This interview was conducted via phone in the fall of 2015, but the questions and responses remain relevant, and will be so for the foreseeable future.

The Representative: A native of Camillus, New York Congressman John Katko (Republican) graduated from Niagara University and Syracuse University’s College of Law. He started off his legal career working at a firm in Washington D.C. but eventually embarked into the world of public service by becoming a Senior Trial Attorney at the U.S. Secretaries and Exchange Commission. Katko then concluded his twenty year career in the legal world by becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Katko has been honored with a Top Prosecutor Award by three separate Attorney Generals, in both the Democratic and Republican parties, for his work on the Gang Violence Task Force and for international drug­ trafficking investigations.

Katko has currently been representing the 24th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 2015. The district includes Onondaga, Cayuga, and Wayne Counties as well as a portion of Oswego County.

The Representative: Ilyssa Weiner is a senior at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego majoring in Broadcasting and Mass Communication and minoring in Political Science. My goal after college is to become either a digital content producer in a newsroom, write for an editorial or electronic news source, or work in any aspect of television or radio production. I recently had the opportunity to interview Congressman Katko about issues that our young generation is facing as well as issues that the United States citizens, as a whole, are also facing.

Odyssey: What actions have you taken in Congress or causes have you championed to improve the lives of college students and recent graduates in your district?

John Katko: Well, there's been several things we've done. Acts and bills passed are two different things. Some of the things I've looked into, for example, is "Why is the student loan rate double the interest rate of people buying homes and where is that money going to?" I've been having my staff investigate that. My biggest concern is that I think that the federal government is making profits off of student loans, guaranteed student loans, and the interest on guaranteed student loans and then funding them to other things, which I think is wrong. I'm trying to figure out exactly how much of that money is going elsewhere and I'm trying to figure out a way to get the student loan rate down from where it was.

Odyssey: Increases in college tuition have been outpacing inflation for a few decades, and now the amount of student loan debt has surpassed the credit card debt held by all Americans. What specifically can Congress do to rein in these costs?

Katko: You're absolutely right about the cost. The amount of student loan debt is over one trillion dollars now. I think that student loan debt and the cost of a college education is reaching a crisis level in this country. One of the things about student loans that makes them unique is that you can't discharge them in bankruptcy. So, no matter how bad things get and how dire your financial circumstance is, you can never get out from underneath these huge student loans. And a compounded problem, they're at an interest rate that's much higher than the effective interest rate in the country. So, I think that one of the things that we can do is try and get the interest rate down for student loans to start with.

And, number two, try and look into the cost and what's driving these costs up so high in college education. One of the things that's happened, though, is that the market is shifting. By that, I mean the [State University of New York] school systems when I was growing up were an option, but people didn't flock to them like they do now. SUNY schools are such a great bargain compared to private sector [schools] that SUNY schools are rising very high in prominence and overall quality because they're getting much more high quality students to come to their schools. I think promoting the SUNY school system is a good way to force private institutions to try and bring their numbers down. Also, we've worked on a Pell Grant bill to try and increase Pell Grants and make them more available to more individuals, including individuals at the high school level so people can start defraying some of the costs of college by getting college credits while they are still in high school. So that's another thing we're trying to do.

Odyssey: Beyond these, which three political issues affecting 18 to 30-year-olds aren’t being talked about enough?

Katko: Well one thing that's not being talked about enough is the student loan debt, no question about it. That is one huge issue. Student loan debt and the interest in student loan debt is one huge issue that's not being talked about enough. But, I think another political issue is the relative disengagement of individuals in that age group from the political process. We have a young congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, who's north of my district, and has trumpeted as being a fresh face in the Republican conference. But, she definitely is. She's great. There should be a lot more Elise Stefaniks and a lot more people involved in the political process at a younger age.

Odyssey: Congress has a notoriously low approval rating among Americans, regardless of the party in control. Why is the branch that’s supposed to represent the people thought of so poorly by them?

Katko: I think that it's a systemic thing that's driven both by poor performances by the politicians and by a reinforcement of the public's perception in the media. One of the strange statistics involved is that people hate Congress but love their own congressman or woman. So, there's something weird about them criticizing their institution but liking their representation in that institution. And that's why we have such a high reelection rate for incumbents in Congress. It's a strange dichotomy of the two.

