Between for discussion. Based in the coin flip, Collin Peterson will go first on his Opening Statement. Torgerson peterson. Good evening matt, hello everyone what to think the public and aarp for sponsoring this debate. Give me the opportunity to serve them and congress over these last number of years. Is able to move up to the Agricultural Committee in 2005. And ive been chairman twice, are the only person thats ever done that. Weve been able to do some good work, was kept the committee bipartisan. Ive been rated the most bipartisan member of congress cgot the mca trade agreement done the people were concerned about, had a good democratic vote. Site look forward to going back to congress to continue the bipartisan work ive done over the number of years. Alright michele one minute Opening Statement respect thank you very much matt, aarp and for the public for putting this together tonight. I served to the Minnesota Senate, i was the first female president of the Minnesota Senate i work for the Lieutenant Governor for a short time part i leap in the pink filler with my husband and we have two children and five grandchildren. Re and i have really enjoyed campaigning across the district and given the opportunity to talk to people. Although the covid shutdowns that slows down estate on the phone for a couple of months amid a lot of phone calls reached out that way. I just want to make sure that we look to the future in rural minnesota. We make sure were making this a place of people live, work w and raise their families. Make sure we move things forward work on the economy. I look forward to being your site look forward to the discussion. Topic one of course is covid 19. Schools are starting to open with hybrid learning the issue has become political. I want each of you to the crisis michele you start us off on this topic. This is affected us all. I think in minnesota and particularly asked about minnesota tried to put a one size fits all policy on the entire state. It did not work for rural minnesota purdue really done some damage in the egg industry in the business, and we need toth make sure were getting the businesses back want to make sure we are moving forward on w that. Things are depending on that, the economy is depending on tha that. Understand what it will take to keep their patrons their customers safe. Must thenn get back to work,or let people get back to work. I think on a national level, the president has made sure that we shut down travel as soon as he could making sure a we are moving forward on a vaccine. And so i appreciate what he has done on the covid and we need to make sure we move things forward to me open the businesses backup respect okay response . You cant keep the president of the United States safe, you have an environment where they are testing all the time and doing sort of thing, you know this virus is not gone away. It is a serious problem. Now that people who work for the president , doctor redfield, dr. Fauci also the most import thing is to wear a mask, keep socially distanced, wash your hands, and dont get involved in big crowds. Unfortunately keep sending mixed messages. I think it is a problem. We have more cases in more deaths in this country. Capita than just about any country in the world. So we need a federal response that is clear, that sends a signal to people this is what we need to do to stay safe. From the state of think ive talked to the governor a number of times pretty think it was a mistake to have onesizefitsall for theha whole state. Couldve had different regulations. The governor decided would have one regulation for the whole states. Rankly think it was a mistake. Okay michele, you can respond respect no i dont think so no more perspective okay will revise the next issueue then. W lets stick with that any stimulus package. Right now talks are stalled of course in congress but a second stimulus package. We may not have anything until after the election. What are both of you, your views on the second stimulus bill and the proposals that are out there, Colin Peterson will start off on this one. We passed the bill in the house in may. That i thought was overdone. I thought it was too much money. But the speaker accepted our agricultural stuff that we ofve worked on in the committee and because of that i kinda held my nose and supported because i knew it was not going anyplace. Now, theyve come up with another bill where they drop the price tag down to twopoint to trillion dollars. They cut back on some of the egg stuff. I just think that we have to focus on the really important things are. Not just be giving out money to people. We have to pay this money back sometime. So in agriculture we have money for de populating hogs and turkeys, for helping with the packing plants, for helping ethanol. Things that are in crisis right now pretty think this bill should focus on what is a crisis and where we could actually help. So this last bill i voted against. Because i just dont think it fit the mark on what we needed to do. At the end of the day its going to happen agreement between the president , the senate and us. And i think it is going to be less money than we have been talking about. Michele spohn . Civic the heroes one and the heroes to expert the heroes one act congressman pearson edsaid he voted yes fort is about 3 trillion worth. Much of it was not focused on covid relief. And yes there have been some great accept in there, but if it is not going anywhere the agricultural provisions can be wonderful. But if its not going anywhere. Heroes one and heroes too, those two bills are atho a dead end. They have not been, nancy pelosi and dfl leadership are democrat leadership pushed it forward without negotiating orr even talking to the president for without talking to the senate. At and these are dead ends. They are not going anywhere. Theyre not really trying to make sure the American People get covid relief, which i supports. But they are putting together the brought wish bills, 3 trillion over 3 trillion include things like planned parenthood money and moneyey for illegal immigrants. What they need to be doing is actually