February 12, 2025 • 12 mins
Senator Deb Fischer Talks Current Events from D.C.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
While representing Nebraska from the United States Senate in Washington,
d C. Senator deb Fisher. Senator Fisher, as always, thank
you so much for being on our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Always good to visit with you, Emory. How you doing.
It sounds really cold in Nebraska. I'll be getting in
tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Ooh. Yeah, you're going to be seeing a lot of
a lot of snow on the ground when you get
here too. But it will be a cold one when
you arrive, Senator Fisher. It's hot in the news today,
So I'm going to start with this. A lot of
talks about Ukraine and Russia and Donald Trump trying to
kind of get that to a certain point. And then
of course we hear that, you know, there's a deadline
(00:38):
now or ultimatum for Gaza with the moss and the hostages.
And then also Donald Trump has mentioned that he thinks
the pathway to peace in the Middle East is by
developing Gaza and trying to kind of turn it into,
you know, a more modern society, if you will, can
I just ask your opinion about all of the different
things there in foreign policy, how Donald Trump is handling
(00:59):
that In the first few weeks of his new administration.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I think President Trump's been really clear when he ran
for the office, he was upfront, He was clear with
people with what he was going to do on a
number of issues, on every single issue as a matter
of fact. And he's following through with that, you know.
And he talks about the Middle East. When he talks
(01:25):
about the United States going in and taking over the
Gaza Strip, I think that he's making a point that
the status quo in the Middle East, it is not sustainable.
It has never been sustainable. Our ally, Israel is attacked always,
(01:49):
There's been wars in the past. There was this horrible,
horrible terrorist attack on October seventh, and I think the
President is is making a point, first of all, that
this has to end, and the United States I think
is taking a leadership position in that when he talks
(02:12):
about taking over the Gaza Strip. In our conversations with him,
had the opportunity to visit with him with a number
of my colleagues, and he is he says, people can't
live there. It's just rubble. Everything's been really decimated in there,
(02:32):
and it's rubble. They can't live there. And so I
think he's trying to make that point that change has
to happen. I know he talked to the King of
Jordan about it yesterday and the Jordanians have said the
king said he was going to take in two thousand
(02:55):
children with medical issues, Palestinian children with medical issues. That's
what I want to see, you know. I want to
see Arab countries in the Middle East, whether it's the
Jordanians or the Saudis or the Egyptians, be able to
step forward and be and be a huge part of
the solution on how we address the Palestinians in Gaza,
(03:22):
but also how we make Israel secure in their sovereignty
as well. So I think the President he's led on
getting hostages back. He you know, he threatened Hamas that
he was going to unleash fail on them. He's been
able to help with that. She's fired deal in the
(03:45):
hostage deal, and I think this is a way for
him to have Americans bring that neighborhood, the players in
that neighborhood together to step up and lead in that.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Certainly, we're speaking with deb Fisher, who of course representing
Nebraska in Washington, d C. And another piece of news
today is Tulci Gabbert was officially confirmed to be the
Director of National Intelligence. She is one of several I
guess controversial based on the court of public opinion choices
(04:19):
for Donald Trump's cabinet. But I think people underestimate kind
of what this process looks like. And the Senate plays
a huge part in the confirmation process of all of
these people, and that includes Tulci, Gabbert, Pete, Haigseeth, and
some of the others like RFK Jr. Who are attempting
to get confirmed for these jobs that Donald Trump has
nominated them for. Can you take me through what that
process is like as you talk to people that are
(04:41):
your colleagues on the Republican side and also the Democrats
who know whether they support these people or not, what
that process is like in trying to get these people confirmed.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You know, it's the constitutional duty of the Senate to
advice and offer advice and consent to President on these nominees.
That means that we need to vet each and every
one of them. They go before the Committees of jurisdiction,
have a public hearing, answer questions from both sides of
(05:15):
the aisle from members of the committee. If they are
advanced out of committee, then they go to the floor
for debate. So that's the process. It is the Senate's
job to confirm presidential nominees. There's about twelve hundred that
the Senate's responsible for confirming out of I don't know,
(05:38):
maybe four thousand or more nominees that the president has.
What we're seeing, though, obviously, is basically party line votes.
