Oregon, Washington lawmakers discuss bipartisan border security, foreign funding, TikTok ban

[Music] from KGW News this is straight talk with Laurel Porter hello and welcome to straight talk I'm Laurel Porter you've heard a lot about gridlock in Congress over what to do about security at the US Southern border and about defense spending for Ukraine Israel and Taiwan a border deal and foreign aid package touted as bipartisan failed to advance in a senate and the house Speaker said at the time if it made it to the house it would be dead on a Ral largely because of opposition from former p

resident Donald Trump who called it a disaster then more recently a foreign aid only bill passed the Senate but as of Thursday hasn't made it to a house vote but now a new bipartisan bill has emerged in the house and it's co-sponsored by both the Republican and Democrat from the Pacific Northwest Oregon's Fifth District Republican congresswoman Lori Chavez dreamer and Southwest Washington's District 3 Democratic representative Marie Glen Camp Perez have joined several other Congressional members

both Democrats and Republicans in sponsoring the bill it's called the defending borders defending democracies act for one year the legislation would provide necessary authority to secure the border and defense only assistance to support Israel Taiwan and Ukraine in this episode of Straight Talk we're pleased to be joined by both congresswomen to tell us what's in the bill what's at stake and why they join forces to try to get it passed welcome to my guests Representatives Lori Chavez dreamer em

Marie Glen Camp Perez welcome back to straight talk it's so nice to have you here thanks Laurel good to be here this seems so unusual we all hear a lot about gridlock and dysfunction in Congress a lack of bipartisanship you know business grinding to a halt How did this happen that you came together to work on this bill let me let me start with this Congressman well you know the number of migrants unlawfully crossing the southern border is reached an alltime high in December and you know this is

something that concerns both of us um and so we have both talked informally about how important um support for um military aid has been and and and also the Border issue and so when we saw the chance to find a way around bipartisan gridlock in the Senate and on the house um we got together and co-led this legislation congresswoman Chavez dreamer how does it feel to be working with your democratic colleague well it it's quite frankly easy uh we've gotten to know each other over the last year cer

tainly we know that we have the same values uh in the Pacific Northwest uh we recognize what's happening on the southern border and how that's affecting Oregon and Washington when we drill down we're talking about the fentel crisis in the overdose well we're not a border state we recognize the devastation it can have on the streets for our young people in our school system for families worried about that so that's one major issue we also recognize on a national security level what can happen uh

when dictators take over like Putin in Ukraine what we what we don't want to see is China to be aggressive with Taiwan and we want to make sure that you know Israel um uh can defend itself against Iran so those kind of things come to together and then when we're working together in the problem solvers group we see each other there's lots of Democrats and Republicans who work together I I'm proud to serve on problem solvers and I know Maria is too um and it's when these type of issues come togeth

er that we say wait we we can be pragmatic thought thing because that's why we're elected to our districts um so for me to work with Marie to talk about what's um the values are for Oregon and Washington it's time to um constituents want us to do something not just sit back and wait we can't continue to do that we're freshmen but we have voices and we're going to make sure we exercise those voices for the people who elected us I mentioned earlier the foreign aid bill that passed the Senate so we

have the competing bill that's s making its way through the house this bill joins the two issues together border security and foreign aid why join these two issues together congresswoman well I mean I think when you say that you respect borders and that a border is the obligation of a government to secure that means that we also recognize that Ukraine has a right to defend its border and frankly our Administration has failed to get a handle on the crisis um we've seen it turned into this footba

ll that is really disappointing because the impacts are so real and um real human cost in not having a secure Southern border for us and and we see the suffering in Ukraine and um we I think there's there sometimes there can be this thing of like you're freshman don't worry about it let leadership handle it and I didn't put my life in a blender to wait around for somebody else to fix this it's very serious and very real to both of us well Congressman Chavez dreamer let's drill down on what is ha

ppening at the southern border and how you see it impacting the Pacific Northwest yeah what we hear often times is people are truly concerned um about operational control we can see you know hundreds of thousands of migrants coming uh to our country we know that people come to this country for various reasons Asylum Seekers religious persecution we recognize that but what we now do not have is any operational control to to know who's coming across the border um and when when again drugs and the

cartels are ruling uh the day and we have human trafficking and sex trafficking and we have to get control of that border so we're talking bipartisan we want to make sure that bills are simple uh you mentioned earlier just the foreign aid bill being a simple solo bill but we also recognize we're in a divided Congress and we have a very slim majority each way and when we talk about these things it's better on a timing issue as well as negotiating issue we can keep both sides simple but again prot

ecting our border as well as other borders this bill came together with bipartisanship uh Congressman Brian FIS Patrick um came together with Jared golden and said wait a minute take a look at this bill let's get some other sponsors there was four and four as original co-sponsors and now we're going to get more on because right now it's the only Bill in the house it's the only Bill bipartisan bill that addresses both issues and if we want something done we have to get the votes it's just that si

