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From Helsinki to Heroin, Republican Congressman John Katko (NY-24) Gives Exclusive urbancny.com Interview

The interview was pre-scheduled, occurring the day after President Trump’s Helsinki meeting with Vladimir Putin. Statements from President Trump during his joint appearance with the Russian leader unleashed a torrent of criticism from both democrats and republicans alike. With the upcoming mid-term elections, districts like the 24th are swing districts which according to pundits are competitive contests. Hillary Clinton won the district in 2016.

John Katko is not being silent about his record as you’ll see; he defends his votes and bill sponsorship and proudly touts his independence from the Republican Party as evidenced by several crucial votes.  Upon request, Congressman Katko was given an opportunity to talk about his record. The following is the exclusive urbancny.com interview.

Katko: “On the water issues, I came into congress 3 ½ years ago. And I’d never been in politics before and I went from knowing very little about water quality issues into becoming one of the experts in congress on it.  And it’s out of necessity, we’re concerned about the Skaneateles Lake Watershed, we’re concerned about the Owasco Lake Watershed. We’re concerned about clean drinking water, so we’ve been in the forefront of fighting for getting more money for infrastructure projects for water. Clean drinking water is obviously a key for us. I recently fought to plus-up spending for the clean water revolving fund, and the state clean water drinking fund. I’ve done a lot with respect to the Great lakes Restoration Initiative which has also has funding mechanisms, possibly with access for us. I’ve become a bi-partisan expert on this out of necessity.

As you know that Skaneateles Watershed provides drinking water for the City of Syracuse and it’s so clean that it doesn’t need to be filtered. Last summer we had quite a scare with the algae bloom outbreak that threatened the drinking water. This was a wake-up call for folks in the Skaneateles Lake Watershed Association and a wake-up call for the City of Syracuse.

I’ve been engaged in getting more money, I’ve been engaging by meeting with people. I’ve been engaging by meeting with the Mayor of Syracuse I had a meeting with him on this specific topic not too long ago and sharing with him what I’ve been able to learn about it.   He’s been getting up to speed on it. I can’t tell you how many meetings we go to developing relationships with people of stripes and all political persuasions.”

Katko discussing Opioids:We’ve led the charge to raise the issue and the first this is to raise the awareness level. We’ve done this from the moment I’ve been to congress. I’ve developed close relationships with individuals and family members who’ve lost friends and loved ones to the opioid and synthetic drug crisis. The vast majority of Heroin that’s being consumed now is being laced with something called Fentanyl, and the Fentanyl, it’s a synthetic Fentanyl.

I’ve been at the forefront of attacking the opioid issue on three fronts, Prevention, treatment and law enforcement.

Everything from trying securing the borders better to make sure the drugs aren’t coming in as easily as they are now.  To passing synthetic drug legislation which passed in the house, it’s going to be a game changer for law enforcement. Sometimes it takes as much 4-5 years before you can identify a synthetic  drug and it goes through the legal machinations to get listed on the Drug Analog Statute  federally, and now with my bill it can take as little as 30 days.

I’ve led the charge for increasing funding for opioid treatment and prevention, providing over a billion dollars to the department of Justice for opioid related initiatives also 1.9 million dollars to the Department of Education for counseling and mental health treatment and all kinds of issues with respect to opioids as well. There’s a lot we’ve been doing. I’m proud of congress’s response. In total we’ve allotted 4 billion dollars over the last year and I think we’re going to do the same this year to combat the opioid crisis. There’s a lot we can do and there’s a lot more we have to do.”

Urban CNY: President of the United States made statements at the Helsinki meeting. You’ve already issued a statement. Do you have anything more to add?

Katko:” My statement says it well. Obviously, I thought the President was wrong to conduct himself in the manner in which he did. It’s the universal conclusion that Russia did engage in nefarious activities with respect to the 2016 election. We should not equivocate on that at all, and he was wrong for trying to and it think I made that pretty clear in my statement. “

Urban CNY:What is the most important issues facing Central New York?

Katko: “Strengthening infrastructure for Central New York, leading efforts to bolstering the clean water keep our regions lakes and water viable against the threat of the algae blooms, that’s huge.

Current Law Enforcement, I became a leader in congress on the House Homeland Security Committee and I focus on keeping the country safe. I’ve worked across the aisle.  I supported Tax Reform to expand our local economy to create jobs, and it’s working whether people want to admit it or not. We have an extraordinarily low unemployment rate now in the region. And we’re ensuring a vibrant middle class. I’m committed.

