Van Hollen Talks about the Sequester on MSNBC

Washington, DC – Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, appeared on MSNBC with Martin Bashir to discuss the need to replace the sequester. Below is a transcript and video of his interview.

MARTIN BASHIR, MSNBC: Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. Good afternoon, sir.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Good afternoon, Martin.

BASHIR: The Republican position seems to be that we love and cherish our military so much that we want their children to be less well educated. Is that about it?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, that’s unfortunately the case right now, because we’ve been pushing to replace the sequester, which is having all these negative consequences, and our Republican colleagues have refused to even allow us to have a vote, Martin. Four times now – actually, five times, we tried to have a vote on a plan to replace the sequester.

BASHIR: But every single week, you come onto our broadcast. We talk about transportation for disabled people, canceled.

VAN HOLLEN: Right.

BASHIR: We talk about Meals on Wheels for the elderly, canceled. We talk about all kinds of infrastructure problems – bridges collapsing. Today, we talk about education. What’s next?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, that’s exactly right.

Look, maybe this will finally get people’s attention. This, of course, is the home of the 82nd Airborne, a historic fighting force. And those five days that kids are going to be out of school is just between now and October. In fact, it’s when the school year starts in late August.

In October, if the sequester remains in place, which is what our Republican colleagues are calling for, you’re going to see a lot more days when the children of our service men and women are out of school. I mean, this is outrageous.

You’re going to see, starting in the fall, cutbacks in funds for all school jurisdictions around the country, Martin. And yet, you still have our Republican colleagues, unfortunately, twiddling their thumbs.

We should be – right now – the Budget Committee from the House and the Senate...

BASHIR: Yes.

VAN HOLLEN: ... should be meeting to iron out...

BASHIR: Yes.

VAN HOLLEN: …differences right now, instead of people back home.

Senator Murray, who’s the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, myself – we’ve been ready for the last 45 days to try and iron out these differences, replace the sequester, so you don’t have kids of military servicemen and women thrown out of – having five days off school.

And our Republican colleagues have refused to even name people to participate in the negotiation.

BASHIR: It’s – it’s absolutely staggering. But I have an insight, sir, and I’d like you to listen. I’m going to read an exchange between Politico reporters and Mr. Boehner in the article that I referred to. It’s about why he and the President have not spoken this year.

So, they ask, ‘have you called [President Obama]?’ ‘No,’ he replies. They ask, ‘why not? You’ve never called the President and said let’s talk about immigration so when it hits the floor…’ He answers, ‘I’m busy trying to organize my own guys.’

I have no doubt, sir, that Louie Gohmert is a difficult cat to herd, but is that the job of being Speaker of the House of Representatives?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Martin, you’d hope that he would be leading the country in terms of meeting with the President. I mean, the President obviously has taken the initiative. He took the initiative last year, and again this year to try and meet with our Republican colleagues.

Speaker Boehner last December announced that he would not meet with the President of the United States one on one anymore to work on these negotiations. Why was that? Because he recognized that if he negotiated an agreement with the President, that he, the Speaker of the House, wouldn’t be able to get his own members on board – his tea party members. So his conclusion was that he’s just not going to speak to the President of the United States. And the President has continued to reach out to the Speaker, as he has to Republicans in the Senate, but they just refuse to want to come together to try and iron out these important differences...

BASHIR: Yeah.

VAN HOLLEN: ... so that these kids of servicemen and women won’t have to miss five days of school.

BASHIR: I guess it proves who’s the juvenile here. But the bridge collapse in Washington State, which happened, as you know, last week, is attributed to one truck driver’s crash, but it’s also brought into light the subject of infrastructure spending.

Let me read to you a few of the findings of the American Society of Civil Engineers just on Washington State. Almost $10 billion over the next two decades is needed for drinking water infrastructure; 366 bridges are structurally deficient – that’s a worst category than the bridge that just collapsed; and two-thirds of roads are in poor or mediocre condition.

What is Speaker Boehner doing when states are crumbling? They are crumbling, sir.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, that’s exactly the right question to ask. That same organization, the American Society for Civil Engineers, gave our national infrastructure the grade of a D plus – that’s D as in dog. And what we’ve proposed – and this includes the President’s budget – is to have a major increase in our national investment and infrastructure.

As you well know, this used to be a bipartisan idea. After all, President Eisenhower was the president that helped build out the interstate highway system.

We’ve got very low interest rates. We have about 13 percent unemployment in the construction industry. It is a no-brainer to launch a major infrastructure investment program. That’s why it’s included in the President’s budget. It’s why it’s included in the Democratic budgets in Congress. But again, our colleagues have refused to support those infrastructure investments.

And this can only be, in my view, a pure partisan play, because this used to be something that brought us together to repair and renovate and improve our infrastructure so we can be competitive.

BASHIR: Not – not...

VAN HOLLEN: And you’ve got public safety...

BASHIR: ... not anymore, sir.

VAN HOLLEN: ... but you’ve also got competitiveness.

BASHIR: Not anymore. Not anymore.

VAN HOLLEN: It’s not looking like that.

BASHIR: And as you know, sequestration removes something like $2 billion in money that would have been allocated for infrastructure projects already.

VAN HOLLEN: Yeah, that’s right, the new start.

BASHIR: Congressman Chris Van Hollen, thank you so much.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you, Martin.

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