LEADER JEFFRIES: "HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE A SIMPLE CHOICE — PUT THAT BIPARTISAN SPENDING AGREEMENT ON THE FLOOR"
Washington, D.C. – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box where he emphasized that while extreme MAGA Republicans are reneging on their agreement and charging toward a government shutdown, Democrats and President Biden are working to protect everyday Americans and keep the government open.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: We're going over to House Minority Leader and New York Congressman, Hakeem Jeffries. Good morning to you. We're all trying to understand the state of play here and what it would take to avoid a government shutdown. Do you have any hope?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Good morning. Great to be with you. My hope is that there's a bipartisan spending agreement that continues to work its way through the Senate that earlier this week, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans voted by a margin of 77 to 19 to advance. It would continue to fund the government in a way that provides for the health, the safety, the economic well-being of the American people. It avoids any partisan political policy riders, and it would provide support for the American people in the context of extreme weather events, as well as continue to fund the Ukrainian war effort. That bill will advance out of the Senate hopefully in the next day or so and arrive in the House. At that point, House Republicans have a simple choice — put that bipartisan spending agreement on the Floor for an up or down vote, and I'm convinced that it will pass. Anything short of that is a House Republican effort intentionally to shut down the government and hurt the American people.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: So you don't believe—I'm of the impression, maybe wrongly, that Kevin McCarthy thinks that if that bill were to come to the Floor, that it wouldn't pass.
LEADER JEFFRIES: It would certainly pass if it was to receive an up or down vote because the overwhelming majority of Democrats, if not every single member of the House Democratic Caucus, in terms of the bill in its current form in the Senate, would certainly receive Democratic support. And there are Republicans who have indicated they're prepared to support bipartisan legislation. And if that were to be the case, we only need six House Republicans to join us. Certainly there are six traditional Republicans, six reasonable Republicans willing to avoid a catastrophic government shutdown.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Congressman, we had Kevin McCarthy on the program yesterday. I want you to take a listen to this, because he joined us and he took issue with the President's response. We were talking about the auto worker strike against everything else going on in the economy. And I- just curious what your- what your thoughts are about what he said. Take a listen to this.
SPEAKER MCCARTHY (VIDEO): I look at the country today, we've got people striking from California to Michigan. We've got the price of gasoline $100 a barrel. We've got inflation like we haven't seen before. And we've got a president sitting in San Francisco just trying to raise more money. I say get off the fundraising trail. Care about your nation. Let's get together. We've been able to do it together before when we sat down. We can solve this problem. This is an actual opportunity to put the country on a better path.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: You think we can?
LEADER JEFFRIES: We certainly should be able to. And all House Republicans need to do is keep their word. In May, at the insistence of House Republicans who were threatening to default on America's debt for the first time in our history — that would have been catastrophic — they insisted on bringing the spending dynamics into the discussion to protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America. President Biden agreed. We all had a negotiation. It resulted in a bipartisan agreement that avoided a default and also set top line spending numbers for the fiscal year that is fast approaching. That bill passed the House by more than 300 votes. The overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans support it. Same thing happened in the Senate. It went to President Biden's desk. He signed it into law. The reason why we're in this situation right now is because House Republicans have broken the agreement that they themselves negotiated in terms of top line spending numbers. Everyone else in Washington is adhering to that agreement. House Democrats, Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, President Biden. Why are House Republicans threatening this government shutdown and breaking the agreement that they negotiated? It's because they would rather cut Social Security, slash public school funding and criminalize abortion care, loading up these spending bills with unnecessary extreme MAGA Republican policy riders.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Well, Congressman, one of the things that they have talked about is the border problem and tying this bill to the border. You're from New York. And we clearly- if New Yorkers didn't appreciate the problem before, I think we all appreciate it now. Do you think that's a viable-a viable thing to connect?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, the President did submit a funding request to provide for additional border resources in terms of the situation that is taking place in the border and throughout our hemisphere. And so far, Republicans in the House at least haven't even indicated a willingness to consider that proposal, which apparently in the Senate, they're working through some dynamics. We'll have to see where they ultimately land. We do need a bipartisan effort to address the issues that we are confronting at the border and to lean in to comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken immigration system in a way that is consistent with our values as a nation of immigrants and as a nation anchored in the rule of law. That's important and House Democrats stand ready to find a bipartisan path forward. The problem is what you have in the House is that the extreme MAGA Republicans basically on every issue, including issues that they previously agreed to and negotiated, are adopting a my way or the highway approach. They are changing the terms of an agreement that is a matter of law at this moment.
JOE KERNER: You've used that term before, I don't know how many. You said maybe there are six normal ones. You seem to say there are six normal and I don't know, 250 extreme MAGA ones. That's-that's not the way it is. Probably about eight or nine that fit that description, extreme MAGA.
LEADER JEFFRIES: So, yeah, Joe, there's no point in this interview or at any other point in which I have actually commented on the number of Republicans who fall into a particular category.
