During a town hall on Monday, Rhode Island Democratic lawmakers were asked about prepared legislation that is 'ready to go' if the Democrats regain control over Congress in the 2026 midterms.
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00:00Let's go to the center aisle here.
00:02Hi, I'm Alan Rittner. I live in Middletown.
00:06I'm glad I didn't come to feel better.
00:10I've written to all of you, and I get your letters back saying that you know what's going on,
00:17and you wrote a letter, or you're keeping an eye on it,
00:20and you know the red state representatives are in trouble if we have elections next year.
00:28Can you give us some assurance that there's work going on behind the scenes
00:36to have legislation ready to go the day the Democrats take back the House and Senate?
00:44And the second part of that is, can you give us any idea if anything good is going on in Congress,
00:53any relations that are working good, anything that's being judged good?
01:07Tough question.
01:09There are some good things, which is, and I'll point out, on our side in the Appropriations Committee,
01:17Senator Collins of Maine and Senator Murray of Washington State are working closely together.
01:25We expect, as we did last year, to pass out of our subcommittees and the full committee we hold
01:33a bipartisan bill that truly takes care of all the needs that the country has,
01:39at least to the best of our ability.
01:43Again, the big roadblock immediately in front of us is reconciliation.
01:48We might be so undercut by that that it's difficult, but they're working right now.
01:55I'm working with them, but they're working right now.
01:58That's the good news.
01:59And I think, you know, we can't give up.
02:02We won't give up, but the pressure that's being put on our Republican colleagues
02:09is beginning to be apparent, and you can see the effect.
02:14And if we get four on either side, we can start passing amendments
02:20that send strong signals to the White House that, you know, their free pass is over.
02:27But it's tough.
02:28I would echo what Jack said, and he's a very decent and polite individual,
02:38but let's just say that some of his colleagues on the Armed Services Committee
02:41probably have a pretty sour taste in their mouth right now about having voted for Secretary Hegseth.
02:52And that does pile up.
02:55The other thing is that Congress doesn't just legislate.
02:59Congress can also investigate.
03:02And the cure for corruption is investigation.
03:07And I will tell you that Gabe's colleagues are already starting to think about
03:14what congressional investigations should begin
03:18as soon as the House gets taken back.
03:22I say the House because the House can issue subpoenas that can't be filibustered.
03:31We issued subpoenas in the Judiciary Committee, and they got filibustered on the floor.
03:37So people just blew us off, said, no, I'm not going to answer.
03:40Tough bounce you.
03:40In the House, people went to jail for violating subpoenas.
03:47So we can't really – there's a huge investigative piece that the House can do with subpoenas.
03:54And as you can see with your plain eyes, it is a target-rich environment for corruption investigations right now.
04:03And, in fact, Gabe's colleague, Jamie Raskin, had me over to speak to a whole bunch of House members
04:15about precisely what kind of targeting they should be doing for oversight
04:19in the event that November 26 goes well, which, God help us, it will.
04:25So – and I would say briefly here that, you know, Elon Musk does not want to be in front of Congress, right?
04:33And so that is some – that's a north star why these – I know we're at a nonpartisan event,
04:38but why the elections next year matter a lot.
04:40And there will be ways to stay in good touch with me to help us accomplish that mission of taking back the House
04:51because that really is a north star.
04:55And I care about the Senate guys too, but I care about the House.
04:59And then to the second question about bills in a next Congress, you know, one that I'm very focused on.
05:06I referenced earlier, I know the Senate's got its way and the House has its way as well,
05:11but on Social Security and ensuring the solvency there and making sure we – frankly, actually expand benefits,
05:19benefits that we have not expanded, the base benefits since 1971.
05:24People are surprised by that every single time I say that.
05:27So we have – so that is on the agenda.
05:30If you go across the committees, there are opportunities where there's legislation that, you know, we're sitting on right now.
05:39We just need to be in charge.
05:40Now, it doesn't mean we'll have a president who is going to sign those things,
05:43but we have to, you know, start by getting them in, passing them, and then moving forward.
05:48And hopefully, you know, we'll have a brighter prospect down the road in another election to come.
05:55A quick thought.
05:57We're all in this mood of, oh, my God, the world, the sky's falling, et cetera.
06:03The Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
06:10Our candidate for the Supreme Court took about 10-plus districts that Trump took.
06:17Our turnout was extraordinary by Democrats.
06:21Elon Musk was running around giving him a million dollars, you know, a vote, et cetera, and it didn't work.
06:28Now, we can't say, well, we're all set, et cetera, but we have the issues, I think.
06:35If we can communicate them to people, if we can energize our base, if we can get our vote out critical,
06:41and one thing I should say, if we can engage more significantly young people,
06:46then we have – we'll be back.
06:49We'll be back.
06:49All right.