| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| I'm Christy Noam, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. | ||
| It is TSA's top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe. | ||
| However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government. | ||
| And because of this, many of our operations are impacted. | ||
| And most of our TSA employees are working without pay. | ||
| We will continue to do all that we can to avoid delays that will impact your travel. | ||
| And our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, coming up, President Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel will be holding a news conference in the Oval Office. | |
| Reporters are gathering there for what we expect will be remarks on the latest crime figures. | ||
| Live coverage when that gets underway shortly here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| We're joined now by Representative James Walkinshaw, a Democrat of Virginia and a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. | ||
| Welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me. | |
| Before we talk, I just wanted to respond to the last caller about the winery. | ||
| This is Bloomberg. | ||
| Bloomberg government is reporting the senators holding holiday weekend fundraising trips amid shutdown. | ||
| This is from October 7th. | ||
| Senate Majority Leader Thune is among the senators from both parties who have weekend fundraising getaways planned as the government shutdown heads toward its second week. | ||
| Thune and other GOP senators have planned a fundraising trip this weekend to South Carolina. | ||
| Their Democratic counterparts have scheduled one with donors in California wine country, according to fundraising appeals sent to donors and other sources. | ||
| And just wanted to get back to that caller. | ||
| But you have just been elected to Congress. | ||
| You replaced the late Jerry Connolly. | ||
| Can you give us a little bit of an idea about your background? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Well, I'm a lifelong Northern Virginian. | ||
| My grandfather grew up on a farm near Dulles Airport and I spent my entire life, with the exception of four years in college in Northern Virginia. | ||
| When I was 26 years old, Jerry Connolly asked me to be his chief of staff here in Washington. | ||
| And I spent 11 years serving as his chief of staff, advising him on a host of issues. | ||
| In 2019, I ran for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which is the governing body in Fairfax County. | ||
| I flipped a Republican-held seat and for the last five years represented about 130,000 people right in the middle of Fairfax County, including George Mason University. | ||
| When Congressman Connolly was diagnosed with cancer and made the decision not to seek reelection, he and I sat down and talked and he encouraged me to consider stepping into the race to succeed him. | ||
| I was very fortunate to have been elected on September 9th, sworn into the House the next day on September 10th, and have been doing my best to represent my constituents in Virginia's 11th district since then. | ||
| And you're brand new to Congress, but you are in the middle of a shutdown now. | ||
| So could you give us the latest on what kind of negotiations are going on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there aren't really negotiations going on, unfortunately, especially in the House. | |
| And we are now in week four of the unplanned House recess. | ||
| Speaker Johnson has canceled votes again, so the Congressional Republicans are not here in Washington, not negotiating. | ||
| Democrats like myself are here. | ||
| We're ready to sit down and negotiate a compromise, but unfortunately, that can't take place when one side of that negotiation is not even in town. | ||
| So what's the long-term strategy then for Democrats? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think the long-term strategy is to continue to advocate to cancel the health care cuts to address the expiration of the Affordable Care Act, enhance premium tax credits. | |
| If we don't do that, just in my district, 19,000 people will see their health care premiums skyrocket. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On November 1st, the open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act opens. | |
| So the families who have now been receiving those notices that their premiums will go up are going to have to go to healthcare.gov or the respective state exchanges and make a decision about the health care coverage for their families next year. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I think that date, November 1st, is critical and could be a forcing function to get our Republican colleagues to the negotiating table to work out a compromise. | |
| Your Virginia district is very close to Washington, D.C. | ||
| It's home to about 55,000 federal workers. | ||
| What are you hearing from them? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So federal workers have experienced over the last nine months an assault from the Trump administration. | |
| So they've been fired, laid off, forced out. | ||
| They've had their public service to the nation, which I believe is noble service, denigrated and attacked for nine months. | ||
| So they are angry, frustrated, and fed up. | ||
| And I think they see this Trump shutdown as one more in that long list of assaults and attacks that they've experienced from the Trump administration. | ||
| So they want to see us negotiate. | ||
| They want to see a spending agreement that, yes, reopens the government, addresses the health care cuts, provides some protections for federal agencies and federal workers from the rescissions that we've seen, from the illegal impoundment of federal funds where the Trump administration refuses to spend dollars that Congress actually funds and appropriates if they don't like that particular program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They want to see us accomplish all those things in a bipartisan negotiation. | |
| Our guest is James Walkinshaw, a Democrat of Virginia. | ||
| If you'd like to join our conversation and speak to him directly, you can do so. | ||
| Our lines are by parties. | ||
| Republicans, 202748, 8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202748, 8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202748, 8002. | ||
| We have a line for federal workers. | ||
| It's 202-748-8003. | ||
| You serve on the Oversight Committee. | ||
