| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Saturdays, watch American History TV's new series, First 100 Days. | |
| We'll explore the early months of presidential administrations with historians and authors and through the C-SPAN archives. | ||
| We'll look at accomplishments and setbacks and examine how events impacted presidential terms and the nation up to present day. | ||
| This Saturday, we'll look at the first 100 days of Andrew Jackson's presidency. | ||
| Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828 in a rematch with John Quincy Adams from the 1824 election. | ||
| Mr. Jackson came to office with a vision for the country, but his agenda was stalled by controversy. | ||
| Early issues during his term included states' rights, payment of national debt, tariffs, and treatment of Native Americans. | ||
| Watch American History TV's new series, First 100 Days, Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern on American History TV on C-SPAN 2. | ||
| Up to Capitol Hill now. | ||
| It's Congressman Russ Fulcher of Idaho, Republican of Idaho Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committee, joining us from the Canon Rotunda. | ||
| Good morning to you, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, John. | |
| Thanks for having me on today. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| I wanted to lead with the latest when it comes to the budget reconciliation process. | ||
| The lead story in Punch Bowl News today, House Republicans racing to show budget progress amid Senate pressure. | ||
| Can you just bring us up to speed on where we are? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think what's going on is people are trying to figure out ways to truly change the trajectory for spending over the long term. | |
| That's a problem that we've had for a long time. | ||
| As you know, we're 36 trillion in debt, and it's difficult to do. | ||
| I think the president and the Doge group are doing their jobs. | ||
| They're identifying areas that need to be reduced or eliminated. | ||
| But Congress now has to act and just long term to put these policies in place and situations where just permanently speaking, we change the trajectory of the spending in Washington, D.C. | ||
| So that's where most of the debate is, is how do we do that, still maintain the priorities that are important for us to maintain, but yet cut the spending stuff so that we can have a chance to have a balanced budget someday in the future. | ||
| If you were advising Elon Musk, where would you want Doge to look next? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Probably IRS-related stuff. | |
| I mean, there's a lot of things there. | ||
| There's also the Medicaid area where there needs to be some changes. | ||
| We know that there's a lot of fraud going on in that area. | ||
| We know that there are excess dollars being spent that shouldn't be. | ||
| There's a couple of right places. | ||
| He's already going after the USAID stuff and the foreign policy and the dollars that are leaving the country. | ||
| Now let's go after the fraud that's going on within the country. | ||
| And I think that he's going to find a lot of stuff there. | ||
| You mentioned the IRS revenue collection. | ||
| Can we go to your KEAP Act? | ||
| What is the KEEP Act? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so KEEP Act is Keep Each and Every Penny. | |
| And the idea behind that is to eliminate federal income tax on overtime pay. | ||
| And that was a bill that we released last year. | ||
| Didn't get a lot of traction, but now with President Trump, he's caught on to that. | ||
| He's got onto that message. | ||
| And what we want to do is we want to encourage work. | ||
| We want people to be able to keep more of what they earn. | ||
| And especially in this post-COVID world, there's a real problem with that. | ||
| The idea, of course, is that if you keep more of what you earn, you're going to spend that money. | ||
| You're going to invest that money and you're going to do it more efficiently than some government program. | ||
| And so that's what the idea is. | ||
| It's similar to the no tax on tips that the president has come out with, but now he's supporting both of those and we're excited. | ||
| We hope to be able to put that in the reconciliation package and just reward work and people willing to take that initiative. | ||
| When you say it's similar to the no tax on tips, what's the major difference? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, with the no tax on, it's difficult to put a number, like a cost or a benefit on those things. | |
| But what we do know is that when people are able to drive more of what they earn and be the decision makers on where their money goes, it's more efficiently spent and invested. | ||
| So the no tax on tips is something the president came out with and frankly the idea on the no tax on overtime pay for federal income tax that came through our office. | ||
| But the president has embraced both. | ||
| So we feel good about that. | ||
| Congressman, since you're joining us on a Friday at 8.30 a.m. Eastern, the first Friday of the month, let me ask you about the unemployment situation in this country. | ||
| The BLS report just coming out a few minutes ago. | ||
| The payroll employment rose 143,000 in the month of January. | ||
| The unemployment rate edged down to 4%. | ||
| What's your reaction to those numbers? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, a couple things. | |
| First of all, I want to make clear that our KEEP Act, the no tax on overtime pay, does not impact the payroll tax. | ||
| So your Social Security, your Medicare, all of that is untouched. | ||
| The other point I would make on that is what's going on with our foreign adversaries and what's going on with the jobs that are being pulled into China and whatnot. | ||
