Thanks as always, mike and , welcome congressman brady. Welcome to our audience. I might say the accf is not in the News Business but as everybody knows, dr. Fauci testified today. There may be a democratic phase stimulus package and some good chairman one 66th the committee for ways and means. I say chairman because if you are chairman of the ways and Means Committee, you are always the chairman. The oldest committee and congress. Mr. Brady, i wasnt there but i remember it was december 21, 1795 that the committee was set up with the greatest legislative authority, which is relevant now as there are so many pieces of the covid challenge. Mr. Brady is the Ranking Member of the committee. Before we begin, i want to thank all of those courageous selfless americans who are helping not only their neighbors but strangers who want to return to work safely. Congressman brady would you like , to say a few words . Gov. Cuomo rep. Brady first, thank you for letting me join you. You have brought republicans and democrats together, former policy makers and current ones, business leaders, innovators from around the country into these comfortable situations, Social Security and medicare, and all of those big issues that congress has to deal with. I have always found those discussions to be incredibly helpful. Thank you for the work you have been doing for so long. It does not always get the attention it deserves. Say this haswould been an unprecedented challenge for america and it has required an unprecedented response. Localn by certainly by Health Care Leaders and organizations, our business community, our state and local and federal leaders. Certainly congress, which has come together on four major packages and with unfortunately a rising degree of politics getting in here. But i am still hopeful that we can continue that work with 30 million americans who lost their job over just a few weeks. Now is the time to consider that continue that bipartisanship here. Mark, i will be glad to stop. You have an array of questions and i would love to visit about them. Mark i just found something of that is a wonderful quote on april 15, 2016. I would like to read it to you, ask what you think about it and maybe guess who said it. It is what we are about. Capital formation and the importance that goes with it are a onetoone correlation that creates jobs on main street. Do you agree with that . Do you know who said it . Rep. Brady i absolutely do agree. Im afraid to ask who said it. Mark mike, do you want to display it . [laughter] i knew it sounded familiar. I just hate to take credit for good quotes. It ties in from what you did then and what is going on now. True to my judgment as it is to the covid economy. With the legitimate policy stuff we are still americans and average people who go to work, so lets deal with something that isnt a policy, your typical day. Im curious what an average day very busyr you and is and stressful time taking care of your constituents, and oversleep for feeling leadership response abilities do you even have time to breathe . Rep. Brady every member of congress will tell you this is as challenging a time we have seen, including the unprecedented work after 9 11 in dealing with that attack. The aftermath of that. This is so unprecedented. I think like most members of , congress, im focused on making sure that what congress has provided in funding is getting to those who need it in the way that we intended. We spent a lot of time, some at home, some remotely from the District Office in conroe helping our hospitals and small , businesses with their lending, working with banks and nursing homes. Individuals getting their economic support checks. Thousands of emails and texts. A lot of time has been spent on those tasks. Making sure we are helping. Obviously texas is reopening. Being the 10th largest economy on the planet if texas were a country gives it a great deal of interest and be continuing to help the governor. Im on the president s task force for reopening the economy. Im spending a lot of time developing solutions for how we can reopen safely. I think that our main focus has to be making sure that those 30 million americans who have lost their jobs temporarily do not lose their jobs permanently. So the rest of the day is spent , doing that. Final thought. Like most americans the upside has been time with your family. We are away so much in washington. I have an 11th grader who is at home. My wife is doing an amazing job. I am apparently not cut out to be a homeschool teacher, but that part, as most americans will tell you, has been a Silver Lining here. Mark there are no trick questions. There may be some surprises. Is it true that you have 5 million miles of traveling back and forth . Do you hold the record . Rep. Brady i dont. I only have i think or so. 2. 