Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words With Representative Rosa DeLauro 20170730

Next on after words connecticut representative rosa delauro talks about her congressional work on social programs in her book the least among us. Waging the battle for the vulnerable. Shes interviewed by the American Enterprise Institute Resident scholar. Congresswoman delauro let me say this is an honor to be sitting here with you on your new book the least among us. I read the book from beginning to end. This different parts of the book and i think it does a lot about your passion and politics and getting policy work done despite all of the stress that you have to go through in congress. Thank you so much for writing this book and speaking out on behalf of your book the least among us. I think you much im delighted to be here with you to have the opportunity to speak about the book and i want to thank you for reading the book. It really is very gratifying. Thank you. I was struck by the league title this chapter you say in defense and we hear about the sick, the hungry, woman unemployed. Why did you feel the need to write this book at this time . Is the experience and policymaking for you to write this to feel that there is a need to highlight these issues. He really is in defense of women and children and families essentially. The issues that come up in the course of my tenure in 26 years. But it is it is a whole structure of a social safety net which i so fundamentally believe in that we have this shared responsibility. For one another. A moral responsibility to help people in a time of need or to make sure that kids are not punished because they grow up in a low income family. But i have to tie this back to my own experience. And growing up. Both of my parents serves in public life. They sat on a city council in the city of new haven. They did not write a crime bill or health bill. What they did, they sat around the table such as this. They work with the people in our community who help them find a job, to help them with Social Security and help them to find a place where they could put food on their table and it was making government work for people. And so those were the lessons that i learned. And when i think about that for this time, the social safety net has a very rich bipartisan history. But it is under a massive assault. And so when i took these lessons from my family i went to the congress were made that discovery of these programs and yes, you can talk about them as a series of programs but this is about the moral imperative of dealing with people in times of need. That led me, over the years of thinking about a social safety net crafted by democrats rick and republicans and understanding that as a result of the Industrial Revolution, as a result of changing times, why the country grew, people prospered there were those who were left behind. And the social safety net was there to catch people as they were experiencing these challenges in their lives and to be there so that they could get back on their feet again. And so with the issues that came up for the defense of the hungry and looking at nutrition programs and the Food Stamp Program. Looking at income support in a childs or in earned income tax credit. Looking at the unemployed and defending them and in Unemployment Insurance program that was there for them. So each of these experience, healthcare, woman, it was about descending or utilizing the institution to defend a people in the times of need and it comes out of my direct experience with my family and the issues just bubbled up from the Family Experience to say that this is where i need to go. This is where i can wage the battle for the vulnerable. Can that really comes out in the book. Let me step back a little bit before middle east are or stop talking with the cigna. I think one of the points in the book. As it is being circulated a lot. You say it bears repeating that the Reason Companies do not feel free, we lock our daughters of in sweatshops with no fire escape and so on. It is not turned where they were forced into this by actions of a democratic government. In other words if we rely on goodwill we are all screwed. Explain that to me left not. You cannot depend on the goodwill of a corporation or businesses or government. We have to make it work. And so that i speak about not contents what i saw in 1957 with the franklin street fire. Where my best friends mother died. As a result as locked doors and no fire estates and no letters that went to the ground. As a result of that 1957 we saw new fire safety regulations. We saw a workplace that was made safer. Not unlike the friend since perkins and what she saw and when she went to speak, she talked about safe workplaces. She talked about minimum wage. She talked about these other areas because if we do not put those in place, then the system will abuse people. We see this with child labor laws. We see it with yes, topic, that today people see and say that we need less regulation. But those regulations have helped to save peoples lives. And to make it possible for people to make them where you know the eight hour day, a 40 hour work week. All of those issues. All of those are critically important and they require the government to step in and do something about them. So theres a point where this matters. The reason our work lives have changed so much and in so many ways for the better is because we had a moral responsibility that came out through government