Latest / Balance of Power / House Stopgap Faces Senate Changes
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the
- 0:10Speaker 1: Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kettas live weekdays at noon
- 0:14Speaker 1: and five pm. He's den on Apple Cocklay and Android
- 0:17Speaker 1: Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever
- 0:20Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
- 0:25Speaker 2: President Trump, of course, is not here in Washington at
- 0:27Speaker 2: the moment. He's actually on route now to Georgia, while
- 0:30Speaker 2: he will be speaking at a high school later this afternoon,
- 0:33Speaker 2: having attended earlier the dignified transfer of three fallen service
- 0:36Speaker 2: members who died this past weekend in the Middle East
- 0:40Speaker 2: amid the ongoing conflict with Iran at Dover Air Force
- 0:42Speaker 2: Base in Delaware. Even as he was making his way there,
- 0:47Speaker 2: of course, the President has been weighing in on the
- 0:49Speaker 2: escalating nature of this conflict with Iran on true social
- 0:52Speaker 2: threatening to essentially go tit for tat if Iran were
- 0:54Speaker 2: to try to attack ships in the Strait of Horror News.
- 0:56Speaker 2: He says the US will go after a bridge or
- 0:59Speaker 2: a power plant, bomb or destroy them, essentially saying that
- 1:04Speaker 2: this war will go further, and the President suggested that
- 1:07Speaker 2: the American people may not be against the war itself,
- 1:10Speaker 2: even if they don't like the prices that they are
- 1:12Speaker 2: seeing at the pump.
- 1:14Speaker 3: Americans aren't against the wark. The apoll just came out.
- 1:19Speaker 3: Americans don't one had gasolene precres, but they're not against
- 1:22Speaker 3: the war. That just came out loud and clear in
- 1:24Speaker 3: a poll. Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
- 1:30Speaker 4: Let's get to Tyler Kendall, Bloomberg's Washington correspondent, ahead of
- 1:33Speaker 4: our conversation with Congressman Chip Roy. She's on the north
- 1:36Speaker 4: lawn of the White House right now as the President
- 1:38Speaker 4: makes his way from Dover to Georgia. And Tyler, you heard,
- 1:42Speaker 4: of course, Kaylee reference the president's post on truth social
- 1:46Speaker 4: Will he be escalating as they say, to de escalate
- 1:48Speaker 4: once again?
- 1:50Speaker 5: Well, Joe, at this point, despite efforts by mediators to
- 1:52Speaker 5: try to avoid further escalation, the tensions appear pointed there.
- 1:56Speaker 5: As the US expands the scopes of its target You
- 2:00Speaker 5: had this post that you guys were talking about from
- 2:02Speaker 5: President Trump saying that the US will go after either
- 2:05Speaker 5: a bridge or a power plant in exchange for every
- 2:08Speaker 5: commercial vessel that Iran targets in the strait of her
- 2:12Speaker 5: moves as we've gotten very little indication that Iran is
- 2:15Speaker 5: willing to let up its leverage when it comes to
- 2:17Speaker 5: disrupting global oil flows. In fact, President Trump, as you
- 2:20Speaker 5: well know, yesterday, said that Iran desperately wants to make
- 2:24Speaker 5: a deal, but that the US isn't even interested in
- 2:26Speaker 5: coming to the negotiating table unless Iran does in what
- 2:29Speaker 5: he called a meaningful way. But we heard from one
- 2:32Speaker 5: of Iran's top negotiators earlier today seeming to downplay reports
- 2:36Speaker 5: that there was this meeting yesterday in Pakistan, instead saying
- 2:39Speaker 5: that there are not negotiations, just messages being exchanged between
- 2:43Speaker 5: the two sides, and Joe and Keiley, as you well know,
- 2:46Speaker 5: the disruptions extend beyond the strait of her moves, which
- 2:49Speaker 5: is just adding to the urgency of the moment. We
- 2:52Speaker 5: got new satellite imagery overnight appearing to show that at
- 2:55Speaker 5: least two tankers loaded up with Saudi crude made U
- 2:59Speaker 5: turn as they headed toward the Red Sea, seeming to
- 3:03Speaker 5: indicate that that threat from the Iranian backed proxy group
- 3:06Speaker 5: the who Theis to institute a maritime blockade is already.
- 3:10Speaker 6: Working all right.
- 3:12Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall Live on the north lawn of the
- 3:15Speaker 2: White House. Thank you so much, and for more on this,
- 3:17Speaker 2: we go now to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue
- 3:19Speaker 2: live on Capitol Hill, where we're joined by Republican Congressman
- 3:22Speaker 2: Chip Roy of Texas, who is joining us live now
- 3:25Speaker 2: on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Congressman, welcome back. It's great
- 3:29Speaker 2: to have you on balance of power as we consider
- 3:32Speaker 2: this ongoing war, and we want to get to other
- 3:33Speaker 2: matters before you and your colleagues in the House today
- 3:36Speaker 2: as well. But given the escalating nature we are seeing
- 3:39Speaker 2: the Defense Secretary having testified yesterday that it's already cost
- 3:42Speaker 2: thirty seven point five billion dollars, with the Pentagon obviously
- 3:46Speaker 2: asking for billions more than that in this supplemental request
- 3:49Speaker 2: that's going through the reconciliation process. For how long can
- 3:54Speaker 2: you can Congress continue to authorize funding without offsets for
- 3:58Speaker 2: this war to continue to be prosecuted.
- 4:01Speaker 7: Well, great to be on Obviously, we're trying to move
- 4:03Speaker 7: forward this week to get a reconciliation package done. Frankly,
- 4:06Speaker 7: because we have no real partners with our Democrat colleagues
- 4:09Speaker 7: to figure out how to move things through, we had
- 4:10Speaker 7: to do it to fund ice and border patrol. Now
- 4:12Speaker 7: we're trying to figure out how to make sure our
- 4:14Speaker 7: military has the resources it needs, as well as ensuring
- 4:17Speaker 7: we can get the Save Act through the Senate so
- 4:19Speaker 7: we can protect our elections. But to your point, I
- 4:21Speaker 7: am a fiscal hawk. I am concerned about spending, and
- 4:24Speaker 7: I am concerned the extent to which this is not
- 4:26Speaker 7: being paid for, and that we need to have a
- 4:28Speaker 7: full throated debate here in the halls of Congress about
- 4:30Speaker 7: the war. I happen to be one who supports is real,
- 4:33Speaker 7: supports our national security in prison, wants to check around
- 4:37Speaker 7: and make sure that we're stopping a rand from gaining
- 4:39Speaker 7: whether it's conventional or nuclear capabilities. But we need to
- 4:43Speaker 7: make sure we have a full throated in support by
- 4:44Speaker 7: Congress or we shouldn't be doing it. And we haven't
- 4:47Speaker 7: had that debate fully, and I think that's a part
- 4:49Speaker 7: of the discussions today on the NDAA, the National Defense
- 4:52Speaker 7: Authorization Act, as well as the reconciliation package. We're going
- 4:56Speaker 7: to want to move forward this week to get that
- 4:58Speaker 7: budget process step forward. I think that will pass, but
- 5:01Speaker 7: we're going to have to continue to debate whether we're
- 5:03Speaker 7: going to get a full Save Act and whether we're
- 5:05Speaker 7: going to have anything with it. I'm demanding, which is
- 5:07Speaker 7: in any future negotiations on a fourth reconciliation package, that
- 5:11Speaker 7: we pay for the ninety billion dollars of this that
- 5:14Speaker 7: is unpaid for. We cannot keep wrecking up debt and
- 5:16Speaker 7: we need to have a conversation about the war.
