pay and yes it would. we can fight for minimum-wage . think every time we spread money around, the economy is better. why aren't we taking care are working families. this is america. to me, yes, the 15 minimum-wage would help the economy, the livelihoods of any families. the minorities, we supported 10t from the beginning.

as a matter of fact, we supported for more . >> thank you. it is time to deliver for workers and meeting doing everything we can including reconciliation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. thank you for having this hearing mr. chairman. >> i see names of the senators on the screen. i don't know if one of them is here are the other republican members are here . ... ... so i will go to the next senator. >> think mr. chairman . ranking members in the me just start here by strongly endorsing the things mentioned by senator warren with respect to the urgency of increasing the minimum wage prayed it would be based at $15 an hour for a period of time. getting that level in 2025.

i hope we will work to get that done. thank you for all you do with your workers arguing around the country . in maryland and baltimore . in the washington area. i will look forward to working with you as a chairman and to make sure that we address all of the security and health concerns that you have raised. your drivers right there on the frontlines fighting the pandemic and sadly as you testify, also having to fight people who want to use violence to challenge the social distancing rules. i want to broaden that lens a bit. we earlier introduced a bill to deal with transit workers safety. this was apart from the

challenges during the pandemic. the transit workers in production act. protection act created thank you for your input on that. i wonder if you could talk about the need to move forward with that legislation. >> we long time supported this act. these assault for our operators . we want to thank you for that. not one more operator should be assaulted. the industry with the design of the bus, we all know it. this is america. were spending tons of money on equipment and nobody is looking at the fact that everyday that i wake up and operator is assaulted around the country and in canada. i don't understand why it is

taking so long. if it's a bill that protects my operators and keep them safe and running in public. if we don't fix the buses and the writers don't feel and safe. in the industry will die. and we don't have the industry, you won't build back the cities. we need to keep the agencies and put them in a position that they can help the writing public and keep the passengers coming into bring them back. >> thank you and thank you members as you say, nobody should have to put their life and risk to do the job. in transit and helping other people get to and from work. that is true of course during the pandemic but is true before and that's why we look forward to working with you to catch this legislation.

and to be around and and others, held form, a zoom forum especially focused on coping emergency and working right now. and clearly that efficient moratoriums have helped protect people. but, there was an issue the raised there is to be a loophole which is that people obviously have terms to their leases. some people are month-to-month. while eviction moratorium stopped from being evicted, because their nonpayment is related to hardships for us and jobs and. because of the coronavirus. that protection is not there. it's not there for the people whose lease comes to an end even though that may be the reason

that's not being extended. as normally would be as a matter of course. can you speak to that a little bit. and whether you have any ideas on how we can address that problem and whether it is something that you have encountered. >> i will give you a sense of what has happened here in youngstown. we have seen these eviction issues and goes hand-in-hand with the pandemic. the connection for me is the individuals were being assisted, now they have family or friends that if they are infected, now they're taking that infection to another home. it becomes with great disparity. the other conditions that were not going to go through this pandemic all at one time. there will come at a time when work hard on the other side of the pandemic we need to make sure that were prepared and individuals have housing outreach freed and renters to

understand their rights. but also there's gotta be a better understanding of how do we figure out now that we have come to this time, the amenities workers are unemployed pray to be got to figure out how to retrain the workforce. and that we have a good workforce program. in the workforce will be there. we have to make sure this is a long-term plan. the evictions are just one issue that is part of any of those in our community and from the landlord side of the world, they need to be paid as well. but we have to get through it together. there has got to be an doubtful package. and we need to make sure that this is for those in to make sure that they are not evicted. >> i appreciate that. i am a strong proponent of the 25 million-dollar rental assistant provision.

thus push very hard by senator brown and myself and others in december to support the increase in net proposed by president biden. and ending here on the issue of long-term unemployment. i am really glad you raised that. i'm worried about it. we have 4 million long-term unemployed right now. in a follow-up later. i know that others have been concerned about that as well. i see my time is up. i look forward to circling back with all of you for your thoughts from the senators and i. we look forward to the proposals and then look forward to working with you . will be a big issue as we defeat the virus. as the economy comes back. it were at risk of leaving millions behind if we don't do something. i will follow-up and i i see my time is up. >> thank you. thank you to the witnesses.

we have a request. >> thank you mr. chairman. i would just like to insert this into the record . 70 letters that i receive related to this terry. they come from pennsylvania owners that are concerned about job losses from a wage increase. and think tanks who are worried about excessive government spending. >> thank you for those in the committee . the pictures on the screen with these questions. the questions are due one week from today . for any and all of the five witnesses who the community staff predefined the witnesses that we have with us. you have 45 days to respond to any of those questions. and thank you again. i want to thank the witnesses.

thank you for sharing your stories and the experience with your workers. there a lot of statistics about this pandemic. it and there are any stories. people being evicted. anyone listening to the real people realize the 2001 corporate tax cuts were not a success story. neither with a 2017 corporate tax cuts . we know that 40 people around the country know that . we tried the corporations first approach over number. we also work with people in youngstown, does not work for people driving a writing buses . does not work . for people to get their income from a paycheck, not a stock portfolio. we are done with aspirated talk about raising minimum wage . when the politicians are saying they simply don't want you to get a raise. they don't want you to have a wage . and i want to see more money in the workers pockets freedom want to get more into small businesses. we are today, are struggling i

look forward to working with my colleagues. so we can actually have a recovery that looks well . so thank you all for joining us. this meeting is adjourned. you're watching "c-span2", your unfiltered view of governments. a "c-span2" was created by americans cable television company. today it brought to you by the television company to provide "c-span2" to the viewers is a public service. this afternoon a hearing on the availability of free tax services to help taxpayers during the pandemic . the subcommittee on oversight will also discuss challenges in providing tax preparation services to underserved populations. watch live at 2:00 p.m. eastern on "c-span2", online at cspan.org partisan life on the free c-span radio app.

>> one thing that is certain is that the scams do target everybody. but especially during this pandemic when we are saying that minority communities and people of color are being part of it by covid-19. forcing an exponential growth in scams targeting people that are suffering the most. economically and healthwise . and unfortunately, that means that any people of color and in minority communities are taking the brunt of a lot of the scams and schemes that are targeting these populations. it. >> the energy subcommittee on consumer protection and commerce is looking into the increased number of scams related to the covid-19 pandemic . much the hearing on protecting consumers and those scams tonight at eight

here in "c-span2". book tv on "c-span2" top nonfiction books and authors every weekend and coming up on saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, discussion of the book, know what the voters have spoken. life after trump. following books publisher and contributors cynthia anthony. on sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, on afterwards. the american enterprises institute with this book, after the people vote . guide to the electoral college freeze interviewed by author and former editor-in-chief of the review of law and politics. then at 10:55 p.m. eastern, author janice with the book, the - how to pioneering sisters brought medicine to women and women to medicine . watch book tv this weekend on "c-span2". >> next with