ICYMI Press Call Transcript: New Dem Leaders Discuss White House Meeting and the Coalition’s Legislative Priorities
Today, New Democrat Coalition Chair Suzan DelBene (WA-01) and Vice Chairs Scott Peters (CA-52), Annie Kuster (NH-02), Ami Bera (CA-07), and Sharice Davids (KS-03) held a press call to discuss their meeting with President Biden at the White House and the Coalition’s agenda for the rest of the 117th Congress.
You can read a transcript of the press call below:
Chair Suzan DelBene (WA-01): Thank you everyone for being here today – we appreciate it. I'm Suzan DelBene, and I'm Chair of the New Democrat Coalition. For those of you don't know, the New Democrat Coalition has 98 members, we represent over 40% of the Democratic caucus, and we're the majority makers in Congress. We represent the purple districts across the country that are key to our Democratic majority.
This is also a big year for us. It's our 25th anniversary! Since our founding, we've been focused on getting things done in Congress and that still remains our focus. We believe that the best way to do that is through legislative action that strengthens our economy and ensures that every American has the opportunity to succeed.
That's exactly what we discussed with President Biden and senior administration officials when we were at the White House last week. We told the President that New Dems are committed to passing a bipartisan innovation bill that will strengthen American global leadership and secure supply chains, a reconciliation bill that will tackle climate change and lower costs, and bipartisan bills that are in line with President Biden's Unity Agenda.
Voters have entrusted us with the majority in both the House and the Senate, and the Presidency. And we feel that it's very, very important that, first and foremost, we are focused on enacting long term durable policies through legislative action. New Dems know that good policy is good politics and that folks in our communities want to see governance work for them. That's why for the rest of this Congress we need to focus all of our energy into passing legislation that will positively impact our communities. Now, I want to turn it over to our Vice Chair for Policy Scott Peters to talk about our policy agenda.
Vice Chair for Policy Scott Peters (CA-52): On policy, I can confidently say that the members of our caucus are hard at work to come up with practical and proactive policies that will deliver for the American people. And it's pretty clear what our constituents want us to focus on. They want us to tackle inflation and lower prices – we're seeing that across the country. They want us to be safe and secure in their communities. And they want the United States to be a leader again on the world stage.
So, the Coalition is working with our colleagues in Congress, President Biden, and members of the Administration to respond to these challenges head on. That’s why I want to call out that we created the first of its kind Inflation Working Group in Congress to find policy solutions to ease inflation and help lower costs for Americans. I think we're the only caucus doing that. Our members are actively meeting with experts and economists because we know that rising prices are taking a significant toll on families across the country. New Dems are committed to identifying immediate and long-term fixes to inflation so we can provide relief to our constituents. To that end, one of our top priorities and part of dealing with inflation has to be passing a bipartisan innovation bill that will strengthen the resiliency of our supply chain, alleviate the pressure at our ports, and meet consumer demand. So that bill is even more important in light of what's happening with Russia's attack on Ukraine. In a few weeks, we have seen how Europe's dependence on Russian energy made it vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.
Coming on the heels of a pandemic, depending on critical materials from autocrats – whether it's minerals from Russia or semiconductors from China – puts our national and economic security at risk. So, by quickly passing and enacting a bipartisan innovation bill, we’ll set up America to lead the twenty-first century innovation economy with democratic values, create long-term supply chain stability, and counter the influence of adversarial powers.
We also need to prioritize a reconciliation bill that can reduce costs for families, cut drug prices, and tackle climate change. We're willing to work with anyone to get yes on this bill, and obviously the House has already put in a lot of work on that. And we need to move bipartisan legislation that responds to the kitchen table issues facing all Americans. Legislative action is the best path forward, and that's what we're here for. But where we can't make progress legislatively, we will support the Administration taking executive actions that reflect the priorities of Americans and that are made in consultation with Congress. And I'll turn it over to my colleague Vice Chair Ami Bera.
Vice Chair Ami Bera (CA-07): As Vice Chair for Outreach for the New Dems, my responsibility is building both coalitions with external stakeholders and think tanks and internally help building those coalitions. I think what we saw in the President’s State of the Union was a real roadmap for how we can move forward in a way that brings together bipartisan coalitions and also resonates with the priorities of the American people.