| And automatically, now that transitions the conversation to some of the tariffs, why the president's doing some of that. | ||
| So we've had an issue losing jobs to other countries, and we're not on necessarily a level playing field with those other countries. | ||
| And so I think that tells you why the president has taken some of the policies and the approach on the tariffs that he has, John. | ||
| And so everything is related in this issue. | ||
| So when you see that report come out on jobs, it is tied to our foreign competition and how we handle that policy internally. | ||
| I know we only have a couple minutes with you, Congressman. | ||
| I did want to ask about the Gem State. | ||
| It suffered one of its worst wildfire seasons last year. | ||
| And I know you recently had a meeting with federal officials and state officials to talk about wildfire management. | ||
| What did you talk about lessons that could be applied to 2025 and the wildfire season that's expected? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, John, thanks for bringing that up because it doesn't get a lot of airtime in the East all the time. | |
| And that's a huge issue in the West. | ||
| We burned up a million acres in the last year. | ||
| It's mostly on federal land. | ||
| We have a tremendous amount of federal land, and the reason is it's simply not managed. | ||
| You heard about all the Southern California fires. | ||
| Well, that happened because they didn't have their water management right. | ||
| In Idaho, it happened because we didn't manage the fuel load. | ||
| We're not doing the logging and the clearing and the clearing of the brush and whatnot. | ||
| So lightning strikes hit these vast open areas and it just turns into fire. | ||
| So what we tried to do is get the Forest Service, the BLM, the State Department of Lands, local loggers, stakeholders, everybody at the table to try to address that, figure out how to work together because no one entity, especially the federal government, has the resources to stop this. | ||
| We can do it, but what takes management and we're not doing that collectively. | ||
| We're not working together. | ||
| That was the whole purpose of my meeting with those stakeholders. | ||
| On the clearing and the management that you need from the Forest Service, BLM, concerned that efforts to downsize the federal government, could that impact the ability, the number of people out there doing those things that you note are necessary to keep these wildfires from spreading? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Very good point. | |
| And that's all the more importance of why we need to pull the local stakeholders in. | ||
| Remember, this is federal land. | ||
| They kind of act like a landlord, but they're overwhelmed. | ||
| They don't have the resources now, and likely with the spending trajectory going down, they're going to have less. | ||
| And so that means they have to rely on the state. | ||
| They have to rely on the locals. | ||
| They have to rely on people that are living on the ground. | ||
| And frankly, that's what we want. | ||
| We, on the local level, the constituency wants more control over that land. | ||
| And this is one of those things where maybe not the circumstances you want to drive that decision, but that's what's happening, and it needs to transition to more local control. | ||
| Final minute, Congressman Fulcher, what else are you working on today on Capitol Hill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we've got a lot of the issues coming up in energy and commerce. | |
| Name, image, and likeness, if you're familiar with that, that's a huge deal. | ||
| College sports, we're starting to focus on that. | ||
| We have to do something in that arena right now. | ||
| It's just kind of a free-for-all with money going to student athletes and all kinds of agencies and potentially bad interests getting involved with that. | ||
| So that's kind of on the short-term radar, different topic entirely, but an important one. | ||
| We want to save college sports and don't typically like the federal government to get involved with that. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| Right now, we kind of need to because there's a lot of bad stuff going on there. | ||
| Congressman Fulcher, let's have you on again down the road to talk about that issue and others that you're working on on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Four-term Congressman, member of the Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committees. | ||
| We'll let you go about your day. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country. | ||
| Coming up Saturday morning, the American Enterprise Institute's Frederick Hess and the Education Law Center's Robert Kim discuss the Trump administration and education policy. | ||
| Then attorney Mark Zaid, who focuses on national security and federal employment, looks at current efforts to reduce the number of government workers. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Saturday morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN now or online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Here's what's ahead. | ||
| Next, our author interview program Afterwards, featuring Omo Moses, son of civil rights organizer Robert Moses. | ||
| He talks about being black in America through the voices of three generations of the Moses family. | ||
| Then President Trump, welcoming the Japanese prime minister to the White House and hosting a joint press conference. | ||
| And later remarks by Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on democracy, the rule of law, and global affairs from a symposium hosted by Georgetown University's Law Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. |