- 5:19Speaker 8: Well, we hear you, Congressman.
- 5:21Speaker 4: I'm just curious if you could act as our reporter
- 5:22Speaker 4: here the extent that you're hearing a vote count, will
- 5:26Speaker 4: will this budget resolution pass?
- 5:29Speaker 8: Does the speaker have the votes?
- 5:30Speaker 4: We'll ask you about the cr as well, because obviously
- 5:33Speaker 4: you've got sixty seven billion dollars I believe here for
- 5:36Speaker 4: the Pentagon and what many say is badly needed on
- 5:40Speaker 4: the other side of the river.
- 5:42Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure, I do believe the Pentagon needs additional funding,
- 5:45Speaker 7: and I'm happy to try to provide that and support it.
- 5:48Speaker 7: But I do want to make sure we're paying for it.
- 5:50Speaker 4: Right.
- 5:50Speaker 7: There ain't no free lunch, and too many people in
- 5:51Speaker 7: this town think there is. I do think that the
- 5:54Speaker 7: first step of the reconciliation process, the budget will move
- 5:58Speaker 7: forward this week. That's my bet. We'll see we still
- 6:01Speaker 7: have some votes that we're working on on the floor.
- 6:03Speaker 7: We need to move forward to try to get say
- 6:05Speaker 7: back done, and we do need to try to support
- 6:07Speaker 7: our military while we're engaged. But I think the NDAA
- 6:11Speaker 7: might be in trouble, and I think that's in part
- 6:13Speaker 7: because we haven't had the full throated conversation on the
- 6:16Speaker 7: war that we need to have and have a unified
- 6:18Speaker 7: approach to how we're going to make sure our military
- 6:20Speaker 7: as strong as it needs to be, not just to
- 6:22Speaker 7: deal with a RAM, but to deal with China, a
- 6:25Speaker 7: real threat on the horizon. We need to make sure
- 6:27Speaker 7: that we have a transformation of our military for generations
- 6:30Speaker 7: to come so that we are still the global superpower
- 6:33Speaker 7: and we can defend our country and our interests right now.
- 6:35Speaker 7: We got to get through this step this week. But
- 6:38Speaker 7: my message has got to be clear. We got to
- 6:40Speaker 7: pay for this stuff, and we need to have Congress
- 6:42Speaker 7: in the conversation on war. That's what the Constitution contemplates,
- 6:46Speaker 7: that's what it says, and we need to be a
- 6:48Speaker 7: part of that.
- 6:50Speaker 2: Well, if there's no guarantee, Congressman, that there will be
- 6:52Speaker 2: a fourth reconciliation package that may include payforce for this one,
- 6:56Speaker 2: why vote for it? Without the payfors now today.
- 7:00Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm not a fan, as you know, of voting
- 7:02Speaker 7: for anything that's unpaid for. Right now, I am being
- 7:06Speaker 7: a team player to move something through this week so
- 7:08Speaker 7: that we can try to get the Save America Act
- 7:11Speaker 7: passed through a recal strength Senate and against Democrats who
- 7:14Speaker 7: refuse to work with us. But I am being very
- 7:16Speaker 7: clear that we've got to pay for it in our
- 7:19Speaker 7: future conversations, and by the way, we have multiple steps
- 7:22Speaker 7: to go on this one. I need to know that
- 7:24Speaker 7: the Save America Act is real. I need to know
- 7:27Speaker 7: that we have a real plan on how we're dealing
- 7:28Speaker 7: with the war. I need to know that we're going
- 7:30Speaker 7: to be serious about paying for this ninety billion dollars
- 7:33Speaker 7: in the next phase. You're right, we may not get
- 7:35Speaker 7: a fourth reconciliation, but I'm willing to roll the dice
- 7:38Speaker 7: this week as of right now, based on the information
- 7:41Speaker 7: in front of me, to try to give us a
- 7:43Speaker 7: shot to secure American elections and get the Save America
- 7:46Speaker 7: passed and try to backfill our munitions that are military needs,
- 7:50Speaker 7: because our men and women in uniform deserve to have
- 7:52Speaker 7: the tools to carry out their job when they're being
- 7:55Speaker 7: asked to do it, but Congress is going to have
- 7:57Speaker 7: to work with the President to make sure we've got
- 7:59Speaker 7: a real plan for our military going forward. This is
- 8:02Speaker 7: all complicated stuff. The Constitution requires separation powers. Congress has
- 8:06Speaker 7: to have a voice, but our men and women in
- 8:08Speaker 7: uniform deserve the tools to do their job. So I'm
- 8:11Speaker 7: trying to balance those interests and send the messages that
- 8:13Speaker 7: need to be send both to the White House and
- 8:15Speaker 7: to my Democratic colleagues that we need to have adults
- 8:17Speaker 7: sit down and get this done the right way.
- 8:20Speaker 4: Well, I'm sure that you're sending that message to the
- 8:22Speaker 4: Speaker and Congressman. I appreciate the fact that we can
- 8:25Speaker 4: acknowledge that this is complex stuff. There are a lot
- 8:27Speaker 4: of nuances here that are difficult to put on a
- 8:29Speaker 4: bumper sticker. I'd like to bring our audience to your
- 8:33Speaker 4: Stock Trading Act, your Restore Trust in Congress Act.
- 8:37Speaker 8: This is a big issue.
- 8:38Speaker 4: The House plans to vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act,
- 8:41Speaker 4: which does not require divestment yours does can both pass well.
- 8:47Speaker 7: Thanks for the question. First of all, thanks for you
- 8:49Speaker 7: all getting the facts right. I do a lot of
- 8:50Speaker 7: interviews where people get it all confused. You laid it
- 8:52Speaker 7: out beautifully. That's exactly right. Six years ago I worked
- 8:55Speaker 7: on a bipartisan basis to try to move forward and
- 8:58Speaker 7: say we should ban all congressional stock trading, including divestiture.
- 9:01Speaker 7: Like you said, we worked out a deal to get
- 9:04Speaker 7: Republicans united, or at least close to united, behind a
- 9:07Speaker 7: deal that's going to say you can't buy equities, but
- 9:09Speaker 7: you can maintain the equities you come in with, but
- 9:12Speaker 7: you'll have to have the kind of transparency that we
- 9:15Speaker 7: require of the executives, the CEOs, and so forth of
- 9:19Speaker 7: publicly traded companies under SEC rules. So I think that's
- 9:22Speaker 7: a giant step forward, if you think about it. To
- 9:25Speaker 7: say that members of Congress cannot purchase any equities, that
- 9:28Speaker 7: would be a big deal. So I'll support it. However,
- 9:32Speaker 7: I always have it. However, my problem is they added
- 9:35Speaker 7: the Save Act, of which I'm the author and I
- 9:37Speaker 7: support loudly, to the Stock Trading Bill. Now, the purpose
- 9:42Speaker 7: of that is to make it partisan. The purpose of
- 9:44Speaker 7: that is to score political points. I don't like that
- 9:47Speaker 7: way of doing things. Like, look, i'm happy we're an election.
