Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
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BISMARCK – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined Yahoo Finance to discuss a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, returning to regular order legislating, and bipartisan opportunities in the new Congress. Excerpts and full video are below.
On Republican House Majority in the 118th Congress:
“I think what’s happening is a number of [House Republicans] have never served in the majority. They’ve only been in the minority. And we heard a few of them the other day, confirmed by several news sources, say they’re comfortable having a Democratic Speaker of the House because they could fight him. Well, the difference between the minority and the majority oftentimes is the difference between fighting and governing. They’ve demonstrated willingness to fight – and I get that people want a fight – but at the end of the day the responsibility and the burden on the majority, and frankly the opportunity for the majority, is to govern. When 20 people govern 200 against their will, that’s not conservatism – that’s chaos. We really do need to get Kevin [McCarthy] in the Speaker’s chair and start governing because the country needs it. […] We’ve talked about a debt ceiling increase coming up, keeping the government funded and open, providing enough resources for national defense…it’s a big job, this governing thing, and I think [House Republicans] need to be about the business of doing that.”
On Bipartisan Opportunities:
“In the Senate, the first thing I think we have to do, and this is where the House can be very helpful by the way, is get to back to regular order. […] While I’m more than happy in the Senate to work with my Democratic friends to get the ball rolling on a few issues such as: immigration reform, and I think the Biden government presents some opportunities here; the border; dealing with the mandatory sides of our ledger – Social Security and Medicare are facing insolvency in just matter of years, not decades anymore; permitting reform for infrastructure, whether it’s energy infrastructure, whether it’s green energy or fossil energy; and transportation infrastructure, building more with less. All of these things help attack the overall economic challenge, while at the same time presenting some opportunities to work across the aisle. But the first thing we have to do is get the House in order and start with some regular order so we can have a committee structure and committee process that actually works.”