Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nebraska, US Senator Pete Records. Senator, good morning, good to
have you back.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, thanks very much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're welcome. On to touch on a couple of things.
To begin with, the hearings are underway. The Democrats really
ramped up their attacks on Pete Hegseth this morning. He's
gone before the Armed Services Committee today for hearings for
his nomination the Defense Secretary from You're not on that committee,
Senator Records, but what's your read on that nomination.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, I had a chance to talk with Pete, and frankly,
he was very impressive. So every candidate like Pete will
get a chance to go through a process. Typically it
involved sitting down and talking with centaer's individually, such as
eight when he came in to see me, and then
the public hearing, which he's going to have a little
bit today, and then they'll take that into a business meeting.
The committee will take it into a business meeting, and
(00:51):
then they'll have a conversation and then I presume they'll
vote him out of committee and it'll come to the
floor and we'll vote him on the floor. So you know,
there's a whole process that goes along with this. Like
I said, I had a pretty good conversation with people
when he came in to see me.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, it'll probably be strict party line. I mean, they're
really attacking on the Democrats. Now you'll be you'll be
on the Committee Foreign Relations when Senator Rubio comes up
for his hearings. Right for Secretary of State, that one
does not seem to be that that does not seem
to be particularly controversial.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, I don't think that'll be controversial. First of all,
Marco is a great choice for Secretary of State. He
understands that we live in a dangerous world and that
we've got to utilize all the resources of the United
States government, including the State Department, to be able to
push back on things like the Chinese Communist Party. And
he's got broad support, bipartisan support. I expect that he
(01:44):
will be able. He'll be approved with by partians support.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, good, I wanted to talk to you a little
bit about saving money via government efficiency because there will
be a whole new department how the Department of Government
Efficiency chaired or headed up by Elon muavike Ramaswami. And
you are one of a group of senators that's working
on this issue too, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Joni Ernz started a DOSEE Caucus and I'm one of
the founding members. We had a meeting with the Vake
Ramaswani a couple of weeks ago to talk about different
ideas that senators had. One of the things that I
was pushing was what we did in Nebraska with Men
six Sigma. This was the process improvement program that we
put in place through our Center of Operational Excellence, really
(02:29):
to drive better process, better technology, do a better job
providing our services and reducing our costs. Ultimately, we saved
about nine hundred thousand hours of our teammates' time, about
one hundred and fifty million dollars in hard savings, and
improved about a thousand processes throughout the state government. So
it's a philosophy that can help change the culture, and
(02:50):
it's one of the things that I encouraged the VEKE
to take a look at trying to implement, and in
fact I'm Lee Zelden, who will be the new director
the EPA has also talked to me about it. So
I'm looking forward to helping different agencies be able to
implement this because it's a way that we like we
did in Nebraska, people we worked out so people spent
less time, you know, waiting on hold, standing in line,
(03:13):
filling out forms. We can do the same thing at
the federal government to be able to do a better
job providing sources and reduce our costs at the same time.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Did you talk specifically about programs hard costs, programs that
exist right now that can be eliminated. Did you get
into any of that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There were a number of different ideas from the senators.
So in our first thing, there's about eighteen Republican senators
there and by the way, Democrats were invited. None of
them showed up.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And but does that tell you everything you need to know?
That tells you so.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
But there was a number of different ideas for a
different number of different programs that people talked about. But
and while those there's a lot of ways, there's a
lot of dumb things we do in federal government that
we can just cut. At the end of the day,
if you really want to make a culture change, you
have to start changing the way people think about how
we run the operations. And that's what we did at
the stay in Nebraska, and that's what I'm really encouraging
(04:09):
the dose to take a look at as well, because
and this will take years to get done, right. I mean,
it took years when I was a governor trying to
get it through state government. But we've got to start now.
And if hopefully we can have four years of Trump
and then maybe I don't know, eight years of JD. Van,
he'd actually have the chance to really be able to
drive some of this culture change.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
At the end of the day, though, Pete, the state
of Nebraska wasn't responsible for Social Security or Medicare, which
is really the big budget items sixty six percent of
the budget. Is that if you're not going to tackle
those and do something to either slow growth or means
test people or raise taxes on it, how you're really
going to save any money.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, there is a lot of manatory programs that we
have the opportunity to be able to address. And as
you know, President Trumps said he doesn't want to look
at Social Security or medicate at this point, but there's
lots of out opportunities for us to be able to
address different other programs and that mandatory bucket. And frankly,
since we haven't done any of this, the American people
don't have any fate that we're actually going to do it.
