Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Steve Scalise

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back. The farm bill taking a hit in the House this weekend as conservatives tank the measure to send a message to GOP leadership regarding immigration. The White House is also eager to address the issue but should it wait until after the midterm elections? At the start of the program, we spoke with Counsel to the president Kellyanne Conway, joining me right now to add more to the story his House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. He is also a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Thank you so much for joining us Congressman. Thanks for being here.

REP. STEVE SCALISE, R--LA., HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: Good morning, Maria. It's great to be back with you.

BARTIROMO: Can you tell us what happened this weekend? I mean, it feels like the leadership in the House is at odds with the president. Is that what's happening? No. In fact the farm bill we brought to the floor, that actually had the strong support of the president. He tweeted out in support of it the night before. And we want to get it done. We're going to come back to it and get it done. And as real work requirements, and I think this is something most Americans can strongly agree with, is that if you want to be on welfare, it should be a safety net. If you're able to work, you shouldn't be on welfare and we should put work requirements in place. The farm bill does it. We're going to come back to that. This was about immigration. And ultimately, the timing of when we bring in immigration bill to the floor because look we're in to bring the Goodlatte-McCaul bill to the floor. I think that's the right answer. It deals with wall funding, it secures the border, it also solves the DACA problem in a way that we are in sync with the president. Unfortunately, the votes aren't there yet to pass it and we're working on some other alternatives with President Trump so that we can be in sync.

BARTIROMO: So what's the holdup in terms of getting those votes? Why aren't the votes there? You say you are going to have a vote on immigration in the next couple of weeks right?

SCALICE: Right. We're going to have a vote on the Goodlatte-McCaul bill. Again, the votes aren't there to pass it but a lot of members want to vote anyway and I understand that. Then, we're also working with the president to see if there's some third alternative. I don't want to see the DREAM Act come to the floor which is pure amnesty with no border protection, no wall. That is not the answer. Amnesty is not the answer. But we need to find an alternative pass because right now the votes aren't there to do what I think is the right approach because there are no Democrats that support building the wall with a fair approach to DACA that that allows people to become citizens just by getting inline like everybody else no path to amnesty. And so that's the divide right now. But we're working with the president to get this done.

BARTIROMO: So is it the Freedom Caucus that pushed back on the farm bill because they want immigration done sooner?

SCALISE: Yes, I think they wanted to see the Goodlatte-McCaul bill brought up before the farm bill.

BARTIROMO: Right.

SCALISE: This is a tactic issue. We all want the same thing. We all want to get to the same end result, so we're working with the Freedom Caucus and we're not that far apart. They just didn't want to vote on the farm bill on Friday, they want to vote on it soon with us to get it passed but we're working on the timing and we're working with President Trump because I think it's important that we're all on the same page on how to address DACA and fund the wall and secure the border. What else can be done before the midterm elections, congressman? We know that you've had real success in terms of the tax reform legislation as well as the rollback in regulations. It's moved the needle on economic growth. Now we're talking about potentially four percent economic growth next year. What else can -- will you do a phase two of the tax plan?

SCALISE: Yes, we will. You know, Chairman Kevin Brady of the Ways and Means Committee wants to do a phase two of the tax cut bill. I think you still see the great economic news. People are seeing more money in their pockets and they're seeing companies hiring. I mean, these are all great signs. We need to get work requirements in welfare because now companies are looking to hire people. Why should people that are able-bodied be sitting at home getting taxpayer money when they can be out in the workforce and become part of the American dream? That's going to be the next phase. And again, I think we need to get back to the farm bill. We'll get that done. We need to bring an immigration bill to the floor. At least President Trump wants to solve this problem. Barack Obama created the DACA problem without ever trying to solve it. Nancy Pelosi, when she was in charge, she never tried to solve this problem until she lost the speakership. So you know, this is about politics. We want to solve problems.

BARTIROMO: I mean, the president tweeted out last week, look if you don't get the wall funding done and an immigration proposal done before the August recess, don't go on vacation. Is this the kind of thing that would push the president to pressure Paul Ryan to step down sooner rather than later in terms of becoming Speaker, holding on to the Speaker position?

SCALISE: No, I don't think that is anything to do -- I don't think -- no I don't think that has anything to do with Paul Ryan. It's just President Trump's real frustration that he's put offers on the table to get the wall funded fully, we were able to get at least a down payment on the wall to get over a hundred new miles the border funded. But we all want to get the rest on too. We want to work with President Trump to get that. Obviously, Democrats are blocking it and I think Democrats are making a big mistake to double down on being against tax cuts and being against border security. However you feel about DACA and how to solve that problem which we want to solve, they're standing in the way of actually securing our border which most Americans agree should be a top priority. We want to work with President Trump to get that done.

BARTIROMO: Congressman stay with us. I want to ask you what you think is the solution to holding on to the leadership in the House and Senate come November with these midterm elections. I'd like to know what the plan is. So we'll take a short break and come back with that. Steve Scalise joining us this morning. Stay with us as we look ahead on 'Sunday Morning Futures.'

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BARTIROMO: We are back with House Majority Whip Steve Scalise this morning. And Congressman, what is the plan to hold onto the leadership come the midterm elections in November?

SCALISE: Well the battle for keeping the House, number one focuses on staying on track on getting the economy moving again which we've started to do with the tax cut bill. Most Americans, their main focus is still the economy and we've been laser-focused on getting the economy moving again, working with the president who gets it, who understands that getting rid of regulations and cutting taxes is really a recipe for getting the economy moving again and it's work. Nancy Pelosi, if she was speaker has already said she wants to raise taxes on all of those hardworking families who are finally seeing some more money in their pocket. She also wants to bring that regulatory state back. You know, when you had regulations that were out of control, we're not going to let that happen and we know the districts where she's got to flip to be speaker again and we're fighting in those districts and we're going to continue to focus on the things that matter for families, getting the economy moving again, securing our border and making sure that we've got a military that's properly funded and we're taking care of our men and women in uniform. That's going to be our main focus, working with the president who wants to get that done as well.

BARTIROMO: And of course, this enormous story about the abuse of power at the top of the FBI and the DOJ is taking a lot of the oxygen in the room. I don't know where we'll be in that regard come November but we'll be watching that storyline as well. Absolutely. You know, and I'm real concerned again when you see all the leaks. You just saw Chairman Nunes talked about the problems that he's experiencing. They can't get the right documents from the FBI yet every conversation they have is leaked out like a sieve. The FBI needs to get their house back in order. They need to stop going -- running around on witch hunts and focus on their main objectives and that's helping keep this country safe.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, what can be done about school shootings? You have been such an inspiration to all of us. Obviously, you were shot at the baseball practice, and now yesterday another tragic shooting in Texas. What should be done on Friday?

SCALISE: It's another horrible tragedy, Maria, yes. And it's so sad to see what happened. But unfortunately, there's something going on with our young kids that we've got to focus on and find out what the real problem is. You know, here was a case where it wasn't the kid that everybody thought like at Parkland. Every -- half the kids seemed like thought that this -- that kid would have been a school shooter. Here that wasn't as much the case yet something went horribly wrong. Look, there were guns around for decades and you didn't have these kinds of school shootings. This is something that we've got to figure out what's going on in the culture with our young kids that would cause somebody to flip like this and go do something so horrible.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for joining us.

SCALISE: Always great to be back with you, Maria.

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