- 9:50Speaker 7: You got to go win the election. But I want
- 9:52Speaker 7: to have a straight up or down vote on stock trading.
- 9:54Speaker 7: I want everybody to have to go in front of
- 9:55Speaker 7: the American people on a one subject bill and tell
- 9:58Speaker 7: them what they think is right. Do you want to
- 10:00Speaker 7: amend it? Offer an amendment? If they don't, then vote
- 10:03Speaker 7: up or down. That's what I think we ought to do.
- 10:05Speaker 7: But at least we're getting a vote today for the
- 10:08Speaker 7: first time to which I'm aware on this issue, and
- 10:11Speaker 7: I've been trying for six years to get it. So
- 10:13Speaker 7: I'll take this as a step forward. Hopefully we will
- 10:16Speaker 7: see it pass, but then we're going to need to
- 10:18Speaker 7: get a straight up or down vote on it pretty
- 10:20Speaker 7: soon if I can have anything to do with it.
- 10:23Speaker 2: Okay, So one step forward? What another step forward? For
- 10:27Speaker 2: this to extend beyond the legislative branch? Should this reach
- 10:30Speaker 2: the White House?
- 10:30Speaker 5: Too?
- 10:30Speaker 2: Why should the President or those working on his behalf
- 10:33Speaker 2: be able to trade stocks?
- 10:35Speaker 7: Yeah? I agree. It should apply to the entirety of
- 10:37Speaker 7: the federal government across all branches. Separation of powers also
- 10:40Speaker 7: means that we should all kind of treat ourselves the
- 10:41Speaker 7: same way in terms of both transparency and the rules
- 10:44Speaker 7: by which we operate. Is so it'll try. It should
- 10:46Speaker 7: apply to the President on down and the executive branch,
- 10:49Speaker 7: everybody in the legislative branch, and all judges, including the
- 10:51Speaker 7: Supreme Court. This bill obviously is targeted to Congress again,
- 10:55Speaker 7: baby steps in the sausage making legislative process. If we
- 10:58Speaker 7: get our house in order in Congress, then I think
- 11:00Speaker 7: we can then point the finger at the courts and
- 11:03Speaker 7: the executive branch and make them adhere to the same rules.
- 11:05Speaker 7: That would be my goal in my preference, and I'm
- 11:07Speaker 7: not going to stop fighting for it. Today is a
- 11:10Speaker 7: giant step forward again. I think Congress is poised today
- 11:13Speaker 7: to state that members of Congress should not be buying equities.
- 11:17Speaker 7: That's a very powerful statement to say that. And by
- 11:20Speaker 7: the way, that's not insider trading. If you have insider trading,
- 11:23Speaker 7: you can go get convicted of that. Right now. It's
- 11:25Speaker 7: about trust. It's about believing that your members of Congress
- 11:29Speaker 7: are actually making decisions in their committees and on the
- 11:31Speaker 7: floor that are in their interest, the people's interests, not
- 11:34Speaker 7: the interests of their financial interests. Right So, if you're
- 11:37Speaker 7: voting on healthcare, you're doing it for the people. You're
- 11:40Speaker 7: not doing it because you own stock in an insurance
- 11:42Speaker 7: company or a pharma company. Right, if you're voting on defense,
- 11:45Speaker 7: you're not doing it because you own Palanteer or Lockheed.
- 11:48Speaker 7: You're doing it for the people. That's what I think
- 11:50Speaker 7: is important.
- 11:52Speaker 4: It's wild for people who are not in Washington circles
- 11:54Speaker 4: to hear this conversation Congressman, and why it took so
- 11:58Speaker 4: long of.
- 12:00Speaker 8: For this to be addressed.
- 12:01Speaker 4: I don't know if this passes, if that'll be the
- 12:03Speaker 4: end of the Nance ETF. Maybe that's a separate issue,
- 12:07Speaker 4: but I do wonder from your view, why it's taken
- 12:12Speaker 4: so long.
- 12:13Speaker 8: Are there members you talk to in the cloak room.
- 12:15Speaker 4: Who say, hey, Chip, I'm sorry I'm trading Intel this weekend.
- 12:18Speaker 8: You don't have my vote. Who wants to keep trading?
- 12:23Speaker 7: Well, you know, look, I don't want to talk about
- 12:25Speaker 7: private conversation I have with people, but i'll tell you
- 12:27Speaker 7: broadly there are two forces at play. One you've got
- 12:30Speaker 7: people who they just want to trade because they want
- 12:32Speaker 7: more money. I'm just going to be blunt. And number two,
- 12:36Speaker 7: you've got people who believe they've got the right to
- 12:38Speaker 7: do it right that as a member, you know, as
- 12:40Speaker 7: a you know, citizen, they have the right to trade
- 12:43Speaker 7: stocks that we can't limit that. I disagree. It is
- 12:46Speaker 7: a privilege to serve in the United States Congress. We
- 12:49Speaker 7: limit salary, we you know, we limit what you can
- 12:52Speaker 7: do in terms of being employed. At the same time,
- 12:55Speaker 7: and there's a lot of conflicts there. People own car dealerships,
- 12:57Speaker 7: people own farms. I get it, but we need to
- 13:00Speaker 7: start cabining that in so that people can trust Congress
- 13:02Speaker 7: again to be here for their interests. By the way,
- 13:05Speaker 7: especially when you don't have term limits, especially when people
- 13:08Speaker 7: are here endlessly, you should come here for two or
- 13:10Speaker 7: three or four terms, and if that's no longer good
- 13:13Speaker 7: for you personally, then go home. But it's a sacrifice.
- 13:16Speaker 7: It's supposed to be a sacrifice. So that's my message
- 13:19Speaker 7: to my colleagues. You know, suck it up, gus. You
- 13:21Speaker 7: get to be a member of the United States Congress.
- 13:23Speaker 7: Let's go do this so that people can believe in
- 13:25Speaker 7: us again.
- 13:28Speaker 2: Well, and you are a member of the United States Congress.
- 13:30Speaker 2: You are a member of the Budget Committee. So just finally,
- 13:32Speaker 2: on reconciliation four point zero, which I know you want
- 13:35Speaker 2: to include pay force for what is going through the
- 13:37Speaker 2: process now, But what else would be on your wish
- 13:39Speaker 2: list for an unprecedented fourth budget reconciliation package in one Congress.
- 13:44Speaker 7: Yeah. Look, if we're able to get to a fourth
- 13:46Speaker 7: reconciliation package, whether it's before election day or on a
- 13:48Speaker 7: lane duck or next year, I think we need to
- 13:51Speaker 7: make sure our military is transformed to beat China and
- 13:54Speaker 7: to make sure we're the global superpower. I think we
- 13:57Speaker 7: need to restore healthcare freedom for the American people, with
- 14:00Speaker 7: fully empowered health savings accounts that allow us to have
- 14:03Speaker 7: a doctor patient relationship restored, so you're not dependent on
- 14:06Speaker 7: insurance companies and bureaucrats and government bureaucrats telling you what
- 14:08Speaker 7: to do. Thirdly, I think we need to have actual
- 14:11Speaker 7: deficit reduction, not made up nonsense, not ten year spending,
- 14:15Speaker 7: not stuff you hope to get. Oh trust me, we'll
- 14:17Speaker 7: get the fraud stuff coming in. I want straight up
- 14:20Speaker 7: mathematical deficit reduction, a strong defense, healthcare freedom. We can
- 14:26Speaker 7: do some other things in there, but those are my
- 14:27Speaker 7: big three, and it's got to be actual deficit reduction.
