Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: As we add the voice of Sean Caston, the Democratic
Speaker 2: Congressman from Illinois shares part of Chicago. He was with
Speaker 2: us at the DNC and Congressman, it's great to see
Speaker 2: you here. I hope you had a great holiday. Welcome
Speaker 2: back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. I have a lot
Speaker 2: of questions for you because you've been a busy guy
Speaker 2: lately with regard to government funding, with regard to the
Speaker 2: Ethics Committee report into Matt Gates. But I want to
Speaker 2: start with you on this issue that we're talking about now.
Speaker 2: When you go to Chicago dot gov, your town says
Speaker 2: the city has shouldered the responsibility of caring for more
Speaker 2: than forty nine thousand immigrants new arrivals seeking asylum. Many
Speaker 2: flown to Chicago from states like Texas. What will happen
Speaker 2: to them when Donald Trump takes office.
Speaker 1: Well, it's important to understand where these folks come from. There.
Speaker 1: You know, there were a surge of immigrants when Greg
Speaker 1: Abbott was bussing people up from Texas. But if you
Speaker 1: look nationally in check is no different. The overwhelming majority
Speaker 1: of the undocumented folks in our country are not people
Speaker 1: who snuck across the border, no matter how many, how
Speaker 1: much we might like to sort of fall for that
Speaker 1: lazy stereotype. They're people who came here legally and overstate
Speaker 1: a visa. Maybe it's a student who studied here. Maybe
Speaker 1: they fell in love while they were studying here, it
Speaker 1: had a child. They're people who had temporary work visas
Speaker 1: and then the temporary work visas weren't renewed in many
Speaker 1: cases the prior guestment. Maybe they're less so in Chicago,
Speaker 1: but certainly downstate Illinois. They're farm workers who we depend
Speaker 1: on to grow our food. But our programs have not
Speaker 1: provided support for these people. So to tell those people,
Speaker 1: you know, the average undocumented person in this country has
Speaker 1: been here for twelve years, and again most of that
Speaker 1: is visa overstays. To tell these people who are contributing
Speaker 1: to America, who are paying taxes, who in many cases
Speaker 1: may be married or living with American citizens, that were
Speaker 1: going to break up your family? I mean, you could
Speaker 1: not be more anti family than that. And it's creating
Speaker 1: a lot of nervousness all across the country, not just
Speaker 1: in Chicago.
Speaker 2: Well, so, what will be Democrats posture on the issue
Speaker 2: of Dreamers, then you're describing some of them in this conversation.
Speaker 2: Congress been knowing that Republicans were elected in part Donald
Speaker 2: Trump elected in part due to his approach to the border.
Speaker 2: Dreamers weren't even mentioned in the Senate deal on the
Speaker 2: border that never, of course, became law earlier this year,
Speaker 2: one that Donald Trump did not want to see passed.
Speaker 2: Will they be included in this debate in the new Congress.
Speaker 1: Well, look, let me speak to this from the perspective
Speaker 1: of the House. Yes, Donald Trump won the election. The
Speaker 1: House can seats. We picked up two seats in the
Speaker 1: last election, and so you've got a lot of people
Speaker 1: on my side of the aisle who are pretty confident
Speaker 1: that what the people liked what we were selling, and
Speaker 1: we are in a rapidly growing economy. I have yet
Speaker 1: to meet an employer in the last three years who
Speaker 1: wasn't saying we have a real problem finding qualified people.
Speaker 1: The CBO said that part of the reason why inflation
Speaker 1: of the United Dates came down so much faster than
Speaker 1: other countries is because we have had a growth in
Speaker 1: net immigration to this country. So if you want inflation
Speaker 1: to be down, if you want to make sure that
Speaker 1: employers can find workers. We need to make sure that
Speaker 1: we have a humane, robust immigration system that continues to
Speaker 1: attract the best and brightest. And what I think all
Speaker 1: of us are telling our Republican colleagues is to go
Speaker 1: read Ronald Reagan's farewell speech. He said that I've always
Speaker 1: seen America is a great, shining city on a hill,
Speaker 1: and if it must have walls, make sure it has
Speaker 1: doors and windows so that those with the means and
Speaker 1: ability can come inside. That's the message we need to
Speaker 1: remind people of, because that's the only thing that has
Speaker 1: ever really made America great.
Speaker 2: This is a conversation that will clearly continue in the
Speaker 2: new Congress, as will be the one about government funding.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 2: You barely got this done to avoid a Christmas shutdown, Congressman.
Speaker 2: It was, of course, late Friday, the Continuing Resolution was
Speaker 2: passed to fund the government through the fourteenth of March.
Speaker 2: What happens on March fifteenth when this resolution has expired?