| And yesterday, OMB put this on X. | ||
| They said OMB is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats and transigents. | ||
| Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the rifts, and wait. | ||
| We understand the pay the troops, the pay law enforcement, where is that coming from and where would that money be found, if at all? | ||
| Do you have any idea? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that's a great question. | |
| I've read some reporting and speculation. | ||
| And look, the Anti-Deficiency Act is very clear about what the administration can and cannot do during a shutdown. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They cannot incur new obligations. | |
| They cannot expend money except when it's required to fulfill a constitutional duty or to preserve life and property. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I have a lot of questions about how I intend to do that. | |
| You know, we've seen with paying the troops an effort, and they haven't really explained it, to use unobligated funds at the Pentagon for which the Appropriations Act have given some transfer authority. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So it's possible that there's a legal mechanism to do that. | |
| I haven't seen a similar explanation for paying law enforcement, but I'd be eager to review it. | ||
| They just haven't explained it. | ||
| Let's talk to callers now. | ||
| Let's start with Vicki and Lincoln, Nebraska Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Vicki. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I just want to compliment C-SPAN about how when people call in and complain about other the other party, which I don't, I'm not going to do that, how they, you guys let them go on and on. | ||
| This is what I love about C-SPAN. | ||
| It's my favorite show because you let people be what they are. | ||
| And this is a safe place for us to voice our opinions. | ||
| And for the Democrat that's on the gentleman, I would just like to thank you for what you're doing. | ||
| I do believe the shutdown is something that has been caused by the Republicans and their revenge. | ||
| I feel like it's just we have to get back to doing the right thing for the people. | ||
| And I want to thank you, sir, for what you do. | ||
| And also, you might have somebody look into this. | ||
| In Nebraska, it just hit the news recently about 11 people getting left off, left out of a job at the state because they do collections and we're owed like $100 million. | ||
| So why would you get rid of people that that's their job? | ||
| You might want to look at that and have a Nebraska representative on and explain that to us. | ||
| All right, Vicki. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I'm not aware of that situation in Nebraska, but we'll certainly look into it. | ||
| Yeah, thank you. | ||
| Here's Melissa in Bloomfield, Iowa Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, thanks for taking my call. | |
| Representative, I know we're all concerned about the shutdown and everything, but I'd like your opinion and to explain to everybody why there are a few Independents and a Democrat in the Senate that is voting for this continuing resolution, which isn't adding any more money. | ||
| It's just keeping the lights on and keeping the bills paid. | ||
| Why you guys don't think it's important enough to vote for the so-called federal workers that you're worried about when all you're worried about is the illegals getting to stay on medical insurance. | ||
| When I'm sorry, but they don't belong here. | ||
| They need to go. | ||
| They need to quit living off of all of us. | ||
| All right, Melissa. | ||
| Well, thank you for the question. | ||
| And I think if you look at the situation with respect to the shutdown right now, what has happened in the Senate is you have a Republican spending proposal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And from my perspective and the perspective of most Democrats, that proposal locks in devastating cuts to health care for Americans, especially Americans in rural communities. | |
| That proposal has failed in the Senate because it hasn't received 60 votes. | ||
| There's also a Democratic proposal that Democrats have put on the table that would cancel the health care cuts, fund the government, provide some protections for the federal workers that I represent. | ||
| I acknowledge that that Democratic proposal also doesn't have 60 votes in the Senate. | ||
| I think most Americans out there across the country recognize when you have two competing proposals, neither of which have enough support to move forward, the logical thing to do, what we do in our families and our businesses and in our communities is we sit down at a table like this and we bring those two proposals together and we try to negotiate a compromise and reach a middle ground. | ||
| And that's what I and other Democrats here in Washington are trying to do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Unfortunately, our Republican colleagues are not willing to sit down at a table like this or a table in the Capitol to negotiate that kind of compromise. | |
| Now, the caller asks you why you want to support a bill that would allow illegals onto medical insurance. | ||
| And I realize this is a talking point that some of my Republican colleagues have been saying and the president has been saying. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's flat out untrue. | |
| The Affordable Care Act exchanges, and that's fundamentally what we're talking about here with the tax credits that are expiring. | ||
| Somebody who's undocumented or illegal as a caller defined it is not eligible. | ||
| Not only are they not eligible for the tax credits that we're talking about, they're not eligible to be on the Affordable Care Act exchanges at all. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So the folks that we're talking about who are going to have their health care premiums skyrocket, in some cases double or triple, are everyday Americans, just like the caller out there, | |
| like 19,000 folks that I represent in Virginia and tens of thousands of people in every congressional district across the country who are law-abiding taxpaying citizens of the United States of America who starting November 1st are going to log into healthcare.gov or the respective state exchanges and see that their premiums have skyrocketed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're fighting to prevent that. | |