- 14:31Speaker 7: Forty trillion dollars in debt. We are spending more on
- 14:33Speaker 7: interest every year than we do defending our country. Our
- 14:36Speaker 7: kids and grand kids depend on us getting this done. Right, reconciliation,
- 14:40Speaker 7: we're having to use it for things like border patrol
- 14:43Speaker 7: ice and now trying to deal with the Save Act.
- 14:45Speaker 7: I get it, it's a weird political climate and we
- 14:48Speaker 7: got to go win. But we need to do our
- 14:50Speaker 7: job reduce deficits, and that's really at the end of
- 14:52Speaker 7: the day, what reconciliation is for is to deal with debt,
- 14:54Speaker 7: deficits and spending. So making sure we're reducing spending. So
- 14:59Speaker 7: that's my goal.
- 15:01Speaker 8: I just sense freedom.
- 15:02Speaker 4: I feel freedom when you're talking, Congressman in your last
- 15:05Speaker 4: months in Congress, and I hope that we can stay
- 15:07Speaker 4: in touch for the rest of this one. Thank you
- 15:09Speaker 4: for being with us for an honest conversation today about
- 15:13Speaker 4: a wild to day on Capitol Hill.
- 15:14Speaker 8: Great to see you as well. Stay with us on
- 15:16Speaker 8: Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
- 15:22Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
- 15:26Speaker 1: us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Apple,
- 15:29Speaker 1: Cockway and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You
- 15:32Speaker 1: can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship
- 15:36Speaker 1: New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
- 15:41Speaker 4: I'm Joe Matthew in Washington alongside Kaylee lines. We have
- 15:44Speaker 4: news on clarity that might sound strange, but that is
- 15:48Speaker 4: the name of the crypto bill that we have seen
- 15:51Speaker 4: debate up and down for months should I say years?
- 15:56Speaker 8: Kaylee, and we actually have the text.
- 15:58Speaker 4: We're about to walk out with none other than Patrick
- 16:01Speaker 4: McHenry because John Thune says he's planning a vote for
- 16:04Speaker 4: next week. The updated bill text. This is the important part,
- 16:07Speaker 4: and this is what has been shaken loose. Here would
- 16:10Speaker 4: prevent federal officials and their spouses from issuing digital assets.
- 16:13Speaker 4: This is the ethics language democrats have been asking for
- 16:17Speaker 4: with their eyes on the Trump family.
- 16:19Speaker 8: Will it be enough?
- 16:21Speaker 4: Patrick McHenry, the former Republican congressman, used to chair the
- 16:24Speaker 4: House Financial Services Committee, which would be managing this. He
- 16:27Speaker 4: also held the gavel for some time, as you remember,
- 16:30Speaker 4: Speaker pro tem. He's all ours now and it's great
- 16:32Speaker 4: to see you, mister chairman. Welcome back. I don't know
- 16:35Speaker 4: if you've had a chance to crank through the text.
- 16:37Speaker 4: I know that you're a supporter of this bill and
- 16:39Speaker 4: the need for a framework.
- 16:42Speaker 8: Will this pass.
- 16:45Speaker 6: Eventually? Yes, it's question of timing.
- 16:47Speaker 9: It's sort of when not if, though debate right now
- 16:51Speaker 9: in Capitol Hill is a lot of it. If the
- 16:55Speaker 9: Democratic Party is particularly the pro crypto Democratic senators that
- 16:59Speaker 9: are part of the working on the bill, have raised
- 17:03Speaker 9: real concern about so called ethics language, and that pertains
- 17:09Speaker 9: directly to the President and his family's financial holdings of
- 17:13Speaker 9: crypto assets. What they fail to realize, and the debate
- 17:17Speaker 9: right now on Capitol Hill fails to realize, is that
- 17:19Speaker 9: we don't have any federal law dictating what is a
- 17:22Speaker 9: digital asset, what is a means of exchange, and the
- 17:25Speaker 9: legal parameters around those things.
- 17:26Speaker 6: So there is currently no law on this.
- 17:30Speaker 9: The best ethics language we have is actually passing the
- 17:32Speaker 9: Clarity Act, so you have a clear definition, clear rules
- 17:35Speaker 9: of the road, and consumer protections that come from that,
- 17:38Speaker 9: as well as the ability to deploy capital here and
- 17:41Speaker 9: have innovation. So the big thing here is to get
- 17:44Speaker 9: the bill done. It's a question of whether or not
- 17:46Speaker 9: the current politics will permit that to happen, or we
- 17:49Speaker 9: have to wait longer for the Senate to come to
- 17:52Speaker 9: terms with this.
- 17:54Speaker 2: Your point is well taken, mister Chairman, that you actually
- 17:57Speaker 2: need the market structure portion of this to be able
- 17:59Speaker 2: to to find what it is that you want to
- 18:01Speaker 2: restrict the president's family from doing. But on the ethics provision,
- 18:04Speaker 2: because it is obviously part of this six hundred and
- 18:07Speaker 2: sixteen page bill, I think it is it would stop
- 18:11Speaker 2: any elected official, president included, and their spouses from issuing
- 18:14Speaker 2: a digital asset. It says nothing of other members of
- 18:16Speaker 2: the family, like say children of a president. It would
- 18:20Speaker 2: be enforced as well by the Attorney General, by the
- 18:23Speaker 2: Department of Justice, and the whole thing sunsets on inauguration
- 18:28Speaker 2: Day in twenty nine. Does that really have teeth in
- 18:32Speaker 2: your mind?
- 18:34Speaker 9: Well, it does, because ethics rules are still ethics rules
- 18:39Speaker 9: when you outsource those to another. Who do We outsource
- 18:42Speaker 9: our federal government too, elections and the people. But in
- 18:48Speaker 9: order to hold federal election federal officials accountable, you have
- 18:52Speaker 9: to have rules within that regime. What Democratic centers want
- 18:56Speaker 9: to do is hand this over to democratic state attorney generals,
- 19:00Speaker 9: to states attorneys general to sue the president enforced this law.
- 19:06Speaker 6: That is a recipe for disaster.
- 19:08Speaker 9: And I think their own party should recognize what Republican
- 19:11Speaker 9: states attorneys general would have done to a President Biden
- 19:15Speaker 9: under those circumstances. This is a recipe for complete chaos.
- 19:19Speaker 9: The question now is whether or not you can have
- 19:22Speaker 9: enforceable ethics language and what would be sufficient to get
- 19:25Speaker 9: pro crypto senators on board.
- 19:27Speaker 6: Right now.
