TRANSCRIPT

Matt Dunn: Thanks for joining the podcast for TruCare Provider Services. We are–we have a special guest with us this afternoon and I want to welcome Congressman Greg Landsman, thank you for accepting our invitation.

Greg Landsman: Thanks for having me.

Matt: Just–I’m going to give a little bit about you if you don’t mind. Congressman Landsman obtained his undergraduate degree at Ohio University and his master’s at Harvard University. He served as director of faith-based and community initiatives in the administration of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. He has served as Cincinnati City Council Member and is now a U.S. Congressman representing Ohio’s first congressional district since 2023. Greg is married and has two children and is living in the Cincinnati Ohio area, so again thank you. We’re also accompanied by Tom Gugel.

Tom Gugel: Hello.

Matt: Tom’s here to help me ask some questions and Tom I’m going to have you start us off.

Tom: You want me to start-off with the first question?

Matt: Yes sir.

Tom: Thanks *laughs* okay Congressman Landsman, I’m a man who has–who happens to have a physical disability. What is the federal government to do to help me with my–to help me live my best life?

Greg: That’s a great question, I mean–I think every level of government should be asked that question and have a pretty good answer which needs to include a couple of things, one is: making sure you’re protected. That from your rights to your–your physical safety you know that you aren’t–that you are protected. Two: that the supports that–that you will need you know to have the best possible life are there. And I think that’s incumbent on us as a community government is where we do our sort of collective work where we invest our collective resources. And it is–should be–must be a value of ours collectively to invest in every single person in a way that allows that person to achieve their god-given potential and to live a robust life and that for some folks that’s a bit of an investment and for other folks that’s more.

Tom: Right.

Greg: But we all benefit when everyone participates at the maximum level, right? And you know, my mom was a special education teacher and she did it at every level: elementary school and then she was at the middle school and at the high school, she andI overlapped at the high school so I got to see her in action. She had, you know, a class of, you know, students with varying degrees of developmental and physical disabilities. And she was able to create a curriculum that worked for them that did just that, that brought out their god-given potential and helped them, you know, participate at the maximum level. That was something I learned early on as a young person, and the–the curriculum was, you know in addition to some of the basic stuff that they’re going to do at the high school, she–she sort of gutted the classroom and turned it into a cafe for the school that was run by her students and so her students got not only an opportunity to run the cafe and to learn those skills that allowed them then to go get jobs in the community which was the second half of the day, each of them in a different job. But they also were able to figure out “Okay, how do I sort of navigate this space,” physically and otherwise. How does the space need to be redone to–to allow me to participate. And it transformed the relationship the school had with her students where all of a sudden her students were no longer a group of kids that were sort of down this one hall, isolated, but because everybody went to the cafe. That was the cool thing to do, you could get the pass to go down to the cafe and spend a couple dollars. They became a big part of the community of the school and that was–that was a you know, a beautiful thing to watch, which was to see how much better people’s lives were that they had each other. That they were no longer separated and yeah, I think that’s ultimately you know, your government–or our government needs to do something similar, which is make sure that kids have or adults have what they need to–to participate at the maximum level.

Tom: Right.

Matt: Beautiful. Perfect.

Tom: Thank you. Next one? Okay–what legislation have you recently supported that helps support people with developmental disabilities?

Greg: So we made a list for you, I’m just going to read through them and then we can talk through. So in the last congress because this congress is new and we’re re-introducing bills, every congress if a bill doesn’t pass you got to reintroduce it if you want to and most of these will get reintroduced. The Diverse Cybersecurity Workforce Act. Autism Cares Act. The Safe Schools Improvement Act. The Tyler Clemente High School Anti-Harassment Act. SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, which is a big one. The Funding Early Childhood is the Right Idea Act, special education investing in early childhood. Latonya Reeves Freedom Act. Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act. And these are a host of bills that strengthen disability rights expand access to education, employment, housing, public service-related opportunities that also include robust federal oversight.

Matt: Staples of living for sure.

