Rep. Jim Himes (D- 4th District) joins Mike to discuss how Congress is working to avoid a government shutdown next Friday, and what needs to be done about the crisis at the border.
Mike Hydeck: Will the government shut down? If it does, things like paying our troops and funding low income housing programs will become a lot more difficult. Now, the first of two deadlines is coming up next week. There are some signs as you heard there of compromise, but will they stick? Joining me now is Congressman Jim Himes to give us some kind of gauge on how things are going. Congressman, welcome back to Face the Facts.
Jim Himes: Thanks for having me.
Mike Hydeck: So you heard Speaker Johnson there pitching his deal with Democrats as a win to his members saying things like cutting funding to the IRS and returning unspent COVID money are helping to cut spending. What's your take on it?
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Jim Himes: Well, I appreciate the speaker's optimism, but I am concerned. You know, we saw a rebellion this week from the hard right wing, the House Freedom Caucus, in which they basically brought business on the floor to a close because they didn't like that deal that you're talking about that he's struck, of course, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. And the underlying problem here is that, and we've seen this this entire Congress, when something gets done that worked with the Democratic Senate and worked with a Democratic President, and all of whom get a say on legislation, inevitably, it involves Democratic votes. The problem is 40 or 50 Republicans believe that any compromise with the Democrats, particularly on issues of the budget, is treasonous. And that's why Kevin McCarthy lost his job as speaker. And that dynamic has not changed, even though obviously now we have a new speaker. So the question is next week, and it's a week Friday, Friday the 19th, that the government would shut down. Does Speaker Johnson figure out a way to pass the bill? And the only way it's going to happen, which is with some Democratic support in such a way that he is not thrown overboard by his own members.
Mike Hydeck: So speaking of that far right wing of his party, Republicans want to tie border security funding to the deal. Now, to get a bigger picture here, Homeland Security numbers showed a record 300,000 border crossings just in December. So where is the house negotiation on that part?
Jim Himes: Well, most of that negotiation, of course, is happening in the United States Senate. And in fact, our very own Senator Chris Murphy is at the forefront of those negotiations as we speak. Now, here's what I would say, two things. Number one, obviously, it has been decades since we've been able to do a border or an immigration deal. It is a very, very, what do they say, third rail topic in politics. But nonetheless, it has been decades since we've gotten something done. And we should. We really should. The immigration system is broken. Whether we're looking at security on the border or our ability to process migrants in the United States. So we should do a deal. What makes me a little uncomfortable here is the Republican hardliners saying, Well, we're going to hold up everything until that deal is done. So as you pointed out, they said no budget unless we get a border deal that we like. And previously, by the way, three weeks ago, the story was no Ukraine aid, you know, we're going to just let Ukraine hang to let Vladimir Putin do whatever he wants to do in Ukraine unless we get a border deal. So I am all in favor of a border deal. And I think that'll be tough. And we'll negotiate and hopefully we'll compromise, all evidence to the contrary. What we shouldn't be doing is saying we're going to shut down the government or we're going to stop it into Ukraine if we can't get that bill done to our satisfaction.
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Mike Hydeck: Right, so the all or nothing approach hasn't worked until now. So it's gonna be interesting to see what happens this week. Alright. So blue cities like New York and Chicago are clamoring for help. They're now inundated with immigrants who are arriving by the busload from Texas. In fact, the New York City mayor is suing bus companies because of it. President Biden has signaled though, in public, he's ready to deal on immigration policy. What do you think could be on the table here? Things like limits on humanitarian parole, or remain in Mexico, some of those things, bringing those back?
Jim Himes: Well, there's lots of ideas, right? There's short term and long term ideas. You know, in the very short term, you know, New York, for example, the City of New York, which happens to be closest to my own district, has a rule that they must house anybody who wants a house. That's a mandate that they have in New York City. And by the way, there is a law that says that if you're a migrant here without documentation, you cannot go to work. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that if somebody is prohibited from going to work, and yet they are entitled to housing, you've got a real economic problem in a place like the City of New York, not to mention, you know, just the the chaos of uncontrolled migration. So to answer your question, clearly, we can do better border security. Now, you know, Donald Trump wants to build a wall. You know, we use technology. There are lots of ideas in there that make sense in terms of just making sure that we have well-guarded borders. But then you get into stuff which is longer term, less interesting to talk about, less interesting to make a meme about on TikTok, but that is really important. You know, the speed with which our judges process people who have a claim, a legitimate claim for asylum, we don't have nearly enough of those judges. And again, even though it bores people, and I acknowledge that, think about what is going on in your home country, whether it be Guatemala or El Salvador, if you're willing to put your 7-year-old child into the hands of a stranger to get them out of your home country. And the reason I ask people to think about that is boy the United States could do so much more to work with countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, rural areas of Mexico and the nation in Mexico to say you guys gotta develop in a way, get your get your public safety situations under control in such a way that there isn't such a huge push to come to the US southern border.
Mike Hydeck: And those are some of the things that were charged to Vice President Kamala Harris, which is a very difficult thing for anyone in that position to do. One last question before we go, are we going to see a shutdown next Friday? What do you think? How do you game that out from here on out?
Jim Himes: Well, it's really hard for me to game. I'm in the minority here. And the majority has not shown itself to be particularly functional, right? They took 15 votes to get their first speaker and pretty quickly tossed that speaker overboard. You know, they brought proceedings on the floor to a complete halt this week. This is not a group of people that has exhibited functionality. So look, I'm always an optimist, I guess, like the speaker, but, you know, I am concerned. And the problem with this is, I mean, chaos is one thing, but when chaos really affects our economy, and affects people who work for the federal government, people who might, you know, be relying on the services of the federal government, people who want to go to national parks, people who want to be assured that, you know, transportation security officers aren't working extra shifts. Government shutdown is an abstraction until you learn what it really means, and it causes a great deal of pain both for individual Americans and for our economy. So fingers crossed.
Mike Hydeck: Well, hopefully we don't continue to govern by crisis. Congressman Jim Himes, thank you so much for once again joining us on Face the Facts.
Jim Himes: Thank you.
