In the News

House Democrats are making their case to voters with a raft of legislation.

In today’s Congressional Corner, Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal speaks with WAMC’s Alan Chartock.

This conversation was recorded July 1st.

Alan Chartock: Here we are with my congressman, Richard Neal, Massachusetts’ first district, a man I admire incredibly. Richie is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. You've been in the thick of it, you've written all of the major legislation.

Representative Richard Neal: We have. And I think that economists, right, left, and center would all come to the same conclusion, and that is the establishment of the safety net which is not only provided for sustenance for people that desperately need it in the lower and middle income categories, but it also helped to create demand. So I think that it mitigated many of the more, I think, critical aspects of COVID. But we're going to need to do it again, and the Heroes Act those precisely that, the Cares Act, I think was a good step in the right direction. But I think that you and your listeners would also note that the speed with which Congress acted in the early days, the first round of legislation was agreed to by myself, Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin, in her office on a Friday night, and eight days later it passed. And then the Cares Act passed, and I'm very proud of that. Overwhelmingly, it was the Ways and Means Committee input, including on really important issues like unemployment insurance, the stimulus checks that went to members of the American family, the retention job credit. And I thought that those initiatives swiftly done had much to do with the fact that we did a better job of getting through it at that time than some other countries did. And now it appears as though we've fallen back. And it means that we're going to have to do this again.

So how is how was negotiating with Mnuchin? What was that like?

Well, I mean, I've had a good relationship with him the Ways and Means Committee oversees the Treasury Department. And I've gone back and forth with him. Time and again, I thought that he was very open to my suggestion about the need for expanded on employment insurance. I think he understood the whole notion of liquidity in the system. I reinforced that by seeking advice from individuals who had held the Treasury Secretary's job in the past three real luminaries, so we've been very helpful to me and advice, I sought out advice from Janet Yellen, the former head of the Federal Reserve Board, who I thought did a great job. I talked to Jay Powell extensively, and people that had broad experience in dealing with the sort of shutdowns. So when I went to the initial conversations with the Secretary, I'd already established a relationship with him because many of the issues that he was interested in and that I'm interested in, they coincide finding an agreement, however, it can be challenging. So we came to it probably from different perspectives, but I think there was broad agreement again, by acting at the pace that we did, it was very important to building an underpinning of the of the current economic system, and also understanding that until we fully address COVID and create a sense of confidence, the American people are going to be reticent about returning to work. Adopting many of the normal procedures that they previously did.

Well, Richie Neal, a lot of people should be very grateful to you, whether they know it or not. Let's get to some of that real top stuff, the famous Russian bounty case. If independents and Republicans don't start to desert this president in droves, something's really wrong.

Well, I'm struck by the reporting. And I still think that we have never gotten to the bottom of the Russian relationship with the administration, and for the President to declare that he had not seen any of this documentation when you have two people who have confirmed that he was informed of it in early February, makes a mockery of intelligence gathering. And I understand if people would say to me, well, he doesn't read the briefings every morning. Well, that's a responsibility that he has to undertake. The presidents that I'm familiar with in the time I've been here, they all began their day by being with the CIA and others in the national security force. And they were always briefed early in the morning about events that have taken place, perhaps in the last eight hours since the president had gone to sleep. So I think that he professes this, number one, shallow understanding and number two disinterest in the briefings is probably authentic. But I can't imagine that somebody did not verbalize these warnings to him about the destabilization of the relationship in Afghanistan, given the fact that the Russians were paying Taliban fighters to assassinate American soldiers

In your heart of hearts. Richie Neal, do you believe that the president didn't know about it?

No I don't. I believe that he does know about it. He did know about it, and he was fully briefed on it. And even if he didn't, as I said, read the documentation, he must have had the responsibility to secure the information from the secretary of state and/or the CIA and others. When you read these stories as I have every morning now they are very thoroughly done. They are well documented and they cite specific times as well for people inside the White House who are giving out that information. So on a twofold basis, one is cozying up to Russia during the time that he's been president, coupled with the fact that you now have evidence that the Russians were trying to destabilize Afghanistan by killing American soldiers. So we need to understand fully why the president didn't bring this to the attention of the American people. And it took the New York Times and the subsequent reporting by the Washington Post and others to bring those all up to speed.

Now Attorney General Barr, his attorney general, is basically in denial about the whole thing. That's what we're hearing. Pompeo, Barr, the rest of those guys. Is it time? I know because I'm getting a lot of mail Richie, people who want to see him impeached. They want to see them all impeached but they want to see the president impeached another time. Can it be done?

I don't think that can be done. But I do think we need to put the focus on some of these rulings and interpretations that the attorney general has embraced. When he left the first Bush administration, he left generally with high marks. And I think now that when we understand what happens in the Department of Justice, you really have to have an individual there of integrity and an individual who says that this department is not to be governed by the excesses of day to day politics, but instead, to a bold adherence to the law. And I think that you have notable people who have been attorney generals in our lifetimes, who have been more than willing to stand up to presidents, even attorney generals that we might have disagreed with, that the evidence was fairly ample that they in fact stood up to the president and gave them advice or suggestions that might have been unpopular in the Oval Office. But again, a broad adherence to the rule of law.

Richard Neal, you are not only my congressman and I think a wonderful congressman, but you also are a college teacher. What are the young people that you come into contact with, not lately, I assume, but what are you hearing from them about the dismay of what's going on in this country?

Well, somebody described it recently to me, we were talking, they said, this is 1918, 1928, and 1968, all at once. And I think that the students are reacting to it on that basis. I only hope that they'll have that opportunity in the polling place to demonstrate what really has been their frustration about the current conversations that take place across America. I mean, the uncivil tone of what comes from the White House every day is not helpful. In addition to which I think that many of us came along in a system where you listened as well as talked that you tried to find agreements where you could. I like to point out to people who have some interest in scholarship, that Democrats control one half of one third of the federal government. That's a really important consideration. So we can't get everything that we want, but not to miss the point that because we have control of the House of Representatives, we've been able to advance a pretty strong agenda and the Cares Act, it was the House bill that garnered 388 votes. That's a stunning achievement. And I think that if we just allowed Senator McConnell to pass his legislation, we would not have nearly accomplished what we did in terms of many of the issues that I outlined earlier in the conversation. So I pass that on. I think that the students are fully attentive. I really enjoy it. It keeps me up to speed but it also reminds us that investing in the next generation is really important in public life.

Now they're out in the streets, the kids, will they go to the polls?

We're gonna have to wait and see the evidence is, you know, over the course of our lifetimes has been sporadic. And even in the last round of elections, I think that many of the young people professed an interest in voting. But when you looked at some of the data afterwards, it wasn't quite what they suggested it would be. So I think that getting them to the polls, with the same interest that I had, by the way, when I was 18, 19, or 20 would be a good thing.

Richie Neal is congressman from the first beautiful district of Massachusetts, where I'm talking to him from right now. He is my congressman and Richie, congratulations on all the incredible work you're getting done. We so appreciate it all. And when we come back the next time I got a lot more for you.

Thank you, Alan.