we've seen positions triple in the last year. [closing bell rings] since the election some of are up 20, 30% in the last few weeks. liz: indeed. randy carver. great to have you. thank you so much. that will do it for us. no records. tomorrow, federal reserve. connell: we're fighting for gains and for records throughout the day on wall street back and forth we go but doesn't look like we will get it here. investors weighing some of the strong corporate earnings results that have come in against the stimulus expectations as they have been now for a up number of weeks. as we close the dow is down by 22 points. it is down fourth day in a row, dow jones industrial average, s&p by six. nasdaq is down 10 points as we settle things in at the close. any gain for the s&p and nasdaq would have been a record today. the s&p intraday hit an all time high earlier in the day. but we fall short at the close. now on deck for us this hour is

microsoft, expected to report second-quarter earnings results. in fact those could come out at any minute now. the stock at an all time high ahead of its results up by 1% on the day. that is a 232-dollar stock now, for microsoft. apple, which like the market was up and down today. does close higher by 24 cents. that is the fourth straight record close for apple. those numbers come ahead of its earnings which you will find out about tomorrow. a lot going on, especially on the earnings front. i'm connell mcshane. welcome to "after the bell,." always great to have you with us. this is time for the news happening at this hour. fox business team coverage, blake burman in washington. gerri willis, mentioned microsoft, she is standing by waiting for those figures to come in and phil flynn has new developments, big ones in fact for the oil industry. we'll get to everybody on those stories. blake, we'll start with you. chuck schumer threatening to put the budget on the floor next week. that could be important, right, starting the process of passing these stimulus, or stimulus

proposal through rec skill ages we talked about. reporter: exactly. big headline from the senate majority leader chuck schumer. where things stand now, $1.9 trillion plan president biden put forward, there are negotiations taking place between the white house, democrats up on hill, republican senators as well. chuck schumer threatened to go forward with the budget process starting next week. what does all that mean? well the budget process essentially is the vehicle by which democrats could use reconciliation. reconciliation is the means by which democrats could say, well if the negotiations with republicans are not going the way we like, then democrats could go at it alone with this $1.9 trillion plan. the bottom line from schumer, he sort of put them on notice that democrats could be going at this alone and doing it soon. watch. >> we want to work with our republican colleagues to advance this legislation in a bipartisan way but the work must move forward. preferably with our republican

colleagues but without them, if we must. we're keeping all options open on the table including using budget reconciliation. reporter: on this issue of budget reconciliation president bush 43 used it for his tax cuts. president trump and republicans four years ago used it for the tax cuts as well. president obama used it to get parts of affordable care act through. it is not like it is anything new here in washington, connell, but it certainly has big implications and if that is the route the democrats go, you could talk about a nearly two trillion dollar plan sometime in february or march. connell? connell: been a lot of question if they would do that. maybe they do. i want to go back to yesterday for a moment, blake, we were at this time yesterday carrying live remarks from president biden. i actually noted this at the time right at the end of his remarks he was asked when everybody wants a shot for coronavirus vaccine, when will they be able to get it. he said the spring. a lot of us took note.

did jen psaki the white house press secretary walk that back today? what is the current position. >> she did. it seemed like acceleration of the timeline when president biden was asked about this in the spring. dr. an any fauci said it would be more like sometime this summer. when jen psaki, the new press secretary she was asked about the discrepancy and this was her response? >> what the president's goal is there is greater availability in the spring. he will push his team. he pushes his team on covid and updates even on meeting about other issues. this is his focus every single day but the fact is every american will not be eligible this spring. we're going to continue to increase supply. reporter: hear that walk-back at the end there, connell. as for president we'll be hearing from him probably about 40 minutes from now in the building behind me as he will be talking about covid-19 and his team's plan. connell?

connell: these are all projections. we don't know. it is interesting when we heard him say that yesterday. thank you, blake. speaking of changes being made by the new administration, business community taking note of this, the white house expected to announce a pause on oil drilling, on public lands following a 60-day suspension of new drilling permits for u.s. lands and waters announced last week so this is phil flynn's department. see oil closing or trading at 52.52. let's bring in phil in from chicago. tell us what you know about this, more importantly what you think the impact will be on the the industry? >> i think the impact on the industry will be immediate. the u.s. oil and gas industry has a target on its back, we will see right after the announcements more layoffs, a reduction in u.s. production. we'll see higher energy gas prices coming very shortly. it as well as a loss in tax revenue and a loss of domestic growth. this is a very aggressive move bit biden administration.