regulation. But i want to push a little bit. Sort of say well, private companies have therefore, they are not doing much for the rest of the people. You know, in some sense they shipped all the responsibility either unto the government and not the private sector. There are ideas out there, economists recently had an articles and met global not because of safety regulations of the government because of free enterprise. Because of free trade. And there is a role, right . They see a lot of innovations happening in the private sector. And you know i get your point that the private sector needs to have boundaries and we need to figure out where things are working and not. But would you say that capitalism has played a role as well or even we dont call it capitalism. The private sector has contributed a lot to growth. Has contributed a lot to improve peoples lives. I believe that. And one of the serious economic problems we have today is that people are in jobs that just do not pay them enough to live on. They are being paid and yes, you know growing economy is a very very good thing to do. And they have played a role but again, i will go back to say, all of the components of our safety nets were responses to the Industrial Revolution and the economic geographic and Lifestyle Changes that accompany it. Advancing technology, globalization and corporate power. This is where we need to go. This is where the future growth. But we have to take a look at what then is the aftermath of that . And what about those who do get left behind in this process . And i say, these laws were written, not written by nacve people. We acknowledge the process and the progress that was made but it led to uncertainty. Volatility. That is in fact that we need to safeguard that are able to guard against financial calamity. We need to grow. We need to continue to grow. We need to right now, it is something that we need to do. May look at the social safety net you know, he said that the safety net is under attack. I think that you mean under attack from republicans. And you know, sometimes when i look at the debate i feel like there is a different view about how we think about the safety net. When i look at the republicans that are proposed changes to the safety net which often had to do with maybe work environments getting people to move it out of welfare if you want to think of it like that and into a job and on the other hand there is a view of the safety net which is that we need to expand the safety net because people are suffering and the role of the safety net is not to get people back into the workforce but provide them that safe space to exist. Do you think of that as a different in perspective . This is where we have a difference. I think you know, i listened to people who speak about people who, we went through a terrible recession. People lost jobs. Most of them lost jobs, not because of their own fault. And we have had in place again, established by democratic, republican president s, congress that said we had an Unemployment Insurance. I listen to people to say that if you provide Unemployment Insurance, i mean that is totally wrong. People want to work. Most people want to work. You define yourself by your job, right . I define myself by my job. People need to work. Yes. But there is a period of time where they need some help for a short period of time to get back on their feet. And so that the notion that and again, i believe carina spoke about this, is a hammock. There are people that demean who people are, what they are about, with their own character is about. They want to take care of themselves. They want to take care of their families. You know, ive children and grandchildren. I want them to look up to me about the way i do my job. Factory workers want the same thing for their families. They want their kids to look up and one of the problems we face in this country, all of the country. People who are out of work, theyre watching the fabric of their lives disintegrate before their eyes. They are embarrassed. That their kids know that they are out of work. And that they cannot afford to send their children to college. Right. They cannot afford a vocational technical school. They cannot pay for healthcare. It is that issue that is critically important. And what i found, if i can go back, i think the social safety net first came under attack with newt gingrich. You talk about that in the books. Thats right. And you know that was, lets block food stamps. Lets eliminate the school lunch program. Lets cut medicare by 270 billion. But, lets provide the tax break for the richest americans. We fought back we fought back, we mobilized and forth back and defeated those efforts. Today there is a school lunch program. They did not block food stamps, they were not able to cut medicare by 270 billion. And that is a kind of thing that we need to do today. If i might, i think that i, one of the things that i say and i really believe this. This is about today. And it is about paul ryan. Paul ryan is thinking about poverty. And some of our republican colleagues. Not all of them, because i said that these programs, their strength was bipartisan. You know you can only make receiving government aid humiliating enough people opt out. They will that idea is a slap in the face of the millions who do everything right. And still, they cannot get by. They work hard, play by the rules and it is a betrayal of a legacy of Good Government in the united states. This legacy is what, when