5 million we figured out i am on my fifth round trip to the moon flying back and forth from texas. I like that. I want to raise our family here. As mosteing away members of congress do. We are surrounded here by a lot of kathys family and mine. That, i think most members are ready to return to work in the house the senate is working. The white house is. I know that we can reopen safely and in a good positive way. I am just eager for us to get back to work. Mark now we get the policy. You and i believe in federalism and that is why im fascinated with what is going on in your state. Some people may say, although i think it is a false dichotomy that there is a tradeoff between saving lives versus saving livelihoods. Of course texas is one of the first to open up. I understand some states or even countries are now closing up. That is a great example of what happens. The local example. Could you comment on that . Rep. Brady Governor Abbott has opened in a very phased way , i think in a very smart way. Continue clear we will to apply maximum pressure on the virus increase testing , dramatically, increasing hundreds of workers for tracing the contacts of those who have tested positive. Continuing that focus but forening about 10 days ago phase one, which is about 25 capacity. He has taken it and expanded further this week. Openingk we should be phase two of this again while continuing the pressure on the virus. I looked at some of the numbers last night. Even though our testing is at record levels, are positive coronavirus cases are flattening out. Dipped. Ction rate has our hospitalizations, which i follow closely the Health Care System we dont overwhelm. Hospitalizations have dropped about 13 the first weekend. It has now leveled off again. Very good news. We are fortunate in texas think a great response of the state and local level. While every fatality is a painful one, we are our fatality rate for population is one per 29,000. We are about seven times safer than the National Average on fatalities. That doesnt mean that we can let up on the pressure at all, but we are fortunate that a lot of peoples good work have continued to allow us to make progress. Mark well that is texas. ,you have so many leadership responsibilities on the president s commission. And chairman of my favorite committee in the world. I very much enjoyed your maria barti with roma and perhaps you could elaborate on the points. This is becoming more and more of an issue. It relates to the earlier question about taxes. Texas. Incentivize returning to work and make the tax code more business friendly, which relates to that famous quote i found. Rep. Brady mark, i really believe as we reopen safely we ought to be following the same Program Policies that made us under President Trump the strongest economy in the world. We cap taxes low, we incentivized businesses to invest. And we allowed workers to keep more of what they earned and seeing this pay raises. Especially among the bluecollar workers in low income. We should not stray away from what got us into a strong position. For us, reopening the economy is about helping businesses rebuild their workforce and helping them to remake their workplaces so that it is safe for both workers and customers, and to that end working with members of congress , the white house, job trainers around the country, we have proposed a couple of key provisions. We need to help businesses rebuild their workforce. The unemployment benefit at the federal level was so generous in some cases. In some cases half of American Workers make more thing going back to work. That is unhealthy for them in the long term. It guarantees a slow recovery and then a recession. We propose a return to work bonus for those, when they accept the job offer to go back to work, can keep up to two weeks of their unappointed benefits 1200. Week think that can help reconnect workers with their businesses. That will help us recover more quickly. At work is where you get your health care benefits. That is where you get your retirement benefits. That is usually where you do best for your family. We went to restore that. Secondly we think we can help , businesses remake their places is accordingher it to testing. Some businesses will rely heavily on it, the protective gear and the mask and the temperature want. Wand. For others we believe we will have to reconfigure, whether it is a retail store, and office space, a plant. We think we can help incentivize and encourage businesses to do that. We also know now one of the Lessons Learned is that too much of our medicines and too many of our supplies are reliant on unreliable partners like china. So we put together a package of incentives to accelerate returning to america the production lines of crucial medicines. The ones we cannot stockpile. Crucial medical supplies, for the most vulnerable, and making sure those medicines and medical supplies and the ingredients, and the research, more that is resilient and dependable and here in the u. S. We have good tools for the economy. We have open discussions with our democrat colleagues in this regard. Im hopeful we can find some Common Ground there. I think it is key. Rep. Brady the next big in line mark mark the next big phase. There were stories about how the democrats have a stimulus package. Do you see a next big phase, and infrastructure . Rep. Brady the short answer is i dont know if there will be a fifth emergency aid bill. I know this is not the way to go about it. I think we have succeeded in working together. For the most part pretty well. There has been some politics but we kept it at a minimum. The last bill was delayed 16 days. I wish that had not happened. I worry about that happening again. The democrats bill is their bill. They have had no discussions with us, not with the white house or the senate. I think even they admit this is a political messaging bill and will go nowhere. I hate losing these days. I think its important for us to find this right solutions to reopen. I dont know where it goes from there. I hope at some point it will come to the table. I do think that before we rush into a spending spree, that we make sure the next pill that we prescribe is helpful. The challenge has been 2. 