Albert Lee is a U.S. Army veteran and former dean of business and computing at Portland Community College. He’s running to unseat Earl Blumenauer in Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District primary. Portland State Vanguard caught up with Lee to discuss why he’s running, his policy platform and the impact of COVID-19.
Vanguard: If there were three things about your background that you’d really want PSU students to know, what would they be?
Lee: The first one would be my origin; I’m an immigrant and a sixth-generation American at the same time. I was born in South Korea where my African-American army dad met my Korean mom during the Vietnam War. I think that’s impacted the worldview I hold. The second thing is to understand regardless of the things I’ve done professionally, I have a lived experience of growing up in the working class. I’ve faced a multitude of real world struggles that have shaped who I am. Lastly, I want PSU students to know that I am a first-generation college grad who understands the struggles of what it’s like to try to make one’s way through school.
VG: Let’s talk about your platform. Two of the pillars of yours and Rep. Blumenauer’s housing policies are Medicare For All and Housing First programs. Where exactly do you differ from the representative in regards to housing?
Lee: Well, during the 24 years that our representative has served, those weren’t issues. I think he hardly had a distinct policy on solving our housing crisis before we entered the race a year ago. And when it comes to these things, I think there’s a difference between saying you believe in something and actually believing it. The difference between myself and our representative is he’s a lip-service progressive and I am not. We don’t need more lip-service progressives. We need people who are actually going to fight hard for progressive issues here in this district.
VG: Housing first can be a confusing term. What exactly does that mean to you?
Lee: The United Nations stated housing is a human right. If housing is a human right, we shouldn’t have people living on the streets. If there’s somebody in a tent, the government ought to provide basic housing for that person. What housing first means is we’ll provide you housing without preconditions. We want to say, ‘We’re not going to make you jump through all of those hoops. We are going to ensure you have housing so you can take care of other issues: mental illness, securing a job or addressing a drug/alcohol problem.’ I think housing first in conjunction with Medicare For All is the solution to our current housing crisis.
VG: If you were in Congress right now, what would you be doing to ensure that people have affordable and stable housing in light of the effects of COVID-19?
Lee: First of all, you put a moratorium on evictions. Second, with hotels being shut down, you could provide housing for the houseless there. We should be giving vouchers to hotels so they can take in the houseless and ensure they are safe.
VG: Do you think the government should institute a total rent freeze so that tenants aren’t indebted to their landlords once this all clears up?
Lee: Yes. I think we need a rent freeze and a mortgage freeze. Quite honestly, I think this is the time for a complete reset. We could cancel all student loans, medical debt, mortgages and credit card debt. We’ve already dropped $3 trillion into the stock market without question. It’s time for us to give relief to the people.
VG: You have a section on your website that is titled “inability to thrive.” What exactly does the ability to thrive mean for residents of Oregon’s 3rd District?
Lee: Living wages for all and affordable housing. Those two things go hand-in-hand. Here in the Portland metropolitan area, you have to be making about $28 an hour full time in order to provide for yourself and your family. There is not one zip code in this country where you can live on the minimum wage. That’s because we’ve had a minimum wage that has remained flat and stagnant for the last 40 years. We have to fix that.
VG: What should the minimum wage be in Portland?
Lee: $28 an hour. It’s not going to happen overnight because we haven’t allowed it to grow over the last 40 years.
VG: Another thing you talk about in your platform is instituting a maximum wage. Can you explain that?
Lee: What I’m proposing is a cap on the top earners of a business where the owner or CEO is only allowed to make 100 times his or her minimum wage employees. So, for example, for a company where the minimum wage is $15 an hour, the top earner is only allowed to make $3 million max.
VG: How much money should Congress be sending to people while the economy is shut down, and for how long should this go on?
Lee: Well, I’m a skeptic of universal basic income. I don’t think it’s viable because of the math. If you take Andrew Yang’s proposal of $1,000 a month per person per year, it comes out somewhere around $4 trillion. That’s greater than our entire budget. So, I don’t think it can be done in the long term. I’m also concerned UBI would replace the remnants of our already dismantled social safety net. However, I want to separate that from our current crisis and emergency. I think we need emergency economic support for people in the realm of $2,000 a month per person. And that should go on as long as the crisis continues.
VG: What kinds of things should Democrats have on the bargaining table right now as Congress looks to pass another economic stimulus package?
Lee: I think this is a prime time to secure Medicare For All. This current crisis demonstrates our employee-based health insurance system is flawed. I also think cancellation of all debt should be on the table.
VG: Let’s talk about your education policy. Your position is to expand public education through two-year colleges and trade schools. Does that include public four-year universities?
Lee: I think we should have universal free education all the way from preschool through college. I don’t know where all of the numbers are on making four-year college free, but I do think that all education in America should be tuition free. We need to invest in our people so that they can eventually reinvest in our country.
VG: You believe in free public transit for all. In Portland, how would we transition Trimet into being completely free?
Lee: I sat on the board of Trimet’s Transit Equity Advisory Committee. I can tell you only 17% of Trimet’s revenues come from fares. Today, right now, we could have free public transit. This isn’t about the math, this is about political will.
VG: How is your campaign adapting to the consequences of COVID-19?
Lee: We’re trying to connect with our supporters virtually as much as possible. We’re doing regular virtual town halls and trying to connect with constituents the best we can through social media.