Senator Deb Fischer with an Update from D.C.

Senator Deb Fischer with an Update from D.C.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we roll along. Obviously there's a lot of political
news that we need to attach ourselves too and learn about.
We're always very happy and blessed to be joined by
people who actually making things happen in Washington, DC, including
Senator deb Fisher, who is joining us on the phone
line today. Senator Fisher, as always, big thank you to
you for being on our show today.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh it's great to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I got to start with the big, beautiful bill. We'll
talk a little bit about foreign policy as well, but
I know that this is a gigantic bill, and from
a Senate perspective, I know there's a lot of pressure
from the President and also on constituents, for people that
are in the Senate on the debate that is happening
from within. So can you take me before we talk
about very specific things in this bill, can you take
me through what the process is like for a senator

(00:42):
who is you know you're getting that pressure from all
different angles to push through an eleven hundred plus page bill.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, first of all, I can tell you Republicans are
committed to making sure that Americans keep more of their money.
We want to cut unnecessarily spending. We want to make
our communities more secure, safer, more prosperous, and so that's
why we're working through this budget reconciliation process. Yeah, there's

(01:09):
a lot of focus obviously the last several months as
our committees got received instructions through that budget resolution that
we passed a while ago. But I think the main
thing to remember here is if we don't pass this bill,
those tax cuts are going to expire. We're going to

(01:30):
see a four trillion dollars tax increase. The average family
of four that makes eighty thousand dollars, they're going to
see at least a seventeen hundred dollars tax increase. We're
going to see a child tax credit decrease by one
thousand dollars per child. You know, that hurts families. That

(01:52):
hurts families. So that is central to what we keep
in mind as we're moving forward. There's other there's other
things in it. You know. I was really focused on
maintaining our national security through guarding that spectrum that handles
our missile defense, that electromagnetic vans where we have our sensors,

(02:17):
our radars, our MC tree. That was something I focused
on in the bill. I focused on getting paid family
leaves to make sure that that was going to become permanent.
That's extremely important for our families. It's pro family, it's
pro small business. It's a tax credit to the first

(02:38):
ever Mason wide paid family leave policy. Those are important
things that we do for the people of this country.
And it's not a mandate, it's totally voluntary. It's a tax,
it's a tax credit. You asked about pressure. You know
President Trump's he has a number of top priorities. So yeah,

(03:02):
sure he's going to He's going to speak out on those.
He wants to get this legislation across the finish line.
When he got elected, he made promises to the American
people too. I mean, that's that's why he got elected.
So he's obviously focused on delivering. In the Senate, we

(03:23):
are focused on being able to work together here. It
is going to be a totally Republican bill. We know
that no Democrats going to support it, So we need
to make sure that we go through the process, that
we talk to each other, that we continue to try
and reach those goals that we need to reach that

(03:47):
we promised the American people we're going to do, whether
it's through national security the paid family leave, to make
sure that our communities are safer, to make sure people's
taxes don't go up. So yeah, I say, there's a
lot of pressure to make sure we deliver.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Senator Fisher joining us here, so let's kind of redirect
even within that. It was a great explanation of all
the different moving parts of what is a gigantic bill.
There's been a lot of dissension within the Republican Party.
Rand Paul has been a very vocal opponent kind of
of what this bill has and all the different pieces
of it, and he's been very loud about that, as

(04:28):
well as Elon Musk, who you know, was a big
partner with Donald Trump for the first four months or
so of his presidency, that kind of dissension. As you
talked about, there are a lot of different things in
here that are kind of smashed together. And I know
this seems like such a trivial question for you know,
somebody who's been in the Senate as long as you have,
But for us who are outside of the Senate, can
you explain to us why you know it requires eleven

(04:50):
hundred and sixteen pages to get all this stuff into
one bill instead of having some of this stuff kind
of trying to get it passed separately or you know,
isolated by itself. Is there kind of a purpose as
to why all of this is crammed into the same
bill and why this has become such a hotly contested
bill itself.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Well, first I'll addressed the process and I'll talk to
you about why it's contested. But with the process, what
we're trying to do here and Democrats do it as well,
and we used it as Republicans in twenty seventeen. It's
that process called reconciliation. And when a political party has

(05:29):
the presidency, has the House, has the Senate, we're able
to get things done by a majority vote, and you know,
it takes usually sixty votes to get things passed in
the United States Senate, we also have what's called the
bird bath, and everybody goes, what in the world's that? Well,
that's a bunch of regulations, kind of rules that we

(05:53):
have to follow in the Senate in including a lot
of this in reconciliations. So right now we're going through
process with the Senate parliamentarian where she rules on if
the bill will still be privileged, and that means it
would only take fifty votes, fifty one votes in order

(06:18):
to pass. That's why we're trying to get as much
of the first of all, the tax situation in to
add more funding for our national security, to have that
in reconciliation, to address of some parts of the Agg
Committee and the Egg Committee we were charged with looking

(06:42):
at things. We want to get some things in there
that's going to help rural development, help our farmers, help
disaster payments, things like that. It's an opportunity to be
able to put as much as possible as long as
it meets those rules we have in the Senate to
get that in to a bill, and then if the
Senate and the House agree, we can get it done.

