Here & Now

Pocan: “To Call it a Circus Is an Insult to Circuses”

Frederica Freyberg:

The House of Representatives has a vote on the 2018 Farm Bill scheduled for June after members failed to pass it a week ago. In tonight’s look ahead, what’s cooking in the House? What with conservative Freedom Caucus members sinking the GOP written Farm Bill because they didn’t get assurances about voting on immigration policy. Immigration policy that has Republican factions infighting over what to do about dreamers. Does this division amongst the Republican ranks leave the door open for work across the aisle with Democrats on issues of immigration and provisions in the Farm Bill? And what else should we have an eye on in Washington? We asked Wisconsins 2nd District Congressman Democrat Mark Pocan. Thanks for being here.

Mark Pocan:

Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what’s the talk as to whether this Republican rebellion could actually force Speaker Paul Ryan out?

Mark Pocan:

Its such a dysfunctional Republican caucus. To call it a circus would be an insult to circuses across the country because they really don’t know what they’re doing. Paul Ryan gave the keys to the Tea Party because they had essentially the veto authority of what goes on the floor. They don’t come to work with Democrats ever like they didn’t on the Farm Bill. So then they get surprised when they put a bill on the floor and they can’t pass it with their own members. If Paul Ryan quit flying around the country trying to raise money from Sheldon Adelson and a bunch of other really rich folks that got tax breaks from their tax bill and started talking to his members and starting to our members, you could pass a Farm Bill. But this thing has traditionally been done in a very bipartisan way. But this is just pure dysfunction by the House of Representatives and by its leadership and I use leadership loosely, with Paul Ryan.

Frederica Freyberg:

As we mentioned, the Farm Bill failed on the floor last week, but before the vote Speaker Paul Ryan lobbied for its passage.

Paul Ryan:

In addition to helping our farmers, this bill includes important workforce development reforms, attaching work requirements to help get people out of poverty and onto the ladder of opportunity. It will reinvest savings into education and training programs that help develop those skills that closes that opportunity gap. It sets up a system where SNAP recipients who are able to go to work can work and if they can’t, they will be guaranteed training that they need.

Mark Pocan:

He definitely was trying to get it done at least by soundbite, but we were watching all the dysfunction happen. Two major conservative groups opposed it. The Tea Party decided to try to get immigration out of it. They never came and talked to Democrats to do anything about the bill. And again, it’s a bipartisan bill. So Paul did pretty much the 101 of everything wrong in how to pass a bill and then he put it on the floor and no surprise, it failed. So I think again what it shows is maybe Paul doesn’t have as much of a grasp of his caucus right now especially in these days of Trump.

Frederica Freyberg:

Moving on to a different issue, you’ve got your eye on a plan the House passed this week to roll back banking regulations put in place after the 2008 financial meltdown. What in your mind does that mean for Wisconsin consumers?

Mark Pocan:

Yeah. So this is a really bad bill because part of it is we know that credit unions and small community banks shouldn’t be adhering to the exact same regulations as the biggest banks because the big banks were the ones that were doing risky derivatives and other things that were more like a casino than a financial institution. But what we did this week, and it’s passed the Senate, now it’s passed the House of Representatives and signed into law by the president, is essentially take 25 of the top 38 banks and by changing the limit that now doesn’t have to comply with all the various extra protections for consumers that were put in place, now 25 of the top 38 banks no longer have to do that. So one-sixth of the money in the banking system now is exempt from most of the regulations, including a really important provision around home mortgage loans. Remember when there was redlining and some people weren’t getting loans? Now 85% of the mortgages in this country are not subject to the protections that were put in place. So it was a big rollback, but every time I think of a rollback on financial institutions, I think of the crash of 2008. It’s just a bad idea.

Frederica Freyberg:

I do understand thought that it does not get rid of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, which was something the administration talked about.

Mark Pocan:

But essentially they’ve gutted it, right because we don’t even know who’s running it right now because of how the White House has handled it. They’ve done a great job of dismantling the protections that came in for consumers under Dodd-Frank. The problem is I don’t want to be back to pre-2008 and we start repeating the same actions and we crash the economy all over again. What we did this week put us a whole lot closer to that.

Frederica Freyberg:

Lets talk about net neutrality. The FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, just set a date for when net neutrality rules expire and that is on June 11. You’d like to block that repeal but how likely is that?

Mark Pocan:

Well, the Senate was able to with all the Democrats, three Republicans, two independents voted to try to fight the repeal of net neutrality. Net neutrality is a complicated term for an easy concept, keeping the internet free and open. You can’t block websites. You can’t slow down websites. You can’t charge more for faster lanes on the internet. In other words, everyone has equal access. We’re trying to get back to that. Interestingly, 23 attorney generals, including Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, not Wisconsin, unfortunately, Brad Schimel wasn’t part of it, have also tried to sue over this because we’re trying to get back to having an open internet. So what we have now in the House is a discharge petition, which is kind of a rarely-used process where if you get 218 people to sign on the floor of Congress they want to vote on it, you can force a vote. Since it passed the Senate, we’re the last thing holding it up. I can tell you I’ve had 12,983 contacts from the district, one of the top issues that we’ve ever gotten a response from against what they did. It was zero until I had a telecommunications lobbyist come to my office recently and tell me they support it. So it’s 12,983-1, which is pretty amazing on an issue. We’re hoping we can get members of Congress in both parties to follow what the Senate did in a bipartisan way and make sure that we can protect net neutrality so the internet is open and free for everyone.

Frederica Freyberg:

Stateside in the crowded Democratic field for governor, who are you endorsing?

Mark Pocan:

Im not endorsing anyone yet. I’m trying to take a role of making sure people realize the person they’re trying to defeat is Scott Walker, not each other. I’ve been in negative primaries in the past. I know how they can have negative by-products by the time you get to November. So I talk to all the candidates. I’m trying to help talk with them. The good news is I really feel any of the major people who are running has a great shot to beat Scott Walker, if not for our crumbling roads, if not for the cuts to schools, it’s really this Foxconn issue, embodies everything. It’s the largest corporate subsidy to a foreign cooperation by the way, with the local subsidies and highway subsidies, $4.5 billion and we have people with potholes in their own neighborhoods that aren’t getting fixed because we had to give that much money to a foreign corporation. It doesn’t fly just about anywhere in the state. I think Scott Walker wrote his ability to retire based on that one law.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We leave it there. Congressman Mark Pocan, thanks very much.

Mark Pocan:

Thank you.