5 trillion or more that congress has allocated, much of it still has not gone down to the Health Care Providers we intended. For example, we have allocated over three fourths of a trillion dollars to the state and local governments and communities. Not all of that has even arrived yet. Not all of it to our hospitals and Health Care Providers. The direct aid to state states,nts some governors are porting those dollars, refusing to pass it down to the communities smaller than 500,000 in population. The way congress intended it to be. Many communities are not seeing the help that congress has already provided. Before im convinced before we take a next step, 1 trillion or more package, lets find out what is working. Lets find out what is not. Lets make those adjustments. As a do that keep our eye on the ball the crucial job to make sure the unemployed are not permanently so. Lets not lose sight of that. Mark thank you. Now the surprise. The real reason for the webinar is my retirement. Oh . Brady mark and you are taking care of it. Greg, from harvard, had the comparison of fred frugal and sam spendthrift. Obviously you are interested in encouraging saving. Unfortunately i may be sam , spendthrift, fancy cars, millionaire birthday parties and a darn prolifigate. I dont have anything saved so i want to thank you for coauthoring on the impact of i dont have anythingthe covid t policy. What is happening now and what needs to be done in the future . Rep. Brady first, im fortunate to have a terrific working relationship with chairman neil. We have worked together for many years. While he is a democrat from massachusetts and i am a texas conservative weve always found , a way to find Common Ground with Retirement Savings, along with chairman grassley and senator wyden. We are able to find incentives to help families save more and save earlier throughout their lives, as well as helping more Small Businesses offering retirement plans that people need. We need to do more of that. I think we all recognize i was talking with chairman neil. A lot of people have seen the Retirement Savings significantly depleted because of this and it is important that we help them replenish it. Some of the ideas we proposed is to increase the limits on Retirement Savings over the next year and raise the total amount that you can save as a worker, raise the total amount your employer can help you save as well. Eliminate the age requirement so every worker can make catchup provisions over the next several years to replenish their retirement. That can get them back on track sooner. Then we recognize a lot of changes in health care, so we think we can make changes to provide more flexibility for the Health Savings accounts and the flexible savings accounts to allow them to be increased over the next year. We know in many cities and communities elective surgeries and treatments have not been available and may not be for some time. You might not even be able to use your account during this calendar year. So lets give families more flexibilities on how to use their own Health Savings. We have some good ideas. The other thing as well as chairman neil and i have talked at length. He wants to do retirement 2. 0. I agree. One of the areas that has been, for america, and i will finish with this is that the smaller the business you work for and the less income you make, the harder it is for you to save. In the past a lot of work has been done on helping those who save to save more. Chairman neil and i are both eager to tackle sort of the biggest challenge we have had. How do we help those who work for Small Businesses and how do we help the lowest wage earner save . That is a bipartisan interest we have. We have had discussions for quite a while. I am hopeful we can find some solutions for congress and the president to consider because i think this is important. Mark mr. Brady, i learned a long time ago from a former member of the ways and Means Committee, senator cardin. He said the importance of nonpartisanship or bipartisanship is that you get a product that might last and you might even have a better product because you got everybody involved. I have watched and i am obviously extremely pleased about your relationship and what you have done. I guess i will hang on a little bit longer to get that retirement for me. Rep. Brady please do. I thought you were going to make an announcement. That is why i gasped. Hang tight. Mark my favorite. Tax reform. I alluded to and you have been so generous with your time. April ofspoke to us in tax cuts that was the and jobs active 2017. Jobs act of 2017. It took 30 years to get there, and you know my bias, which is the tax saving and investment for the reasons you articulated. Do we have to wait another 30 years . Obviously retirement policy ties in. I have to hang on for that next big tax reform. Rep. Brady yeah. The short answer is no. We wont wait 30 years. We followed up with tax reform which we wanted a tax code built for growth. Built for growing paychecks and jobs in the u. S. Economy and to make our country competitive with the rest of the world. It worked. We had the most competitive economy on the planet. Jobs and investments coming back. Wages were going up for the lowest income workers. Small Business Confidence through the roof. Obviously the coronavirus changed all of that, but the principles we ought to continue to focus on that got us there. We followed up with tax reform 2. 