getting to work and focusing on the covid relief that the people need. Im talking to the president , talking to the Senate Moving Forward part called petersons response . The senate has not come up with anything realistic either. The president has been back and forth. Right now theres talksks going on with pelosi to come up with a solution everybody couldld support. I would just have to say when you are working on these big bills, and you get what you want in the bill, its pretty hard to say okay, you gave me what i want nonpoint devoting is everything else. I knew this was not going anyplace. Vo so i voted for it to keep the process going. So the end of the day, the people who really need this help, the hog farmers, the turkey farmers, the packing plants, the ethanol plants, are going to be in the final package. I think they will be because i stepped up to the plate that first time. This last time had a long discussion with the speaker and told her i thought this was a mistake with they were doing. They shouldnt put on the floor because its not going anyplace part it was partisan. It was the wrong thing to be doing at this point in time. Michele . I really think we need to be doing is stepping up. The senate has not come up with anything, then the democrat leadership in the house needs to be moving forward in talking to the senate and trying to get these things done. And the act provisions are still going nowhere because those two bills are not moving. And so what you need to do is make sure that congressman peterson in the opening you talked about being bipartisan. Then maybe what we need to do is move forward and be bipartisan on the senate bill and talk to the senate and the president. Jabber sponsor . We are bipartisan. Mike cotto ate every republican on the committee supported what i did. I dont know how more bipartisan than that. I had a very tough discussion with the speaker. She did not like. And i told her what i thought. That is how it works. Michele knows that she was in the legislature. On these bills you cant have everything exactly what you want to. We have been bipartisan. At the end of the day i think we will be successful. Michele i will give you last word on thiscc topic. Think the last word is there is nothing happening on covid relief of the americans people. The most recent heroes to is not moving forward and right now we do not have any covid relief in the acceptor or the American People. Arent going to get to egg very quickly. Supreme Court Vacancy brought on by Ruth Bader Ginsburgs passin passing. Only nine justices serve on the court. The could be a court thats a true intent to prompt debate. First off why do you propose this amendment . And also to both of you feel this nomination should be delayed until after the election . Or should it go forward now . F michele you start a soccers back first i do appreciate the legislation to not to pack the court because that is not something i support nor want to see. But i absolutely support the president moving forward with the nomination with the confirmation. Its their duty to move forward and make sure that vacancy is filled part i think its an important part of these duties. I appreciate Amy Coney Barrett and think shall make an excellent Supreme Court justice. Called peterson. We were working on this bill before the Supreme Court issue came up. And so the representative and i have worked on this bill had it ready to go and introduced it. So this talk of packing the court as a mistake. We have enough problems in this country, we have enough divisions in this country cannot be doing that. T introduced this constitutional amendment we hope there is supportns for. I think at nine justices has served us well for a couple hundred years. Theres really no reason to change that. Terms of this nomination i know there are people who are upset. But the president wants to move it is his prerogative. The senate probably has the vote it is their prerogative. That is where the constitution set this up in the way it works. Followup on this, what is the difference between the situation the situation from four years ago back michele . I will just say every situation is different. When there is a supreme Court Vacancy, and i believe its a constitutional duty for the president and is their prerogative called peterson . I think theres a fair amount of hypocrisy going on here is a completely different position. Having said that, again the president has the prerogative to do this. They apparently have the vote, we will see. We dont have a vote in this fight. Anything else . A big issue in seventh district. Can each of your comment on how the trade and tariff were with china has impacted farmers both nationally and the district . Peterson you start this when operates back it is not been positive. And the secretary just yesterday at a meeting he was at, theyre not going toth hit the phase one targets that set out there. It has been a problem. China is a bad actor i voted not to let the men, not to let them have most favorite nation status but thats the right vote. We knew the theyre going to do what they did. So we wouldve done the right thing back then we would not be in this predicament. I dont disagree that we need to do something to rein them in. But i think these tariffs have been a huge mistake. They have not worked, that not purchase farmers if not solve the problem. Your response. Prior to the covet shutdowns and the pandemic, President Trump was making headway with china. We all do know they are back actors. They are bad actors, they are not trustworthy. They been ripping off the pharmacy and industry for years. President trump took that fortis or to deal with those things but making sure were going toe be getting at least a fair deal and a decent deal part he did make that. And people understood that. They understand particularly now after the covid outbreak in all the things that been going on in china, chinas not a good actor. The president has been making headway and is making sure we move forward with those negotiations. Ones that are hurting the farmers are retaliatory with china prayed that is where