ICYMI: Chair DelBene Joins Fox News Sunday to Discuss New Dem Meeting with President Biden and the Coalition’s Legislative Priorities
New Dem Chair DelBene: “We want to tackle the issues that families are facing today, and that's why it's important that we move forward on competition legislation, address supply chains, and not just look at things for the short term, but really take a long-term view”
Yesterday, New Democrat Coalition Chair Suzan DelBene (WA-01) appeared on Fox News Sunday to speak with Martha MacCallum about the New Democrat Coalition’s meeting with President Biden at the White House and the Coalition’s agenda for the rest of the 117th Congress.
You can watch the full video here and read a transcript of the interview below:
Martha MacCallum: Good to have you with us this morning. I do want to ask you about the broader Democrat agenda, which I know you have been working on, but just first, your reaction to these numbers – 18,000 [people], Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says, will be crossing when Title 42 is lifted and your colleague in the Senate, Mark Kelly, fellow Democrat, says “This is the wrong decision. It is unacceptable to end Title 42 without a plan and coordination in place to ensure a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border.”
Do you agree with him, and do you think this is a move that could hurt your party?
Chair Suzan DelBene (WA-01): Well, I think this was a policy that was put in place to address the public health crisis, and it needs to be driven by the science. The CDC is making the decision on this. I support that decision. It won't go in place until May 23rd, and we have to make sure that we are not using a public health policy to undermine our immigration laws. Secretary Mayorkas is also working on this and has articulated his plan, and we need to engage with him on that plan.
MacCallum: But Congress is still pushing for more Covid-19 funding and in some places there are mask restrictions going back into place, so how is this the right time to remove Title 42?
DelBene: Well, I think when we look at funding for Covid-19 and the ongoing Covid response, we are shifting in terms of how we look at managing Covid-19 going forward. We are always going to need to have resources to make sure that we have available therapeutics, vaccines. That is what those resources are going towards, and I think we have to look at how we are going to be resilient going forward and have a strong public health response. That's really what the ad administration is looking for resources for, and that's part of what I think we need to do is Members of Congress. We need to make sure that we have policy in place so we are well prepared.
MacCullum: So just to be clear before we move on, are you in favor of lifting Title 42 if the CDC recommends?
DelBene: I think it needs to be driven by the science, and I support the CDC decision.
MacCallum: You chair the New Democrat Coalition, which we mentioned in the intro – 98 moderate Democrats. You had a chance to meet with the President and talk to him about bipartisan measures, and we just laid out his approval numbers, on the weak side, about 40%, and even weaker for the economy. So, what did you press him to focus on to try to turn that around?
DelBene: I think we had a great meeting with the President, and we talked about the work that we have ahead. A lot of important work that's been done with the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure bill, we are seeing that impact on our communities already, but there's more that we need to do.
We need to pass a bipartisan innovation bill to address supply chains and competition. The House and the Senate going into conference on that. We continue to want that to move as urgently as possible. We talked about budget reconciliation and the ongoing work there because we have important issues we want to address in that legislation and want to work with the President.
And we have a lot of bipartisan bills that we want to see move. We’re legislators, we want to legislate. We want to continue to work for the American people. Good policy is good politics. When we are showing that governance can work and really impacting the lives of the American people, that has a big impact in terms of what people are thinking when they go to the voting booth.
MacCallum: So you have a large coalition, as I said, 98 members, and the Progressive Caucus also has a similarly large number that are trying to persuade the president the other way, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman from New York, said “If we decide to just kind of sit back and rest for the rest of the year and not change people's lives, yeah, I think we are in trouble” with regards to the midterm elections. She is pushing for more executive orders from the President to get things done, to please people before that election, and you have been pushing more for legislation, for that side of the process, so that it's longer-lasting. Who's winning the President's heart and mind on this?
DelBene: Well, the President is a legislator and I think it's important that we legislate if we want long-term, durable policy. First of all, the executive actions are in place for a period of time and another President can change those. It's Congress' job to put our laws in place and there are many things that Congress can do that you can't do through executive action. We have an important opportunity. We have a lot of time left in this Congress to legislate, and we are going to do everything we can to pass policies that really impact and positively impact the lives of our American families.
MacCallum: Do you think the President sort of needs to decide which lane he's going to be in? When he goes on out and campaigns for candidates, whether he needs to say look, America is in this more middle-of-the-road place, as you said in our lead-in, and we need to perhaps leave behind things like this green energy push or canceling student debt. Were you persuasive with him on things like that, do you sense that he is leaning in your direction
DelBene: I think the President was very clear in the State of the Union, I think very clear in the budget that our views in the New Dem Coalition and the President and Administration are very closely aligned. We want to tackle the issues that families are facing today, and that's why it's important that we move forward on competition legislation, address supply chains and not just look at things for the short term, but really take a long-term view, because again, long term, durable policy is what will put us in a better position not only today, but decades ahead.
MacCallum: All right, we will see through his actions where he puts the focus. Congressman, thank you for being with us this morning, it's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for being here.
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