(05:09):
So why don't we just show that we can get
some wins and get some things done and build upon that.
You know, you're going to try and get some of
the low hanging fruit done first, to show that you
can actually get some wins here, and then build upon
that as we work on trying to turn this boat around.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, look, six days and you will be in the majority,
while you already are in the Senate, and the House
will and and the and Trump and the White House.
So what's your read on how likely it is that?
Or let me let me put a different way. How
much time do you believe Trump has to really get
(05:49):
something done? Because people have said, look, you got You've
got a very short window because then you got the
midterms coming up and things could change. What do you
think is realistic for Trump's agenda and how long it'll take?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, we really got I're only guaranteed a little bit
less than two years here because you point out the
mid term elections. And that's why I'm very pleased that
John Soon has set a calendar where this is a
crazy concept, guys, but we're actually working Monday through Friday.
I know that sounds crazy to most America.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh go.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Making that out.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, So, like just to put it in perspective, last year,
Chuck Schumer had a scheduled for like one hundred and
thirty two session days, and I think we're scheduled right
now for like one hundred and sixty five or one
hundred and seventy nine somewhere in that area session days.
And I can't remember off the top of my head.
But the point is tuone's actually got scheduled Monday through Friday,
whereas Chuck Schumer had a scheduled sometimes some weeks Tuesday
(06:45):
to Thursday. So we know that we've got a window
of opportunity here to get Trump's agenda done. And we're
hitting the ground running. Where if we started voting last
week or you know, the first week that we were
in the majority. With the Linke and Riley bill, this
is a bill that would require that any illegal immigrant
that commits a crime, no matter that's just make a
mesimer of shopla thing, has to be detained and then
(07:09):
the process would be of course they're here legally, the
need to be reported. So this is so we're starting
right away to be able to help President Trump get
this thing on the border turned around, because this is
obviously one of the biggest issues that Americans care about,
and we're getting started right away to be able to help.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Present out very good senator, Thanks, happy new Year, and
I will chat again. I'm sure my pleasure. Thanks for
having on about Nebraska. US Senator Pete Record
Nebraska, US Senator Pete Records. Senator, good morning, good to
have you back.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning, thanks very much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're welcome. On to touch on a couple of things.
To begin with, the hearings are underway. The Democrats really
ramped up their attacks on Pete Hegseth this morning. He's
gone before the Armed Services Committee today for hearings for
his nomination the Defense Secretary from You're not on that committee,
Senator Records, but what's your read on that nomination.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, I had a chance to talk with Pete, and frankly,
he was very impressive. So every candidate like Pete will
get a chance to go through a process. Typically it
involved sitting down and talking with centaer's individually, such as
eight when he came in to see me, and then
the public hearing, which he's going to have a little
bit today, and then they'll take that into a business meeting.
The committee will take it into a business meeting, and
(00:51):
then they'll have a conversation and then I presume they'll
vote him out of committee and it'll come to the
floor and we'll vote him on the floor. So you know,
there's a whole process that goes along with this. Like
I said, I had a pretty good conversation with people
when he came in to see me.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, it'll probably be strict party line. I mean, they're
really attacking on the Democrats. Now you'll be you'll be
on the Committee Foreign Relations when Senator Rubio comes up
for his hearings. Right for Secretary of State, that one
does not seem to be that that does not seem
to be particularly controversial.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, I don't think that'll be controversial. First of all,
Marco is a great choice for Secretary of State. He
understands that we live in a dangerous world and that
we've got to utilize all the resources of the United
States government, including the State Department, to be able to
push back on things like the Chinese Communist Party. And
he's got broad support, bipartisan support. I expect that he
(01:44):
will be able. He'll be approved with by partians support.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay, good, I wanted to talk to you a little
bit about saving money via government efficiency because there will
be a whole new department how the Department of Government
Efficiency chaired or headed up by Elon muavike Ramaswami. And
you are one of a group of senators that's working
on this issue too, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Joni Ernz started a DOSEE Caucus and I'm one of
the founding members. We had a meeting with the Vake
Ramaswani a couple of weeks ago to talk about different
ideas that senators had. One of the things that I
was pushing was what we did in Nebraska with Men
six Sigma. This was the process improvement program that we
put in place through our Center of Operational Excellence, really
(02:29):
to drive better process, better technology, do a better job
providing our services and reducing our costs. Ultimately, we saved
about nine hundred thousand hours of our teammates' time, about
one hundred and fifty million dollars in hard savings, and
improved about a thousand processes throughout the state government. So
it's a philosophy that can help change the culture, and
(02:50):
it's one of the things that I encouraged the VEKE
to take a look at trying to implement, and in
fact I'm Lee Zelden, who will be the new director
the EPA has also talked to me about it. So
I'm looking forward to helping different agencies be able to
implement this because it's a way that we like we
did in Nebraska, people we worked out so people spent
less time, you know, waiting on hold, standing in line,
(03:13):
filling out forms. We can do the same thing at
the federal government to be able to do a better
job providing sources and reduce our costs at the same time.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Did you talk specifically about programs hard costs, programs that
exist right now that can be eliminated. Did you get
into any of that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There were a number of different ideas from the senators.