Greg: Yeah, yeah.

Matt: So you mentioned legislation that would reduce penalty for maybe working like the STABLE, enable, Act are you familiar with that? Okay, does that enhance that or there was one that you mentioned that-

Greg: Yeah. It changes the threshold so that folks can work and it doesn’t undermine their–

Matt: Benefits.

Greg: Benefits.

Matt: Yeah perfect.

Greg: What I will tell you is, a frustrating thing for me because this is pretty basic stuff and the way congress is set up now, you can have, you need 218 people to say yes to something for it to pass. Or on suspension, 290, meaning that it doesn’t go through a committee you just bring it to the floor. You’ll have bills that have over 200, sometimes, over 290 that have these signatures the members of congress saying “I’ll vote for him” and because it–the speak doesn’t bring it to the floor either because he doesn’t want to or because he just, it’s-it’s–it just isn’t on his radar so it doesn’t come to the floor. And you know there have been attempts to change it but ultimately we either have to elect speakers who allow these things to come to the floor or you know change the policies so that the mechanisms, once you hit 290 it’s supposed to come to the floor. Once you get a discharge petition you get 218. The point is we have–we have to fix congress, we have to fix a lot of things in politics but this in particular, this is a bill that has broad support, there’s 350 people that vote for this bill. But getting it to the floor should not be that hard, that’s my point.

Matt: That was my follow-up so does it–does it enjoy general broad support or do you find it running party lines a lot?

Greg: I mean, I think it depends on the vote. I think when people talk about it, that is one where they’re like well, we don’t want to penalize work. And so it’ll have bi-partisan support rhetorically, at least.

Matt: Okay.

Greg: But it’s like okay well, it doesn’t really help us unless you pass it.

Matt: Yeah one of the big things in Ohio right now is to motivate community involvement any which way we can. And so enabling someone to live on their own with technology moves that direction. Have them come in and be a part of our adult day program like what we offer here, to where they’re not just sitting at home, maybe in a chair playing video games and watching TV and actually getting them out, involved with other folks in the community. That’s a huge push, and we do get a lot of support at the state level from that and most people know that a lot of those funds trickle down from the federal government to support those state initiatives. Okay, so–talking about legislation–so with all the changes occurring in Washington right now, how will people with developmental disabilities be adversely affected? Do you see some–some troubling times, some issues coming up?

Greg: Yeah, I mean across the board there are proposed cuts to healthcare and that includes Medicare, it’ll include Medicaid, and so it’ll affect everybody including individuals with disabilities. And so, you know, the louder y’all can be the better. I mean I will oppose these cuts, I want us to expand healthcare, not cut it. And they’ll say, “Well, we’re just trying to save money here,” or “we’re going to change this policy there,” and it does save money to put it back into healthcare. Like, you know for example, if there’s some Medicaid changes that they want to make and it’s going to save some money. I don’t–you know because there’s waste or something–fine, but then increase the reimbursement rate. Don’t take the money away from Medicaid. You know what I mean, so my whole thing is you know, we need to be spending more on healthcare for folks. Not less. And that’s a big difference between me and my Republican colleagues.

Matt: They–it seems like their effort is focused on trying to do good for all but yet there’s often, they don’t investigate all the smaller cases and there’s often a lot of collateral damage. Sometimes.

Greg: Yeah. Yeah, I mean look, if what they’re proposing in this current budget takes a trillion dollars out of the healthcare system, that will hurt tens of millions of people, including people with disabilities. I don’t know who benefits from that other than to look at the budget and say well, folks at the top are gonna continue to be in a position where they don’t pay all their taxes. That doesn’t seem like–that’s not worth it to me like they should pay all their taxes. But I know–everybody I know pays all their taxes except for you know the uber–the super wealthy in this country and I don’t know any of those guys but I’m sure they’re fine and they can pay their taxes.

Tom: Why should a–why should an individual with disabilities pay attention to the elections and how can they contribute?