it is political pay back time for a lot of states that didn't vote for him and now we're looking at the price of oil and gas, since the biden administration has been in place they have done nothing but go up. gasoline prices gone up week after week. so right now there is a real concern about the u.s. oil and gas industry being under assault. in fact it is so worrisome right now that s&p global put a watch on all the biggest oil companies in the world for negative ratings. the possibility is because of more legislation against oil and gas. so under oil and gas in the u.s., it is unassault and the u.s. economy is going to pay the price. connell: real quick, phil, where do you think the price is going? from 52 where? >> if we continue to stay on this track we'll be talking 65-dollar a barrel oil here before the end of this year and very possibly if we continue along this track, we'll be

talking about 100-dollar a barrel oil. i mean the only reason why oil prices have been low has been because of u.s. oil production. if we curtail that, prices are going substantially higher. we're putting all the power back in opec's hands. they will be able to control the price. the u.s. is going to have little to say about it. to be honest with you the biden administration restaurants higher prices because it makes green energy look a lot more palatable to the american consumers. they better get ready because high gasoline prices are going to come and the administration better be prepared with answers for the american people because they're not going to be happy about it. connell: yeah, consumers never are. phil, thank you, sir. i want to bring this to art laffer for wider discussion of it, former reagan economic advisor, laffer associates chairman. all right, art, we knew kind of something like this was coming, we knew there would be a move on keystone and there was.

now the federal lands with the drilling. what about to phil's last point about the economic impact of these policies? what do you think it will be? >> i think his points were perfectly correct but the thing is, this is not a surprise. any democrat who would have been elected president would have done exactly this we've all been expecting it. it will be a lot more to follow. it will have the industry impact. it will have an effect on gasoline prices. would i expect some states will propose a carbon tax as well which will try to push those prices back up. if you look at sort of what happens, what the consequences are, go to europe and look what gasoline prices are there, how the car system adjusted to all of that. this is the direction we're heading in this country but biden made it very clear this is what was going to happen. i don't think it is good for the economy. i wouldn't have done it myself but he promised this and he is delivering on that promise. connell: many of those european countries though don't have as robust of an oil and gas

industry, right, domestically as we do here in the united states? those are real people and real jobs that will take a hit here. >> not in the industry side, they surely don't. they don't have the oil production. obviously countries like russia and middle east do have it, some african countries do. it will hit our production. that will mean less jobs in that area but the pipeline, we all new they would cancel that as well. that will have a jobs impact. your previous guest was completely correct. connell: art, i'm not done with you, by any stretch. can you stand by for one second? >> all right. connell: i want to get the microsoft earnings on. big one after the bell. let's take a quick pause. we'll go back to art laffer in just a moment. "fox business alert," microsoft which is the big report we were waiting for to come in after the bell is indeed out with what looked like strong results. let's find out about them from gerri willis who has the

numbers. gerry? reporter: connell, that is right beating on both the top and bottom line. the dow component software services giant with a strong quarter. earnings expectations, pardon the glasses, expectations $1.64, came in at 2.03. what a blowout. revenue expectations 40.18 billion. they came in at 43.08, that is the highest in terms of quarter for revenues for the company. they break out the three major segments of business. each case, again it was a beat. intelligent cloud. that is azure as you know it. windows servers. they came in at 14.6 billion. expectations of 13.73 billion on that business. personal computing a big win as well. 15.12 billion. expectations of 13.51. productivity and business processes. this is the old fashion office 365 skype, linked in,

3.53 billion. 12.88 was the expectations. here is what the experts are saying, videogaming, cloud computing, xbox, everything to do with being locked down, forced to be at home, take advantage of your laptops, that is what is helping microsoft here. also don't forget collaboration software. microsoft teams doing very well indeed. so a big quarter for microsoft, dow component, will be interesting to see how it all shakes out with share prices tomorrow morning. connell, back to you. connell: yeah. should certainly help the dow, up 6% on the stock price. gerri, thank you. we'll have more with microsoft later. i wasn't through with art laffer. talk about the minimum wage a little bit and this push we've seen to increase the federal minimum wage, new developments, senator bernie sanders and other democrats introducing new legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage up to 15 bucks an hour. they want to do it by the year

