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unidentified
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It isn't just an idea. | |
| It's a process. | ||
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| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
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| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| We're joined now by Representative Mark Harris. | ||
| He's a Republican of North Carolina and a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Judiciary and Education and Workforce Committee. | ||
| Sarah, welcome to the program. | ||
| Thank you, Mimi. | ||
| It's great to be with you. | ||
| I want to start with your work on the Agriculture Committee. | ||
| Punch Bowl News reported that Republicans on the committee met privately to discuss the future of the Trump agenda. | ||
| What can you tell us about that meeting? | ||
| Well, I can tell you that we are continuing to make progress and looking forward to next week. | ||
| As I understand it, we're going to be doing our markup for our part of the reconciliation bill, the one big beautiful bill. | ||
| And really, we're continuing to have conversations. | ||
| All things are on the table as we look to make some decisions. | ||
| So we've got some serious decisions to make, some targets that I think that are going to be important for us to hit. | ||
| And I think what I sense from the meeting is most everyone is on the same page, and we're going to get to where we need to be. | ||
| And I'll just remind our callers, we don't have Representative Harris for very long. | ||
| So if you'd like to talk to him, please start calling in now. | ||
| The numbers are Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans are on 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Congressman, you said everything's on the table. | ||
| I want to ask you about SNAP benefits, which is, of course, an anti-hunger program. | ||
| Is that on the table for cuts, and what are the plans for that? | ||
| Well, I think we're just looking at really more adjustments to really what the program needs to be. | ||
| We've got a situation with errors, SNAP overage by 10%, an underpay by 1%. | ||
| So we're having on average about 11% error rate that I think is something that we'll look at. | ||
| But there's just a number of issues that I think really the management of it, it has exploded. | ||
| I mean, we have some serious issues in this country for us to be able to maintain. | ||
| And I think that we're going to be looking at issues that will probably allow us to work with states. | ||
| Right now, as you know, this program is 100% federally funded. | ||
| The states administer it, and I think we'll be looking at different options of how we're going to be able to work together going forward. | ||
| Well, there's been a lot of discussion about Medicaid that's in the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| $880 billion need to be cut from that committee. | ||
| What's going on with that? | ||
| The President has said there will be No cuts to Medicaid benefits. | ||
| Well, I think it's very clear that we're going to be careful to make sure that the services, you've got to remember, we were sent here to Washington back in November of 2024. | ||
| We were elected to do government differently, and that's exactly what we're trying to do. | ||
| And this administration has obviously inherited a situation where there's some real problems that have with the expansion and just the major growth. | ||
| In fact, Obamacare, if you really get down to it, really focused more on taking care of people that were capable adults, as opposed to when Medicaid was really started, it was meant to take care of those that were really in bad situations, taking care of children, taking care of single moms, taking care of those with disabilities. | ||
| And I think what we've got to really do is look at how we're going to be able to bring that program back to its foundation, just so it's sustainable. | ||
| I think that's the whole key message that people have got to hear. | ||
| Programs like this can't be sustained unless they are reformed in order to get back to the foundation with which they were started. | ||
| And I think that that's really the work that this Congress wants to do, this administration wants to do. | ||
| And I think that's where you're going to see things go in the next week. | ||
| Obviously, I'm not on energy and commerce, so I don't know all of the ins and outs. | ||
| But again, I'm just giving an overall picture. | ||
| When you look at these programs, we've got to make sure that we get them back to what they were intended to do. | ||
| I mean, when you've got a 30-year-old person living in their parents' basement and not working, and the federal government's supplying 90% of his health care, and yet you've got an impoverished mom with a second child on the way, and the federal government's only paying 50 to 70 percent of her situation, then you've got a real problem. | ||
| And these kinds of things are what have developed, and it's going to be up to this administration and this Congress to work to fix these issues. | ||
| I think that's that's where we're headed. | ||
| All right, let's talk to callers. | ||
| We'll start with Deb in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| I'm concerned about the cuts to SNAP or to Narcan and drug treatment programs. | ||
| I think everyone is touched by someone with addiction or alcoholism. | ||
| And I know that I hurt a lot of people. | ||
| It's taken a lot of time to clean up my life, but I'm alive because of Narcan. | ||
| I'm 69 years old, 29 years old, 20 years ago, somebody used Narcan to keep me alive. | ||
| And if you want hope, I think you need these drug treatment programs. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Congressman Harris. | ||
| Well, first of all, let me just say I'm very grateful for those that have been successful at coming through those programs. | ||
| I've been a pastor for more than 36 years, and I understand. | ||
| I've seen people that are dealing with addiction, and these programs that work are important. | ||
| I think, again, there's no intention to cut programs as much as it cut services, I should say, as it is to find those programs that are working, make sure that we're able to keep them going. | ||
| But again, we've got to look at the local, the state, and the federal, and we've got to recognize what is going to be the federal government's role here and how that we can help and work together. | ||
| But as far as programs, I commend the caller for understanding and finding a program that would literally save her life. | ||
| Here's Linda in Corning, New York, Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Linda. | ||
| Linda, are you there? | ||
|
unidentified
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Again, there's no intention to cut the program. | |
| And here is Galen in Nixa, Missouri, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, my question is: you know, we listen to congressmen all the time. | |
| I'm Republican, and they never really talk anything. | ||
| Oh, it's a billion here, 100 billion here. | ||
| I would like to know for them to get on television and break it down like Medicaid. | ||
| I'm not on Medicaid, but if you're cutting Medicaid for people, tell us the rest of this on the free C-SPAN Now video app as we take you over to Capitol Hill, where the house is gaveling in. | ||
| Live coverage here on C-SAN. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. |