Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: With the federal shutdown now becoming the second longest in
Speaker 2: US history, science that it could become the longest one ever,
Speaker 2: with both parties still far apart and far away from.
Speaker 3: A deal, but there are lawmakers who are reaching across
Speaker 3: the aisle. Among them Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. We
Speaker 3: spoke with Senator Cortez Masto earlier today and we asked
Speaker 3: her about the YA boat and where the shutdown goes
Speaker 3: from here. Here's that conversation.
Speaker 4: Well, I can tell you just in general, there's a
Speaker 4: group of US Democrats and Republicans trying to come together
Speaker 4: and help get through this impast there's an impass right now.
Speaker 4: We need to open up the government and we need
Speaker 4: to extend the healthcare subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 4: I think there's the ability to do both. And those
Speaker 4: are the conversations that are taking place with some of
Speaker 4: us right now, both RS and d's.
Speaker 2: Well, depending on who you talked to right now, Senator,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you know this all too well, are
Speaker 2: either a profile encourage or you're a problem for your party.
Speaker 2: And I'm wondering what the conversations are like in the
Speaker 2: cloak room, are you trying to get other Democrats to
Speaker 2: join you? And are you surprised that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2: I think it's twelve rounds today.
Speaker 4: Right. Well, I can say this, we're all aligned in
Speaker 4: the sense that we're fighting for Americans, right We're fighting
Speaker 4: for this country, We're fighting for healthcare. We're taking on
Speaker 4: what we see are the bad policies of this administration.
Speaker 4: And it is not just unique to Democrats. I can
Speaker 4: tell you right now, there are some of my Republican
Speaker 4: colleagues that want to address the Affordable Care Act and
Speaker 4: address the healthcare subsidies the tax credit. They need to
Speaker 4: because in their states, Americans will be harmed if we
Speaker 4: do not extend these healthcare subsidies. And that is true
Speaker 4: across the country. I don't care with your blue state,
Speaker 4: red state, purple state. It's about Americans and supporting them
Speaker 4: and helping them lower their healthcare costs.
Speaker 1: This is one way we can do it.
Speaker 4: And that's why both Democrats and there are some Republicans
Speaker 4: who want to this healthcare subsidy, and they should because
Speaker 4: if we don't, there's probably about twenty two million Americans
Speaker 4: across the country there are not only going to see
Speaker 4: their healthcare costs go up, some of them are going
Speaker 4: to lose access to healthcare because they can't afford it.
Speaker 3: Senator you said that you believe that you can reopen
Speaker 3: the government and extend the subsidies. I'm curious in your
Speaker 3: conversations with the other senators, do you have some guarantees
Speaker 3: from Republicans that they will vote in favor of it.
Speaker 4: Well, those are the conversations and negotiations now, because clearly
Speaker 4: we have to do both. And I will tell you
Speaker 4: a key part of this conversation is going to be
Speaker 4: the man in the White House, Donald Trump, because the
Speaker 4: leadership of Republicans in the Republican Party in Congress, they're
Speaker 4: only going to do what he says. So they have
Speaker 4: to be a part of this conversation. And Donald Trump
Speaker 4: has to be a part of this conversation. He can't
Speaker 4: be flying around everywhere. He needs to be here in Washington,
Speaker 4: bringing the parties together and being a constructive part of
Speaker 4: addressing the healthcare costs that we have in this country.
Speaker 4: If he were to engage, that would help us move
Speaker 4: through this impass of opening up the government and addressing
Speaker 4: the Affordable Care Act subsidies so that we do not
Speaker 4: see healthcare insurance premiums increase for families. I can't stress
Speaker 4: this enough. And it's just not unique to Nevada. I
Speaker 4: know my family's in Nevada, family of four. If you're
Speaker 4: making fifty six thousand dollars a year, you're going to
Speaker 4: see your healthcare premium go up by at least two
Speaker 4: hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 4: There's going to be a double digit increase for premiums
Speaker 4: for people and they are not going to be able
Speaker 4: to afford it.
Speaker 1: That means we're going to lose.
Speaker 4: People on healthcare and the only time now we will
Speaker 4: see them if they have an acute crisis and they're
Speaker 4: going to show up in emergency rooms. It's going to
Speaker 4: have a ripple effect for everybody's health care coverage in
Speaker 4: this country, and it's going to have an impact on
Speaker 4: all of our hospitals and our clinics.
Speaker 1: Including in our urban and rural areas.
Speaker 4: So we really need to come together to address this
Speaker 4: issue in this country, and that requires all of us
Speaker 4: talking and get beyond this impass and start addressing and
Speaker 4: solving the problems of the American public, and this is
Speaker 4: what they want us to do.
Speaker 2: The continuing resolution that you've been voting for, Senator only
Speaker 2: runs through the twenty first of November, so there's been
Speaker 2: a question about whether that date needs to change. There's
Speaker 2: also a question about whether this could be extended by
Speaker 2: a much greater length of time. John Thune suggested just
Speaker 2: twenty four hours ago that a full year cr might
Speaker 2: be the only way out of this. The White House
Speaker 2: has suggested it, and we spoke earlier today with the
Speaker 2: chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Jason Smith,
Speaker 2: told us he would support such a move. So you're
Speaker 2: not facing potential shutdowns every couple of months here. How
Speaker 2: about you through December twenty twenty six. Would you vote
Speaker 2: for that?