2024. here is senator sanders making his case. >> nobody in america, not in the north or the south, the east or the west who can survive on $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage. you can't make it on nine bucks. you can't make it on $12 an hour. minimum wage must be a living wage enabling people to live with dignity. connell: all right. art, that last, the way he phrased that, i want to ask you about that a little bit because we've had so many intellectual discussions about the minimum wage, incentives for hiring, that kind of thing. i understand all of them. bernie sanders says you can't make it on nine bucks. you can't make it on 12 bucks. it must go to 15. is that true? would you say, for example, even if you're opposed to going up to 15, wouldn't someone be able to rationally argue, maybe the federal wage at 7.25 is a little low, maybe nine makes more sense. why does it have to be so absolute and what is your view

on issue over all? >> let me tell you the real hypocrisy was saying, you need to make the minimum wage $15, so that half the people who are poor never get a job, have to live on welfare and their standard of live something ruined. what he is telling us if people could be paid $15 a minimum wage, they had a job sure it would be better for them but what the 15-dollar minimum wage does, it bids these people, the poor, minority, the disenfranchised out of jobs, it makes their lives worse. when he looks at kentucky for example, i would guess almost half the people working in kentucky today are below the minimum wage that he would like us to have. what will you do with all the people? put them all on welfare? it makes no sense what bernie sanders says. i just hope that the goodness that joe biden understands that. what joe biden has done, he may have had an executive order where all federal employees are paid the 15-dollar minimum wage.

that is a different thing all together you about to try to make a one-size-fits-all in every aspect of this country it is absolutely ridiculous. 15-dollar minimum wage in new york city may make it fly. that may make sense but 15-dollar minimum wage in mississippi, kentucky, wyoming, these areas makes no sense at all and it is hypocritical to push this type of rhetoric out there and trying to make people who don't have to bear the consequences want to love you for doing it. it is just wrong, wrong, wrong. connell: to your point we'll either have $15 in big cities with higher standards of living already. >> yeah, we are. connell: art, thank you. great to see you as always. >> thank you, connell. thanks for having me. i'm glad bernie didn't get the presidency, let me tell you that. connell: if you want we can take the meme been on the internet and have him sit down next to you in the studio. >> i would love it.

let's get bernie on the show. connell: a couple other things to get to now, however. always fun to talk to art. now we have virus numbers. we've been looking at these just about every day. a couple things to point out. a couple cases have topped the 100 million for the coronavirus but there at the same time signs of progress for example here in the united states. for example, hospitalizations falling below 110,000. that is the first time in over a month that has happened. newly reported cases remain below 200,000. that is the ninth day in a row that happened. you're seeing turns in that direction. nearly 20 million americans received the first dose of a vaccine according to the cdc. it comes as johnson & johnson says it expects to report data on the single dose vaccine by early next week. but officials are now confirming the first u.s. case of highly transmissible brazil variant. all these different variants. the brazil variant found in minnesota as new travel requirements go into effect.

jeff flock, you have more on that coming up, right? reporter: as of today, connell, anyone coming through these doors, this is the international arrival val section in o'hare and any other areas must have international covid test. there are ways around that. tell you what they are in a moment. this is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. okay, it's got screeners and watchlists. and you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks you're interested in. now this is what i'm talking about. yeah, it'll free up more time for your... uh, true crime shows? british baking competitions. hm. didn't peg you for a crumpet guy. focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. ♪♪ what day is it? ♪♪ did i feed you?