He [President Biden] called for lowering costs for consumers, increasing public safety, investing our global security, securing supply chains, responsibly reducing the deficit over the long term. That's what Americans want. And that's what we believe in New Dems we can do and help deliver through Congress.
I also have the privilege of serving as a chairman and senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee as Chair of the Subcommittee on Asian and the Pacific. As Vice Chair for Policy Peters laid out, getting a strong bipartisan innovation bill across the finish line is not only good for our strategic competition with other countries, but it's also an investment in America and an investment in having a 21st century workforce that will continue to lead the way. New Dems are fighting for a strong bipartisan innovation bill that's going to promote American leadership on the global stage and help us counter autocrats and tyrants as we see right in front of us in Europe. So with that, let me now turn it over to the Vice Chair Annie Kuster to talk about the importance of communicating the progress that we've made so far.
Vice Chair Annie Kuster (NH-02): I’m proud to serve as the New Dems Vice Chair for Communications. I like to call the New Dems the “can-do caucus.” Thanks to President Biden and Democrats in Congress, we have finally turned the page on the pandemic. We're fixing roads and bridges and broadband. And we're working, as Scott mentioned, to bring down costs for hardworking American families.
We can't forget how far we've come. We need to look no further back than January of 2021 when President Biden came into office and the state of affairs at that point. You know, I keep going back as a member of the [Energy and Commerce Committee] Health Subcommittee, it's shocking to think that President Trump refused to acknowledge that he had taken the vaccine in January of 2021. We didn't find out until June. I think we would have had a very different outcome on this pandemic. But luckily, President Biden came in, and we got shots and arms. Thanks to the American rescue plan, schools opened up, families can now travel and visit with each other, and we have lifesaving vaccines that made it all possible.
The bipartisan infrastructure law has allowed us to make huge strides all across the country. Again, as I mentioned, not just roads and bridges and highways, ports and airports – but closing that all important digital divide by building up our digital infrastructure in rural districts like mine. I'd like to say that the pandemic really lifted the curtain on the underlying inequalities and insecurities in our economy. People struggle with family, childcare, with getting back to work, with broadband. So this law reversed decades of underinvestment in our infrastructure and along with the [America] COMPETES Act will make our supply chains much more resilient.
President Biden's first year in office also saw the fastest economic growth and the biggest deficit reduction in history. We need to celebrate that and communicate to the American people the strength in our economy. Yes, there are people that are still struggling from COVID. We face some challenges, of course and with the war in Ukraine. But that's what New Dems are focused on addressing in the remainder of this Congress with our policy agenda. And now I look forward to turning it over to our Vice Chair Sharice Davids.
Vice Chair Sharice Davids (KS-03): Hello everybody, Sharice Davids, Vice Chair for Member Services with the New Dems. To sum up what's already been said, we certainly had a productive meeting at the White House, and I think that many of our goals we shared and our priorities were heard by the President. Those priorities include passing durable lasting achievements that will improve the lives of our constituents – not just over the next few years, but well into the future.
You know, I often talk about creating an economy and a planet where our grandchildren can thrive and our great grandchildren can thrive. And to do that we have to remain laser focused on issues that matter and resonate with the folks in our districts, everyday folks. When we're working on these big topics, like reducing inflation or tackling climate change or creating safe communities, it certainly takes a steady hand and durable policy to get that done. We need to pass a bipartisan bill that's going to strengthen the global supply chains and reduce inflation so that we can continue to compete against countries like China. We’re outpacing China for the first time in decades right now and that’s thanks to our incredible economic recovery, which was spurred by the American Rescue Plan and our bipartisan infrastructure law. It’s time to make sure that we're turning all of that into long term advantage by investing in our manufacturing and our workforce right here at home. We need to continue to push and make sure that we don't slow down our efforts to lower costs on everyday things like prescription drugs. That was something that we definitely hit on [in the meeting with President Biden]. We need to make that last for our families, for seniors, and bringing more folks on board so that we can help save taxpayers money. We need to address issues that folks are reaching out to us about like gas prices, feeling safe in their communities, paying for their health insurance premiums. We can definitely do that in a way that creates that better, safer, healthier future for future generations.
For folks, right now it's been hard. We have had years of uncertainty, and right now folks are looking for a steady hand. They’re tired of chaos and mixed signals. I'm just really grateful to the folks that I have the chance to work with, particularly my New Dem colleagues, for the work that I get to participate in with them on this. I'm looking forward to continuing to make progress on that.
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