California Governor Gavin Newsom zoom'd into On Air With Ryan Seacrest today to discuss the timeline of re-opening the state, relief measures for unemployed Californians and students plus much more! Before jumping into more serious conversation, Ryan gave a simple thank you to the Governor for his leadership and public transparency throughout the state's transition to 'Stay-At-Home' life.
Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for communicating. Thank you for being early with making some tough decisions...you can see the impact of that here in the state of California.
When it comes to reopening essential businesses and returning to life pre-coronavirus, the Governor plans on taking things slow and relaxing restrictions on a region to region basis.
We're looking region by region right now. Recognizing not every part of the state, not every part of the country is exactly the same...we'll begin to answer that in a much more bottom up way, and a much more dynamic way by looking to expand the definition of essential and begin to start pulling back. Again, that's predicated on other green lights, other indicators.
Gov. Newsom also shared his commitment to keeping Californians updated. He plans on continuing daily public briefings on the status of reopening measures and hopes that residents can put differences aside while working towards the common goal of normalcy.
By noon every single day I'm going to get right in front of you and millions of Californians and let them know what I know in real time. The only thing we have together is trust. Our capacity to meet this moment is at the speed of trust. Our biggest anxiety right now is the one everybody's highlighting - is that there's increasing divisions now a lot of political divisions, party divisions, geographic divisions that are starting to form. My biggest fear is that could break us apart right at the moment...we're so close. The new normal won't come back until there's a vaccine, won't come back until there's herd immunity, but we can have some semblance of normalcy with modifications. But we have to have a public health frame first, not a political frame first.
When asked about some recent good news for students in the state, Newsom detailed California's plan for loan forbearance. Those saddled with student loan debt are being given a 90 day reprieve on payment.
People won't have to pay their student loans at least for 90 days...won't impact your credit rating, no late fees, no fines associated with that. That will impact over a million people in the state of California.
Student loan debt is so oppressive, never goes away. I had it - I think I was like 34 years old when I finally paid off my student loans. Some folks on my staff are in their 40s - some in 50's - that are still paying them off. I can't imagine how many people listening, watching are in a similar place.
The conversation also took a personal turn, when Patty shared that her mother lost her job once non-essential businesses were shuttered in CA. After filing for unemployment, her mom has still not received her relief check. Governor Newsom explained that she should have gotten it by now (and he'll reconnect with her after the interview to look into it) and also gave insight into the state's plan for economic recovery.
3.9 million people have received their checks just since March 15th. We've distributed just shy of 4 billion dollars just since March 15. It's an unprecedented number of people...just since mid march we've seen 3.3 million new people file for unemployment insurance. It's overwhelming and I can't imagine for your mom how overwhelmed she may feel because you have that on top of the question you also posed is - what happens to her job? That's why we announced a few days ago...we've got the industry not just in Hollywood, but tech industry, Ag industry and social justice workers all working together on an economic recovery strategy and package. So we're working in real time to jumpstart that as well so I can answer that question for her and millions of others like her.
For the full interview watch the video above!