That's not unusual over the last several years. We've seen
that happen in the past. But I think what unusual
(06:00):
is seeing the liberal media continue to work over time
to smear President Trump's nominees. I think we need to
trust the Senate process. You know, right now, if you
if you've turned into c Span, you see folks on
the other side of the aisle. Democrats they are going
(06:22):
to talk all night again. They said that that's not
going to change the vote on these nominees, but you know,
they're doing everything they can to kind of slow this
process down. But I would like to say, you know,
we Republicans have say said we're going to stay late,
We're going to work into the weekends. We're gonna deliver
(06:43):
President Trump the team he needs to be successful. And
so already we've confirmed fourteen of President Trump's cabinet nominees.
And that's ahead of the usual pace that we saw
with President Biden and with President Obama. So the Democrats
and the media can work on this to and try
(07:08):
and blow it down as much as they can, but
you know, the end result is in the Senate, Republicans
have said, we're going to stay late, we're going to
take our votes, and we're going to move these.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Just real quick, Senator Fisher, And we don't have to
elaborate too much. But I always find it really interesting
or fascinating when somebody like Marco Rubio is unanimously voted in, because,
like you said, a lot of it is party lined,
with a lot of these conversations, and Marco Rubio was
ninety nine to nothing in terms of his confirmation. What
is there any conversation about certain people like that or
(07:41):
everybody just like, yeah, this is actually a good person
for this job.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know, Marco's served in the Senate. He was on
the Intel Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. He's always
been very, very strong on foreign affairs, and well, he's
well liked in the Senate. So that would have been
kind of ridiculous if the Democrats would have tried to
(08:08):
say he wasn't qualified, because he definitely was qualified. We
saw in the Egg Committee Brooke Rollins, the nominee for
Egg Secretary. She gets out unanimously, and yet we have
Democrats that are slow walking her confirmation process. On the floor,
(08:29):
you may see a unanimous vote on her, at least
a close to one, because she came out of committee unanimous.
But yet they are spending over thirty hours trying to
hold that up as long as possible.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
It's quite interesting. Senator deb Fisher joining us, I don't
know how much time I have left. I'm going to
ask you about this, your uniquely qualified answer this question.
I was alerted to a recent she Drives Act and
it made it out of committee, and I figured, well,
I have you here that you could describe what this
is and what your hopes are as this continues to
(09:05):
move through the process in Washington.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
We know that women are seventeen percent more likely to
be killed in auto crushes than men. But right now,
the crash tests they rely on these craft test dummies
that only reflect the average male height and the average
male weight, and they don't account for a typically smaller
(09:31):
female frame, So we don't have the data to be
able to modernize vehicles safety tests and require that advanced
testing devices the use of those. So this bill will
shape thousands of lives. It's going to be able to
(09:52):
get us the data we need so that we can
better understand and then better protect to provide more safety
for women that drive as well as men.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's such a good idea, especially when you outline it
like that, it's crazy that this hasn't always been the case.
For people to think about it from that perspective. Real
quick before I let you go, I know that another
thing that you've been paying close attention to and also
kind of fighting for is paid family and medical leave
and a tax credit along with that. Can you talk
about kind of what the status is of that here
(10:27):
in the early going of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
You know, in twenty seventeen, I was able to get
a paid family medical leave policy in the tax law
that was passed in twenty seventeen. Senator Angus King from
Maine is a co sponsor that. What we want to
do now that was for a pilot program. It's going
to expire this year. We want to make sure that
(10:52):
we can get that program to be permanent and what
it does. It offers small businesses the opportun unity to
get a tax credit if they offer paid family and
medical leave to their employees. And we're trying to focus
on hourly workers, on people who don't work for a
(11:13):
big corporation and already have those kind of benefits as
part of their package. Just so a single mom can
take off an hour and be able to go pick
up her child from school, for example, if there's a
medical issue, or go check on your mom and dad
at home to make sure they're okay, or to take
(11:34):
maternity or paternityly if you know, it's a great program.
It's a tax credit for businesses. It is not an entitlement,
it is not a mandate. It's totally voluntary for businesses
to be able to offer this through various tools. They're
(11:56):
out there to be able to offer it so that
they can be providing their employees with something that is
very valuable too, so that they have the flexibility so
they can care for their families and they don't have
to choose between earning a paycheck and caring for their
(12:16):
loved ones.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
It's such a good idea that I think could resonate
with so many families in and around Nebraska. Senator deb Fisher,
thank you so much for the time today. We certainly
could chat about so many other things, but I know
you're working on a very busy schedule. We'll plan the
chat in the next couple of weeks, and we really
appreciate the time today.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Great. Always good to visit.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Let you stay warm, yep, you as well, especially if
coming back to Nebraska tomorrow going to be greeted with
some winter weather.