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♪. connell: all right, we are going to need you to prove it. talking about proof of a negative covid test within three days. that is required for entry into the united states from anywhere else in the world. there are concerns about how effective the measure will be, how maybe it impacts the airline industry which of course is already struggling so much because of the pandemic. so as advertised jeff flock in, at o'hare airport in chicago with more on this. jeff? reporter: out of side the international terminal and arrivals here at o'hare, yeah, you're required now, this is something that was implemented starting today. the trump administration initially announced this but the biden administration has gone ahead with it. you must have a negative test if you come into the country. the problem is, couple of three problems. one, even according to the cdc in the person of dr. robert redfield who directs the cdc, i

admit it, testing does not eliminate all risks. in addition countries that have implemented this kind of procedurer earlier on, some travelers, believe it or not find ways around the test, like, for example, dummying up the results. you have to present either a printed record that you have had a test or an electronic record. in the case of the printed record, some people have apparently been allerring the documents, to quote, one anonymous traveler interviewed by vice.com, i quote him now, i just fired up photoshop and changed the date on the test. supposed to get the test within three days of travel. so ways around it. the way, to not get around it would be one of those covid passports that they all them. it is an electronic app put on your phone or an app put on your phone that provides an electronic record that you have gotten a covid test. the problem some of those apps also track your whereabouts,

track you around the country and turn your data over. a lot of people don't like the idea. i suspect here in the u.s. i suspect people would not like those things. no easy answers according to the pandemic, connell. we try to do the best we can and hope for the best i suppose. connell: isn't that the truth. you can say that about every story. we americans don't like being followed. thank you, jeff flock out there in chicago. a quick note about beyond meat. that company's sales soaring today. it announced a partnership with pepsi, to create, produce, market plant-based snacks and drinks through a joint venture which is being called the planet partnership. the stock is up 17, almost 18%. financial terms of the deal not disclosed. we'll be right back

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♪ connell: "after the bell" headlines, the first private space station crew announced

today. it consists of three men, paying $55 million each to fly the spacex rocket. the crew will be led by a former nasa astronaut. the trip expected to take place next january, will consist spending eight days at the space station. the boston athletic zooks announcing that the 125 boston marathon will take place this october 11th in person. officials release the date amid cautious optimism with the coronavirus pandemic saying we will be guided by science, and collaborative work with local, state, federal health officials. california changing covid-19 eligibility guidelines in the next round of doses to be giverren out. officials focus of people under 65 years of age, and tear 2 workers and the change in california along with other states is now warning they could

run out of vaccine to be unable to meet demand. let's talk about this some more. we welcome james freeman, "the wall street journal" assistant editor from the editorial page and fox news contributor. the bottom line what california is doing, basically saying, it doesn't matter where you work, how old you are in the next round. we'll not say anybody under 65 or people between age 50, 65, whatever it is, they're taking out priority of the workers. is at that what more states should be doing with what is has gone right and wrong in this rollout do you think? >> i think the overall focus should be getting needles into arms and we've seen different places, people have tried to set a lot of rules and that is fine to have a guideline on priorities. but you have a situation in california and they're not unique, as of yesterday morning, according to the cdc, they had used about half or less than half the doses they have been

given. so that is a problem. and, i think the, you can, you can set whatever guidelines you want. i think it makes sense to focus on the elderly, people with conditions, but your number one priority should be, get people vaccinated because even if they're not in the group that you want to protect, obviously every dose is limiting the ability of that virus to spread. connell: right. just by sheer math, it could be frustrating by the way we understand, to individual people, but by sheer math you will have more vaccinations given out. anecdotally i remember they changed here in new york, from 75 and over, made it 65, we tried to make a point, my parents ended up getting it, that next day, as soon as they went 65 boom, the appointments filled up. that is frustrating to people, you know more vaccines are being given out. the overall effect is positive we get through this sooner i guess is the point? >> yeah. look, it looks like you know, we

hope this trend continues. it looks like that the hospitalizations nationwide peaked about three weeks ago. let's hope the curves keep going down. we continue to vaccinate a million 1/2 people a day, no reason to assume that those trends will not continue to improve. california obviously. there is reassessment. i think going on generally about their policies on the virus. very, very, aggressive lockdown policies have had real economic damage. we just got the december unemployment report for states. 9% urn employment rate in california. only nevada and hawaii are worse. these are two states that are really heavily reliant on obviously travel and hospitality. so what's california's excuse. they have had trouble with the virus but they have really done damage to their economy in an

attempt to counter it. connell: yeah. finally we saw the stay at home order being lifted, but still pretty tightly, not necessarily locked down, tightly restricted even after yesterday. thank you, james freeman from the "wall street journal." >> thanks. connell: new york is another case we have to keep watching, governor andrew cuomo holding firm. he announced he will ease restrictions in some areas in the states but has made one big exception, for the big city itself. coming up this hour we have a guest on calling that ban discriminatory. we'll talk about that. plus we'll talk more about microsoft. the stock has been up after hours. it beat revenue estimates with its cloud service which is always a big part of the business up 5%. with the shift to learning from home. microsoft up $11. we'll be right back because our way works great for us!