So in our first thing, there's about eighteen Republican senators
there and by the way, Democrats were invited. None of
them showed up.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And but does that tell you everything you need to know?
That tells you so.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
But there was a number of different ideas for a
different number of different programs that people talked about. But
and while those there's a lot of ways, there's a
lot of dumb things we do in federal government that
we can just cut. At the end of the day,
if you really want to make a culture change, you
have to start changing the way people think about how
we run the operations. And that's what we did at
the stay in Nebraska, and that's what I'm really encouraging
(04:09):
the dose to take a look at as well, because
and this will take years to get done, right. I mean,
it took years when I was a governor trying to
get it through state government. But we've got to start now.
And if hopefully we can have four years of Trump
and then maybe I don't know, eight years of JD. Van,
he'd actually have the chance to really be able to
drive some of this culture change.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
At the end of the day, though, Pete, the state
of Nebraska wasn't responsible for Social Security or Medicare, which
is really the big budget items sixty six percent of
the budget. Is that if you're not going to tackle
those and do something to either slow growth or means
test people or raise taxes on it, how you're really
going to save any money.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, there is a lot of manatory programs that we
have the opportunity to be able to address. And as
you know, President Trumps said he doesn't want to look
at Social Security or medicate at this point, but there's
lots of out opportunities for us to be able to
address different other programs and that mandatory bucket. And frankly,
since we haven't done any of this, the American people
don't have any fate that we're actually going to do it.
(05:09):
So why don't we just show that we can get
some wins and get some things done and build upon that.
You know, you're going to try and get some of
the low hanging fruit done first, to show that you
can actually get some wins here, and then build upon
that as we work on trying to turn this boat around.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, look, six days and you will be in the majority,
while you already are in the Senate, and the House
will and and the and Trump and the White House.
So what's your read on how likely it is that?
Or let me let me put a different way. How
much time do you believe Trump has to really get
(05:49):
something done? Because people have said, look, you got You've
got a very short window because then you got the
midterms coming up and things could change. What do you
think is realistic for Trump's agenda and how long it'll take?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, we really got I're only guaranteed a little bit
less than two years here because you point out the
mid term elections. And that's why I'm very pleased that
John Soon has set a calendar where this is a
crazy concept, guys, but we're actually working Monday through Friday.
I know that sounds crazy to most America.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Oh go.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Making that out.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, So, like just to put it in perspective, last year,
Chuck Schumer had a scheduled for like one hundred and
thirty two session days, and I think we're scheduled right
now for like one hundred and sixty five or one
hundred and seventy nine somewhere in that area session days.
And I can't remember off the top of my head.
But the point is tuone's actually got scheduled Monday through Friday,
whereas Chuck Schumer had a scheduled sometimes some weeks Tuesday
(06:45):
to Thursday. So we know that we've got a window
of opportunity here to get Trump's agenda done. And we're
hitting the ground running. Where if we started voting last
week or you know, the first week that we were
in the majority. With the Linke and Riley bill, this
is a bill that would require that any illegal immigrant
that commits a crime, no matter that's just make a
mesimer of shopla thing, has to be detained and then
(07:09):
the process would be of course they're here legally, the
need to be reported. So this is so we're starting
right away to be able to help President Trump get
this thing on the border turned around, because this is
obviously one of the biggest issues that Americans care about,
and we're getting started right away to be able to help.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Present out very good senator, Thanks, happy new Year, and
I will chat again. I'm sure my pleasure. Thanks for
having on about Nebraska. US Senator Pete Record
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