MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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Yesterday, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Progressive Caucus said her caucus will vote down the bipartisan package. And so, today President Biden hosted a series of meetings with all these different players to try to bring everyone together.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington is the chair of the house Progressive Caucus. She met with President Biden today in one of those key meetings and she joins me now. It`s good to have you, Congresswoman. So, we`re -- let`s just for the next five, six minutes we`re going to put a bunch of stuff to the side, the debt ceiling, and the end the funding the Government Bill. Let`s just pretend that doesn`t happen, OK.

We`re just going to talk about the bill back better agenda, and we`re talking about these two pieces of legislation. The bipartisan physical infrastructure bill with some climate stuff but not a ton passed the Senate and the full reconciliation package. What is the Progressive Caucus` posture at this moment on these pieces of legislation?

[20:10:39]

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Thanks, Chris, for having me on our posture is that we are ready to deliver both pieces of legislation to the President`s desk for the signature. And I should be clear, the bipartisan infrastructure bill has some good things, some bad things for climate in particular, and then some things that are just missing.

So, there are many in our caucus who don`t really want to vote for that, frankly. But the agreement that we secured is that if we get a reconciliation bill that addresses the things you`ve talked about that would transform Americans lives, paid leave childcare, taking on housing, climate change all of these important issues, then we will, as a complete caucus, we will be voting for the infrastructure bill.

So, what we have said is, we need a little bit more time, if you remember, when the bipartisan infrastructure bill was being negotiated, we kept thinking it was going to be done, and then it wasn`t done, and then took another week, and then another month. We are just saying we need a couple of more weeks to be able to pull everybody together because this is a pre- conference bill. That means we`re not doing something in the House that the Senate is not going to pass. We all have to be on the same page.

HAYES: No, right.

JAYAPAL: So, we`re ready to vote for both things. But we`re not going to vote for just one, and then leave the fate of all of those other things that we talked about in the reconciliation, the Build Back Better bill to - - up to chance. That`s just not going to happen.

HAYES: Right. So, I just want to be clear here. So, I let me just say that the substance of this, like I basically -- not that anyone necessarily cares what I think, but like, I`m with you on the reconciliation package. And I think it should be a package deal. I think there`s a lot of great stuff in this. If I was in the United States Congress, I would vote for it. So, that`s my position, OK.

But on the tactics here, what you`re saying is, it`s a package deal. You don`t want to get left holding the bag, right? Let me just explain the fear. The fear is the moderates jammed leadership to say we want to dead -- date certain, September 27, we`re voting on the bipartisan bill. And the fear is you passed that bipartisan bill, it passed out of the Senate, Joe Biden signs it, and then, oh, are we doing something else? I forgot. Like, that`s your fear, right? That`s what you`re trying to avoid.

JAYAPAL: That`s exactly right. And I want to go back one more step. Because don`t forget that the only reason that the bipartisan bill passed out of the Senate is because that was the commitments that were made to those senators.

HAYES: Correct.

JAYAPAL: And so, today, 11 progressive senators, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and others, put out a statement saying let us just be very clear about where we are here. We voted for the bipartisan bill only, only, only because we were told and committed to that the two would move together. So, we support the Progressive Caucus in the House making sure that we now deliver on that promise, because otherwise, you know what it`s like, Chris. It`s done, right? We`re at the end of September. Nothing gets done past a certain date in this year. And certainly, nothing gets done in next year`s election.

HAYES: No, I don`t think you`re irrational to worry about basically getting screwed here. But here`s, here`s the two issues as I see it. No, seriously. One is, I feel -- like, are you -- there`s 271 Democrats, I think, total between both houses, something like that, somewhere in that ballpark. And you basically need 268 to agree, and you need all 50 senators, right?

So, I guess my thing is, like, are you talking to mansion directly? Are you talking to Sinema? Because this kind of gamesmanship that`s happening through leadership or through Biden, it`s like, y`all got to get on the same page, or none of this is happening. And I`m just not clear that that`s -- that like, you`re having those conversations.

JAYAPAL: Yes, I mean, the conversations were happening between House leadership, Senate leadership, and the White House. So, that`s the pre- conferencing that`s been going on. I am happy to sit down with Senator Manchin or anybody else in the Senate.

We obviously work very closely with our counterparts Bernie, Elizabeth, Jeff Merkley, others in the Senate. And I work very closely to meet -- well I make sure that I am talking to -- let`s put it that way -- with my more conservative Democrat friends in the House. That`s been my role is keep the Progressive Caucus together, make sure I understand where we all are, leverage our power to get as much as we possibly can get because that`s what we said we would deliver to the American people.

[20:15:05]

And then also, you know, I`ve spoken many times to Josh Gottheimer, to others. But I will just say, Chris, that there is a very small group of people. And I just would want to say that there are many frontliners in the most vulnerable districts across the country, people that actually would call themselves moderate, and yet they want the full -- they are ready to vote on both bills, they are ready to vote on even -- I mean, a bill that is the $3.5 trillion with the things that we`ve already put in there.

HAYES: Yes.

JAYAPAL: So, I just want to be clear that these small -- this very small group of people are not representative of, you know, really moderate Democrats in the toughest district. So, that`s why I like to say, you know, I don`t think you can say that the moderates are against this. That`s not what`s going on here. We have the vast majority of the Democratic caucus on board with getting these bills done.

HAYES: No, that`s -- you`re correct about that, as a descriptive matter. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal who has a very difficult task, and everyone there has a difficult task, and we`ll keep checking in with you. Thank you very much.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Chris.

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