JOE KERNER: I know, but you can't group them. If the Speaker did bring that up, you're right. It would pass because there's only so many. But you want something bipartisan. There's already discussions with Senator Sinema and other senators about an amendment when it would go back to the Senate for not just extra funding. Funding is not helping the border and there needs to be a policy change. And that's all Speaker McCarthy said. Let's-let's actually do it in a bipartisan way and get some actual policy there. What we're doing playing with Ukraine. Get some actual policy and some additional funding. And I'll bet you he would even eventually take his chances with keeping his speakership if he felt like there was a real border change, a change in policy, as well as funding that the Senate put in an amendment, I think you'd get it done. But that's bipartisan. Bipartisan doesn't mean just everything that the Democrats want becomes law. That's not what bipartisan is.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yeah, thank you for saying that because in the Senate right now you have a bipartisan spending agreement–
JOE KERNER: I know, you mentioned that–
LEADER JEFFRIES: That passed. Earlier this week, 77 members of the United States Senate. That means the majority of Democrats, a majority of Republicans–
JOE KERNER: You can get him to take that up–
LEADER JEFFRIES: That's bipartisan–
JOE KERNER: You might be able to–
LEADER JEFFRIES: That's bipartisan. And also, I think it's important to point out that in May, when we reached an agreement, part of that agreement was that when we approached the end of the fiscal year, preparing to fund the government, that there should be no policy changes one way or the other, asked for by the left or asked for by the right, which should be part of the spending discussion. That was an agreement that was reached in May. And so now again, House Republicans are changing the terms of that agreement. That doesn't work in politics. That doesn't work in the business world. It doesn't work in the not-for-profit world. It doesn't work. Your word matters. And now a government shutdown is being threatened because the House Republicans want to go in a different direction. Of course, we stand ready to find the common ground with the other side of the aisle on any issue, whenever and wherever possible. But we can't be put in the situation where extreme ransom demands are being made at the 11th hour that are inconsistent with a spending agreement that was already reached in May of this year.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: You know what, let me ask you this.
JOE KERNER: All I'd say is that when you look at the realities of the situation. Democrats, there's plenty of schadenfreude with what you guys refer to as a clown show that Speaker McCarthy finds himself in with those 10 to 12, as you say, extreme MAGA Republicans. But that's the reality of the situation that he's dealing with right now. And you might be Majority Leader someday with a slim majority and have the same type of issues. With what he's dealing with, what would you advise him to do knowing the realities of this situation? What is he able to do to arrive at something where I mean, he probably doesn't want to lose the speakership. Right? And that may be something. But the numbers are the numbers, Leader Jeffries. The numbers are the numbers. And, you know, there are I guess you call extenuating factors. It's obvious when you read any of the articles written about this, you know what the situation is. How do we get beyond that where everyone can smile and be bipartisan?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, first of all, let me point out that we had the exact same numbers in the previous Congress, not even a hypothetical situation or question. We had literally the exact same numbers. And under the wonderful leadership of Speaker Pelosi, what we were able to do is pass measures that make life better for the American people and measures that help business, competitiveness of our economy, whether that was infrastructure, whether that was the CHIPS and Science Act, whether that's standing up a clean energy economy–
BECKY QUICK: And so Congressman how did you do it–
JOE KERNER: Because Democrats are the board collective. You got every single vote, you've got every single vote for Speaker from Democrats, remember, you guys, they stick together, they like staying in power. We know that they like staying in power.
BECKY QUICK: No really? What's the what's the difference?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, we don't like–
JOE KERNER: Oh, yeah you do.
LEADER JEFFRIES: We run to win but we win to govern and we govern and make life better for everyday Americans. That's why we got big things done. And by the way, the majority of those things were bipartisan in nature in both the House and the Senate. And that's the path forward. Run toward the center, don't run toward the extreme right, run toward the center. And we are ready, willing and able to find the common ground to make a difference for the American people in ways that will lift up the great American middle class dream and allow for a business environment where companies can continue to thrive because when companies thrive, workers thrive. And that's what our agenda has been all about.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Hey Congressman real quick because I know you do have to go. But as a New Yorker, given the border crisis that we're having and the immigration crisis that this state is having and what seems to be a standoff, frankly, between both the mayor and the governor and now the administration. How do you see that playing itself out? Do you think that the governor should be asking for more? Do you think that she should be declaring a state of emergency?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, I think that President Biden, in granting Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan refugees, is taking an important step forward. We believe that numbers in New York currently under the care of the city of New York are anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 Venezuelan migrants who are eligible to work while they are awaiting a decision on their asylum application. And when I talk to people, both members of organized labor and members of the business community, they said that there are labor shortages and that these are refugees who now have work authorization and provide assistance and meet unmet needs. And I think what the mayor and the governor and all of us need to do is focus on making sure we can implement the step that has currently been taken and provide relief resources at the border to try to alleviate the situation. We also need to provide resources to adjudicators so that the asylum applications can be processed in a more expeditious fashion.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Congressman Jeffries, thank you so very, very much for joining us. And we do hope to talk to you again very, very soon. Hopefully not about a government shutdown.
Full interview can be watched here.