| Congressman Walkenshaw, there is a provision in the Democrat plan to roll back the Medicaid cuts from the One Big Beautiful bill. | ||
| Wouldn't some of those rollbacks allow undocumented immigrants to access Medicaid? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for comprehensive Medicaid or Medicare. | |
| I think the kernel of truth that some Republicans are using to advance this false assertion is that there is a program in Medicaid that allows for somebody who shows up at the emergency room, someone who has a serious injury or a serious illness, and because they don't have health insurance coverage, if they're undocumented in this country, if they show up at the emergency room, in many cases a life-threatening situation, they can get that care at the emergency room. | ||
| This is Emtala. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| But that's currently in place. | ||
| I mean, that's the only thing that's important. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's been in place since Ronald Reagan. | |
| That's right. | ||
| And I think that is the kernel of truth that some Republicans are saying to assert that we are advocating to give more. | ||
| Although there are some states that have elected to offer Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrants. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's right. | |
| And states can make that decision on their own, and they could change that policy if they want to. | ||
| Here's Em in Dayton, Ohio. | ||
| Republican. | ||
| Good morning, Em. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I appreciate you letting me call. | |
| And you all have a very good day. | ||
| But my concern is during this shutdown and why they're wanting to stop pay from all the federal employees and they are wanting to cut out the Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, all this stuff. | ||
| How are they able to send all this money to other countries? | ||
| And why would they cut out medical needs for the United States citizens that have paid all their lives that they have worked into making tax cuts for the billionaires? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What they're not saying is how much of a deficit that will add to our debt, our debt. | |
| If you look at how much tax breaks they're wanting to give, that is more cost to our debt than the medical part is. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have same line. | |
| Let's get into response, Em. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you're absolutely right. | |
| And one of the things that makes me most angry, and I wasn't here when the Republicans in Congress passed the so-called Big Beautiful bill that gave permanent tax cuts to corporations, 10 years of tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, including billionaires, exploding and driving up the national debt and deficit. | ||
| And today, those same Republicans who voted to do that, permanent tax cuts for corporations, long-term tax cuts for billionaires, aren't even willing to provide hardworking, middle-class, working-class Americans even a temporary extension of the enhanced premium tax credits to help them afford their health insurance. | ||
| Look, this Republican Congress has been picking the pockets of hardworking Americans and lining the pockets of billionaires and corporations, and that needs to come to an end. | ||
| Annie, St. Petersburg, Florida, Democrat, good morning, Annie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, good morning. | |
| It's so nice to have someone on here that you are a very brave person. | ||
| Kudos to you. | ||
| Thank you, and welcome to the House of Representatives. | ||
| I'm calling to ask a couple questions. | ||
| First off, my son's a Marine in San Diego. | ||
| He has not received not a penny of money yet. | ||
| Also, I was wondering how you feel about the congressman not being sworn in. | ||
| Yeah, thank you for your question. | ||
| Thank your son for his service. | ||
| I hope he'll get that paycheck today. | ||
| Today is the 15th when our troops are supposed to get their paychecks. | ||
| If that doesn't happen, he should reach out to his member of Congress and try to figure out what's going on there. | ||
| Yeah, with respect to Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva, who was elected in a special election several weeks ago. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look, I was elected on September 9th and sworn in the next day. | |
| And I was the 217th signature on the discharge petition that will force a vote to release the Epstein files. | ||
| That petition needs 218 signatures for the vote to take place. | ||
| Congresswoman-elect Grijalva will be, and she has said this, the 218th signature, which means we would proceed to a vote. | ||
| I think it's quite clear that Speaker Johnson is not bringing the House back in session because he doesn't want to afford her the opportunity to sign that discharge petition and doesn't want to deal with the challenge that he knows a vote on the floor of the House to release those files would create. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And he doesn't want to anger Donald Trump. | |
| For some reason, Donald Trump doesn't want us to know what's in the Epstein files. | ||
| And it is an astounding thing that the House of Representatives has been on a multi-week recess just so we can avoid a vote on releasing those files. | ||
| We have a text from Ken in Seabrook, Texas. | ||
| Why doesn't Congress just pass a law that prevents shutdowns when there is a budget impasse? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there have been a number of proposals and discussions over the years about reforming the budget process. | |
| Foundationally, you know, the Constitution lays out Congress's role in appropriating your taxpayer dollars and ensuring that those dollars can only be spent if Congress passes legislation, your elected representatives pass legislation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I do think there can be reforms to streamline the budget process. | |
| The process that we're using now in Congress does date from the 70s. | ||
| But at the end of the day, the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. | ||
| From my perspective, some of my Republican colleagues have ceded already, have ceded much of that power to President Trump. | ||
| And I think from a small D Democratic perspective, it's important that we preserve that as your elected representatives. | ||
| Akron, Ohio, Independent Line, Terry, you're on the air. |