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♪. connell: here's a "fox business alert." in just a few minutes we've learned that president biden will announce that states will receive a nearly 20% increase in their vaccine doses next week and for the next three weeks. the plan from the biden administration will give governors allocation estimates three weeks in advance and the president's also expected to say the government will purchase an additional 200 million vaccine doses, 100 million coming from pfizer, another 100 million from moderna. this seems to be more federal involvement in the vaccine

rollout we were expecting. some of the specifics there which will be officially announced by the white house at the president for just a few minutes. we'll continue to follow that. a little more now on the red tape that we've all been watching. regulation nation. we talked about this a little bit at the top of the hour, companies are bracing for new regulations under this new administration, already seeing some of that. edward lawrence has done reporting for us on this topic. he joins us from washington with details. edward? reporter: cornell, some of that in oil and natural gas. as early as tomorrow the biden administration plans to ban for one year new leases on drilling and fracking on federal lands and waters. right now the moratorium is 60 days. the independent petroleum association says this would cost a lot of union and non-union jobs would ever return. they hope joining with unions and democratic senators they can change the president's mind. >> there are thousands of

producers that have contributed to this energy renaissance which happens and if the regulation, regulatory regime gets so restrictive, they will be forced to curtail production which will seriously threaten the ability of the united states to be an energy superpower. reporter: a white house source familiar with the new regulations says they're still in draft form and could change for the next 24 hours based on out reach. also that pause there. president joe biden called climate change an immediate crisis. that is where the regulations are coming from. also, new regulations coming in the auto industry, requiring net zero emissions for the industry by 2050. the white house indicating that it would be in the name of climate change. >> he has called it a crisis. he said it is central to the issues he wants to take on in his presidency, speaks to his commitment to the issue. reporter: the new administration

also targeting mandatory safety guidelines for covid-19 that will add another layer for medical professionals to have to go through. so the name of the game so far for the first six days, more regulations. that is what we're seeing, connell. connell: thank you edward lawrence. i want to focus on the oil drilling pause on federal land. that could have impact on somebody like mark murphy, the president and owner of strata production. a third generation oil man out-of-state of new mexico. which is a state we're watching closely. so you don't know, federal and oil gas drilling around. country is less than 10%. but in new mexico half is on federal land. mark, what the impact be on your particular business? >> that would be devastating. we have a project 100 plus wells planned for. we've got a number of permits have been approved. some in the que but the

uncertainty is devastating right now. which originally heard it would be a leasing ban. i just say a leasing ban. that is terrible in itself. permit ban, apd ban, which is application permit to drill. you know, like most misguided policies this is going to hurt the most vulnerable amongst us the hardest. and those are typically people that rely on that paycheck every day from the oil and gas industry for from the businesses that support it. and you know this is an industry where with very little education you can easily be earning six figures and up. and so, during this time of pandemic we're now just beginning to recover from devastatingly low oil prices. overall unemployment across the board and you know, this is just a job killer and it is going to be -- go ahead. connell: so you have, if you had some, a project underway already from my understanding at least,

we'll get the official announcement tomorrow you would be all right but your earlier point you were about to start something new which would be covered by this, right? how many people would work on a new project like that? what happens, are those jobs just gone? >> they are. they will certainly move out of new mexico, they could go to texas or somewhere else, but the people won't necessarily follow them. so the, the problem is, on the leasing side as many of these projects have very long lead times. it might take us 10 years to put them together. so this last year or two you know, might be where we have to get the critical lease to really drill the initial well. so you will have some projects that will completely collapse and we'll never be able to recover from this. there is a fallacy out there that there is all these existing permits and the industry can just operate on those but the problem with that is, many of those permits are held by large companies. these permits, especially the apds, are very expensive to get. my company, i also have time

