Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces the Trump Administration Will Begin Paying Back Businesses Impacted by Illegal Tariffs

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that, starting today, the Trump Administration will begin paying back the $13.5 billion that was imposed on businesses due to tariffs. Businesses will be able to submit documentation proving that they were negatively impacted by these tariffs that were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 Before I get started taking questions, I want to shine a spotlight on another issue. Starting today, the Trump Administration will start paying back businesses the money that they illegally took from them under a tariff scheme that the Supreme Court has struck down. They're going to be paying back more than $166 billion they collected in illegal tariffs. I would say this, we've said all along from the beginning, the Trump tariffs were illegal, but they had to continue until the Supreme Court said no, they never should have been in place from the very beginning.

Those tariffs were nothing more than attacks on the American people, the American people who are begging for relief from the cost of inflation, the cost of gasoline going up now, and then they had to deal with the effects of the Trump Administration imposed tariffs that made everything cost higher. So starting today, businesses can begin submitting documentation, reclaim the money they paid, and that's an important first step. But remember, everyday New Yorkers also paid the price. It's not just a business that can show on a ledger that they paid this tariff to this entity. $13.5 billion is the additional cost that has been imposed on New Yorkers alone because of the Trump tariffs, and that's about $1,700 per the average family.

So I'm not going to stop fighting for those families to get relief. Everyday New Yorkers, farmers and families, like I said, buying groceries, going about their lives, are paying more because of an illegal tariff scheme. And so I'm going to continue. And this day when they're talking about relief for the businesses, that is all good, it never should have happened. It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the Supreme Court mandating this. This is not done voluntarily by the Trump Administration, but they still owe New York families $1,700. They deserve their money back, and we're going to continue fighting for that, and we're in court to secure that as well. So I just wanted to put that out there today.