(07:04):
You know, rand Paul votes against everything, and I you know,
he's a colleague. I enjoy him personally, but he'll vote
against a lot of things. I'm trying to work with colleagues.
You know, I'm focused on working with my colleagues, but
we can address issues out there. Elon Musk, I do

(07:27):
not know him, but he's been quiet lately, so I
appreciate that. You know, he came out and he and
he was pretty vocal. He I think kind of apologized
on social media to the President for some of this outverse.
But it's yeah, it's easy. It's easy to pick things apart.

(07:50):
This is a big bill. It's a bill like many bills,
it's not always perfect, and that's because we're a diverse country.
We have diversity within the Republican Party. But we need
to we need to deliver on basic promises that we made.
That's what I come back to, and we need to

(08:11):
make sure we're doing the best that we can do
for the people of this country, whether it's to protect
their security, to protect their safety, to make sure that,
as I said earlier, they get to keep more of
the money that they earn, where we still take care
of those who can't care for themselves, where we meet

(08:34):
our long term obligations that we have in investments to
this country, through infrastructure, through making sure off At Air
Force Base continues to receive the reconstruction it has. That's
all part of it. But yeah, it can be frustrating,

(08:57):
and I know that people say that, I know I'm
going on on here, but if you read if you
read any piece of legislation, you will see that it
always jumps around and it references other parts of federal law,
so you're constantly if you're going to really read a bill,
very rarely does it just lay things out. It always

(09:19):
refers to other sections of statute and federal code. So
you're going back and forth and back and forth because
it it has to be woven into a current federal law.
So that's in many cases why a lot of these bills,
if there's a lot in them of much of that

(09:42):
is just the format I would say that has to
be followed when you're crafting a law.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
We're speaking with Senator deb Fisher. It's very interesting, and
thank you so much for being transparent on how that works,
because I think a lot of people are confused about it.
We don't have a ton of time, and I know
that you very busy, but I wanted to touch on
Iran and our involvement with our you know, bunker Buster
bombs and the mission from the B two bombers. And
I know that in Washington, DC, you know, you're representing Nebraska,

(10:13):
but you're also thinking about the safety of America and
the way that things are going. And there have been
people in Congress and both the Senate and the House
that have decided, you know, we want to challenge Donald
Trump on the ability for him to make that decision
without Congress, even though it appears that this isn't going
to lead to anything more, at least for now. What
was your opinion on the way that this was handled
and what do you tell people about kind of where

(10:34):
we are safety wise in America and our basis around
the world right now?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
You know, our first duty as Congress, as senators and
House members is to protect this country. It's to provide
for our national security. That's an Article one. It's spelled out,
to provide for the common defense. That is our number
one duty. And we have seen a country Iran, who

(11:00):
for decades have said death to America. They have pledged
to wipe Israel off the map map. And so when
you have foreign adversaries who pledged to destroy us, we
better listen to them, We better believe them. This has
gone on and on and in the past, this country

(11:20):
of a rand and through their terrorist proxies have killed Americans,
They've killed our military members. It has happened again and again.
I am totally supportive of President Trump. He has always
been very clear that a Ran should never obtain a
nuclear weapon. I agree with that and his administration took

(11:44):
steps that I believe were necessary to keep that nuclear
weapon out of Iran's reach. I'm really grateful to our
military members who carried out the mission. They did so
without incident, were prepared, and they accomplished their mission. You know,

(12:05):
I will learn more tomorrow. We have a briefing, a
classified briefing, to be able to hear exactly what went
on that I know. There was news today that I'm
a member of the i a e A, which is
an international group which monitors nuclear weapons nuclear facilities. They

(12:28):
believe that this mission was a success. I can tell
you being briefed on these bombs. You know, these penetrating
bombs in the past, the United States we had not
used one before, and from what I have gleaned so

(12:49):
far from discussions with officials, it seems these weapons delivered
as they were, as they were built to do.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Senator dev Fisher, absolutely fantastic information. Thank you so much
for being a part of the show. I wish we
had a couple hours to talk about all the important
things happening in America, but thank you so much for
your transparency, and I'm sure we will talk again very soon.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Sounds great, thank you.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Have a good day, yep you as well.