mple so border security for us in the United States gets Republican votes for sure and Democratic votes and in and the opposite side of that foreign aid and making sure they can secure their voters we'll get Democratic votes and that's how we move it forward well let's look what in the Border part of the bill here's some of the language that's in the bill it requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to suspend the entry of inadmissible migrants at a US land or Maritime border if the secretary

determines it's necessary to achieve operational control of the Southern border it requires an immigration officer who determines that a migrant arriving in the US or along with Southern border is inadmissible and to be detained and expelled to Mexico or their nation of origin birth or residence without further hearing or review and implements a remain in Mexico policy for one year by requiring illegal immigrants seeking admission including Asylum to return to that territory pending proceedings

for the adjudication of their status representative Glen Camp Perez how do you see this helping stem the fentanyl crisis that we see in the Pacific Northwest well you know the remain in Mexico policy title 42 Congress enacted that in 1996 um presidents of both parties have used it and in Washington last year we had over 18 00 people die from Fentanyl and in communities like mine I think it's hitting harder um than others and so it's personal like we all know someone who has died or you know even

if you don't know that you know someone that you know has died and it's a crisis and we cannot wait and you know by gaining operational control um by knowing who is coming in and out which I think is actually a very low barrier like we should know who's coming in and out um I I think you're able to stem the flow of Fentanyl and create um less uh Power in human trafficking and coyotes who are using the um between ports representative Chavis dreamer let me ask you a little bit more about remain i

n Mexico because that has been political in the past it was originally implemented in January of 2019 by then president Trump and it required migrants seeking asylum in to stay in Mexico until their US immigration court date which can be a while and human rights group say it exposes migrants to attacks while they wait for those proceedings and then President Biden has called it inhumane Mexico is opposed to it why do you want to see it as part of this bill well we can see what's happening um whe

ther it's the former president the current President we right now uh we don't see that operational control again it's out of control and we have to get a hold of that uh what we're asking is that they remain in their home countries and if it's in Mexico remain in Mexico policy or the title you know 42 which was an acted during the co era we're asking for really a pause and to say let's work with the Mexican Government and it will be up to this Administration to determine what that looks like and

put the pressure there um because they're experiencing that on their southern borders whether they're coming in through other countries and and what we're recognizing is that we're doing ourselves no favors here in the state of Oregon um you know really with measure 110 and decriminalizing uh the use of hard drugs didn't do us any favors now we're seeing somewhat of a fix at our Oregon legislature but when you have uh those pills on the streets for 80 cents a pill and our young people are not r

ecognizing just how devastating that can be and then that one pill will kill them on the streets and then we have our First Responders saying you know we're pushing Narcan at two and three pushes at a time to save those children I mean we can't have this anymore we can't have 1,500 to 1600% increase in overdose deaths I mean this is something that we should all be standing up for and as a as a mom of 29y old twin girls and as a new mom of a new young little boy this should be first and foremost

what we should stand up for it is not a a partisan issue this should be a bipartisan issue and this is one way we can get a hold of that and you mentioned title 42 just want to bring that up because that's included in the bill too and we'll talk a little bit about what that is it allows the US government to expel those seeking Asylum back to their home countries or Mexico if there was a danger of introducing communicable diseases and it did start during the the co era um to try to protect people

from Corona virus impacted areas coming into the country and there are 1.8 million expulsions during that time it was discontinued in April of 2022 at the end of the pandemic why do you want to see representative Glen Camp Perez why do you want to see it reimplemented well like I said the the policy of having people apply for asylum in their home countries or in Mexico was actually originally used in 1996 like Trump really likes to Brand things but this is actually an idea that we have used for

um a long time to gain operational um control and so I think that um it gives people with very clear uh Asylum cases of a faster track to having a more quick resolution and it incentivizes people to take slowly and not abuse the Asylum process um while they're in their home countries well let's talk now about the foreign aid portion of the bill it's the defending democracies portion what do you think representative is at stake right now when we look at foreign aid yeah I don't know if I have to

say what I think cuz I think we can see it we can see what's been happening in Ukraine um um and if we think that that Putin is going to stop he's not if we don't help our our allies uh this is often recognized that you know America is number one in the world in leadership that people do look to America to say we've been we've been protecting and supporting uh our allies for years I recognize that people want not a blank check and they want to have oversight and see where the money is going and

we don't want to have any nefarious Behavior with taking that money and not when will the War end um but if we don't stand up to that you know who's watching China China's watching and they're putting the pressure on Taiwan Iran is watching and we can see what's happening in Israel uh we recognize that we are in a national security crisis but um this foreign a is important to um these democracies I mean when we look at even Israel uh in the Middle East there are there are democracy in the Middl