Speaker 1: You know, I joked with one of my Republican colleagues
Speaker 1: in the elevator. He said, he said, what are we
Speaker 1: doing here today? And I said, well, that can doesn't
Speaker 1: kick itself down the road. That's why we had to
Speaker 1: be here today. And it's sort of funny, but it's
Speaker 1: also not funny, right because the over the over the
Speaker 1: last two years of Republican control in Congress, they've never
Speaker 1: really managed to put together an appropriations package other than
Speaker 1: one where the terms were dictated by the Democrats, either
Speaker 1: through a continuing resolution that the Democrats carried across the line,
Speaker 1: or through the deal that McCarthy negotiated with Biden that
Speaker 1: essentially locked in the funding levels we had set in
Speaker 1: the last term with some minor adjustments. And so the
Speaker 1: question will be with a much thinner Republican majority, can
Speaker 1: they get online between their sort of extreme right wing
Speaker 1: that would would happily shut the government down and wants
Speaker 1: to massively cut government services and they're they're more moderate
Speaker 1: and in many cases more numerous reasonable wing who who
Speaker 1: has opposed those tensions, and that that fight has been
Speaker 1: leveled the Republican caucus for this whole term. I think
Speaker 1: you'll continue to find that Democrats are willing to work
Speaker 1: constructively with those Republicans on a bipartisan basis as we have,
Speaker 1: but we'll have to see what they bring together. There's
Speaker 1: you know, I like to remind people that there were
Speaker 1: two fist fights in the House this last term. They
Speaker 1: all involved Republicans, and trying to figure out how they're
Speaker 1: going to get along together is going to be is
Speaker 1: going to be a challenge for this next term, at
Speaker 1: least in the House.
Speaker 2: Well, when we consider what was left out, and you know,
Speaker 2: I know a lot of Democrats were heartened to see
Speaker 2: the request for emergency funding for hurricane relief put back in,
Speaker 2: but we didn't see year round sale of E fifteen gasoline,
Speaker 2: the crackdown on PBMs that we heard about, also restrictions
Speaker 2: on investments in China. Congressmen, some Democrats like Rolson de Laurel,
Speaker 2: like Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said that's the real reason
Speaker 2: Elon Musk opposed this because of the amount of business
Speaker 2: that he does in China through Tesla and other entities.
Speaker 1: Do you agree there's a lot of smoke there, you know,
Speaker 1: whether there's fire. I think we need to do some
Speaker 1: more investigating, but that you know, I serve on the
Speaker 1: Financial Services Committee and Patrick mckennery and Andy Barr were
Speaker 1: really great sponsors figuring out how to manage that outbound investment.
Speaker 1: There's a real concern on the Republican side of the
Speaker 1: aisle with what we are doing to send US technology
Speaker 1: to our adversaries and how are we controlling that, especially
Speaker 1: technology that has national security implications. And yes, there is
Speaker 1: huge concern that mister Musk weighed in so heavily against that,
Speaker 1: and I would you know, I would hope that the
Speaker 1: fact that there was such a bipartisan support for that
Speaker 1: provision will also lead to some bipartisan oversight support to
Speaker 1: ask some questions understand what's going on there. But yes,
Speaker 1: it is a it's concerning. We spend so much time
Speaker 1: in classified and unclassified settings trying to track where US
Speaker 1: generated IP is going, and I'd rather not get in
Speaker 1: a fight with the White House about whether we should
Speaker 1: give me that intellectual property to our adversaries.
Speaker 2: Well, well, I'll tell you last time you were with us, Congressman,
Speaker 2: you were about to go to the floor of the
Speaker 2: House with the privileged resolution to force the release of
Speaker 2: the Ethics Committee report into now former Congressman Matt Gates.
Speaker 2: That report has been released. It came out Monday morning,
Speaker 2: and it is quite a salacious read. I can't say
Speaker 2: some of this stuff even on the air. As I
Speaker 2: read from the report, Gates is now threatening to show
Speaker 2: up next week to claim the seat for which he
Speaker 2: was elected. If that happens, and I don't know if
Speaker 2: you're hearing anything about this congressman, should he be sworn in?
Speaker 1: Gates doesn't have that option. Gates formally submitted his notice
Speaker 1: not to run in one hundred and nineteenth Congress. We call
Speaker 1: Ron DeSantis initiated the special election so that they can
Speaker 1: go through and hold that. The deadline to file to
Speaker 1: run that election has passed and they're printing ballots. So
Speaker 1: I mean, Matt Gates is trying to get on the
Speaker 1: new given as you mentioned, the salacious details in that report.
Speaker 1: If I were met gates issues, I would be trying
Speaker 1: to keep a lower profile and not have people looking
Speaker 1: in to find out that, you know, he had, you know,
Speaker 1: he paid for sex with seventeen year old girls. If
Speaker 1: people want to talk about that, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 1: But he does not have a way to become a
Speaker 1: member of the next Congress. He just has a way
Speaker 1: to talk and get on television.
Speaker 2: You must be glad that it's been released.
Speaker 1: Now that it's public, I mean, I think lad is
Speaker 1: probably the wrong word. I'm glad that the Ethics Committee
Speaker 1: stood up for ethics in Congress. I'm glad that you
Speaker 1: know we're hearing that at least two Republicans on the
Speaker 1: Ethics Committee voted to release that. And it's not because
Speaker 1: we're trying to, you know, hurt one of our former colleagues.
Speaker 1: It's because the House has to comport itself in an
Speaker 1: ethical way that attracts the respect of the American people,
Speaker 1: regardless of how they vote. And when we hold ourselves accountable,
Speaker 1: when we hold members accountable for these sorts of actions,
Speaker 1: we basically send a message to the American people that
Speaker 1: we care about this institution and we love this institution.
Speaker 1: And that's the important thing of releasing this work.
Speaker 2: It's great to have you today, Congressman. I hope you
Speaker 2: had a great holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to
Speaker 2: all of your constituents in the Chicago area.