Eight Senate Democrats made their choice to side with the Republicans on Sunday to vote for the government to re-open. The bill now moves to the House to be voted on as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Jen is joined by U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) to discuss the reaction to Sunday’s decision. Rep. Pingree notes that legislators felt it “was a little too soon” to cut a deal with Republicans. Constituents, on the other hand, feel betrayed and are left questioning what their sacrifices were worth.
Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) represents Maine’s 1st district. She is a ranking member of the Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. Pingree has represented her district since 2008 and was the first woman elected for her district.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We’re thrilled to have back Representative Pingree from the great state of Maine. Welcome!
Chellie Pingree
Thank you so much! What a day!
Jen Rubin
What a day. What was your reaction when you heard the news Sunday night?
Chellie Pingree
I was just really disappointed. I mean, I think there’d been a little bit of, you know, grumbling that there’s a group in the Senate that might be, you know, working out this deal, but I think a lot of us thought that, after the elections, that would give this renewed strength of saying, hey, we are winning here.
And on many of these issues, like the SNAP benefits and other things, we’re winning in the courts, so you know, we want to keep this focused on the Republicans. They are the ones who don’t want to, you know, deal with the Affordable Health Care Act, or denying people food, or taking away flights from people. So… so it was disappointing, sometimes not surprising. House members worry a lot about the Senate, let’s just say.
Jen Rubin
Yes, they do. Now, unfortunately, one of Maine’s Senators, was among those. Have you had a chance to talk to Senator King and get any explanation of what he was thinking about this?
Chellie Pingree
I mean, honestly, I’ve been talking to Senator King about this since before all this came up, and you know, and we texted a little bit this morning, and we just see this differently, and I think if you think about, you know, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie and Senator King, I mean, they’re… they’re former governors, and I think they have this idea, you know, we make a deal, we’re more practical.
I don’t know, Angus voted, along with the Republicans from the start. He didn’t want to go along with the shutdown at all, and I talked to him. I was like, hey, I’m on the Appropriations Committee. We’ve had 92 hours of markups trying to negotiate with the Republicans. We don’t have a lot of leverage if we don’t do this, and I don’t know, everybody votes their own way. And I think we’ve all just been worried that the Senate was gonna cut a deal too soon, and it just felt like this was a little too soon. Now, on the other hand, you know, we’re worried about the people who’ve gone without a paycheck. I mean, that’s not easy.
Although I will say, I got an interesting email from some workers last night who said we’re disappointed that the Senate would cave, because we feel like we’ve made this sacrifice because we believe we’ve been so harmed over the last 10 months by this administration, and we want you to keep fighting. So, I was hearing from even the TSA workers when I went to Washington would say to me, like, keep up the fight. So, I don’t know, I mean, that one was a tough one.
Jen Rubin
I could not agree more. You mentioned, the people who have sacrificed. The SNAP beneficiaries are still sacrificing. This administration is apparently determined, up to the last moment, to deny these people food. They’re going to the Supreme Court to fight this.
What’s been the immediate disruption in Maine? What are you seeing, as people try to scramble around the mental, emotional uncertainty of not knowing, literally, where the next meal is going to come from?
Chellie Pingree
Yeah, I mean, it’s ruthless. This has been going on, you know, really for two weeks before November, because the administration started warning people, telling the states, don’t send in your files for administrative processing. So they were already scaring people. So I’ve visited at least one of the food banks, and actually, I visited a couple, and but the point is, they were having people coming in a week before, just saying, you know, I need to stock up on food, I’m already worried about it, so a week before November 1st, when they were already worried about this. And I visited food banks that last week were telling me, we’re already running out of food, and this thing is just getting started.
The thing that we all know that’s just so infuriating is Congress put in a contingency fund at the USDA. It’s always been used for purposes like this, and this administration arrogantly said, I think we should save it for something else that might come. Like, this is the emergency. And as you said, they’ve fought every step of the way, the court has told them over and over again. Now they’re taking it to the Supreme Court. I honestly thought—I know I shouldn’t be so naive—but I honestly thought today, since there’s clearly a path towards opening it, that it would be their better judgment to just say, well, let’s let it go now.
And now they’re trying to get retribution against states that have gone ahead and, you know, filled up the accounts. Maine actually fills up the accounts on the 10th, and our governor said the money’s going through. So, if they’re gonna try to penalize states that did this anyway? I mean, that’s the ultimate in cruelty.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. If this Senate deal does go through, it’s going to wind up in the House. I have yet to hear any House member on the Democratic side say they’re in favor of this deal. Do you think you’ll have, perfect unity on the House side, and are there any Republicans, whether they be Freedom Caucus members, or whether there be people who are in vulnerable seats, who might join you in opposing this?
Chellie Pingree
I’m really intrigued about this, too. I mean, I think we’ll have pretty strong unity in the House, and as you’ve seen, many of my colleagues are just, you know, bonkers over this. They are so mad, that we’re back in this position after, you know, making people sacrifice for 40 days.
What I’m curious about is what the Republicans will do when they get to town. Now, we’ve all known that the Speaker didn’t want to bring us back because of the Epstein files and swearing in Representative Grijalva, but I’ve also been of the opinion that he didn’t want Republicans back in the hallways, because as soon as the press walks up to you and says, what are you going to do about SNAP, or what are you going to do about the Affordable Care Act, or what are you hearing back in your district?
It’s much harder to live in your kind of little bubble back home and hope that nobody’s talking to you. So, you get us all in a room together, we start talking to each other. I mean, we’ve got lots of colleagues that are having the same problems we are, or that don’t like what Donald Trump is doing, and you’ve got good old Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s out there saying, you know, my kids have this problem, and this is real. Now, she’s got a bigger megaphone than some of our other colleagues, and so it’s going to be very interesting to see what does she do when we get back there? You know, how does she put pressure on the speaker?
The thing I tell everybody is, my Republican colleagues are getting the same calls I’m getting, which is enormous, from people who are saying, I’m a small business owner, I’m a farmer, you know, almost 30% of farmers get their healthcare on the exchange.
These are people are very sophisticated. They know how to call Congress. They made a decision to start a small business because they could leave their previous job because of the Affordable Care Act. And you know they’re paying 2 and 3 times as much. I mean, these are huge numbers, like $24,000 a year, $17,000 a year. I mean, people can’t possibly work this in their budget. So I want to know what’s happening in my Republican colleagues’ districts, because they get the same calls, and these are really frustrated, angry people.
Jen Rubin
Well, that tells me that if our Contrarian audience out there, if you live in a district, with a Republican congressman, this is not a done deal yet.
And, if you have a Democratic congressperson, you could first of all express support for those who are tough, and if you think that person might be a little wavering, give them some, some worth, to, to get their spine, back in alignment, and, keep fighting. I know you will, Congresswoman. Thank you for all you’re doing, thank you for taking the time out on, what is a hard day. But we know you will be back in there fighting, to the very last vote, so thank you very much.
Chellie Pingree
Absolutely, thank you. Really appreciate talking to you.
Jen Rubin
Take care.