e East who who has the same values as America Ukraine has a right to defend themselves as well so this was important I think that uh this package offers a little over $66 billion yes is it a high price tag sure it is um but I think that that's the right thing to do and there's a lot of members of Congress who would agree with with both of us on this package and here's a look at the money that is in the bill there's uh over 47 billion do to support the defense of Ukraine over 10 billion to suppor

t the defense of Israel almost 5 billion to support us and Allied deterrence operations in the Indo Pacific and 8 billion for the Department of Defense to conduct oversight of Ukraine fund and requires a report to Congress within 90 days sponsors of the bill also representative Glen Camp Perez say that this will also help the us as far as manufacturing a lot of the money will stay in this country can you speak to that that's right I mean we are not talking about sending $80 billion out to uh som

ebody with a clipboard right this is about American manufacturing of Munitions that is where the vast majority of this money is going to stay and when you think about deterrence on a global scale of our enemies attacking us or our allies um it is predicated on having a strong Munitions and national manufacturing capacity and that's what I think is so powerful about this um you know there's this uh theory of escalation um and it's basically the idea is like when you see two primates fight if one

of them just walks away from an attack the other one knows that there's no cost to attacking and the whole Colony knows there's no cost to attacking and so violence actually goes way up in the colony if they start just walking away and and I think that the cost here is real um Bad actors are watching everywhere what happens in Ukraine like are we going to give them the tools to defend themselves or is this going to step um you know expand to mova and Georgia and Poland um what's going to happen

in Taiwan and I think that's why um like you wouldn't say I can't afford the cost of a fire extinguisher so I'm going to let the whole building Burn Right like you having um a posture of proactive work I think is what uh the America that we believe in and and we know that it is in the best interest of Global Security to prevent these kinds of violent actors before they you know have this high level of success and feedback loop let me ask you about humanitarian Aid because a lot of Americans want

to see more humanitarian aid from the US to Palestinians and the Gaza Gaza are area does your bill include any humanitarian Aid or might it possibly include humanitarian Aid representative yeah it might um I we're open to those amendments because what will happen in the process wise we have this bill on the floor as a discharge petition and a discharge petition means that we're bypassing the rules to go uh around really um the normal process and then members can sign on when those signatures re

ach 218 signatures then they'll put it Forward uh to the floor when the calendar allows I mean there's there's a whole you know uh uh process to that and then amendments can can come forward and there's been some conversation about that right now what we know at least as far as um uh Ukraine goes in in the NATO our NATO Partners often times humanitarian Aid is there what we also have to remember is that we want to keep this bill as simple as possible to have a conversation so uh we'll we'll move

through that um conversation as it goes through the floor but specifically what we want the goal at least I know for Marie and I and for the original co-sponsors is what can get the votes to get this done so we can move forward and to remind everybody this is a one-year uh uh time frame we're not talking to solve all the issues but we can't wait any longer I mean Ukraine is at their Breaking Point Israel is very concerned uh we just have to make sure that we secure that southern border if I've

been to the Border twice I've been down in Texas and I've been down to Arizona if you talk to the members there democrat or republican they need help now we can't wait any longer let me talk about some of the people that have signed on to the bill you mentioned representative Brian Fitzpatrick the Republican from Pennsylvania leading the way the co-chair of the moderate problem solvers caucus you're both members he's former FBI with station in ke in Ukraine before coming to Congress Democrat Jar

ed golden from Maine Republican Don Mak of Nebraska Democrat Ed Case from Hawaii Republican Mike Lawler from New York and Democrat Jim Costa from California and you recently attended a news conference to introduce this bill let's listen to a clip from representative Fitzpatrick we just want the problem sou uh this is not um a transportation bill this is not the naming of a post office this is literally uh us domestic security and world peace on the line here we felt that we needed to step up and

and offer a solution to show the uh the intersection of where Democrats and Republicans uh reasonable members of this U of this chamber can agree uh both on border security um and on um funding our allies overseas and quickly before we go to a break representa what is on the line do you think here if this bill or something like it doesn't pass well I I certainly know my style of work I'm not going to give up here if we we don't get there and I know that uh you know the problem solvers people ar

e on problem solvers to solve problems it doesn't do us any good to go to Washington DC and be a part of a caucus that doesn't get done so we'll put the pressure where we need to put the pressure I'll talk to my colleagues I know Maria will talk to her colleagues uh but we do recognize we are we are at a time where we have to make a move we cannot continue to to keep pushing this off uh for weeks on end um when our bord at risk and their borders are at risk so um this is what we're about this is

what America is about I'm going to do everything I can to get it across the Finish Line we're going to continue our conversation when we come back including we'll find out a little bit more about how they voted on the Tik Tok Bill we're back in 2 [Music] minutes welcome back to St talk I'm Laurel Porter and we are talking with two freshman congresswomen from the Pacific Northwest from both sides of the aisle Washington Democrat representative Marie Glen Camp Perez and Oregon Republican represen