Greg: Well this is where I think, like technology comes into play. More and more you know, being able to reach out to your elected official, you can send emails, you can pick up the phone, you can–we do a bunch of virtual town halls and teletown halls and you know getting on there, asking questions, being–being vocal, making sure that people know your story and what you’re–what you need. You know, you got lobbyists that come in and they–they spend a lot of time with elected officials telling them what they need so y’all shouldn’t– no one should you know be shy about this. Say like, “This is what’s going on in my life. This is what I need and–and it is important because ultimately it’s the politicians that make decisions about where the funding goes and who gets helped and who doesn’t and you know it’s ultimately people, you know you hope that you elect people that–that think about everybody and try to make at least the best effort possible to help everybody but oftentimes their people just, they get in there and the people who you know write them big checks you know. They–they get–they get more of their time and energy and ultimately they–they’re the ones that they’re thinking about when they write legislation. That’s not my–that’s not me. I don’t take corporate pac money for a whole bunch of reasons but this is one I just want to make sure that people always know that it’s their stories and it’s their needs that come first.

Matt: Well it does sound like a collective voice is truly needed right now for the folks with developmental disabilities and–and approaching funding. We’re very fortunate here in Hamilton County that we’ve recently passed a developmental disabilities levy. We’re very fortunate that we live in Ohio because we are a Tech First state and we’re seeing an increase in use of remote monitoring and assistive tech.

Greg: By the way, we’re just an incredibly wealthy country. I mean we just have so much wealth and it should not be concentrated among a few. I mean you know people work hard, you should be able to keep your money but we also live in a society where we’re wealthy enough where folks should be able to get what they need. Period.

Matt: So with regards, I–I know how things are kind of gridlocked at the moment at the federal level. What do you foresee, that you know, some sort of legislation that you would get behind over the next few years of your term that would help promote something for adults with developmental disabilities?

Greg: I mean I think there will be lots of opportunities, even though there is this gridlock and there’s a brokenness about politics. I do think that–well I know at least from my first term that there’s still a ton of work that gets done and I try to stay as “in the loop” and in the mix and–and–and you know in partnership with folks across the aisle so that I could be part of getting things done. Despite the fact that big picture there’s gridlock, it still doesn’t mean that we’re not getting other things done. I–I would like to see, first and foremost, everything that exists right now in terms of investing with people, including people with disabilities, not touched. And so my hope is that there’s enough pushback to the kind of cuts that are being pursued by the administration and then the cuts that are going to be proposed in this budget that it doesn’t happen. That people realize that we can get to a balanced budget without taking it out on individuals with disabilities or–or low-income families, kids you know who’s parents work but don’t make enough to give them–get them good healthcare, that it’s time to change the tax system. So that the people at the top pay all their taxes that I mean–you know it just comes down to those two things. You–do you want to start cutting, hacking away at all this stuff that people need or order to protect the folks at the top who have so much money. I mean the further–one of the things I’ve learned in this job is when you get out of Cincinnati, there’s like rich people in Cincinnati, but then like there’s people outside of Cincinnati, they’re just like, it’s billions. It’s just insane. You know which–if you think about billions you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that they’re sitting on and a lot of those folks don’t pay any income taxes because of all the loopholes. So I–you know–it’s not me being political, it’s just those are the two options. You either cut stuff for folks who need it or you start making people pay all their taxes.

Matt: Well I know a lot of people would listen to something like this and whether it be you or someone else and say, “Oh, lip service, lip service whatever, whatever.” You know I’ve met you several times, I know that’s not the case with you and they say, “Well he’s always out talking.” Well, you got to get out there and talk and learn about what’s going on, so I have to tell you I appreciate you coming out today and speaking with Tom and I and sharing a little bit about some of the insight that you have and what’s going on right now and thank you Tom for–

Tom: My pleasure.

Greg: Yeah this was good.

Matt: And maybe if we’re lucky we’ll have you back.

Greg: I’d love it.

Matt: Alright, thanks a lot Greg.

Greg: Thank you.