While representing Nebraska from the United States Senate in Washington,
d C. Senator deb Fisher. Senator Fisher, as always, thank
you so much for being on our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Always good to visit with you, Emory. How you doing.
It sounds really cold in Nebraska. I'll be getting in
tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Ooh. Yeah, you're going to be seeing a lot of
a lot of snow on the ground when you get
here too. But it will be a cold one when
you arrive, Senator Fisher. It's hot in the news today,
So I'm going to start with this. A lot of
talks about Ukraine and Russia and Donald Trump trying to
kind of get that to a certain point. And then
of course we hear that, you know, there's a deadline
(00:38):
now or ultimatum for Gaza with the moss and the hostages.
And then also Donald Trump has mentioned that he thinks
the pathway to peace in the Middle East is by
developing Gaza and trying to kind of turn it into,
you know, a more modern society, if you will, can
I just ask your opinion about all of the different
things there in foreign policy, how Donald Trump is handling
(00:59):
that In the first few weeks of his new administration.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I think President Trump's been really clear when he ran
for the office, he was upfront, He was clear with
people with what he was going to do on a
number of issues, on every single issue as a matter
of fact. And he's following through with that, you know.
And he talks about the Middle East. When he talks
(01:25):
about the United States going in and taking over the
Gaza Strip, I think that he's making a point that
the status quo in the Middle East, it is not sustainable.
It has never been sustainable. Our ally, Israel is attacked always,
(01:49):
There's been wars in the past. There was this horrible,
horrible terrorist attack on October seventh, and I think the
President is is making a point, first of all, that
this has to end, and the United States I think
is taking a leadership position in that when he talks
(02:12):
about taking over the Gaza Strip. In our conversations with him,
had the opportunity to visit with him with a number
of my colleagues, and he is he says, people can't
live there. It's just rubble. Everything's been really decimated in there,
(02:32):
and it's rubble. They can't live there. And so I
think he's trying to make that point that change has
to happen. I know he talked to the King of
Jordan about it yesterday and the Jordanians have said the
king said he was going to take in two thousand
(02:55):
children with medical issues, Palestinian children with medical issues. That's
what I want to see, you know. I want to
see Arab countries in the Middle East, whether it's the
Jordanians or the Saudis or the Egyptians, be able to
step forward and be and be a huge part of
the solution on how we address the Palestinians in Gaza,
(03:22):
but also how we make Israel secure in their sovereignty
as well. So I think the President he's led on
getting hostages back. He you know, he threatened Hamas that
he was going to unleash fail on them. He's been
able to help with that. She's fired deal in the
(03:45):
hostage deal, and I think this is a way for
him to have Americans bring that neighborhood, the players in
that neighborhood together to step up and lead in that.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Certainly, we're speaking with deb Fisher, who of course representing
Nebraska in Washington, d C. And another piece of news
today is Tulci Gabbert was officially confirmed to be the
Director of National Intelligence. She is one of several I
guess controversial based on the court of public opinion choices
(04:19):
for Donald Trump's cabinet. But I think people underestimate kind
of what this process looks like. And the Senate plays
a huge part in the confirmation process of all of
these people, and that includes Tulci, Gabbert, Pete, Haigseeth, and
some of the others like RFK Jr. Who are attempting
to get confirmed for these jobs that Donald Trump has
nominated them for. Can you take me through what that
process is like as you talk to people that are
(04:41):
your colleagues on the Republican side and also the Democrats
who know whether they support these people or not, what
that process is like in trying to get these people confirmed.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You know, it's the constitutional duty of the Senate to
advice and offer advice and consent to President on these nominees.
That means that we need to vet each and every
one of them. They go before the Committees of jurisdiction,
have a public hearing, answer questions from both sides of
(05:15):
the aisle from members of the committee. If they are
advanced out of committee, then they go to the floor
for debate. So that's the process. It is the Senate's
job to confirm presidential nominees. There's about twelve hundred that
the Senate's responsible for confirming out of I don't know,
(05:38):
maybe four thousand or more nominees that the president has.
What we're seeing, though, obviously, is basically party line votes.