limits on them. my company figures that each permit costs us about $50,000. by the time you put in the fees paid to the federal government, the biologists, archeologists, all of the engineers, all the people involved. so for smaller companies to wrap up millions of dollars in permits just isn't feasible. and so for many of us we'll just, basically means the end of a project or certainly it won't be able to begin a project, it may even mean that that project will ultimately collapse because of these types of delays. connell: all right. that speaks, to your last point speaks how difficult it is, it is not as easy as it might sound to speak, just move over to a state like texas where a lot of drill something on private land. these things are more complicated than that. mark, when we have more time, we'll have you back, stay on the story. keep reporting on it. we're supposed to get announcement tomorrow. tough times for this industry. sorry? >> pray for new mexico too, 40% of the budget comes from gas and

oil. hopefully the government wit asking for a waiver. they can contract the independent oil association for new mexico and more facts if they wish to help us out. thank you. connell: maybe some legal challenges too. thank you, mark. we'll keep covering it. many major brands are sitting out the super bowl this year, something we talked about yesterday with bud bud but chipotle says it will air its first-ever super bowl ad. it will be a 30 second commercial called, can a burrito change the world? they will talk about food integrity pledge, highlighting the farming practices of its suppliers. chipotle is in the big game

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gary? >> look, gargantuan numbers. they beat the heck out of estimates. i have to tell you mr. far della, if not in the top five of the greatest ceos in the world i don't know what it is. the azure cloud business was up 50%. you said xbox, you know the business where your kids ignore you most of the time, up 40%. linked in, up 40% year-over-year. they're doing everything right. just a great job as the stocks proves it out and the stock gaps up to new all-time highs. connell: we're wondering about, we talked about it through the week, i don't know necessarily whether microsoft fits in this category but whether tech stocks can be leaders continuing in the market or whether some are getting stretched or getting to the point where they can't keep going like this from a stock market perspective. what do you think ? >> there is a bunch that are stretched and to be clear technology is a percentage of the market far and away higher than it ever has by miles.

because of all the leverage put in ton much these names on margin. there will be comeuppance and normalization next couple years i just don't know when. microsoft will be at an all time high as we open tomorrow. amount son, i saw was up 50 or 60 bucks in the after-market because of sympathy with the cloud computing also. so the expectation is that amazon will come up with a bank-up number also next week i believe. connell: yeah. many of them have been amazing stories. amazon, facebook, down on the list, tesla, apple. apple does have its numbers tomorrow night. so i guess what is interesting about this apple quarter be iphone 12 related results, right from apple? >> i'm hearing business is pretty darn good and i do my own little small channel checks, i visit a lot of stores and man, they just, they just do a heck

of a lot of business. i suspect they're pretty good at beating the number, whether or not that equates to the stock going higher from here. that is really around all-time highs also. that will be another story and again we'll get that tomorrow. these are category killers. i was looking at microsoft, 150 billion in sales yearly. to be able to grow those sales in the teens is remarkable. same goes for apple, not as strong on the sales front because they do much more in sales but just amazing what these businesses have become. behemoths. that is the best way to say it. connell: really. behemoths. comeuppance may be coming but not quite yet is the headline from gary kaltbaum today. always good to see you. let you get back to the xbox, gary, thank you. now we have severe weather has been pummeling many parts of the country throughout the day. a winter storm dumping a foot of snow as a matter of fact across the middle of the country,

closing some covid testing sites in the process, closing schools, disrupting travel. that is the second day in a row we've seen that as it moves into the northeast. this comes as the search-and-rescue efforts continue in the state of alabama. a tornado ripped through part of that state, killing one, leaving a dozen injured. look at those pictures. we'll be right back (vo) businesses are always making choices. here's a choice you don't have to make: the largest 5g network... award-winning customer satisfaction... or insanely great value. now, with t-mobile for business, there's no compromise. network. support. value. choose. all. three. t-mobile for business. ready when you are.

