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What It Will Take For The GOP To Keep The Majority In Congress · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Final visit of the year with US Congress Women Kat
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Cameick from Florida's third district, Cat How are.
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  Speaker 2: You, good morning, How are you.
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  Speaker 1: I'm doing terrific. Give everybody a snapshot who might have
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: missed our last segment about the USA Act and what
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: it does and where it is right now in process.
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  Speaker 2: Well, good to hear your voice. And yeah, I can't
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  Speaker 2: believe it. Last segment, last interview of the year. I
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  Speaker 2: can't believe the year is already gone. But the short
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  Speaker 2: and suite of the USA Act, the On Account of
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  Speaker 2: Unaccountable Spending Accountability Act, is very simple. In Congress, you
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  Speaker 2: have the authorizing committees and you have the Appropriating Committee.
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  Speaker 2: And for the last thirty years, the authorizing committees have
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  Speaker 2: not authorized programs that we have been putting money towards.
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  Speaker 2: And so the bill is very simple. In order for
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  Speaker 2: a program or an agency to receive any money, they
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  Speaker 2: have to receive the proper authorization by Congress beforehand. Otherwise
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  Speaker 2: at sunsets in three years. And most people are that
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  Speaker 2: I've talked about this are like there, wait a minute,
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  Speaker 2: what wait? I thought you guys like go through and
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  Speaker 2: you like greenlight these things. I'm like no, no, we don't. Actually,
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  Speaker 2: to the tune of almost nine hundred billion dollars this year,
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  Speaker 2: there will be programs that will receive an appropriation, but
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  Speaker 2: they will have never been audited or checked by Congress,
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  Speaker 2: or even greenlit by Congress. And so this is a
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  Speaker 2: really really important step that we have to take in
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  Speaker 2: cleaning up Washington. And it has to go through the
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  Speaker 2: committee process, of course, as all bills do except for
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  Speaker 2: the spending bills, which is ironic, And just last week
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  Speaker 2: it made it through the Oversight Committee, which was a
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  Speaker 2: really really big step and actually the furthest that it's
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  Speaker 2: ever gone in terms of getting it closer to the
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  Speaker 2: House for for a vote. But you can imagine that
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  Speaker 2: there are a lot of obstacles and a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people who don't want to see something like this happen
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  Speaker 2: because they would much rather spend without that oversight. And
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  Speaker 2: when you're talking about harder and taxpayer dollars, I think
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  Speaker 2: we should be going through the budget with a fine
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  Speaker 2: tooth comb, and this allows us to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Kat. The resistance to this falls on both sides of
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  Speaker 1: the aisle. We know this is it easily summarized. The
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  Speaker 1: resistance to a bill like this with it being described
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  Speaker 1: as pork. In other words, they've got their pet projects
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  Speaker 1: and they don't want them touched.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely everybody has fallen into this game of they like crs,
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  Speaker 2: they like omnibuses, because what you are doing is you're
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  Speaker 2: effectively pushing the power into the hands of a very
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  Speaker 2: small select few, and in exchange for that, you get
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  Speaker 2: all of the pet projects aka ear marks that you want.
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  Speaker 2: And as somebody in the Republican Conference one of the
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  Speaker 2: very few who does not do ear marks, that really
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  Speaker 2: really irritates me because all of these projects should be
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  Speaker 2: based on merit, and nine times out of ten they
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't have a federal nexus anyway, Like why is the
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  Speaker 2: federal government paying for bike paths? And you know, like
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  Speaker 2: the Michelle Obama hiking trail in Georgia, Like why Nobody
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  Speaker 2: can answer these questions, but it's all about bringing home
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  Speaker 2: the pork. Instead of having a competitive process for projects,
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  Speaker 2: they would rather just trade influence in Washington, And you know,
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  Speaker 2: I just think that's fundamentally wrong. And we're thirty eight
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  Speaker 2: trillion dollars in debt and that's just not fair because
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  Speaker 2: it's ultimately garnishing the wages of our children and our grandchildren.
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  Speaker 2: We need to get focused on the things that are
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  Speaker 2: actually important for the country, and it's going to require
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  Speaker 2: some big changes in The USA Act is really a
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  Speaker 2: foundational piece of that.
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  Speaker 1: Kat On the National Day of two hundred and fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: House Democrats, along with forty seven Senate Democrats, teamed up
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  Speaker 1: to offer Hr. Fifteen and Senate Bill fifteen oh three,
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  Speaker 1: the Equality Act of twenty twenty five, which would, among
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  Speaker 1: other things, overturn every ban on men in women's locker
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  Speaker 1: rooms and showers. And that's just the start of it.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me this thing doesn't have a chance.