Speaker 4: Well, let me just say this, this is part of
Speaker 4: the problem. Instead of coming to talk leadership, talking amongst
Speaker 4: each other, Democrats and Republicans and all of us working
Speaker 4: together like we normally should, we're hearing conversations from the
Speaker 4: press and offers coming from the press. No offense to
Speaker 4: both of you, but this is where this should happen,
Speaker 4: right here in Washington, and us coming to the table
Speaker 4: having these conversations.
Speaker 1: That's part of the impact.
Speaker 4: And this is my frustration in some of my colleagues,
Speaker 4: we see the same frustration Republican leadership, Democratic leadership, the
Speaker 4: White House.
Speaker 1: We need to all be in the same room.
Speaker 4: We need to be working like the American of public
Speaker 4: expects us to do in Congress and do our jobs.
Speaker 3: Senator, though you are not all in the same room.
Speaker 3: So what do you believe could be the turning point here?
Speaker 4: I think it starts with the conversations around things that
Speaker 4: you've just said. We all obviously need to open up
Speaker 4: the government. We have to address and appropriation skills and
Speaker 4: still pass those. We're going to need time to get
Speaker 4: those done. And we have to fix the Affordable Care Act.
Speaker 4: All of those things are on the tables. It's not
Speaker 4: going to change, and that's why we have to come
Speaker 4: together and start talking about those and how we vote
Speaker 4: on those, and what our agreements are around those very areas,
Speaker 4: and how we start moving those forward.
Speaker 2: Each state is feeling this a little bit differently by
Speaker 2: way of furloughed federal workers, Senator, and your case in
Speaker 2: the VATA. Among the many furloughed are nuclear staffers inspectors
Speaker 2: who are watching the nuclear stock pile in your state.
Speaker 2: They have in many cases been furloughed as well by
Speaker 2: way of the Energy Secretary. I'm curious your reaction to
Speaker 2: sending those workers home and if this is a national
Speaker 2: security problem.
Speaker 1: So most people don't know.
Speaker 4: The Nuclear Security Agency has a number of sites across
Speaker 4: the country. One of them is the Nevada Site Security Site,
Speaker 4: where we actually have federal workers and contract workers overseeing
Speaker 4: our nuclear stockpile and ensuring its national security, testing the stockpile,
Speaker 4: ensuring its safety, and amongst other things. Those are central workers.
Speaker 4: They should not be furlowed, they should not be fired,
Speaker 4: and they should continue to get paid. It's essential for
Speaker 4: a national security and for so many other reasons. Again,
Speaker 4: what I saw happen just recently with this Energy secretary
Speaker 4: is more of this politics is trying to put pressure
Speaker 4: and play political games. The end of the day, the
Speaker 4: only people that are suffering are these federal workers and Americans.
Speaker 1: They're constantly ponds.
Speaker 4: Federal workers and federal contracts are constantly ponds and at
Speaker 4: the whims of political agendas, and it's just outrageous to me.
Speaker 4: That's the reason why I don't support shutdowns. We can
Speaker 4: still do our jobs and get things done without using
Speaker 4: a federal worker as a pond. This is a very
Speaker 4: example of what the impact is in Nevada. And it's
Speaker 4: not just my contractors and federal workers at that test
Speaker 4: site out at the nuclear site. It is federal workers
Speaker 4: throughout my state. It is a tourism industry that's having
Speaker 4: an impact of the bad policies from this administration. So
Speaker 4: we're sitting a downturn in tourism across the country, including
Speaker 4: in Nevada. I'm now hearing because I follow what's happening
Speaker 4: in my state. Housing is not moving as quickly as
Speaker 4: it could because there's no federal workers to do.
Speaker 1: The permitting that we need. That's crazy to me.
Speaker 4: My small businesses and businesses who rely on SBA loans
Speaker 4: are not getting those loans because there's no federal workers
Speaker 4: at the SPA to do those loans. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: just this is part of the problem why we should
Speaker 4: never have a government shutdown. We should be doing our jobs, appropriating,
Speaker 4: making sure we're moving forward, coming together to work together.
Speaker 1: And that is my frustration.
Speaker 4: That's some of the frustration I hear from colleagues, both
Speaker 4: Democrats and Republicans that are not in leadership, and that's
Speaker 4: why many of us have been talking and negotiating and
Speaker 4: trying to figure out a way out of this impasse.
Speaker 3: Senator, just a short time ago, I do want to
Speaker 3: get to some quick foreign policy before we leave you.
Speaker 3: A short time ago, Scott Bess and the Treasury Secretary
Speaker 3: said to reporters outside of the White House quote, we
Speaker 3: are either going to announce after the close this afternoon
Speaker 3: or first thing tomorrow morning, a substantial pickup in Russian sanctions.
Speaker 3: Just want to get your reaction to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I sit on the Banking Committee.
Speaker 4: I support sanctions against Russia and have in the past
Speaker 4: and will continue to do so. I think we need
Speaker 4: to put as much pressure as we can on Russia.
Speaker 4: I support Ukraine going on is outrageous, this illegal war
Speaker 4: of Putin, and we have to continue using the levers
Speaker 4: that we have here. Some of those are sanctions, in
Speaker 4: my case in the Banking Committee, those are financial sanctions
Speaker 4: that we have to continue to impose, and I hope
Speaker 4: we do use all the levers we can to hold
Speaker 4: Russia and putin accountable.
Speaker 2: Our thanks to Senator Cortes Maso for joining us today.