MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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MELBER: I`m joined now by Congresswoman Jayapal from Washington state, a Democrat and chair of the House Progressive Caucus.

If you follow the news, you have probably seen her speaking out a lot during these tense negotiations over the future of the spending, and thus the Biden agenda.

Thanks for being here.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Thank you, Ari. It`s great to see you.

MELBER: Great to see you.

I`m curious, starting with just the mechanisms. You did something that liberals don`t always do in government here, which is actually hold the line, which delayed that earlier vote. And I`m just curious, as we kind of learn about all this process, what specifically did that achieve? And what are you and the caucus pressing for now?

JAYAPAL: Yes.

Well, I`m really proud of the Progressive Caucus, because, by holding the line and saying that we were going to stick to what we said three-and-a- half months ago, which was we`re not voting for the infrastructure bill without the reconciliation bill being agreed to and voted upon, and moving forward, we were able to get the reconciliation bill -- that`s the Build Back Better Act -- back on the table and moving forward.

Had we not done that, Ari, I am afraid that everything in the Build Back Better Act, which is 85 percent of President Biden`s agenda is in that bill, that that would have led to delay and ultimately to death.

So now we`re back on track. Both bills will move forward. We are in the negotiation process of the Build Back Better Act to make sure that we provide child care, pre-K, home care, home and community-based care, take on the climate crisis, address housing, make sure that we are addressing health care in the midst of still a health care crisis, and, of course, immigration.

These are all priorities of the Progressive Caucus that we are working now to get into the bill.

MELBER: Yes.

And walk us through it. I mean, how does that impact your working relationship with Speaker Pelosi? Because her public position was that you should have folded or cooperated or whatever term of art we want to use. And you didn`t. And she says, OK, now she`s going to work with everyone and still get it done.

Where are you at with the speaker?

JAYAPAL: Well, I have tremendous respect for the speaker. She has actually been a great champion of the Build Back Better Act.

She was very much talking about how this is leverage for our children and for our future. That is something that she wants to get done. And, really, she was with us on the two bills moving forward together, until some tiny percentage of people, just a handful of people in the House, pushed her to get an arbitrary deadline on the book.

So I understand she`s got a tough -- she had a tough hand to play there. But, Ari, let`s be clear. This is the president`s agenda. I know the speaker wants to deliver on that. And I know that all of us, 96 percent of Democrats in the House and the Senate agree that we want to get this done, and we were ready to get it done at the original $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act that we have.

[18:25:12]

MELBER: Yes, you...

JAYAPAL: Unfortunately, your senators won`t agree with us. So we got to negotiate with them and get everyone on board.

MELBER: Yes, those two senators, pretty known by now, Manchin and Sinema, the reports came out that Manchin had a private earlier number that he was pushing Schumer on. Sinema has been really quite reclusive.

And Bernie Sanders has had it. I mean, he`s totally had it. And he`s sort of publicly urging and pleading with them to least say what they want. Take a look.

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): But the time is long overdue for him to tell us, with specificity, not generalities -- we`re beyond generalities -- with specificity, what he wants and what he does not want, and to explain that to the people of West Virginia and America.

Senator Sinema`s position has been that she doesn`t -- quote, unquote -- "negotiate publicly." I don`t know what that means. We don`t know where she`s coming from. Tell us what you want.

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MELBER: Your reaction?

JAYAPAL: Well, look, Senator Sanders is a great friend.

And as Budget Committee chair in the Senate, he crafted the budget resolution, came down from $6 trillion to $3.5 trillion, thought he had a deal. So I understand the frustration.

We have to -- unfortunately, we have a very, very slim margin in the Senate and in the House. And if we are going to get this done, we have got to get everybody on board. We all play on the Democratic team.

I think the thing that is remarkable about this situation is, this is not some crazy progressive, left-wing wish list. I have got that, Ari, but that`s not what this is. This is the president`s agenda. This is what we all ran on.

And so that`s some of the frustration you see spilling out. I am trying to make sure that we just keep everyone on board, that we push for the priorities that the Progressive Caucus laid out that are in the president`s agenda, because, at the end of the day, I want to -- I want people across this country to know that government is fighting for them, that we`re not going to leave people behind, that we`re not going to pit child care against climate change, we`re not going to pit housing against immigration.

These are priorities that we promised to voters when they gave us the House, the Senate and the White House. And we are going to deliver. I feel very confident of that. It`s just a little bit messy in the process, but we`re going to get it done.

MELBER: Understood, and it`s been a busy season, as we have mentioned, so I appreciate you making some time, Congresswoman Jayapal.

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