Society and economies need to be advanced. I want to give him credit for helping me to name todays forum. Eventually, we are going to do road to recovery and i says no, its not recovery, its advancing the economy. I want with knowledge that. Thank you for giving us that idea. Why dont you share for a minute how this pandemic has help you think about recovery and advancement . Me, recovery means going back to a place that youve been, and i want us to be better when we get out of this. One area that we can be much better is what it comes to technical modernization. This is something ive been working on from my time in congress. We have seen how from state to state and city to city that the tools we need to move quickly dont exist, the example we mostly use is unemployment. The state agencies were not able to handle the workload. And why not . We should be able to do that. How do we make sure that the number of kids who are Online Learning i talked to a Charter School in new york. Log on everyts day. Ive talked to some schools here in texas, one was 30 of the students walking on every day. Part of that problem is that Digital Divide often times between the urban and world areas. How do we make sure we have the infrastructure that people can take advantage of the technology . How does everybody have quality of access . You would think in 2020, that would be the case, but its actually not. Host one of the things that people do like naming pieces of legislation, they try to make it hard for things not to go their way. You were not supportive of the heroes act, which was surprising. I would love to get your take on what you put it against it. Guest voted against it. Guest i think the way to solve problems is by empowering people, not empowering the government. The heroes act made people more reliant on the government. It made them stay unemployed rather than going to work. Thats not what this country has been built on, thats not how we are going to solve this problem. Is there Additional Support needed . Absolutely. We also hold that the budgets are going to have. My own state of texas, we are probably with a 40 billion hole in the budget. Thes going to impact ability of the state to provide services to constituents. Our Health Care Professionals are going to probably need some additional help not only because everything has shut down for so long, they need to make sure they are able to function, but some of thethat rates that we streamlined provide care better. There will be at least one more piece of legislation. But the reason the previous plan worked was because it was negotiated in a bipartisan way. Unfortunately, the heroes act was not the case. Host you shared with me the other day an astonishing thing i did not know because i just assumed there were not enough tests everywhere, but in san antonio and a testing facility and a testing producer, youve got more tests then you need and people arent showing up. In this at the country there a uneven patchwork about the availability of test, dr. Referrals and all this other stuff, but we all know we are going to need everpresent testing. As he talked your colleagues in congress, how do we get there . Present,e get to ever all the time testing until we have a vaccine . Of this lot conversation actually has to happen on a global level. The Way Public Health works in the United States is that it is ultimately a local issue. The city is responsible for a, if youre in a rural area, you have a state entity that is responsible for that. Thats how Public Health has been designed in the United States. Antonio,wn of san because the city, the county, and the state are cooperating very closely, youre going to see things move faster than some other areas. I oftentimes think folks want to just point to a federal solution. Thats not the way we are going to solve this. That also means the problems are localized and you have to address those problems. A testinglved in issue in south carolina, of all places, because some of the local entities were not talking to folks. Ama here in texas is doing pretty good job of making sure they have an understanding of what the needs of the state are. Counties, sans antonio, almost 2 Million People in the area, and the other, el paso. El paso is having different problem than san antonio is, that they are able to work with the states in different ways. Were not seeing some of the problems weve had in other places, but you are right, increase testing. Increase ability for contact tracing. Announced apple just can bepp that downloaded, but this is going to be a tool implemented by these regional entities. , youre able sick to notify people in a quick way. In 2020, are we basically relying on that old yellow card that tells us whether we gotten a shot . Thats how were doing Public Health right now in its america, and we should be having some more technological solutions. Thate can have technological solution and protect privacy at the same time, and it starts with saying as an individual, i get to decide what i do with that data, who i share it with, and who has access to it. Host in a few minutes, im going to have a chef on, tom has been, i know you are a foodie, you know what hes been doing to focus the spotlight on restaurants, restaurant workers, who, nutrition, and honestly, before i begin doing these interviews every day, i had underestimated how staggeringly large that is as both part of the economy, how important it is to vulnerable communities, how it is important to the middle class of america. I know youve been doing some work in your district on food tom is going to come up. Hes probably going to talk a lot about lets ask this way. What happened you been able to get right yet when it comes to the nutrition and food chain in restaurants and that sector . Guest the ability to move money quickly. Regardless of what your opinions are on ppp loans, i think they were successful, yes, people got access that shouldnt, but we were able to move the first charge in eight days. Thats pretty significant. s ability to get money in the hands of some of these food banks that can hire workers. The problem that ive been focused on specifically is malnutrition for children, and childrens inability to get access for food. Kids, the onlyny time they get a square meal is at school. Now when you have kids not at school, but some of the numbers ive seen in my district, only 20 of kids on free and reduced lunch are actually being able to access food through that School District, and the School District has done a herculean effort to make sure theyre able to provide that food to those kids that needed. Herehing we are working on in texas with our food banks, what is called pandemic electronic benefits transfer. What it says is, if you have a kid that is on free and reduced lunch, we are going to put some on the card. In order for you to go to the grocery store, because that is what our system is designed for. Onts why you seen an impact food banks. San antonio, they doubled the are livingause they on savings, which means they make too much money, so they cant go on food stamps, so they are going to food banks. Then you have these increased lines happening there. Why cant we hire some of the folks that are in the Restaurant Business to be able to help . Keep that economy going so we are able to open up our economy. For thank you so much those thoughts, i hope you succeed on that. I dont know who would be opposed to it. If youve got a list of villains, send it my way privately and we will do something with it. Thank you so much for joining us. Guest my pleasure, good to be with you. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, the , ator at large for inc status of the Paycheck Protection Program designed to help businesses keep their workforce. How urban centers in the United States could be affected are the pandemic. Watch washington journal this morning. Join the discussion. Watch cspans daily, unfiltered coverage of the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic with briefings from the white house, congress, and governors from across the country, plus join in the conversation on our live program, washington journal. And if you missed any of our live coverage, watch anytime ondemand at cspan. Org coronavirus. Next, a confirmation hearing for president Trumps DeputyEnergy Secretary nominee. He is currently the Energy Departments undersecretary for science and energy. The hearing focused on renewable fuel standards, the Strategic Petroleum reserve, oversupply of oil during the coronavirus pandemic, and the ongoing cleanup of Manhattan Project sites