The bottom line is that we can be doing a better job and we should be doing a better job. When I got into Congress, I've never been involved in politics before for that very reason. I decided that I wanted to try and go to Washington and get something done. And, low and behold, in my first eight months in Congress, I introduced ten bills (four of which have passed the House. The fifth one was subsumed as part of a larger bill, so in effect that passed the House). That performance marked as one of the highest number of bills passed of substance in the House, and (definitely within the freshmen class) probably within the House itself outside of technical rule spills. So, I'm getting the job done so fast, but I got a long way to go.

Odyssey: What’s one specific policy issue on which you’ve backed your party’s position?

Katko: They've been trying to get a highway bill passed. We all want a highway bill passed. That bill is priority number one. I think that it is very very important to get a highway bill passed. We've had 34 short term extensions to the highway bill since 2009. This fall, we're going to try and get a long-term bill passed for the highway funding. That's really important because that allows the states and municipalities to better plan their road projects with the certainty to know that it's going to be funded properly for at least a six-year term.

Odyssey: In your current position, which vote do you most regret making and why?

Katko: I don't regret making any votes because we work very hard to make sure we get them right and if there's something that I'm going to have to break with my party, I do so after doing my homework and consulting with my staff. Some votes, of course, are tougher than others, but I don't regret any votes that I've made.

Odyssey: Since 1965, who was the best president not named Ronald Reagan and why? [The question was asked this way to remove the most likely choice for the Republican congressman.]

Katko: I think Ronald Reagan was the best president. After that, I think there's a relatively long list of individuals for second place. LBJ tried to get us out of Vietnam. Nixon got us out of Vietnam and did so successfully. Ford, I think, was probably one of the most underrated ones because he restored a little bit of confidence to the White House during a critical time in our nation's history. Carter did not engender a lot of faith in his way he handled the economy. He didn't do a good job. And then Reagan came along, of course. Clinton did a pretty good job. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. But I think the one big shining star in that whole group was Reagan because Reagan presided on a lot of major successes in our country. Most importantly, he worked with the other side a lot. He and Tip O'Neill were diametrically posed politically but they worked very closely together to try and get things done in this country.

Odyssey: Which interest group or lobby has the most undue influence on Capitol Hill, and why?

Katko: My wife [laughs]. I wouldn't venture a guess because I don't let them have any undue influence on me. I vote against a lot of things a lot of powerful groups want me to vote for and vice versa. But, as far as I'm concerned, they don't have any undue influence on me. I can't speak for the other congressmen, but they don't have any influence on me.

Odyssey: The gap between the rich and poor continues to get bigger and is on many people’s minds. What statistical indicators do you use to analyze this? What is your solution?

Katko: The statistical indicators are not really subjective, but they're kind of digging beneath the unemployment rate because a lot of people tow the unemployment rate as, "Wow, the economy is coming back." Or, "The unemployment rate is 6%." What you have to look at is the underemployed and the people that have dropped out of the job market. That's the big statistical indicator for me because the number of people working as underemployed or working at jobs that are less than what they're capable of working at or used to work at is huge. They're getting a lot less pay on things in order to try and make ends meet. The other thing that I believe is a big statistic is that we have the highest number of people that are simply not working anymore and at any time since the 1970s when Carter was presiding over a terrible economy. So, that to me is a key indicator that not all is well in this country.

My solution is to try and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, for one thing. We can only do that if we form a tax code to make it so manufacturers can be more competitive with our foreign counterparts. In terms of manufacturing, we are competing with one arm tied behind our back in this country because manufacturers often have to go to war and fight for competition with foreign countries or they have, sometimes, a three to one disadvantage with taxes, which is a huge cost of doing business in the United States. So, if we can restructure tax codes and manufacturers can come back here and flourish in the United States, I think that'd be a big thing that will help with our economy.

Odyssey: What does the word “equality” mean to you and how do we achieve it as a country?

Katko: Equality is forcing the principles of "all men are created equal." Men and women are created all and we should force those principles socially, economically, and in the criminal justice system as a whole. You have to, in this country, treat everybody the same no matter what the race, color, sex, or national origin is. That's a fundamental precept of the Civil Rights Movement. We have to make sure that we continue to do that.

Odyssey: Finally, if you could have a drink with any non-politician dead or alive, who would it be and what would you drink?

Katko: My drink would always be scotch because I love scotch, so that's easy. For a person, I would have to say the Pope.