tative Lori Chavez dreamer they have joined forces to try to pass a border security and for an aid bill called the defending borders defending democracies act welcome once again to straight talk thank you we talked earlier about that bill but I want to just shift gears and ask you about the tick tock bill that passed the house overwhelmingly on Wednesday you both voted for it and just to remind people what it would do it would force Tik tok's Chinese owner to either sell the wildly popular video

app or be banned from the US why did you each vote for it we'll start with Marie well um one of the things so right there's a lot of data that comes through this and the Chinese Communist Party gets that data like that's part of their operational agreement with the people who own it um because they're Chinese CI so um you know you are geolocated when you use the app and one of the things that was really interesting I thought um when they were lobbying Congress to avoid this they before you coul

d open the app um it would say like they're trying Congress is trying to ban it um call your rep right now and it would call our offices directly and so we had like eight-year-olds calling us screaming at us we had kids calling and saying I'm going to kill myself if you ban this and if you needed any more proof that this is an app that's being manipulated by Foreign actors with Incredible political power and influence over what our kids see and what information circulates um there it was yes we'

re representative chabz dreamer there are creators people who make their living users who say this is their livelihood people here in the Pacific Northwest and people who say why why not consider that isn't that important and and and to your point people who say this is how they connect with others yeah and and it is considered in this this is uh 180 days uh to decouple uh from bite dance um to decouple from the Chinese Communist Party who does not like America we have to remember that um and if

they don't do that then we will ban Tik Tock um I understand that people say well I'm not using it for nefarious behaviors I I feel like I can control it but we cannot our would we allow I I know I wouldn't would I allow uh the Chinese Communist party in my home every single day it's in our homes because it's on those apps and it is with our children and again the calls came in I mean they couldn't log in without them calling and um I couldn't agree with Marie Moore this was not a hard decision

for my office to make when you know oftentimes people think we just willy-nilly make decisions we read through the bills we we we try to listen to our constituents on every issue on both sides and really make a thoughtful decision and and this was one that uh we recognized so again I mentioned the youth counselors at the beginning um when we were preparing for the show were in Washington DC we had over a 100 kids from Oregon uh and had a conversation with them and several of them came to me and

they were concerned right oh gosh Tik tok's going to go away I'm not really sure you know not understanding it and then I had others come to me and said please do this please B I think they're feeling the pressure they are constantly their mind is very dedicated to that screen time and um often times they look for us to be leaders and this is one I thought we could lead in well it was overwhelmingly passed only 65 people voted against it I'm sure we'll be hearing more because now it moves to th

e Senate where its future is unclear I just want to ask you both about your freshman year you've been just over a year in Congress what are you most proud of Representative Len Camp Perez um well I have one of the fastest turnaround times for returning letters to constituents we take that really really seriously in my office um I also had um the highest number of do federal dollars come back uh in community funded projects um um in my state as a as a democrat in the minority um and it was just r

eally most of my projects were like sewer and water projects these were not glamorous things but important right I mean my gosh very important you know and a lot of these rural communities can't navigate these big Federal grant programs so just bringing more power and a broader voice to Rural and smaller communities people that work for a living um that has been really really fun to say like you matter and I'm listening and yeah that's been really yeah I I would agree with that as a as a former

mayor I know how important those dollars are to a small community or a rural community and again we just we you know we had the with the Appropriations Bill finally done $25 million back to Oregon's Fifth District and and a lot of those are for infrastructure projects uh one of the things when we do uh bring this money back um you know our our oregonians washingtonians they're paying these tax dollars I'm going to fight for those dollars to come back to the state of Oregon and so uh when we can

bring $25 million back to the district and this is just the first round of the Appropriations and we'll do more in the next round one of the other things I focus a lot on is the homelessness um and how it relates to our veterans so I was really proud to pass the home act um where it went off to the floor and off to the Senate and so um this is going to help our homeless veterans just with a little bit more to say that we know what you've done for the freedom of this country and uh we're going to

protect you at all costs and will you work on more bills together yeah yeah definitely yeah well you know I I look at Marie as a a the younger version of me uh you know uh like I said I've raised my twin girls they're 29 Going on 30 she's got a new son two and a half years old we're both fighting for for our constituents um and I you know when I was a mayor my girls were little now they're again older but I'm fighting for constituents you know that that have these families that education matter

s jobs matter housing matters and so um you know I think we keep our head down we do the work we're not you're not going to see us on national news just to get sometime I need to jump in here now because I want to close with a phone number that people can call if they want to show support for your defending borders defending democracies or just voice your opinion here's a phone number you can call 202-224-3121 that's the switchboard for the house thank you both for joining me here on straight ta

lk good luck back in DC and thank you for watching we'll see you next week for Straight [Music] Talk