i have worked to defend for 25 years. Vision for america that i want to experience all americans can support one another in difficult times and share in prosperity. That for me was the central argument. Right. And sometimes when i look at back objectively, the idea that two people need to be pushed off Unemployment Insurance. As an economist sometimes you read the literature and we do find that demented benefits start to run out, people you know there is a spike of people in the number that find jobs. And it does not mean people are ready to find jobs or people are able to find jobs that are really the job that they want. But do think that there is value in having people remain attached to the workforce . And i get that these are not the best jobs. You know we see that all the time because he knew even sometimes the argument is that yes, people, we get them into a job a low rate job. Is a much different economy. If you look at the beneficiaries ensure that your bread schaefer and you know two dollars a day. But yes, of course there is value in the workforce. And people want to work. But you look at the economy where there are no jobs and at the same time i take a look when i speak about right now. I take a look at the trump budget. And the ryan budget. If you eliminate the job training and the 2. 3 billion cut in workforce training, if you shut down the avenues that allow people to be able to succeed at a job, what does that say about your concept . You want people to have a job. On the one hand, jobs are scarce. Then you do not want to train people for their jobs. In the other piece which is that today, i am sure you book that that they did about creating jobs in a digital economy. Which we need to do. 70 percent of the people do not have a College Degree and we have probably put too much emphasis on a College Degree. But if you cut Vocational Training and you cut jobs and states are cutting vocational, cutting back on Vocational Training. What is it that you do to connect people to the workforce . I guess they did have a push. They did to a push for apprenticeship programs and stuff. And i guess the conversation is how do you and holy office every day. This is a challenging economy. The labor market has suffered one of the most in the agreed in the great recession. [inaudible] put on apprenticeships, i think it is so critically important. Because they are so valuable. And yet, if you take a look at the budget, the trump budget. In the 2017 budget which we recently passed, there was 95 million. For the nation for apprenticeships. In the 2018 budget, they cut it to 90. They want to because it is not a cut but it is simple math. 9495 is a cut. However, we have a program for several years that had over 2 billion. For connecting community colleges. And this is happened in my district. Community colleges and of industry. Yeah, thats right and that program came to a conclusion. And this congress would not reauthorize. So we are now with 90 million for the entire country and you know, i have listened to labor secretaries and education secretaries tell me that apprenticeships are a good thing. Why then are we not making a more serious question getting people to jobs and not having to say or talk about a four year College Degree is the best thing. You know it is not true it is not true. And the Unemployment Rate is way higher than the official Unemployment Rate. That is why you need people to have jobs at younger ages to make sure. Also back to joe someone who is an idol. He says you know, inequality is nothing result of globalization and technology but the Public Policy choices that we make. And he is right. And we have made some bad Public Policy choices. Which have not helped people to began fully employed. To be able to take care of themselves and their family. Lets talk a little bit about one of the big reasons why these programs are happening. It is likely because the spending. Do you say that president bush cited projections in 2018 exceed what they taken and today when you look at the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office that it says the same thing. It shows that security will be cut. You think there is a way to cut or reformed Social Security . Nobody wants cuts and benefits but we know that we need some change in the program. List a on the people not paying. Im trying to recall the figure. 100 and list that when Social Security reaches lowest part we had filed we had Ronald Reagan and oneill. They made this solvent into the future. This on all of this wringing of hands about Social Security and being insolvent can be solved immediately. By lifting the cap and there are those that just do not want to do that. Social security has been one of the most successful programs at lifting people out of poverty in this nation. And those, i lived through you know, the desire to privatize Social Security. And it was you know i note that in the book as well. But we can solve this problem and we can solve it easily. Where we need to deal with, we need to have been very hard cuts and as we seen in the past, tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the nation. Over the years weve seen the gap and the separation for those at the top doing very well in middleclass families, lowerclass families are struggling. And they are struggling to be able to send their kids to school. They look at a very bright child and say i am sorry. We cant get you to school. And they do not take vacation. They cannot afford to retire and