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean at the end of the day, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: Republicans still control the House and the Senate. And this
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  Speaker 2: week actually we're considering some pretty great legislation, one of
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  Speaker 2: which belongs to Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia talking about
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  Speaker 2: her Innocence Bill, which really I think hits the crux
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  Speaker 2: of something that years from now we're all going to
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  Speaker 2: look back and be like, I can't believe that that
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  Speaker 2: was a thing that we had to contend with, and
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  Speaker 2: it is no trans surgeries on And there's also another
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  Speaker 2: piece of legislation that is going to reaffirm protecting women's
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  Speaker 2: spaces from biological men, et cetera. This is all stuff
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  Speaker 2: that we we, of course, just common sense individuals are like, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: women need to have protections in these spaces. You shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: have men in sports, you shouldn't have grown men in
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  Speaker 2: the locker room with women, and we damn sure shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: be funding using federal dollars these surgeries on you know,
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  Speaker 2: the transition I'm using air quotes transition children. It blows
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  Speaker 2: my mind that we've had to have this conversation repeatedly. Sure,
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  Speaker 2: And the thing that is really wild to me is
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  Speaker 2: that I serve on the committee that really deals with
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  Speaker 2: a lot of this, particularly as it relates to the
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  Speaker 2: funding aspect. When I play a video of the top
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  Speaker 2: surgeon who does these pre pewbest and surgeries, the Democrats
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  Speaker 2: walked out of the room and it became it was
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  Speaker 2: truly a viral moment because people were like, wait a minute,
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  Speaker 2: what you can't even sit here and listen to what
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  Speaker 2: this man is saying. And the things that he was
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  Speaker 2: saying was the quiet part out loud, the stuff that
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  Speaker 2: we all knew that they really don't have the long
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  Speaker 2: term studies, they don't know the effects that they still
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  Speaker 2: have on children for the rest of their life. That
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  Speaker 2: it is very experimental that the children that they're experimenting
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  Speaker 2: on and I use that word deliberately, they are experimenting
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  Speaker 2: on them that they're experimenting on don't have the necessary
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  Speaker 2: body parts, so they have to basically ruin them create
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  Speaker 2: lifelong patience by taking the stomach lining in order to
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  Speaker 2: create body parts for them. Just really really Frankenstein type stuff.
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  Speaker 2: And it really breaks my heart that as a society
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  Speaker 2: we haven't rejected this outright. That shows a regression in society,
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  Speaker 2: not an evolution, and I just it's really sad, but
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  Speaker 2: I am encouraged this week we're going to pick this bill,
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  Speaker 2: you know, these bills up and continue to stay firm
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  Speaker 2: in the face of this. But yeah, I don't foresee
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  Speaker 2: anything like that coming back unless we completely lose the
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  Speaker 2: House and the Senate and all things go to crap.
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  Speaker 2: I don't see us going back down that path again.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: US congress Woman Kat Camick with us one more segment,
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  Speaker 1: and Kat, one of the big stories in the press
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  Speaker 1: box today is a watchdog finding nine large US banks
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  Speaker 1: still engaging in dbanking. And that's not really what I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to get your thoughts on what's interesting to me
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  Speaker 1: and what I think is the bigger issue. And you
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  Speaker 1: and I've touched on this a little bit, but I
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  Speaker 1: think it's the best way to end our segments for
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  Speaker 1: the year is you know, this dbanking thing was covered
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  Speaker 1: in Trump's Executive Order fourteen three point thirty one, which
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  Speaker 1: was called the Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans Act,
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  Speaker 1: and that was or Not Act, that was his executive order.
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  Speaker 1: And this really rubs to the real problem, and that is,
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  Speaker 1: how do we get some of the executive actions that
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  Speaker 1: we know are good policy, how do we make them
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  Speaker 1: lost so that the next president, if that person happens
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  Speaker 1: to be a Democrat, doesn't just wipe everything away.
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  Speaker 2: Well, a couple of things here, and that was actually
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  Speaker 2: the issue that you mentioned, the d banking. That was
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  Speaker 2: something that we highlighted in our work on the Weaponization
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  Speaker 2: Committee last Congress, and it is frustrating that it continues
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  Speaker 2: to persist because we don't have time to waste. And
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  Speaker 2: we had highlighted this last Congress of when we do
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  Speaker 2: get back into the majority, we need to be in
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  Speaker 2: a sprint to rectify so much of this, but to
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  Speaker 2: your point about the executive orders. I hear this often
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  Speaker 2: of you know, what do we have to do? I
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  Speaker 2: think a lot of people don't realize that a lot
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  Speaker 2: of the executive orders that have been issued have been codified,
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  Speaker 2: eighty seven of them, to be exact, we have codified
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  Speaker 2: eighty seven of President Trump's executive orders. And this has
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  Speaker 2: actually been one of my beasts with quote unquote leadership.