- 19:28Speaker 9: Senator also Brooks has said that under no circumstances is
- 19:31Speaker 9: this enough. But we have to step We have to
- 19:34Speaker 9: recognize the president coming to even this language is a
- 19:38Speaker 9: major concession for not just the President, the White House,
- 19:41Speaker 9: in the executive branch generally.
- 19:44Speaker 4: Well, this is the part of the interview where you
- 19:47Speaker 4: feel happy to not be in Congress anymore.
- 19:50Speaker 8: Patrick McHenry that what's about? Thank you? What's about to happen?
- 19:55Speaker 4: At three point thirty we're going to vote on the NDAA.
- 19:58Speaker 4: Democrats don't want any part of it, a budget resolution
- 20:02Speaker 4: for reconciliation that many folks would talk to Chip Roy
- 20:05Speaker 4: earlier this hour. They're even Republicans are concerned that it's
- 20:08Speaker 4: not paid for. In some cases. We've got a stock
- 20:11Speaker 4: trading van. Is all this going to pass?
- 20:15Speaker 6: Lions and tigers and barrows?
- 20:17Speaker 9: Oh my, this is a real mashup before the House
- 20:22Speaker 9: leaves for August recess.
- 20:26Speaker 6: Look, I wanted to say this for a while.
- 20:28Speaker 9: New Gingridge always said the House is like riding a bicycle.
- 20:32Speaker 9: The only way is to actually move forward. I would
- 20:36Speaker 9: say it a little differently in this environment you have
- 20:38Speaker 9: the Senate. In the nature of the Senate, you have
- 20:41Speaker 9: old bulls sitting shoeing grass and content to sit in
- 20:44Speaker 9: the sunshine. That's what the Senate does on a sort
- 20:47Speaker 9: of a daily basis. In the house, the house is
- 20:51Speaker 9: a lot like a border collie or a labrador or
- 20:55Speaker 9: some young pop. If they're fully exercised, they're they're fine
- 21:01Speaker 9: to have inside your house. If they're not fully exercised,
- 21:05Speaker 9: they can be quite destructive, quite destructive. And that's what's
- 21:09Speaker 9: happened with the House Republican Conference right now.
- 21:12Speaker 6: For the Speaker and the leadership.
- 21:14Speaker 9: This is where coups and palace intrigue persist when there's no.
- 21:19Speaker 6: Action in the House.
- 21:21Speaker 9: And so they had to put together an aggressive agenda
- 21:24Speaker 9: in order to get aggressively out of town to save
- 21:29Speaker 9: to save the House Republican Conference. That's really what we're
- 21:32Speaker 9: doing right now is just running as fat that House
- 21:35Speaker 9: Republican leaderships running is as fast as possible so they
- 21:38Speaker 9: can get out the door and save themselves until we
- 21:42Speaker 9: come back for September for more chaos.
- 21:44Speaker 6: With House Republicans.
- 21:46Speaker 9: And again I signed a House Republicans having my adult
- 21:52Speaker 9: life working in and around it and loving these votes.
- 21:55Speaker 6: But it is what it is.
- 21:58Speaker 2: And I have a Labrador from puppyhood, and this analogy
- 22:03Speaker 2: is really it's working for me.
- 22:04Speaker 8: Mister Chairman, I understand what it is. Well, yes, that is.
- 22:09Speaker 6: It's very true.
- 22:11Speaker 9: House Republicans are also like Marines in that if there's
- 22:16Speaker 9: a mission and something critical there on the prize, but
- 22:20Speaker 9: if they're on theay but it's a Saturday night, things
- 22:22Speaker 9: can get rough.
- 22:25Speaker 2: Wow, we got got an email on them to take
- 22:29Speaker 2: that conversation on that line the dogs. Okay, well, what
- 22:33Speaker 2: about on the idea of something mission critical? I think
- 22:35Speaker 2: a lot of people would argue that funding the government
- 22:37Speaker 2: falls into that category. The Speaker decided that he would
- 22:41Speaker 2: just try to make sure we don't shut down in
- 22:43Speaker 2: September by punting until after the midterms until early December.
- 22:49Speaker 2: It's unclear what's going to happen in the Senate. The
- 22:51Speaker 2: Senate Majority leader is suggesting that if Democrats don't negotiate
- 22:55Speaker 2: on a on a CR he's just going to attach
- 22:56Speaker 2: it to budget reconciliation. Mister Chairman, is that effective killing
- 23:00Speaker 2: the filibuster.
- 23:02Speaker 9: That's one mechanism to kill part of the filibuster which
- 23:05Speaker 9: has been eroded over the years, but it's also more
- 23:07Speaker 9: of a forcing mechanism to get Chuck Schumer to the table. Look,
- 23:11Speaker 9: we went through the largest longest government shutdown in American history,
- 23:15Speaker 9: and it was because Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats wouldn't
- 23:18Speaker 9: give the necessary votes to pass the continuity resolution. And
- 23:22Speaker 9: so I think that's where we're headed September thirtieth this year,
- 23:26Speaker 9: unless leaders soon can entice Leader Schumer to pass a
- 23:30Speaker 9: continued resolution. That's really what the messaging is about. And
- 23:34Speaker 9: this will come to the four as September goes on,
- 23:38Speaker 9: but not until then.
- 23:40Speaker 8: So is this how we do it now?
- 23:42Speaker 4: And I guess every other year, if there's an election
- 23:44Speaker 4: coming in November, you guys better get a cr before
- 23:47Speaker 4: August recess because this whole government is going to shut down.
- 23:49Speaker 8: We simply can't function otherwise.
- 23:51Speaker 6: That's basically where we are.
- 23:53Speaker 9: The budget resolution, the nineteen seventy four budget resolution, which
- 23:56Speaker 9: was asked in Senate Democrats for response to Nixon's and
- 24:00Speaker 9: that's why we have this budget process has been.
- 24:03Speaker 6: Broken, has been broken for thirty years.
- 24:06Speaker 9: Congress has not passed all twelve appropriations bills by September thirtieth,
- 24:11Speaker 9: and well since the nineteen nineties.
- 24:13Speaker 6: So we have a broken.
- 24:15Speaker 9: Legislative process that is further broken because we don't have
- 24:18Speaker 9: great muscle memory for policymakers on how.
- 24:20Speaker 6: To do this basic piece of governance.
- 24:23Speaker 9: And so that means that we're in for more chaos,
- 24:26Speaker 9: not less, more needless senseless political violence, not.
- 24:32Speaker 6: Less.
- 24:35Speaker 2: Well, it's sorry state of affairs, to be sure, mister Chairman,
- 24:38Speaker 2: when we consider the notion of regular order being something
- 24:42Speaker 2: difficult to.
- 24:43Speaker 8: Come by these days.
- 24:44Speaker 2: Hence why we're talking about a third budget reconciliation package. Now,
- 24:50Speaker 2: I wonder how realistic you think the prospect is for
- 24:52Speaker 2: a fourth because that's what your former colleague, Congressman ship Roy,
- 24:55Speaker 2: was talking to us about. He hopes he'll get his
- 24:58Speaker 2: pay for us. He's just going to wait see those
- 25:00Speaker 2: pay fors until in his mind, Budget reconciliation four point
- 25:04Speaker 2: zero is there a real chance of that.
