These 12 Lawmakers Agree: It's Time to Leave Congress | NYT Opinion

and okay do what you got to do this year is my 58th consecutive year as an elected official I never planned on doing it for more than just a few years now we're going on 28 years I knew it was time to leave about 3 weeks after I got to Congress it just took me a long time to try to figure out how to get out of this [Music] place I think one of the most frustrating things was to me the best part of this job so that's the big question everyone wants to know the answer to Is how do you quote fix Congress one word I'd Ed to describe Congress I would say uh dysfunctional chaotic chaotic it's just very challeng Ching difficult last year when the Republicans took over the House of Representatives they passed 27 bills which made us the most unproductive Congress in any given year in the United States history dysfunctional tense dysfunctional probably a very popular word that you're hearing misunderstood the misunderstanding is is that people are purposefully trying to not accomplish goals on behalf of the American people that's just not true potential the institution right now is punching below its weight Challen Ching broken no I don't I don't see the corruption Congress is absolutely not corrupt both Democrats and Republicans by and large are just trying to do what we believe we need to do for our our districts and for our constituents I think that there are parts of our system that are corrupting to the general atmosphere there is indue influence for special interests absolutely some people do tend to favor large business and the special interest B corporations and special interest tsunami of money that comes in from from special interest groups and that is a form of corruption there's no question I think there's too much money in our political system I was told at the beginning that I had to raise $250,000 if I wanted to be on certain committees and if I wanted to be on more important committees or committees with broader jurisdiction I needed to raise even more money buying a committee seat is not something the most Americans know that members of Congress have to do the number of times over the course of the 11 plus years that I heard one of my colleagues say you know I agree with you on that but I could never vote that way because of my fear of a primary is concerning citizens united was a horrible decision by the Supreme Court that held corporations had the rights as individuals to make contributions in our campaign it led to the floodgates of a lot of special interest dollars coming into campaigns Without Really knowing who was contributing those dollars I have been a big supporter of campaign Finance re we need campaign Finance reform change the way campaigns are funded in America and definitely by demanding disclosure of this dark money oh you know I'd have to go through a laundry list of a few hundred there are frustrations every day we were at a budget standoff over the debt ceiling and speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden negotiated a budget agreement then speaker McCarthy walked away from that agreement I've had lots of disagreements with people but the the thing that's most rating now is that the environment seems to give permission for people to come to an understanding to shake hands and then erase all memory of that deal when it becomes convenient to do so what frustrates me is that members tend to say something make a statement make a speech that maybe could go viral or get picked up instead of thinking well what's what's the best conversation I can have here one of the most frustrating uh experiences for me was the antitrust legislation concerning big Tech they have so much money and so much influence on the hill that we just can't move forward on those issues I think the most frustrating thing is when you have 300 co-sponsors to a bill and you still can't get that across the Finish Line I think one of the most frustrating things was when the Republicans were not able to choose a speaker and then the frustration of being in the house and being told all the time this is how you need to vote the part of me that wanted to stick around because I believed uh we could get more things done uh died to me the best part of this job is the fact of who you get to be with every day know you get to go on some Congressional trips when you're sitting across from the Prime Minister of Japan that's pretty cool we get to see demonstrations of Technology at laboratories you're talking to experts who are shaping the future and you get to talk to four or five of them in a single day the House Gym the House Gym the house gym is great I wish I took more advantage of that now it's only about a C+ YMCA but it is 100 ft away from your office the first time I went to the White House and met the president of the United States I was uh really over the moon well it's pretty cool to go to the White House Christmas party and meet the president you know I've got pictures now with three presidents President Obama president Trump and just recently President Biden I think there are a lot of um perks that I am really irritated by and I shun I don't want people calling me Congressman I don't want people holding the door for me the most amazing part about my job as a United States congressman is every time I'm driving up to the Capal and I see that beautiful iconic Dome Capital gleaming in the sun it is like to die for and every day I sort of pinch myself and say I'm here I'm doing this I love the history of the Capitol building and I like giving tours there's a a Ronald Reagan statue in one layer of that statue is uh pieces of the Berlin wall and and so I have people rub their finger around that the coolest thing about this job is that I had the same job as John Lewis and when John was dying he picked me little Dan kildy from West Gennesse Street in Flint Michigan to cast his vote for him that's not a perk that's a privilege and if it were just for the fact that I'll go for the rest of my life have become a friend of and a partner to John Lewis it will have been worth all the stuff that we have to deal with here didn't want to use a a more colorful word in that context but I could have most definitely for sure I really feel like I was able to make a difference 66 bills hundreds of amendments couple hundred million dollar from the water crisis in Flint dealing with transportation land use on National Defense Healthcare issues I was the first woman to chair the health subcommittee solve the surprise medical billing problem expanding rural Broadband permit the Smithsonian to build a Latino Museum help right bipartisan infrastructure bill that has the biggest investment ever in climate Provisions managed to bring mental health into the light I was responsible for passage of cancer screening coverage under Medicare some of the bills that I carried I carried for eight and 10 years before they came to fruition these are things that have had a profound effect it really appears to the public that all we do is fight when when the reality is on 98% of the issues