they are coming from. I realize congressmans gonna talk about the tear from blame them on the present paper to understand he is trying to do what he thanks is right to make sure we get a decent deal from china. We do need to continue to expand our trade partners. Weatherby australia, japan, but continue to move forward and expand our trade partners across the world. Okay called petersons response . Im not blaming this on the president. The presidency when he put the tariffs on. If you know anything about trade policy the question is who are they going to retaliate against . People need to understand is not farmers that were hurt of the 20 years weve been trading with china. We actually bent to fit a jump benefited. We benefited from a trade thats going on because when the people over there in ohio in other places, the people in the country went in and tookk those jobs. But the people moved out of town, 300 million of them. Those people were farmers and then what happened is we sold farm goods make up for the loss that happened because of that. We benefited. Its hard to put any kind of spin on this that it is it another win for agriculture. Ur Michele Fischbach . He we will continue the negotiations will continue in the attempt to make the chinese create a fair trade deal will continue. And i do think President Trump understands what it is doing. With the tariffs. Pointed to the egg issue. Will start with you michele on this, congressman peterson hes the chairman of the egg committee. How, if you were elected, would you manage egg policy or move up the ranks to chairmanships and things like this if you were elected how would you approach egg policy for the seventh district . I will tell you as a mentioned i did serve in the Minnesota Senate. And i did serve in an area that had egg. So i continue to create those relationships with the farmers, with the farm groups and continue that through. Weve already started an egg Advisory Committee that i deal with weekly t in order to make sure we are hearing what is going on in the field. I think the most important part is making sure that you continued the conversation. Weve a farm bill coming up in 2023. We need to start that conversation early and learn what is important to the fires with they think is working with they think they need. Not just someone in washington d. C. Telling them what they nee need. But understanding whats going on with them. Ill continue to make sure that conversation continues after i am elected. Colin peterson . We are the fourth biggest egg economy district in the country. Agriculture is this district. Here in the valley, the industry is a huge part of our economy through the situation because i have been able to be in congress for a while i have become the of the committee. That is a big deal in terms of getting things done because meeting does not start any egg meeting does not start until i get into the room. And it ends when i leave. And the secretary calls me all the time to talk to me about what he is doing. His people call me to it run things byn me, they asked my advice i give them advice. That is something that does not happen with a ranking file member. I went throughgh this for the first ten years i was ignored basically. But i kept learning, working a up the ranks. And eventually got into a position where i could do something. What im most proud of what ive done in congress as i have respected all across the country by all of agriculture, both sides of the aisle. And i defy you to fight anyone who would say i dont do a good job and i know what im talking about. Michele response . No. A followup on ethanol policy within the seventh district and how this plays out as well, doing start out on that michele . Certainly. I thought it was congressman harris. Note we keep going on this. Certainly i have always been a supporter of ethanol. Anna my time in the Minnesota Senate did make sure we were supportive of ethanol we did it we could to help them in the minnesota set up. I do understand the small refinery exemptions have been a problem. The temp circuits have found on the biofuel side. I think that is going to be youre going to bc that taken care of. I understand i will do everything i can to make sure those small exemptions are not abused. I willbu say that it think the green nude deal and some of the proposals and overregulation coming out of the democrat side do more to hurt the ethanol industry than anything. That would eliminate a lot of the fossil fuel. There would not be anything to blend ethanol with. If the green nude deal is passed. I want to make sure that the federal government does not do anything to hurt the ethanol industry. But i will do whatever i can to make sure those small refinery exemptions are dealt with respect your response . The great new deal i oppose as well print is dead as a dont dooril no. The ethanol situation, there. What it says is wished at 15 billion gallons of ethanol blended into the gasoline in the country. Thats what the law says. Twelve and a half billion gallons. One of the reasons we are in jeopardy is because of that. The collapse of oil prices. People quit driving because ofco covid breed that is a separate thing pretty put that together with these exemptions, and what we are doing, you put this industry in jeopardy. I was in the room we had to take this amendment that allow them to have these waivers. We objected to it at the time. They said well, this is only going to be smallll refinery spread this its only going to be used under emergencies. That is what it was until 2016. It is not been that way since President Trump is taken office. It has hurt significantly. I try to find out why did they get these exemptions . What was the basis for . What was the rationale . They would not tell me put in the heroes act is required that the administration gives us that information in the future. So these things have hurt us. We need to get back to following the law. They say 15 million gallons, that is it. If we had that we would be fine. Michele do you have a response . I appreciate that. I understand small exemptions, the small refinery exemptions have been