0 when i was chairman. The reason for that. We cannot afford to wait another three decades to modernize our tax code. Im convinced that the best organizations i have ever seen wake up every day asking how do we become more competitive, more innovative and better . I think congress should look at the tax code each year and ask the same three questions. How do will become more innovative and more competitive . How do we become better . Tax reform 2. 0 was about changing the culture in washington where each year we find those Good Solutions to make us even more competitive. Even better. I think Going Forward its important to make the tax cuts for families and Small Businesses permanent, as we did with corporations. Create 1. 5 million more jobs. Make sure working families keep what they earn. When need to do more for the middle class could president middleclass. President trump certainly believes we cannot help the middle class enough. We have several proposals for the president to do that. Also and finished with this, i with innovation wins. I want america to be the most innovative feature on the planet. We have proposed ideas to drive innovation here, to double the research and Development Tax credit, to create incentives to do not Just Research but your manufacturing and development in the u. S. That will be crucial for young people, for innovation, where for every type of industry it can be helpful. There is some really exciting proposals out there Going Forward. I just Want Congress to change the culture of do this every three years, let it get complicated in between. That doesnt work anymore. We have to change the way we tackle things. Mark you have been so generous with your time. If i could bring it to an end with another question, and another family trick question. Are you ready . Rep. Brady i dont know. Mark what do james polk, millard fillmore, William Mckinley and you have in common . If you dont know the answer, dont worry about it. Rep. Brady this must be stumped kevin brady date. Mark if you dont know the answer, dont worry about it. Three of the four chairman i have mentioned later beyond later on became president. Mr. Brady, do you know what your future holds for you . Rep. Brady my god only knows. My hope is to return as chairman to continue the work that we did before. I love what i do and the ways and Means Committee is the greatest committee to serve on. It has remarkable people. We have a culture. Among our staff, the professional team is finding ways to solving these big problems. I love that culture so im really blessed to be where im at. Ourink a great deal of President Trump so we are continuing to work there. Mark mr. Brady, i love the committee and one of my first jobs was four decades ago where they made a mistake and hired me as an intern at the ways and Means Committee. I wrote a paper on the highway trust fund. Rep. Brady oh my gosh. Mark and infrastructure. I can rush it out when the time comes. But thank you for taking the time and thank you for your service to what can i say other than thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Rep. Brady thank you, mark. You are doing a terrific job, dont go anywhere. We love where you are at and you are bringing people together to solve big problems. That is never too much of that so thank you. Mark please note our next , webinar will be this thursday with a former member, congressman jim matheson. Of nraca. President we already have an incredible number of other folks scheduled. For democrats and four republican members pin there will be some folks who you would have never imagined. Thank you. We are adjourned and i am grateful to all of you. Jerome powell and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testify remotely before the Senate Banking committee about the 2 trillion cares act which passed in march as part of the governments Coronavirus Response to live coverage begins tuesday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Listen to cspan radio today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern as cspan radio looks at the 1954 supreme brown versus board of education of topeka, kansas. Ruling segregation of Public Schools was unconstitutional. Listen with the free cspan radio app, online at cspan. Org, or on 90. 1 fm in the washington, d. C. Area. Lets see what you think about the 3 trillion coronavirus aid package. Lets start with ralph calling from washington, d. C. On the independent line. From washington, d. C. On the independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. These guys are spending money left and right