CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Henry Cuellar

Interview

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Joining us now is Democratic Congressman who is aligned with the moderate wing on this, and that is Congressman Henry Cuellar. He represents Texas.

Congressman, thanks so much for taking the time to do this.

I know that these are 11th-hour moments right now. You are aligned with the moderate wing. In other words, you're not sold right now on that $3.5 trillion social safety net bill. Let me just pull up some of the things that are in it, so that everybody knows we're not just talking about dollar signs.

This is about universal pre-K, child care support so that women can get back into the workplace. This is about free community college, about Pell Grants, paid maternity leave, again, to help working moms, child tax credits, aid for seniors who are on Medicare, Obamacare subsidies, reduced drug costs, meaning prescription drugs, and, of course, help for the climate crisis.

So what part do you want in, what part do you want out, if you're not sold on it?

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): Well, first of all, you mentioned things that I support. There's nothing wrong with that. And we certainly support that.

Well, what we want to do is, as you remember, is, we want a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. And then, second of all, we will go ahead and negotiate on this bi -- on this reconciliation bill. There are things, of course, that we support. But, again, keep in mind that we want to make sure that we vote on

something that has 50 votes on the Senate. That was the agreement that we made. And I think we can get there. We will get there. There are some differences between the House and the Senate. But we cannot forget one thing that's very important.

We're in the legislative environment. Isn't this what the legislative body does? They go ahead and they work things out. And that's exactly what our jobs are as members of Congress.

CAMEROTA: Yes, here's the problem.

Progressives say they have tried it your way. They say they have tried it your way to do it incrementally on things like voting rights, police reform, and every time they get almost to the finish line the rug is pulled out from under them.

So now they have leverage. And you just heard there, in the piece that you just heard, Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri say, you have forgotten what people, what real people need. Yes, they need bridges and tunnels, but they also really need child care. And so it's not going to just help to have a good bridge if you can't get back to work.

What would you say to her?

CUELLAR: Of course. Of course, we want to make sure that we have education. We're not against that. We want to have health care. Some people want Medicare-plus. Some people want to have -- fill up the Medicaid expansion gap, that there's 12 Southern states, like Texas that has 771,000 people, that don't have any coverage at all.

We want to help that. So there are some little differences that we need to work out. But at the end of the day, we are going to work this out. This is a legislative process. So, I mean...

CAMEROTA: OK.

But what's your dollar sign? I mean, what's -- in other words, if you don't start with something to offer in negotiation, how can you negotiate in good faith? What is the dollar figure you want to get to?

CUELLAR: Well, again, I think -- I think what we're seeing is, I think this is where the Senate is working out.

Look, I was here in 2010, where we went big, we went bold. We did that. We passed the Affordable Health Care Act. I voted for that. I voted for other...

CAMEROTA: And so was that a mistake?

CUELLAR: Let me finish. Let me finish.

So, we went big last time. All we're asking right now is that, whatever the House votes on, because we lost 63 members in 2010, all we're asking is that we vote on something that has the vote of 50 Democrats in the Senate and the House majority here. That's all we're asking.

CAMEROTA: OK.

CUELLAR: So we're negotiating right now.

CAMEROTA: OK, I understand.

But part of the problem is that Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema don't seem to have been able to articulate exactly what defines their terms. We have heard President Biden say, they're not giving me a number.

So what is the number? What exactly defines those terms that you say?

CUELLAR: Well, again, you need to get Joe Manchin and Sinema on the show to ask them that question.

[15:10:01]

Like I said, I'm ready to support a reconciliation bill. I'm ready to vote tomorrow for the infrastructure. These two bills make up, they make up Joe Biden's agenda. I want to support the Joe Biden agenda. And we are going to do that.

We're in the legislative process. People need to understand, this is what happens in the legislative process.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUELLAR: It's what we do every year and every day.

CAMEROTA: OK, so you say you are ready to vote on that reconciliation bill. You will vote for $3.5 trillion in spending in that bill?

CUELLAR: No, I -- no, I did not say that.

CAMEROTA: OK, what number -- OK, what number are you comfortable with?

CUELLAR: No, no, no, no.

Look, I'm not going to give you a number. All I can tell you is, we support a bipartisan -- somebody come up with $3.5 trillion. I'm sorry. I was not in that room. Somebody was in the room. They said we're going to couple the infrastructure bill together with a reconciliation.

I'm sorry. I was not in that room. What I want to do is, let's go ahead -- I sit on Appropriations. We deal with numbers all the time. We put money in Pell Grants. We put money in health care. We put money to make sure we fight climate change.

We do that in Appropriations every single year. But, again, the reconciliation...

CAMEROTA: Yes, but, just so I understand, are you saying that 3.5 is arbitrary? You don't believe that that number has been reached through actually crunching the details of it together?

CUELLAR: I was not in that room. Who came up with that number? Were you in that room? I'm sure you were not. I was not in that room.

Somebody came up with 3.5. I want to support a reconciliation where we can meet the basic needs, where we -- reconciliation is another term for we need to remake, redo the safety net, where we can help the people that need the help. I support health care. I support education. I want to make sure we fight -- we fight the problem with climate change. I want to do all that.

But were you or I in that room? Somebody came up with $3.5 trillion. I don't know who came up with that number. If you can tell me, please tell me who came up with that number.

CAMEROTA: So, it sounds like you have a long way to go. So should the vote tomorrow...

CUELLAR: No, no, no, no.

CAMEROTA: Should the vote tomorrow be postponed?

CUELLAR: No, of course not.

Do people think that making this part of Joe Biden's agenda, a historic $1.2 trillion, knocking that down, is that going to be helpful to the precedent? No.

Do people think that, if we knock down that bill tomorrow, that's going to get people closer to each other? No, it doesn't. We have got to understand that we got to work together. I want to vote for the reconciliation.

We got to have a number that passes 50 Democrats on the Senate side and, of course, the majority here. That's what I'm saying. I'm for health care. I'm for education. I'm for fighting climate change.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but wouldn't it be helpful to know what that number is that would pass the 50 Democrats on the Senate side?

CUELLAR: Well, I think that's what the president and Senator Sinema and Joe Manchin are trying to figure that out. They're going to figure that out. They're going to figure that out.

Like I said, I'm ready to vote on a reconciliation for health care, education, fight climate change that passes 50 -- with 50 senators on the Senate side. I'm tired of being BTU, what happened to the Democrats in 1990s. I saw what happened in 2010. We're not going to be BTU by anybody that just came up with the number.

I want to support reconciliation, education, health care, help the vulnerable. I want to do that. But I need something that will pass with 50 votes on the Senate side, so we can send it straight to the president.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Henry Cuellar, we appreciate getting your take on where you are right now. Thank you for your time.

CUELLAR: Thank you so much. Thank you, Alisyn.

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