That's not unusual over the last several years. We've seen
that happen in the past. But I think what unusual
(06:00):
is seeing the liberal media continue to work over time
to smear President Trump's nominees. I think we need to
trust the Senate process. You know, right now, if you
if you've turned into c Span, you see folks on
the other side of the aisle. Democrats they are going
(06:22):
to talk all night again. They said that that's not
going to change the vote on these nominees, but you know,
they're doing everything they can to kind of slow this
process down. But I would like to say, you know,
we Republicans have say said we're going to stay late,
We're going to work into the weekends. We're gonna deliver
(06:43):
President Trump the team he needs to be successful. And
so already we've confirmed fourteen of President Trump's cabinet nominees.
And that's ahead of the usual pace that we saw
with President Biden and with President Obama. So the Democrats
and the media can work on this to and try
(07:08):
and blow it down as much as they can, but
you know, the end result is in the Senate, Republicans
have said, we're going to stay late, we're going to
take our votes, and we're going to move these.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Just real quick, Senator Fisher, And we don't have to
elaborate too much. But I always find it really interesting
or fascinating when somebody like Marco Rubio is unanimously voted in, because,
like you said, a lot of it is party lined,
with a lot of these conversations, and Marco Rubio was
ninety nine to nothing in terms of his confirmation. What
is there any conversation about certain people like that or
(07:41):
everybody just like, yeah, this is actually a good person
for this job.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
You know, Marco's served in the Senate. He was on
the Intel Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. He's always
been very, very strong on foreign affairs, and well, he's
well liked in the Senate. So that would have been
kind of ridiculous if the Democrats would have tried to
(08:08):
say he wasn't qualified, because he definitely was qualified. We
saw in the Egg Committee Brooke Rollins, the nominee for
Egg Secretary. She gets out unanimously, and yet we have
Democrats that are slow walking her confirmation process. On the floor,
(08:29):
you may see a unanimous vote on her, at least
a close to one, because she came out of committee unanimous.
But yet they are spending over thirty hours trying to
hold that up as long as possible.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
It's quite interesting. Senator deb Fisher joining us, I don't
know how much time I have left. I'm going to
ask you about this, your uniquely qualified answer this question.
I was alerted to a recent she Drives Act and
it made it out of committee, and I figured, well,
I have you here that you could describe what this
is and what your hopes are as this continues to
(09:05):
move through the process in Washington.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
We know that women are seventeen percent more likely to
be killed in auto crushes than men. But right now,
the crash tests they rely on these craft test dummies
that only reflect the average male height and the average
male weight, and they don't account for a typically smaller
(09:31):
female frame, So we don't have the data to be
able to modernize vehicles safety tests and require that advanced
testing devices the use of those. So this bill will
shape thousands of lives. It's going to be able to
(09:52):
get us the data we need so that we can
better understand and then better protect to provide more safety
for women that drive as well as men.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It's such a good idea, especially when you outline it
like that, it's crazy that this hasn't always been the case.
For people to think about it from that perspective. Real
quick before I let you go, I know that another
thing that you've been paying close attention to and also
kind of fighting for is paid family and medical leave
and a tax credit along with that. Can you talk
about kind of what the status is of that here
(10:27):
in the early going of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
You know, in twenty seventeen, I was able to get
a paid family medical leave policy in the tax law
that was passed in twenty seventeen. Senator Angus King from
Maine is a co sponsor that. What we want to
do now that was for a pilot program. It's going
to expire this year. We want to make sure that
(10:52):
we can get that program to be permanent and what
it does. It offers small businesses the opportun unity to
get a tax credit if they offer paid family and
medical leave to their employees. And we're trying to focus
on hourly workers, on people who don't work for a
(11:13):
big corporation and already have those kind of benefits as
part of their package. Just so a single mom can
take off an hour and be able to go pick
up her child from school, for example, if there's a
medical issue, or go check on your mom and dad
at home to make sure they're okay, or to take
(11:34):
maternity or paternityly if you know, it's a great program.
It's a tax credit for businesses. It is not an entitlement,
it is not a mandate. It's totally voluntary for businesses
to be able to offer this through various tools. They're
(11:56):
out there to be able to offer it so that
they can be providing their employees with something that is
very valuable too, so that they have the flexibility so
they can care for their families and they don't have
to choose between earning a paycheck and caring for their
(12:16):
loved ones.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
It's such a good idea that I think could resonate
with so many families in and around Nebraska. Senator deb Fisher,
thank you so much for the time today. We certainly
could chat about so many other things, but I know
you're working on a very busy schedule. We'll plan the
chat in the next couple of weeks, and we really
appreciate the time today.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Great. Always good to visit.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Let you stay warm, yep, you as well, especially if
coming back to Nebraska tomorrow going to be greeted with
some winter weather.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.