- 25:06Speaker 9: Again, again, this is about the House staying in motion,
- 25:10Speaker 9: and as long as you stay in motion, you can
- 25:12Speaker 9: stave off palace and trigger coups. And that is what
- 25:15Speaker 9: this reconcilation four point zero or whatever we're going to
- 25:19Speaker 9: call it. But also when you hear policymakers talk about
- 25:23Speaker 9: a fourth iteration when they can't get the third iteration done,
- 25:26Speaker 9: it makes me question what medicines they are on, and
- 25:30Speaker 9: whether or not these psychedelics are in fact now close
- 25:34Speaker 9: to FTA approval, whether or not they are already in
- 25:37Speaker 9: pre drug trial. Here, it's absurd to talk about this,
- 25:40Speaker 9: especially in an election year, this late in an election year.
- 25:43Speaker 9: It's one of the more bizarre things I've heard out
- 25:45Speaker 9: of a really bizarre political year we've had in Washington.
- 25:51Speaker 8: Wow, this is the best passage.
- 25:52Speaker 6: I'm saying.
- 25:53Speaker 9: There is no chance of a reconciliation four point zero,
- 25:57Speaker 9: not even the slim.
- 25:57Speaker 4: I understood, all right, putting the psychedelics down. I thought
- 26:03Speaker 4: of you when I did you see this Gallup poll
- 26:05Speaker 4: this morning. We can talk about the vote all day long,
- 26:08Speaker 4: but this is we're getting right down to it here.
- 26:10Speaker 4: Americans are the most likely to name politics as a
- 26:13Speaker 4: threat to their safety, mister Chairman. The latest pullding by
- 26:16Speaker 4: Gallup identifies one in ten Americans saying politics is the
- 26:19Speaker 4: greatest source of risk to their personal safety. More than
- 26:24Speaker 4: half of American adults believe the government does not care
- 26:27Speaker 4: about them a record high.
- 26:29Speaker 8: Aren't we seeing a reflection of this?
- 26:31Speaker 6: We're seeing in our House of Representatives?
- 26:34Speaker 9: We are yet these American people that have this fielding
- 26:38Speaker 9: vote in these people. This tells me that populism is
- 26:42Speaker 9: not some sort of President Trump phenomenon. That popularism is
- 26:48Speaker 9: going to continue to rise in the American politics because
- 26:50Speaker 9: of these very because of that very.
- 26:53Speaker 6: Explanation you just gave.
- 26:55Speaker 9: When you look at the elected officials and say they
- 26:57Speaker 9: don't care about me, and they're a source of my problem,
- 27:00Speaker 9: not a part of my solution, You're going to see
- 27:03Speaker 9: unrest that'll be vividly displayed in not just the primaries
- 27:09Speaker 9: that we have continued throughout this election year, but in
- 27:12Speaker 9: the midterms and then going into the nomination process for
- 27:16Speaker 9: both parties, the presidential nomination process it will start next year.
- 27:23Speaker 8: I can't wait for that.
- 27:24Speaker 2: Just to end the interview on a more more optimistic though,
- 27:29Speaker 2: perhaps for yourself, mister chairman, If market structure finally happens,
- 27:32Speaker 2: if clarity can get through ethics provisions included, what else
- 27:38Speaker 2: does the crypto industry need in terms of legislation they
- 27:42Speaker 2: fought for the stable going legislation. They've long fought for
- 27:45Speaker 2: market structure.
- 27:46Speaker 6: What's next tax provisions.
- 27:49Speaker 9: We have to have clarity owner tax law on what
- 27:51Speaker 9: these digital assets are and what the holding periods are.
- 27:55Speaker 9: We had to define these things for commodities and for securities,
- 27:58Speaker 9: and likewise we want to do that for digital assets.
- 28:00Speaker 9: In the nature of a stable coin, for instance, it
- 28:04Speaker 9: should be treated in a similar fashion you have for
- 28:07Speaker 9: your bank deposits and an interest derived from bank deposits
- 28:12Speaker 9: as a tax measure. And so then we have to
- 28:16Speaker 9: define what's the holding period for these digital assets and
- 28:19Speaker 9: what a capital gain structure would look like. So there's
- 28:22Speaker 9: a lot of work to do on that front, and
- 28:24Speaker 9: then the regulatory process will be ongoing as a result
- 28:27Speaker 9: of Clarity acts as well for the next year or two.
- 28:31Speaker 2: All Right, the former chair of the House Financial Services
- 28:33Speaker 2: Committee and now, of course Bloomberg Politics contributor Patrick McHenry.
- 28:37Speaker 4: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
- 28:39Speaker 4: more coming up after this.
- 28:44Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
- 28:48Speaker 1: us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on
- 28:51Speaker 1: Apple Cocklay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.
- 28:55Speaker 1: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch
- 28:58Speaker 1: us live on YouTube.
- 29:01Speaker 8: Glad you joined us.
- 29:02Speaker 4: It's the Wednesday edition and we're live on Bloomberg Radio
- 29:04Speaker 4: on satellite radio channel one twenty one and watching us
- 29:07Speaker 4: always on YouTube search Bloomberg Business News Live with our
- 29:11Speaker 4: eyes on the markets, and the price of a barrel
- 29:14Speaker 4: of oil ever higher, up over two percent for WTI
- 29:18Speaker 4: and Brent today we're looking at eighty six and ninety
- 29:20Speaker 4: three respectively. And as we were just discussing with the lawmakers,
- 29:24Speaker 4: really fascinating series of interviews in the Senate last evening.
- 29:26Speaker 4: By the way, we're going back up there tonight. Can
- 29:29Speaker 4: we get a list of slotkin on the line. We're
- 29:31Speaker 4: going to keep doing this as often as we can
- 29:33Speaker 4: as we figure out these votes. We've got the cr
- 29:35Speaker 4: in the House today. We've also got reconciliation, and so
- 29:40Speaker 4: when you factor in the supplemental budget requests for Iran,
- 29:43Speaker 4: things start to get pretty complicated. The price for a
- 29:47Speaker 4: gallon of gasoline where I was going here four dollars
- 29:50Speaker 4: and six cents. How about diesel five dollars and eighteen cents?
- 29:55Speaker 4: They say the economy runs on diesel, right, And if
- 29:58Speaker 4: you run the Port of lif Long Beach. That's a
- 30:01Speaker 4: pretty important part of the equation because once the goods
- 30:03Speaker 4: come in, they need diesel to go out. And this
- 30:06Speaker 4: is going to be part of our conversation with the
- 30:09Speaker 4: man who runs the Port of Long Beach. Doctor Noel
- 30:11Speaker 4: Hasegaba is with us in studio right now, and doctor,
- 30:14Speaker 4: it's great to see you.
- 30:14Speaker 8: Welcome to Bloomberg's TV and Radio.
- 30:16Speaker 10: Thanks for having me pleasure to join you.
- 30:17Speaker 8: Joe.
- 30:18Speaker 4: I want to talk about a lot of things, including
- 30:20Speaker 4: price pressures, including your port as a barometer of our economy,
- 30:24Speaker 4: which is fascinating to talk to the likes of your self,
- 30:26Speaker 4: Regene Soroca frequently more accurate anecdotal evidence than we ever
- 30:31Speaker 4: get out.