so many of them i cannot put food on the table. Today. And we can do something about that. That gives me to talking about Social Security. And again, another area where i think there is bipartisan agreement is the centers that exist in the Social Security Disability Insurance program. The fact that people who are applying for disability and this has a lot to do with people out of the workforce. Why are the out of the workforce and on disability . And the fact that they can only earn a certain amount of money. I think it is a certain amount each month, if you go over then you get kicked out of the program or you are not eligible for the benefits. There is a ton of research now say nothing is of the people who decide well, i cannot keep a job. And i need to apply for disability. Even if i could have continued to work, i will not be able to do it because im trying to apply for the benefits. And it is a long process and people spend two years applying for benefits and then there out of the workforce for that long. Do you think that is a problem . Do think that i do not think it is a problem. I think we spent a lot of time thinking about, i will go back to paul ryan. If you can only make receiving government aid humiliating and actually, the president s budget cuts back on Social Security, disability payments. Whats happened in healthcare bill and medicaid where children who are disabled with disabilities are going to be cut from medicaid if the Senate Passes the healthcare repeal and replace bill. I am always interested in a ton of research that is done about the vulnerable. Waging the battle for the vulnerable. In finding that my god are they taking advantage . Is a child getting a lunch that they do not deserve . Lets then make sure, where is the research . On the other side of the coin . With the Tax Deductions that people are allowed to take because they can. Because they are very merry well off. I agree with you. What do we do about the money being spent for Crop Insurance . No one cares. They can get a Million Dollars in their premium subsidy. I remember and i talk about this in the book about colleagues who want to cut the Food Stamp Program and someone who is getting a federal subsidy for land that they are not even killing. Absentee landlords, that they can get the benefit of an agricultural subsidy because no one is watching, no one is saying you make too much money. You have assets that go beyond a thousand dollars that you talked about if the child gets a free lunch what about the people that want to drug test the food stamp beneficiaries which i talk about, why are arent we drug testing . Getting a tax cut at the highest end is a federal subsidy. Why should we not be drug testing all of those folks as well . The spending cuts in the policy are targeted. But we only want to seek out those who are vulnerable and then it is a problem. The upper end is not a problem. Thats why when i talk about the defense of the hungry and the unemployed in waging the battle, thats my job. Thats what my job has been. Lets talk about moving to a slightly different area. Q. Talk about your experience of getting Ovarian Cancer and the struggle to buy the act. Why is a struggle. This is an issue ive been working on myself and the family leave project and we often come up against the same stumbling blocks that these policies are misused and that people are going to take time off other than for the reasons you cite. Why was it a struggle to pass the family medical leave act in 1993 in all the years before that . He reintroduced it every year for eight years and that part of the tenacity is one of the strikes of the congress. You can keep at it which is what happened here and that experience i will recount it i was not a member of congress at the time, i was chief of staff for senator chris dodd, and it was his i had managed his First Senate Campaign and served as the chief of staff and so i watched the struggle year in and year out to pass the family medical leave and that is unpaid family medical leave and we were getting ready to announce the bid for the senate. It was the day of the announcement i was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. I dont remember much about the day except i struggled through it but then the next day i went to see him and they were going to put me in the hospital at the end of the week and quite frankly, i didnt know. Anyone who has had a cancer diagnosis you come facetoface with your own mortality in a very profound way. And again i say in the book i received the answer Everyone Wants to receive and he said to me go and get yourself well. Your job is here, your salary is here. We have two kids getting ready to go to college. They were going to graduate high school did go on to college. We didnt know how we would be able to pay for that. He said your job is here and i was going to take a leave of absence to run the campaign but he said the campaign doesnt start until you come back. That shouldnt be just for me as the person or as a member of congress. You can go to any member of congress. When we get sick, when our kids get sick and we are not there we are still paid. Nobody questions why is it just for those of us who serve in the house of representatives or the senate or our staff people to the members of congress . This should be what families, no one decides to get sick. No one decides when your child is sick or you are sick with the familof thefamily medical leaved unpaid i might add so chris dodd didnt