The heroin epidemic is a huge issue; the synthetic drug epidemic we talked about is very big. I’ve authored and ushered through historic legislation to give law enforcement the tools they need in the synthetic drug arena.

I’ve been consistent, ranked one of the most independent and effective members of congress and I was ranked the seventh most bi partisan member from either side of the aisle, that’s House and Senate combined.  At a time when there’s a lot of grid lock going on, I’m getting stuff done. I’m reaching across party lines and getting things done.  I broke with my party when it’s in the best interest of Central New York, for example opposing the House repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I voted against the passage of the Farm Bill because it would have had significant cuts to 4,000 families in Central New York who are on Food Stamps. I’ve done an awful lot for Central New York.

So I can’t say there’s any one thing. One other thing I would say, the poverty issue in the City of Syracuse is profound and everything we do should be focused on that as well. Some of the things I’ve talked about, have been doing that. There’s more I can talk about, but poverty issues are quite significant as well.”

Urban CNY: Conceal Carry Reciprocity Act. Why shouldn’t we be afraid?

Katko:“Because there’s’ a lot of misinformation out there. I want to be clear about something. This bill streamlines the process for law abiding gun permit owners. New York’s gun legislation would remain applicable to all gun owners entering the state. Felons are not permitted to possess a firearm. You’ve got to understand, I would never sign on to a law that made it easier for bad guys or people with bad intentions to carry guns. You’ve gotta look at back at my history in Syracuse. I was one of the most innovative gun prosecutors in the country. One of the gun cases I did early on was a gun trafficking case involving Darell Harlow, Carmen Harlow’s son, who brought up 70 guns from Georgia.  That spawned the Gang Violence Task Force and it spawned everything that went after that.  So, I’ve been a zealous prosecutor against individuals who shouldn’t have guns or are doing bad things with guns, conciliatory reciprocity does not do anything to affect that at all, that’s for sure.”

Urban CNY: In a nutshell what does Conceal Carry Reciprocity Act mean?

Katko: “If you’re a law abiding gun owner and you have a Concealed Carry permit in one state it simply allows you to take the gun with you going across state lines. But you are still subject to the laws of the state you’re coming into. So, if you’re a criminal or under a court order of protection or what have you, it doesn’t make it any easier. The miss information out there is that it somehow ignores local laws, it’s not true. It allows someone if you have a Conceal Carry permit you can carry it across state lines.

And Conceal Carry permit owners in the vast majority of the states have additional training and additional screening which makes it highly unlikely that they’re going to be engaged in violence of any sort, and I haven’t seen any statistics which shows me that people with Conceal Carry permits are a danger to the community anywhere.”

Urban CNY: Areas within the City of Syracuse are topping national lists for concentrated poverty among African-Americans. Without resorting to tax cuts, what can Congress do to address urban poverty?

Katko: “This is one of the things that always bothered me since the time I was a gang prosecutor. Because I think that poverty contributes to the violence and the violence contributed to us having to do something about that violence, they go hand in glove. I saw first-hand when I worked on the violence task force how extreme poverty can lead to extreme criminal activity. I’ve always wanted to do something about it since I got to congress and even before I got to congress.

I can tell you what I’ve been doing. I think tax reform is absolutely critical to growing a local economy and giving businesses what they need to invest in our community and grow our workforce. Growing the Central New York workforce is critically important; I understand that poverty is still pervasive in Central New York and Syracuse. But in the outlying areas job growth has been really booming lately.

The greatest step up out of poverty is to get these people into entry level jobs, and I’m all about doing that. That’s one of the reasons why I supported the tax reform. I’m also committed to addressing poverty in other ways. We can’t let kids go hungry. That’s why I voted against the Farm Bill in the House which would have had pretty significant cuts to SNAP for over 4,000 families in Central New York, I voted against that.

On the national level anti-poverty efforts including expanding early childhood education, I think it’s critically important to intervene with kids early. Properly targeting our social programs, growing school lunch and nutrition programs, increasing the right economic conditions to alleviate poverty, I’ve been doing all of that. I spend an awful lot of time at the Samaritan Center and other places speaking with those people, and getting to know not only those that are unemployed, but those that are the working poor who are still coming to soup kitchens, The Samaritan center and local pantries to help supplement their income.

The cycle of poverty is the biggest thing. I think the best way is to create opportunity. If you really look at the correlation between entry level jobs in Central New York and the increase in poverty, they go hand in glove. We lost all of those manufacturing jobs decades ago and that’s contributed to the demise of the inner city, we’ve got to get that back and create more opportunity for them.”

Urban CNY: Why can’t we have a town Hall style meeting?