- 30:32Speaker 8: Of a data set.
- 30:34Speaker 4: But I want to start with something that you're introducing,
- 30:37Speaker 4: and this is a new idea and the reason why
- 30:39Speaker 4: you're in town here.
- 30:40Speaker 8: I believe you just came from the Department of Transportation.
- 30:42Speaker 4: It's correct to talk about as we look at the
- 30:44Speaker 4: cost of diesel jet fuel, the price that it costs
- 30:48Speaker 4: to take goods from Asia to your port. There's a
- 30:52Speaker 4: new idea as we look for alternatives, and it's nuclear
- 30:55Speaker 4: small modular reactors on a boat.
- 30:58Speaker 8: How close to reality?
- 30:59Speaker 10: Is this what we took the first step today.
- 31:02Speaker 11: This memorandum of cooperation with the Maritime Administration is really
- 31:06Speaker 11: the first of its kind. And what it does, Joe,
- 31:09Speaker 11: is it establishes a framework for the proper agencies at
- 31:13Speaker 11: the federal level to start having conversations with a port
- 31:16Speaker 11: like ours, a major national asset, and our partners in
- 31:19Speaker 11: the private sector to look at ways to introduce SMR
- 31:23Speaker 11: technology in a safe and reliable fashion.
- 31:26Speaker 10: Look, you described it very well.
- 31:28Speaker 11: Everything that's going on in the energy market, the cost
- 31:32Speaker 11: of fuel and the uncertaincy surrounding that is strengthening the
- 31:37Speaker 11: case for energy diversification. Now's the right time for us
- 31:40Speaker 11: to explore nuclear energy.
- 31:42Speaker 4: We talk about these small reactors pretty frequently when it
- 31:46Speaker 4: comes to data center, right, that's the future of AI.
- 31:49Speaker 8: How you get them off the grid?
- 31:50Speaker 4: You put a little reactor right there at the plant
- 31:53Speaker 4: and everybody's happy. We've heard about the US Navy for
- 31:58Speaker 4: years for generations using nuclearcraft carriers and submarines. Putting this
- 32:02Speaker 4: on commercial vessels raises a lot of questions. Who's responsible
- 32:06Speaker 4: for this. It's not a military operation any longer. What
- 32:08Speaker 4: if a boat sinks could this be a target? How
- 32:11Speaker 4: do you answer those questions?
- 32:13Speaker 11: These are all great questions, and they are questions that
- 32:15Speaker 11: need to be asked and answered. And one of the
- 32:18Speaker 11: reasons why we decided to join this memorandum of cooperation
- 32:22Speaker 11: now is because there are a lot of questions that
- 32:24Speaker 11: need to be answered and safety is at the top
- 32:27Speaker 11: of the list. Right when it comes to safety, there's
- 32:30Speaker 11: no calendar, and so we thought it was important to
- 32:33Speaker 11: start the conversation, bringing the agencies and the partners in
- 32:37Speaker 11: the private sector to start thinking through some of these scenarios.
- 32:41Speaker 10: The reality is, when.
- 32:42Speaker 11: You look at nuclear it's a carbon free energy source.
- 32:47Speaker 11: It's already been used in different sectors and industries around the globe.
- 32:51Speaker 11: What we're trying to answer through this MOC with Mayrad
- 32:54Speaker 11: is how do we introduce it in a safe, reliable fashion.
- 32:57Speaker 11: And let's not forget the portalm Beach is one of
- 32:59Speaker 11: eighteen commercial strategic seaports, so we're already an asset for
- 33:03Speaker 11: the US government in the event of any military activity.
- 33:07Speaker 11: So it just makes perfect sense for US, a leading port,
- 33:10Speaker 11: a major gateway, and a commercial strategic seaport, to be
- 33:13Speaker 11: the first port to enter into this type of cooperation.
- 33:16Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting that it's coming from you, the port,
- 33:19Speaker 4: not a commercial shipping line, not a ship builder. This
- 33:22Speaker 4: is a pretty entrepreneurial move for you, is it not.
- 33:24Speaker 11: Well, you know, the Port of Long Beach has been
- 33:26Speaker 11: around for about one hundred and fifteen years. But in
- 33:28Speaker 11: order for us to stay competitive, we have to think
- 33:31Speaker 11: like a startup. That's exactly what we're doing. What got
- 33:33Speaker 11: us here isn't going to get us there. And this
- 33:34Speaker 11: is why in January I launched our new twenty fifty
- 33:37Speaker 11: vision and our plan, Joe, is very simple. We want
- 33:39Speaker 11: to double our container throughput to twenty million container units
- 33:43Speaker 11: and build a port of the future in the process,
- 33:45Speaker 11: a port that's going to be clean. And we're also
- 33:48Speaker 11: leveraging partnerships. For example, blue Core, which is a startup
- 33:52Speaker 11: that just entered into a lease with the Port of
- 33:54Speaker 11: Long Beach. They're the ones who are doing the R
- 33:56Speaker 11: and D behind this technology, and they're the ones who
- 33:59Speaker 11: are going to be working with the Port, with MERET
- 34:01Speaker 11: and the other federal agencies to make sure that we
- 34:04Speaker 11: do this reliably and safely.
- 34:06Speaker 4: When you look around the world right now and consider
- 34:09Speaker 4: what's happening in the Strait of hord moves, what might
- 34:11Speaker 4: be happening in the Red Sea.
- 34:12Speaker 8: It raises so many.
- 34:13Speaker 4: Questions about technology, like this, could you take a nuclear
- 34:16Speaker 4: powered ship through the Strait?
- 34:18Speaker 10: Well, it's a great question. I want to do that
- 34:20Speaker 10: right now.
- 34:21Speaker 11: But when you consider the advantages of what this energy
- 34:25Speaker 11: source offers, it's worth exploring. That's what this MOC is
- 34:28Speaker 11: all about. It's asking those questions. Bring in the experts,
- 34:32Speaker 11: bring in the agencies, making sure that it's introduced in
- 34:35Speaker 11: a safe and reliable fashion.
- 34:37Speaker 4: I want to hear where this goes, and I think
- 34:38Speaker 4: our audience will be fascinated to learn as well. They're
- 34:41Speaker 4: massive economic implications here.
- 34:44Speaker 8: Just like the ones we're dealing with now.
- 34:45Speaker 4: The reason we're having this conversation as we started out
- 34:48Speaker 4: is because of the price pressures that we're feeling from overseas,
- 34:50Speaker 4: and I'm wondering to what extent, if any, that is
- 34:53Speaker 4: impacting business in terms of traffic at the port and
- 34:57Speaker 4: just the conversations you're having with ship ors right now.
- 35:00Speaker 8: We are enduring this.
- 35:01Speaker 10: Well, it's interesting.