just say that to me, he went out and passed the legislation but said its unpaid, 12 weeks for adoption of a child or any illness that you have a loved one has. So we went forward because getting family leave we couldnt get it past if it were paid but it was always in his head and those who are they are supportive of it like the National Partnership and the womens law center. The paid leave is no longer on the fringes. It is a part of our Public Discourse and for me the Gold Standard is 12 weeks. It is for the child that is adopted or a newborn. It is about what i was able to do which is about 75 of people utilize the family and medical leave or being an adoptive parent and that is what the standard ought to be which is something we ought to strive for and it should be understood by both sides of the aisle we want the states to experiment or add on top of that. But it obviously suggest the longer periods of leave. California, rhode island, and ive been to new jersey and rhode island and other places are doing this and, you know, the Business Community is on board. Some of the industry you know because you are working with it we need to make it possible to. We are going to let an employee or participate as well as the employee. And th and the shared responsibility because your point earlier that he wanted to allow employers to be able to do what they would like to do, so many would like to but they cant. So lets make it possible for them to do it because they have people of goodwill. We dont penalize our employees for taking time off. Your mother was a strong role model the same that you and others get into politics but you also write about how tough it is a. Of the instances that you write about. She lives with us and new haven and an extraordinary woman. I didnt realize this until. Shuts down at the end of the day so the loud noise of hundreds of machines paid by the piece. With the power machines so quickly you get the needle in your fingers so what do you do, you pull back. You dont go get a tetanus shot. There was no clinic. So you keep going because if you get a drop of blood on the government it didnt get paid. But she was so clear i didnt want to be there and she would take the opportunity for education so that you dont have to do this. She was and still is such a great role model for me because she did that but then also ran for office, was elected to the city council the longestserving woman on the city council, not the longestserving woman. At one point she was the only one in the longestserving member of the board in the history. When i first ran for office i found she wrote for a democratic newsletter in 1933. Its funny because she and my dad are not married at the time that she was the recording secretary as were so many and my dad was like the president of the democratic club, but she wrote to be engaged to be involved. Lets make ourselves heard. And my mother always made herself heard. She was an equal opportunity if you will do both th to both thec and republican administrations in new haven. She also told me something else, never take no for an answer. So a great role model and influence. The way that i have approached public life was in a similar moment and i have had experiences where starting with the city of new haven and working where i once wanted to be the chief administrative officer, the head of the new haven coliseum, jobs that were shut down because i was a woman and the new Haven Register editorialized against me i might be a hell of a gal around the office but i certainly could not take on the job of being the director of the new haven coliseum and i think out of spite because of my personality of what my mother told me i look back on that and i say i showed you. But in any case even with the congress, several examples in the congress i ran for the chair of the Democratic Caucus at the same time my dear friend nancy pelosi was running for the democratic whip. I was told at the time by democratic colleagues we couldnt have two women on the ticket and it wasnt that long ago. When i first went to testify, one of the instances i had i came from a defense dependent district and i had the stratford Connecticut Army plant where we did the tank and so i went to testify. Republican from california after i finished testifying he said congresswoman, can you speak about the engine for the tank without looking at your notes. I looked straight at him and i said damn straight i can. As i told a story in the book even that association with the congressman proud of what i had said, nevertheless when it came to, you know, supporting me with another woman on the ticket, devote just couldnt be there. But again i say about my own experiences in this context even today i see women have to work harder i dont know if that is true in your profession. You have to know what youre talking about when you stand up because. Whats wonderful about these is more women are thinking of running for office. Take the risk, its worth it. Talk to us about the paycheck fairness. Sort of looking around the country if we pass this legislation do you think it would actually have an impact. Its sort of the outcome of a decade of unfairness and inequality or access to certain opportunities. I think equal pay for equal work is a simple premise of men and women in the same jobs they deserve the same pay. Its what the paycheck legislation is all about. Its a simple premise and i think it is fundamental to the economic viability of families. Not to worry