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connell: i just want to alert, while we have a minute here, the gamestop stock price. we were talking about video games anyway, and the reason is it may speak to just how crazy this stock market has been. maybe we'll spend some more time on this in the coming days. over the last few days, this stock has been through the roof and, you know, from the look of things, it's an old-fashioned short squeeze where people betting against the stock are getting hammered, and they are forced to cover their short positions. the stock was up 90 some percent, and now after hours another 40%.

and this has been going on for days. gamestop's up to $209. to this has been a crazy move in this stock. i know we give a lot of attention to tesla, but let's watch gamestop as a symbol of maybe something bigger going on. that is a crazy, crazy move. all right, the fight for the new york restaurant industry, new york governor andrew cuomo saying he's not contemplating changes to the ban on indoor dining in the city despite other parts of new york state being open at least in a limited capacity. andrew ridgy joins us on that, new york city hospitality executive director. andrew, as you know, we've done a million stories on this, and they all come -- there's so much frustration in your industry. just this latest move, we had california starting to open up, other cities that were closed to indoor dining go at least back to 25% but not new york city. so what's your back and forth like with the governor? what's your argument, what data

are you using to push back? >> yeah, well, thanks. you know, our city's restaurant industry has been absolutely decimated. over the past year, we've lost more than 140,000 jobs in this industry just since dining has been shut down again for the second time, 11,000 jobs, thousands of restaurants have shuttered. according to our state comp comptroller, between one-third and one-half of the 25,000 restaurants could permanently shut, so it's devastating x. to your point, it makes no sense. nice restaurants are -- new york city restaurants are shut down for indoor dining, yet the rest of new york state is at 50% indoor occupancy, yet you have higher infection rates, higher hospitalization rates yet we're closed and they're open. connell: and even in some of those areas especially close to the city, i don't think many of the restaurants are making a killing because, you know, there's still some restrictions in place. they're obviously better off than they are in the city, and

it almost seems like at this point -- i wouldn't say someone like you fighting for this is going the give up, but you're almost at a point where you have to look to the end of the pandemic and just hope that the vaccine -- president biden just announced they're going to purchase 200 million more vaccines, that it's going to take that. these guys in government are not budging. or do you have other options? enter well, the vaccine, 100%. i mean, i will keep fighting. there is so much more city and state government can do, but what we also need is the federal government to enact the restaurants act which had bipartisan support in the senate from conservative members to progressive members, more than 50 of them, and it got stalled. it creates structured relief for these restaurants that have been particularly hit. and it's not just the restaurant owners -- [audio difficulty] and the workers. think about -- [audio difficulty] connell: we have audio. hold on a second, andrew.

all right. i think what we have is we have your audio. sorry to interrupt, but we lost your shot from your streaming. probably your internet connection. ah, there back. thank goodness. we didn't have any backups, and we still have three minutes left in the show. here's what i'll ask about the restaurant act, say hypothetically when they're going through this stimulus talk in washington that it comes down to it. and it may not, but they say, well, we can either give out the checks directly to all people making under a certain amount of money, $1400, or we can pass this restaurant act. why would you say the restaurant act makes more sense for the economy, and if so, what would your argument be? >> i don't think it has to be either/are or, but if we lose our restaurants, we lose our communities, and we lose jobs. and we lose all those jobs that rely on those restaurants like the farmers, like the sales reps, the florists, the

distribute's. so i think we need -- distributers. i think we need to get the restaurant industry back otherwise the whole entire with economy can collapse. and these bailed-out banks, we give billion dollars to airlines, and whether or not that's justified is another argument. but restaurants are the backbone of our communities. [audio difficulty] in business deals and all this stuff. we need our restaurants to come back, and the restaurants act is a way to do that. and frankly, i think, it's a disgrace if we don't. we support people, we feed front-line workers, we do so much to support our communities and provide hospitality. connell: all right, andrew, thank you. i'm going to jump on you a little bit because we've been going if and out anyway, but we got your main point which is you need this restaurants act to be passed, and these jobs, many of them, are in jeopardy of ever coming back, and that's why it's so urgent. we'll continue to follow that

story as it develops. all right, that just about wraps it up for our hour of coverage. again, more vaccines according to the biden administration a on the way, so that's good news, we'll stay on that. we thank you for watching "after the bell" today and every day. see you back here at the same time tomorrow. ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. elections have consequences as former president barack obama once reminded us. and his vice president is now leading this nation. and in less than a week in office, president biden is only further dividing the nation even as he calls for unity, endorsing the radical dems' continued persecution of his predecessor, donald trump, who is now a private citizen, after all. and president biden approving the sham impeachment process launched by speaker pelosi and