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  Speaker 2: It's they like to operate in big packages and nobody
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  Speaker 2: knows what's in it. And it gives me a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of PTSD of the famous quote from Nancy Pelosio
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  Speaker 2: you have to pass it to see what's in it.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm like, you know, and I've actually talked to
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  Speaker 2: a speaker about this and he says, well, we've done
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  Speaker 2: a ton of work, Kat, you know, it's just the
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  Speaker 2: builds are so big that you know, we're having a
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  Speaker 2: hard time messaging it. And I said, well, that's a problem,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and that's not something you should ignore, that's
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  Speaker 2: something you should should really take stock of and highlight.
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  Speaker 2: But even the fact that they're all in these big packages,
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  Speaker 2: I still think we're not doing enough. And that is
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  Speaker 2: one of the sad things that I you know I'm
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  Speaker 2: coming to terms with at the end of this year,
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  Speaker 2: we're not doing enough. I feel we are missing opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like we are not using the majority in
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  Speaker 2: a way that is reflective of what the people wanted
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  Speaker 2: when they elected Republicans in the House, in the Senate
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  Speaker 2: and gave President Trump the White House. So we have
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  Speaker 2: to do more. And I think the notion that we're
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  Speaker 2: going to pretend like, oh, everything's hunky, do orient fine,
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  Speaker 2: it's not. And so my goal next year is maybe
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  Speaker 2: that makes me a bit of a scrooge, but I
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  Speaker 2: think I need to be a little bit more aggressive,
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  Speaker 2: which if the Speaker or any one of my colleagues
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  Speaker 2: heard me say that, they'd be like, oh boy, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I think that we were missing our opportunity. And to
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  Speaker 2: your point, there is a lot more that has to
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  Speaker 2: be done, not just to codify the President's work, but
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  Speaker 2: we have got to get our fiscal house in order
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  Speaker 2: and we are continuing to ignore it and that is
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  Speaker 2: a big problem, which is why you see me focusing
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  Speaker 2: things like the Rains Act, the Regulatory Reform or the
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  Speaker 2: USA Act, which would reign and spend and you know,
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  Speaker 2: zero based budgeting and a structured debt, repayment, all the
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  Speaker 2: non sexy things that are important long term, and they
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  Speaker 2: may not be the sexy thing going into a midterm election,
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  Speaker 2: but my goodness, they will. They will make the difference
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  Speaker 2: between us remaining a constitutional republic and going off into
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  Speaker 2: this weird quasi socialist experiment. I mean, it's just we
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  Speaker 2: have to get our house in order, that is for sure.
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  Speaker 1: How do you keep the majority in the House in
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  Speaker 1: the Senate with one year to go?
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  Speaker 2: Infrastructure, I think one we have seen in the elections
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  Speaker 2: playing out around the country that the infrastructure can't pop
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  Speaker 2: up in an election year and then disappear right after
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  Speaker 2: the election day. You have to make sustained investments into
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  Speaker 2: every community that is certainly a battleground. But beyond the
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  Speaker 2: other thing is you have to do the things you
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  Speaker 2: campaign on. We have heard repeatedly from folks that affordability
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  Speaker 2: is the issue. And I'm married to a firefighter. I
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  Speaker 2: know affordability is an issue. I am one of the
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  Speaker 2: few in Congress that is not independently wealthy, and so
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  Speaker 2: we do pay attention when eggs are eleven dollars for
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  Speaker 2: an eighteen pack. We pay attention when butter and beef
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  Speaker 2: is up. You know, these are the things that we
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  Speaker 2: know are problematic, and if we're not doing everything in
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  Speaker 2: our power to focus on those kitchen table issues, it's
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  Speaker 2: a missed opportunity. And so I think that while there's
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  Speaker 2: been a lot of great things done, it's not near enough,
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  Speaker 2: and we have got to stay focused on the affordability issue.
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  Speaker 2: It is very real. It is something that is driving
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the problems in communities around the country,
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  Speaker 2: and for those of folks that are on fixed incomes,
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  Speaker 2: it's an even bigger problem. So we've got a small
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  Speaker 2: note with a long, long, long to do list, and
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  Speaker 2: I'm hopeful that people get serious about it.
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  Speaker 1: Kat, thank you as always for the time. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for the year of visits. Can't wait for January to
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  Speaker 1: roll around and us to talk again. Is there a
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Christmas tradition that you're looking forward to rolling around yet? Again?
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Is it Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
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  Speaker 2: I'm more of a Christmas Morning person, and of course,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: not being a firefighter, he's always either at the station
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  Speaker 2: on one of those days, so we have to navigate that.
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  Speaker 2: But with Aggie, our brand new four month old daughter,
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  Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to a new tradition of reading a
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  Speaker 2: new Christmas story every single night. We love you.
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  Speaker 1: Christmas, love it you guys. Have a blessed Christmas and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: thank you again.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you guys. Merry Christmas, everybody,