you, but we give you this example. I served in the house of representatives with men and we receive the same pay. We have different skill sets and different educational backgrounds. We are all paid the same amount of money. The other where that is true if combat is a different issue but men and women in the same job are paid the same amount of money. The university professor, director, tennis player, you can go through all of the professions they are paid less. 78, 79, its like a p. 1 cents in my district. The same profession. No one selected this to be paid less. So, there are instances. That is where we can correct that we provide the legislation that tries to be very fair to businesses if there is a reason to demonstrate the individual is being paid less. It would lift the prohibition on employees talking to each other about their salaries. Lilly ledbetter had to sign a document when she went to work because she wouldnt share the information about her salary and that happens to many women. They testify. They are having conversations with the president that he did this with federal contractors. The same jobs in whatever profession it is that is fundamental to the economic survival of women and their families. They should not be penalized and its not just about them, its about what happens with their families. So, we have passed the bill in the house twice. Lost in the senate and im sorry to say the first time we lost was because two women senators voted against it and today it would be the law of the land. I think one of the reasons why this may sound odd is because the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act was passed and i think they didnt want to buck their own leadership again and doing the paycheck fairness act. I had wanted and i tell the story in the book i advocated for the fair pay act and paycheck fairness, same job, same pay to be taken up together because i was very fearful that the wind would be passed and they would check that box and say we dont with equal pay and i love Lilly Ledbetter she becomes the biggest advocate for paycheck fairness but she knew what she would say with the fair paa fairpay act weve only got k to where we were before the Supreme Court ruling but it was separated and weve been trying ever since to take up the equal pay and your are going to conto do that unless we have a bill signed that says men and women with the same job deserve the same pay. Talk to us a little bit about the issue that you are pro choice and you said the only attacks against you on that you said this is coming from republicans. Guest that wa guest that was the issue of the Affordable Care act. The legislation hung by a thread, and the issue was about abortion, and the biggest obstacle or the catholic bishops. They maintained which was not true that the Affordable Care act would allow for abortion coverage with federal dollars that was not the case that there was a misinformation on the campaign surrounding that we fought back and i was working behind the scenes to see if we could come up with some sort of a compromise to move forward. Since i worked in the past with my colleague, tim ryan of ohio come at a time when we worked together reducing the number of abortions and the supporting their contact the worst together to look at how we might reduce the number and how we could support parents with adoptions in areas we tried to do that so that we could move forward with. We worked through working with our prolife members and the white house that would talk about no federal dollars being used in Community Health centers to set up the two payment syst system. I talked about how it hung by a thread and we went back and forth. Lets separate the building to pieces. Its the issues of contraception and abortion and again the leader will get women together and we huddled and said no. I worked very closely with them and the chief o chief of staff m emanuel was a lifetime friend and crafted the language on executive order in the back and forth. We are happy with the conclusion so it was all pretty dicey. I had a Good Relationship with my colleagues who are of different views who knew i was concerned about the sensitivity and by our sensitivity. I had the opportunity to work with my own colleagues who were catholic. People without healthcare, people in war and famine. What motivates me with what i do coming from a household. Thats the business im in, whether it is healthcare or any other. Thats what my job is. That is a great note to end on looking ahead from all of your years. I laid out some areas that we ought to move into in terms of policy direction but overall, i had never run for office before i ran so it was a steep learning curve not ashamed to say that it was like me going to school studying getting a hold of the issues and understanding them and bringing to bear what i thought was the right direction. I was scared when making the decision to run. I tell the story in the orientation when i was at the table with the congressman talking about the budget appropriation i want to tell the words i said its actually in the book i said im in over my head and how could i ever talk to this man, he is one of my dearest friends and a mentor to me that people have said to me, congresswoman did you make the right decision and has the job that your expectation and has a very quick answer i made the right decision and this job has exceeded all of my expectations and i am blessed. We will fight and win for those among us. Thank you