there's great bipartisanship and people work together well and come up with good answers so I I really reject the notion that you can't get things done I didn't take this job for the for the pay you know I I don't think we pay our Congressman enough look the average in come in my district is $55,000 a year a congressman makes $174,000 a year if I go back to my district where the average salary in in some places is 32,000 and I say I don't make enough uh when I make $174,000 they they would go ballistic I'd be out of office in a heartbeat and yet um trying to maintain two places to live have clothes and two places have a car in two places it's very difficult when I got to Congress I realized holy smokes comes out of my pocket without reimbursement and you're not allowed to write off any of the expenses I've had a roommate uh every time I R in an apartment upwards of 100 Congress members actually sleep in their office cuz it's expensive Washington is expensive all of us ought to be concerned about the future in terms of who can afford to do this do you want it to still be the house of the people or do you want it to be only wealthy people I think that it's important to have costof living adjustments I think there needs to be at least an inflationary adjustment I think it should at least keep up with inflation it should probably go up with the cost of living Congress works better when you have a broad swath of the American people being able to run and get elected I really believe that I worry about the future of our democracy are we going to protect our democracy the state of our democracy you know I saw pretty up close and personally on the 6th of January how fragile it is a lot of the concerns I have now are about the geopolitical climate around the world those autocratic regimes around the world what worries me most is um I'm not giving my grandkids the same country that my parents gave me Social Security will be bankrupt within a few years Medicare the same way we can't sustain 34 trillion dollar of debt right now the incentive is to spend all the money that we don't have and put the burden on our grandchildren um because I get to go back to my district and tell people in my district I got that bridge for you I we improve this uh interstate highway we have no spending discipline very simple solution you need to change the incentive structure uh for example members of Congress don't get a salary unless they balance the budget or they don't get to run for reelection unless they have reduced the amount of spending responsible government is the best way to move forward so that's the big question everyone wants to know the answer to Is how do you quote fix Congress well it's the American people that have to fix the Congress well I think the American people are going to have to fix it you'd have to change culture you have to fix it at the root in the 1970s 80s members of Congress stayed in DC people had would bring their families to this to Washington and they would live there the kids would go to school and their families got to know each other and they got to know uh each other on a social basis folks didn't jump uh on an airplane on a like a Thursday afternoon and had for for home and so there was there was less divisiveness there was less um hate now getting back to the district is essential so I I can see why it's shifted but but the shift has caused some of the dysfunction in Congress I think what we have to do is and and I actually work with Derek Kilmer who is also leaving one of my very close friends who's also leaving Congress uh Dereck Kilmer came up with like some really thoughtful structural system changes when I became a member of Congress I was conscious of the fact that I was joining an organization that according to recent polling is less popular than headli colonoscopies and the rock band Nickelback and so a lot of the time that I've spent here has been trying to figure out what do you do and speaker Pelosi asked me to chair a committee called the select committee on the modernization of Congress which makes us sound like we were the IT Help Desk but we were nicknamed the fixed Congress committee and it was a group of six Democrats and six Republicans and it went over four years and we looked under the hood of the institution and tried to propose reforms to make Congress work better for the American people everything from looking at how Congress can do a better job of recruiting and retaining and having more diverse staff at how Congress uses technology even looking at some tricky issues like how do you have a more civil and collaborative institution and we had one hearing where we invited in a political scientist Management Consultant organizational psychologist marriage counselor I thought about bringing in an exorcist I set up time with this football coach who took over a team that had a notoriously corrosive culture and he turned it into a winner and I said coach what do you do when you have players on the team that are like trying to sabotage the team and he said well I cut them I said well we don't really have that option and he then he asked me a question he said how do you do new player orientation much of the orientation process is you know is an exercise and keeping the two parties from talking to each other okay Democrats you get on this bus Republicans you get on that bus and this coach said to me well I don't know much about Congress but it seems like you ought to stop doing that and this last year the orientation process actually involved Democrats and Republicans going through orientation together and listen someone could look at that and say hey bang up job Kilmer you know Congress is clearly fixed um obviously that's not the case although I'm reminded of a uh conversation I had with the house chaplain during like the 15th round of votes for speaker of the house and I said said pray harder she put her hand on my elbow and she said just imagine how rough things would be if I wasn't praying this hard so that's sort of how I look at the work of the monitorization committee we've passed 202 recommendations and I actually think over time you're going to see some positive change within the institution as a consequence of that work I think that's it for us but thank you so much this has been really great you bet yeah did I forget anything your head here do you think I'm a tough interview all right than honorary members of the Congressional bike yeah thank you oh thank you all there's no individual cover so there you have it okay good

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Keywords: Why is the american government so disfunctional?, What do people in the U.S. congress think about it?, How many congress members are leaving?, What do departing congressmembers think about the house and senate?, Do members of congress make enough money?, how do you fix congress?, is congress broken?, The New York Times, NYT Opinion, NYT Opinion Video, The United States Government, Congress, The House and Senate, Is congress corrupt?

Id: lrebGkYy7pE

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024