Katko: “I don’t accept the premise of the question, because no matter what I do my opponents will call and say I’m not having town halls. I’ve had multiple town halls in every county. And if you called last year, I said to TV stations, ‘once and for all let’s just show them, that we’re not afraid anything, we’ll go out and do a town hall’. We did a town hall televised live, with 2 TV stations covering it live for an hour, I didn’t screen who came in, I didn’t screen the questions, I didn’t do anything but show up on stage and answer questions. And people are still saying ‘why aren’t you having town halls.’

I’ve had telephone town halls; we’ve done Facebook live forums. I can’t tell you how many thousands of constituents’ letters, phone calls and e-mails. We have a constituent service staff that works day in and day out with seniors, veterans, families and everything else. We meet with individuals who’ll protest my office, they come into my office.

My opponent even is trying to say that she ran for office because, she couldn’t have any access to me. Well, I met her face to face, my staff met her face to face, I spoke with her on the telephone, I answered six of her letters, and the perception is different from the reality.”

Urban CNY: Are you independent of the legislative agenda of the National Rifle Association?

Katko: “I have not been and never will be beholden to anyone, to any corner. I routinely do what’s best for my constituents, like I said before, don’t forget I was a federal prosecutor who was probably one of the leading prosecutors in the country for gun cases. I absolutely believe in the second amendment, but I also absolutely believe there are multiple sets of people who should never have their hands on a weapon.  And I agree, we need to enhance the enforcement of those laws.

These are the results: We secured 2.3 billion dollars in new school funding for mental health training and school safety efforts. We fully funded the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).  To make sure it works more adequately. NICS performance including enhancing system availability determination rates and e-check services. I’m working on a Red Flag Law that will be able to endeavor to identify individuals who may be exhibiting signs of instability and get the guns out of their hands before they act.

I’m co-chair of the mental health caucus and I’m working in a bi partisan manner to examine the correlation or non-correlation between mental illness and random acts of violence.  I have also introduced legislation that definitely wasn’t supported by the NRA, called securing our children act. Which is a bipartisan bill which brings together democrats and republicans put all the issues on the table. And I’ll just list them for you; The mental health aspect, accessibility of firearms to those who are exhibiting violent behavior, whether the NICS background check system is adequate, are safety protocols and procedures in schools adequate. Whether current state and federal firearm regulations are adequate and the behavior and health support resources available to students in schools, in our communities. That’s a step in starting to look at the gun issue, and I wasn’t afraid to file that bill.”

Statement to the candidate: As African-Americans, many of us feel threatened by the anti-African American rhetoric that appears to be fueled by words spoken by the President.  He was seemingly supportive of alt-right forces chanting anti-Black and anti-Jewish statements in a widely publicized rally. The next day there was death in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

From Starbucks to Papa Johns, there appears to be a climate of distrust of African Americans, with African Americans being reported to the Police for simply going about their business. Whether it’s a CVS store, swimming pool, or public park, this is happening on a more frequent basis. 

Urban CNY:  What do you say about this trend? And what can we do about these incidents?

Katko: “Personally, I gotta stand up and speak out. I’ve spoken out against the president anytime he’s done something on anything of those occasions. There’s no place in modern country of ours for hatred or bigotry of any sort or white supremacy of any sort. And I’ve spoken out against that very forcefully; I’ve endeavored on homeland security committee to make sure that we focus our priorities on that as well.

I’m really saddened by these ridicules acts of hatred on all sides. Public officials and community leaders must unequivocally condemn that.

I give you some examples of what I do. And I put my money where my mouth is. I’m a champion for guys I prosecuted in the African American community, Quante Wright is an example. Corey Edwards, who I prosecuted years ago, I saw him a couple of weeks ago, and he had a reflective vest on, I asked him what he was doing, he was working for the county. I congratulated him, I was happy for him; I told him I was proud of him. I told Quante in public that I was proud of him at his graduation from Bryant and Stratton, because I believe that we got to champion these kids, if they have fallen down that doesn’t mean that they should stay down, we should build them back up.  I’m definitely an advocate for that, an advocate for anything I can, with respect to the African American community.

I really believe that we all have a duty to try to lift these kids out of poverty and to keep away from the streets. It goes back to my feelings on about early intervention with these kids, early intervention with respect to literacy, early intervention with respect to poverty issues and afterschool, lunch programs, weekend and summer feeding programs, and all of that stuff.

I guess the bottom line is we gotta to stand up and say, that’s not acceptable and show by our actions why that’s not acceptable and help people out. “

(This piece has been edited/updated 7/23/18)

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