Hoyer Discusses the Regional Leadership Council and the Investing in America Agenda on 'The Julie Mason Show'

WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), Chair of the Regional Leadership Council (RLC), joined Julie Mason yesterday on "The Julie Mason Show" to discuss the successful implementation of the Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America agenda. Below is a link to the interview and excerpts of his remarks:

To listen to the interview, click here

On the Regional Leadership Council's fourth visit to the White House (more):

"It's the fourth meeting we've had so far. We met with the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and the Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House. And this is just a continuation of the previous three meetings that we had in making sure that we are educating the American people on the extraordinary accomplishments of the 117th Congress-meaning the first two years of the Biden administration-where we passed legislation which got a handle on the pandemic and brought us out of the pandemic so that we had one of the best recoveries of any nation in the world."

On the implementation of Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America agenda:

"First of all, we got money in the pockets of families that were really hurting-and were threatening to go, you know, fall through the floorboards-into their pockets so they could stabilize their lives and start paying their, making sure they pay their bills, and keep their homes. We then got small businesses money to make sure that they could keep people on the payroll. We did that in the COVID legislation, by the way, some of which were signed by Donald Trump, and we also made sure that they got shots in arms. The reason we needed to get shots in arms, which was because we needed to come out of the pandemic, and we needed people to have an immunity or at least protection against the COVID-19 virus."

"And then the last thing we did, which was just so critically important in the [American] rescue plan, we got kids in school. We got kids back in school. How did we do that? Well, first of all, we gave money to schools to make sure they could make their schools safe and sanitary and make sure their air-handling systems, a lot of which were very old, could be at a place where the air was not dirty, where dirty air was not circulating. So that was our first step, and we wanted people to know about that, that's what we were talking about at the White House."

"And then we talked about the infrastructure bill. There are now some 60,000 projects going on right now in America because of that bill in 4,500 different communities around the country. Making a real difference, not only providing infrastructure that we need to be competitive in the 21st century, but also providing good jobs, good-paying jobs for a lot of middle-income workers, so that was a big, big accomplishment."

"But not only did we do that? We also got projects going to make sure that kids weren't drinking dirty water that gave them cancer. So, you know, it's very nice to say we have a successful Congress, but people have to know, 'How did it affect me? How did it affect my family? How did it affect my kids?' Well, the kids in school, it affected. Clean water in their water systems helped them."

"And then we had a CHIPS and Science bill. What was the CHIPS and Science bill all about? First of all, When the pandemic hit us, our supply chains froze. Why? Because Taiwan shut down and Singapore shut down. They were supplying us most of our chips. What does that mean? Well, chips go into almost everything we have. We wear our watches, our refrigerators have chips, our stoves have chips, our cars have chips. And what happened to the car industry? They had to shut down because we didn't have chips. So what did we do? We invested in making chips here in America. I've had an agenda, Julie, that I called "Make it in America" since 2010. This was the biggest Make it in America [Congress]. Make sure America is self-sufficient. Make sure America is not reliant on the unreliable sources overseas."

"And the science. we made the biggest investment in science that's been made in history. And what does that do? It provides for the creation of new products. You know, we invented the Internet. We invented television. We invented so much of the technology that's now made overseas. Well, let's bring it home, make it here, create good jobs, and be competitive in the 21st century."

"And the last thing we did, well not the last thing because we did the PACT bill, that helped a lot - millions of veterans. And we passed a gun safety bill, which was the first one in 30 years, that was a bipartisan bill and signed by the president to make our communities safer. But the last one we did was we called the Inflation Reduction Act. Why? Because we wanted to bring costs down for the American people. And one specific example, we brought insulin costs for people who are using insulin on a regular basis down from hundreds of dollars to a cap of $35."

"That is huge. And then what did we do, Julie? We took and said, 'Look these big pharmaceutical companies are charging huge prices and we can get them cheaper overseas. We need to negotiate, as overseas people do, as we do for, frankly, veterans. We negotiate prices. So, what we said, 'we're going to negotiate prices for seniors.' Now, what Kamala Harris wants to do, she wants to make sure we negotiate, we cap prices for everybody. So not just seniors capped at $2,000, but everybody capped at $2,000. Because we don't want people making choices by whether they're going to buy food for their bodies to keep them healthy, or drugs to keep them alive, which they can't afford because they're so expensive."

"So, that's what the RLC was tasked to do by the president and by Leader Jefferies. And that's what we've done. We've had meetings all over this country. Our members have participated in saying, 'Look, this was not just talk.' This was not just rhetoric. This was not just saying, 'We're going to do something.' It was concrete things that we did, have made a difference for the people."

On the Trump Administration's Lack of Infrastructure:

"But, you know we need to make sure [the American people] know about [these dollars] so that when they see them, they understand those are the results of what we did in the 117th Congress under Joe Biden's leadership and his legislative agenda that we adopted. That's why it's so important to make sure people understand that so when they go to decide what the policies are going to be in the future and who's going to carry those out, they have an understanding of who's done it. Not who just said they would do it. For instance, Julie, in 2016, we heard a thousand times from Donald Trump that he was going to invest a trillion dollars in infrastructure. And then he became president. And he had 'infrastructure months.' He had 'infrastructure weeks.' He had 'infrastructure days.' You know what he didn't have? Infrastructure!"

"So, that's why the RLC has been so important and why the White House has stayed in such close touch with us, and we've stayed in such close touch with them to let people know what's going on. Now, for instance, in the last number of years, as a result of our legislation, private companies-get this-have invested almost a trillion dollars. $910 billion in investment in cutting-edge American industries and technology. That makes a difference. It creates jobs, it creates middle- class families. It creates families who could go out and purchase automobiles and houses and their groceries. And the Inflation Reduction Act, we're working, and Harris is focused like a laser bringing cost down. Making sure that giant companies, giant monopolies, whether it's gas or groceries, don't charge us more simply because they want more profits."

On expectations for the Vice-Presidential debate:

"Well, probably more of the same. I think you're going to get-down-to-Earth discussion from Walz and lies from Vance. You know, he's going to talk about cats and dogs being eaten by Haitians, which, of course, was absolute, total bologna. And I think Walz is going to say it was bologna or it was weird. But I think what you're going to get is common sense, truth, facts from Tim Walz - a governor who had to make things happen in Minnesota, is a popular governor because he did make things happen. I served with him for six years. He's a down-to-Earth guy. He was the top non-com in the service during his time. Which meant he had the respect of the officers and the men and women who served at all the grades below, and he is a down-to-Earth, common-sense, get-things-done guy. Vance, you know, he makes up things. To that extent, he's the perfect vice president for Donald Trump because they make up things together. They must have a wonderful time in their little, you know, two-on-two discussions with, 'What can we make up now? What great lie can we tell to the American people? What sounds bizarre, but when they hear it from us, they think, Well, we must know that that's true.' Well, we found out in the cats and dogs and Haitian story that it was absolute total - bologna, is the clean word I will use for what it was."

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