Van Hollen on MSNBC: The House Has Become a Totally Dysfunctional Place When It Comes to Doing the Business of the American People

Interview

Today Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, appeared on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell to discuss the latest on the Affordable Care Act, GOP obstruction in the House, and Iran.

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC: And as you just heard the Obama Administration is touting its success today for meeting its self-imposed deadlines to improve HealthCare.gov. How is it viewed in Congress and the rest of the country? Joining me now from Capitol Hill is Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee. Thanks so much for being with us, Congressman.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you, Andrea.

MITCHELL: Now, I know you've all been pressing for improvements. You're a member of the President's own party, but what -- what do you say about the -- the progress so far of improving the website and the overall experience of getting this thing going?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Andrea, this was a very important step forward. The administration did hit the benchmarks that it set out, the -- the main ones, the 50,000 consumers at one time and 800,000 per day.

MITCHELL: It's a pretty low benchmark, though. I mean, they were -- they were not setting the bar very high for themselves.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, it was -- you're right to the extent that this was supposed to be the way the system operated on day one, and so obviously, we had a very bumpy roll-out. And to your question, look, the work can't stop by yesterday. I mean, they're going to have to be working 24/7 to work on some of the issues at the -- at the back end.

We know that there are currently going to be some issues with the relay of information to the insurance companies to make sure that people are signed up. So this is not an end point, this is not, as they've said, a magic moment.

But it is good news for consumers, and now they just have got to make sure they keep their foot on the accelerator in terms of fixing the website. Because what we do know, Andrea, is in those states like California and New York and Kentucky, where the websites -- where the websites were operating smoothly, people are able to buy these products. And they're liking what they see.

MITCHELL: Congressman, I know you're not a member of the Republican Majority in the House, but that said, you have colleagues in the Senate. Right now, Congress has enacted 60 laws, compared to what it normally does during this period. And the House is not even scheduled to be in session at the same time as the Senate for more than four days coming up before the -- before the end of the year. How does Congress justify what it has done?

VAN HOLLEN: Andrea, I don't think there is any justification. I think the House especially has become a totally dysfunctional place when it comes to doing the business of the American people.

Just look at what has come out of the Senate that is sitting in the House, that would pass if we were able to vote on it.

Number one, a comprehensive immigration bill, huge piece of needed business for the country. Number two, there was a bipartisan farm bill that would have passed in the House but instead the House decided to go to conference with a bill that cut $40 billion from food and nutrition programs. Third, there's legislation to make sure that we end discrimination in the work place with respect to people who are gay.

Those are three measures that are sitting here in the House, all of which would -- would pass, if we were allowed to vote on them. And that doesn't even go to the issues of the budget, where it's really important that we come up with a solution within -- within days, I believe, but certainly by December 13th.

MITCHELL: Now, I was going to ask you about that, because you're a member of the committee, and Patty Murray and Paul Ryan are supposed to be meeting, there is a conference committee, you're on it. What progress has there been over the holidays?

VAN HOLLEN: Not nearly enough, Andrea. I've -- I've been here in Washington ready to get to work with my colleagues, but there has been very little progress over the break.

Look, the only good news here is we have agreed to narrow the scope of the objective here. We're trying to replace the sequester which has created a drag on the economy. We're trying to replace that at least in part, hopefully for up to two years. That's a pretty narrow, small target. But even that, right now, has not yet been reached.

Again, we've put forward proposals, one of which I've tried to get a vote on seven times in the House of Representatives, which would replace that sequester with a targeted mix of cuts, but also cuts to special interest tax breaks. And we've been denied the opportunity to have a vote on that, just like we've been denied an opportunity to vote on the comprehensive immigration bill.

MITCHELL: And Congressman, what about Iran? President Rouhani gave an interview over the weekend, basically saying that Iran now has the right and will have the right to enrich uranium. He's pocketing that as something achieved from the negotiations, not something to be decided in the final agreement six months from now. What about Congress now pushing -- certainly in the Senate, there is bipartisan push led by Senator Menendez of the council -- the Committee on Foreign Relations, to impose sanctions, or at least the threat of sanctions. Where do you stand on that? The President, obviously, is fighting it tooth and nail.

VAN HOLLEN: Yes, Andrea, two things. First, of all, as you know, the expression "right to enrich" is not in the agreement. It says you have to have a mutually agreeable program. I think, both of us would agree, that if I said you have the right to free speech, but it was conditioned on me being able to veto anything you said, you would not think that was a right to free speech.

With respect to additional sanctions, we should be very careful, we need to tread very carefully here because the reason Iran is at the table, the reason they're engaged in serious discussions, is because we've been successful at unifying the international community behind these sanctions. They've been effective. If our partners in the international community perceive the United States to be short-circuiting the diplomatic process, our ability to continue those effective sanctions will be undermined. It would also strengthen the hard liners in Tehran who do not want any kind of agreement.

And finally, we can always impose additional sanctions and do it very quickly. So I think it's very, very dangerous to try to upset the process at this point in time, especially when the folks who are trying to do that do not have an alternative -- unless they want to skip the diplomatic process altogether and go the military route, which has always been on the table, but we're trying to resolve this diplomatically.

MITCHELL: Chris Van Hollen. Thanks very much, Congressman.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you, Andrea.

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