MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): That`s right, exactly Ali. I mean, this is the opportunity for us to invest in all the things that are going to make Americans feel differently about their lives, not just the fact that they`re going to have good green jobs and highways and roads and transit that we`re going to take on climate change in a real significant way.

But also, that we can get women back to work, that families have childcare, that people have health care. These are really significant pieces. They are populist, they are popular, and they are necessary. And that`s why I think this big reconciliation package has so much support from Republicans, Independents and Democrats, because it is so necessary for us to allow Americans to have hope and opportunity again, where they wake up every morning, and they feel differently about their lives and livelihoods.

VELSHI: But you make an interesting point. It`s got so much support amongst Republicans and Democrats, not Republicans in Congress or the Senate to the same degree. What do you do about that? Americans get it, Americans get that all of these things are something that makes their lives better, their working lives better, their home lives better.

There are still some Republicans who are caught on an old-fashioned view of infrastructure being bridges, roads, tunnels, planes, buses.

JAYAPAL: Well, that`s why we`re going to do this without Republicans. We`re doing this as a reconciliation bill, this will be a budget resolution that just needs 50 Democrats in the Senate, and I hope we get some Republicans with us. We certainly will try to do that. If they`re listening to their constituents, they`ll vote for it.

But Ali, you know, not a single Republican voted for the American rescue plan, a rescue plan that put money in people`s pockets, shots in arms, got kids back to school, and these Republicans were nowhere to be found. So, we`ll do it by ourselves if we need to do it that way, because we can through budget reconciliation.

So that is why the Progressive Caucus has been so clear. And I`ve been on the show with Rachel before saying we said we were not going to move a bipartisan bill, unless we had the reconciliation bill agreed to and voted on at the same time, and that it had to contain our five most important priorities for the Progressive Caucus.

I am happy to report that those five priorities are in the bill. We are still working out the details of the numbers, which will be a long fight. I don`t want to minimize that. But this is a significant step forward with the $3.5 trillion proposal that the Senate has settled on.

VELSHI: Congresswoman, thank you for joining us tonight. As I said, it`s fun being on the West Coast. We`re going to finish the show. It`s still going to be time for dinner out here in Oregon, but good to see you as always.

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