- 35:02Speaker 11: The impact is felt, and it's felt first at the pump,
- 35:06Speaker 11: but it cascades across the transportation network because so much
- 35:09Speaker 11: of the cost involved in transporting goods from port to
- 35:13Speaker 11: port and once it arrives at destination, from endpoint to endpoint,
- 35:18Speaker 11: it requires that fuel. But surprisingly, Joe, the resilience of
- 35:23Speaker 11: the American consumer, the resilience of the supply chain. Here
- 35:26Speaker 11: we are in the middle of the soaring fuel costs,
- 35:30Speaker 11: and yet at the port of Long Beach we're ahead
- 35:32Speaker 11: of a record run last year. Through the first half
- 35:35Speaker 11: of twenty twenty six, we're actually two percentage points ahead
- 35:37Speaker 11: of last year. And last year was a record year
- 35:39Speaker 11: for US, And a lot of it is because shippers
- 35:42Speaker 11: are trying to hedge their bets. They're trying to mitigate
- 35:45Speaker 11: the uncertainty of additional tariffs or additional soaring fuel costs,
- 35:51Speaker 11: and they're advancing their shipments. And like you said a
- 35:53Speaker 11: moment ago, traditionally portslike cars have been pretty good barometers
- 35:57Speaker 11: of what's going to happen to the across the economy
- 36:00Speaker 11: in the months ahead.
- 36:00Speaker 4: Well, that's encouraging, considering new tariffs are coming and this
- 36:05Speaker 4: is the time when the holiday season is set. Right,
- 36:08Speaker 4: what happens in July and August will pay off in
- 36:12Speaker 4: November and December. What kind of a holiday season will
- 36:15Speaker 4: we have based on the currents that you're seeing now.
- 36:17Speaker 10: We've already begun to see holiday.
- 36:20Speaker 11: Gifts arrive into our port and that's something it's I mean.
- 36:24Speaker 8: We're not going to miss the season.
- 36:26Speaker 11: In past years there is concern whether or not folks
- 36:29Speaker 11: were going to have access to the hottest toys.
- 36:31Speaker 10: They're already here.
- 36:32Speaker 11: And that's the remarkable thing about these you know, whether
- 36:37Speaker 11: it's fuel costs or whether it's some of the uncertainly
- 36:39Speaker 11: surrounding trade policy, it's enticed everyone to advancor shipments.
- 36:44Speaker 8: That's really encouraging.
- 36:45Speaker 4: I think for a lot of people who are listening
- 36:46Speaker 4: right now, talk to me about the other end of things.
- 36:49Speaker 4: When you have trucks lining up and they're paying over
- 36:51Speaker 4: five dollars a gallon for diesel, does that impact business
- 36:55Speaker 4: or are these businesses swallowing that cost right now?
- 36:57Speaker 8: Are they passing it on?
- 36:58Speaker 10: It's a mix.
- 37:00Speaker 11: Most businesses absorb some of it pass on to some
- 37:02Speaker 11: of the consumers.
- 37:03Speaker 8: At the transportation like JB. Hunt. I mean, these stocks
- 37:05Speaker 8: are at all time highs. They're printing money.
- 37:07Speaker 11: It looks like well they are, But affordability continues to
- 37:09Speaker 11: be an issue now, not just for policy makers, but
- 37:12Speaker 11: for operators like us, and it's important for us to
- 37:15Speaker 11: keep an eye on that because at a certain point
- 37:18Speaker 11: that resilience, that resilience muscle is not going to be
- 37:21Speaker 11: able to stretch to that degree. So this is why
- 37:23Speaker 11: again I say, what is happening right now in the
- 37:26Speaker 11: energy market is strengthening the case for energy diversification. This
- 37:29Speaker 11: is why this historic memorative cooperation with a maritime administration
- 37:34Speaker 11: makes a ton of sense.
- 37:35Speaker 4: How's your labor force in terms of the port itself
- 37:38Speaker 4: and drivers? This was a real concern coming out of COVID.
- 37:41Speaker 4: How do we get enough drivers even if the goods
- 37:43Speaker 4: make it to port, to get them around the country.
- 37:45Speaker 10: Our workforce are the true heroes.
- 37:47Speaker 11: They're the ones who move the containers, They're the ones
- 37:49Speaker 11: who power our port. And right now we have a
- 37:51Speaker 11: very healthy and robust workforce. They show up during COVID,
- 37:55Speaker 11: they masked up and we never had to close a
- 37:58Speaker 11: single shift. So it's a testament to the resilience of
- 38:02Speaker 11: our workforce as well.
- 38:03Speaker 4: What's the timeline getting back to where we started on
- 38:06Speaker 4: small nuclear reactors getting on ships?
- 38:09Speaker 8: Do you have one or is it impossible to tell?
- 38:10Speaker 8: Right now? It's this five years ten years away.
- 38:13Speaker 11: You know, I can't tell you exactly when it's going
- 38:15Speaker 11: to happen, but what I can tell you is this
- 38:17Speaker 11: MOC sets the path forward for us to have those
- 38:20Speaker 11: conversations that need to be had. We have willing partners
- 38:22Speaker 11: in the private sector who are going through the R
- 38:25Speaker 11: and D right now. We're bringing in the experts and
- 38:28Speaker 11: again we're going to do this safely and reliably.
- 38:31Speaker 8: Is this administration the reason why this is happening now?
- 38:34Speaker 3: You know?
- 38:35Speaker 4: There seems to have been an embrace of nuclear that
- 38:37Speaker 4: didn't exist before.
- 38:38Speaker 10: SMR has been around for the last ten years.
- 38:41Speaker 11: Nuclear power has been around, as you mentioned the US
- 38:44Speaker 11: Navy as a matter of fact, a fun fact, the
- 38:46Speaker 11: very first warcraft VESTL to used nuclear power was a USS.
- 38:51Speaker 10: Long Beach in the nineteen sixties.
- 38:53Speaker 11: Right, Yes, it's been around for a while, but again
- 38:55Speaker 11: it's the application and the adoption. If we can introduce
- 38:59Speaker 11: this technology in a safe and reliable fashion, I think
- 39:02Speaker 11: there will be a lot of advantages.
- 39:03Speaker 4: Would this be like an aircraft carrier or a submarine
- 39:06Speaker 4: where you'd have in this case mayrisk would put a
- 39:09Speaker 4: cargo vessel on the water and be out there for
- 39:11Speaker 4: a year.
- 39:11Speaker 11: Well, Right now, our partner Blue Court is looking at
- 39:14Speaker 11: how we could leverage SMR to power commercial vessels. Yeah,
- 39:17Speaker 11: that's the beginning phase. Where it goes from there will
- 39:20Speaker 11: depend largely on how we develop the safety protocols, the
- 39:25Speaker 11: operational standards and make sure that this technology is adopted
- 39:29Speaker 11: and implemented safely and reliable.
- 39:31Speaker 4: Well, we'd love to stay in touch with you on
- 39:32Speaker 4: this as you get closer. Next time you're on Washington,
- 39:35Speaker 4: come and see us doctors. We'd be happy to do
- 39:36Speaker 4: it on a number of issues, from the economy to
- 39:38Speaker 4: the future of nuclear on the open seas. Really fascinating conversation,
- 39:43Speaker 4: as we promised with the doctor. He's the Port of
- 39:45Speaker 4: Long Beach CEO, Noel Hasegaba with us here exclusively on
- 39:50Speaker 4: Bloomberg TV and Radio. Thanks for listening to the Balance
- 39:56Speaker 4: of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, Apple,
- 40:00Speaker 4: Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can
- 40:03Speaker 4: find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at noontime
- 40:06Speaker 4: Eastern at Bloomberg dot com.