Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on stimulus legislation

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the historic $2 trillion stimulus package that has been signed by President Trump.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: Now speaking of the actual stimulus that has gone through, you talked to New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for her take on the legislation.

- Yeah.

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: So this bill's different, that's for sure. I was there during TARP, and I did not like the way that bill was written so I voted against it because I didn't think it had enough restrictions on what the companies could do with the money.

So in this bill, we do, do that. But this is an employee first bill. This is a health care first bill. It's about meeting the urgent needs. It's almost-- it's an emergency funding bill that's really triage. So money is going straight to the employees have been laid off, or furloughed.

Money goes to our hospitals. That $150 billion straight to hospitals for all the needs they have. Money for small businesses, more money for small businesses than ever before, something like over $350 billion. And if the small businesses keep their employees, retain them, then they don't have to actually pay back the loans. They become grants. So it's very helpful. Then money for big businesses, too.

And the big businesses, we have some oversight. We're going to have an IG to investigate issues of fraud. There's a board that decides which investments to make. Excuse me. And that board is bipartisan. And there's a requirement that they notify, publicize the terms of any loan within 72 hours, make it fully public, so you'll have transparency and accountability. And sunshine is always a good disinfectant.

And you have a restriction that for two years, they can't pay dividends, do stock buybacks, or increase CEO pay. So it's better than nothing. It's not everything I would have wanted. But it's at least the beginning of oversight.

RICK NEWMAN: So better than the Wall Street bailout bill of 2009, I guess she's saying. I guess we'll find out. You know, public opinion does seem to be more favorable toward this deal. There are a lot of things in there that are meant to protect employees.

It's not clear they will protect employees because it doesn't say that businesses have to protect their employees and keep them on the payroll. It only creates incentives for them to do that. So you know, in six months or nine months from now, I guess we'll know if all of that worked.

ANDY SERWER: Hey, Rick, just a quick point on the math you were doing before the good senator was speaking about the value of life. You know, I know about those kinds of calcu-- that kind of calculus. You know, they do that when they're making roads and grading curbs and things.

But you know, if I'm a good lawyer here, you know, that doesn't include pain and suffering. So, you know, I mean, that's just a baseline value of a human life. And of course, I think, you know, it sounds callous, and I know you didn't mean it that way to sort of put it in those terms, but you know, if there was actually litigation, it would be much, much, much more than that, of course.

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, fair point. So this is like a model for understanding policies. It's not-- this is not a legal construct. It's just a model. But you know, I come across this in the auto industry, for example. So when they're proposing new safety regulations, for instance, agencies are required to do this kind of cost benefit analysis for any new regulation that could cost-- add more than $100 million worth of costs. They have to do this, so they have to have this formula.

And President Trump clearly is grappling with this question of, should you just keep the economy closed, you know, so that you prevent every single death that's preventable, or is there some point at which you have to say enough is enough? And, you know, I'm just saying there's a whole kind of regulatory economic science. And that-- this is what they do, is they try to address these questions.

MYLES UDLAND: All right, Rick Newman with the latest on that. Thanks for that.