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Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian. House Democrats approved the $3.5 trillion budget resolution in a procedural vote paving the way for a major expansion of social safety net programs. The vote also clears the path for Democrats to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27th and the voting rights bill named for the late congressman, John Lewis, but the road ahead is far from certain.

With me now to talk about the latest house news is Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, Democrat from New Jersey's 12th district and vice-chair at large for the Congressional Progressive Caucus. That district extends roughly from Plainfield down to Trenton and it covers parts of Union, Mercer, Somerset, and Middlesex counties. Congresswoman, it's great to have you on the show again. Welcome back to WNYC.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: Thank you for having me.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, we can take your calls about the infrastructure budget deals struck by House Democrats, the latest on the situation in Afghanistan, or any other House news with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey. Any constituents out there with questions 646-435-7280 or tweet your question @brianlehrer. Before we get to those calls, Congresswoman, of the democrats leading opposition to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation deal, one was your fellow New Jersey congressman, Josh Gottheimer. On the show a couple of weeks ago, here's what he had to say about why.

Josh: I'm not somebody who thinks we shouldn't pay any attention to the debt. If interest rates go up and the Fed has to actually counter inflation with increasing interest rates, that will have a huge impact on families both on out-of-pocket and their day-to-day expenditures. To not understand the importance of how those pieces are all connected, I think leaves out a really critical aspect of how this could affect hardworking families and lower-income families in my district and across the country. 

Brigid Bergin: Concerns there may be about inflation, he says, but here's Nancy Pelosi yesterday after House Democrats came to an agreement.

Nancy: I don't remember a time as historic as this for the children. President Biden has given children leverage in his visionary proposal. The children have the leverage, not those at the high end who benefited from the Republican tax bill. I wouldn't have been brought it up except you're acting as if you don't even know when you add $2 trillion or more to the budget to give 83% of the benefits to the wealthiest people in our country. Leverage for the rich, no. We don't begrudge their success. This is about leverage for the children, for them, for their families, for the future.

Brigid Bergin: Congresswoman, what do you understand to have changed in the last couple of weeks and why did your more centrist or conservative fellow

Democrats in the House get on board yesterday?

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: I think that what happened was that we came to the understanding as a collective that it is important that we pass the Build Back Better a portion of the Biden plan that will improve the conditions of families and children and workers and access to healthcare and communities and things of that nature. The realization was that we will be working on specifically what that means before we actually vote on the bipartisan senate bricks and mortar infrastructure program because we believe that you need both in order to build back better the United States of America. That's what happened yesterday.

As regarding why the nine or so members of Congress put that stake out there, from a substantive perspective, it doesn't make any sense to me since we would be negotiating the conditions of the Build Back Better family infrastructure program anyway over the next couple of weeks. It's not as if we were just going to pass something, get it passed by the Senate members of the Senate, get it signed into law by the President without there being a consideration, negotiation, and discussion about just how much applying to what and what it would ultimately look like.

When it comes to the whole issue of spending, inflation, and debt, those weren't considerations when the Republicans gave that massive tax break to wealthy corporations and wealthy individuals. Now we're talking about everyday working families, everyday individuals, people who are at the lowest end of the economic spectrum, and all the way up to the middle of the economic spectrum. Those are things that are going to help us to build back our country better. First of all, we got to get women back into the workforce so we need to do something about childcare.

We need to make sure that is accessible and it's affordable. We need to make sure that educational opportunities are there so that we are prepared for all of the new jobs that are coming out. We need to make sure that when there's a need for family leave or paid leave or some other reason, that that leave is paid for. We need to make sure that we're dealing with climate issues that are more specifically addressed in the family Build Back plan than necessarily addressed in the bricks and mortar. Can I just say one last thing?

Brigid Bergin: Please, go ahead.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: The other thing we know is that we're not getting any help from the Republicans in the Senate on the family plan. If we do, we're being very fortunate, and what a blessing it'll be. This is something that Democrats have promised the people in the United States of America. This is a promise we must deliver on, and we must deliver it together.

Brigid Bergin: You're really speaking to what my next question is, which is those concerns of progressive colleagues of your own who have said this human infrastructure is as vital as physical infrastructure. Do you have any concerns that the deal reached yesterday may leave the door open so that that physical infrastructure deal gets passed without the budget deal or do you feel confident that both are going to move forward?

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: I feel comfortable that they're both going to move forward. First of all, we always knew that we wouldn't be voting on either one of these solidly until the end of September, maybe the beginning of October. Out of this stake that the nine members of our caucus put into the ground, we've moved the voting up to September the 27th, or 28th.

We're in the realm of where we were going to be anyway. Substantively, that effort didn't materialize into any serious change. What it did do was put us all on notice, and put even them on notice that you voted for us to move in this direction. Now we expect you to move forward with us, as we construct what that family infrastructure plan is going to look like.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, we can take your calls about the infrastructure budget deal struck by House Democrats, the latest on the situation in Afghanistan, or any other House news with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey. Constituents in her district out there in the 12th District of New Jersey, a special invitation to you, please, this is your opportunity to speak to your Congresswoman. The number is 646-435-7280 or you can tweet your question @brianlehrer.

Congresswoman, there's been a lot of talk about how the Democratic Party is fractured. People point to things like the standoff among Democrats with your progressive colleagues over something like the fight for this human infrastructure deal bill. Do you feel like yesterday's deal marked an end of that separation or is that something that's going to continue?

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: First of all, I think that there's not a fracture. I think we're a big tent. The Democratic Caucus, the Democratic Party has a very diverse ideologic group under it some of them more progressive and others more moderate. I think fundamentally we believe that government has an important purpose in lifting up and protecting those in greatest need. That I believe that we agree on. I believe we agree on voting rights, things of that nature. I don't believe that there is a fracture. There's always going to be debate, discussion, and disagreement among such a diverse group.

That's what makes our democracy healthy, but then we will resolve it and move forward in the best way possible. What I think we saw in this situation was exactly that. No, I don't think that the caucus is weakened or fractured at all. I think that there is a perception out there that's being advanced by those who may benefit from that misinformation. No, we're good. We're solid.

Brigid Bergin: Let's bring in one of our listeners. Tom in Little Silver, New Jersey, what is your question for Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman?

Tom: Hi, Congresswoman. I'm not in your district, unfortunately, but I want to state my opinion and ask you a question. I'm hoping that in this $3.5 trillion that the Democrats are going to put in a carbon fee and dividend approach to dealing with a significant part of the climate crisis, which I feel is the biggest problem that we're facing and the one that has to be addressed this year while the Democrats have

control of the government. I don't know if you've endorsed Congressman Deutsche's bill that's been pending in the House for a number of months. I just wanted to get your opinion about that. Thank you.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: Thank you for the question. I don't know before me right now whether or not I'm on Deutsche's bill. I usually am. I support every single solitary effort that we can push together to address this threat to our climate predicated upon how we live here and what we do. I'm more than likely on this bill. One of the most important aspects of the family infrastructure bill is that it deals more specifically with climate resiliency, climate issues, energy issues, things of that nature that try to take us into the future.

That's why the majority of the people actually support that bill or support that plan that President Biden has advanced and that the Democratic Caucus has advanced. I'm sure that Deutsche's bill is somewhere in this massive piece of legislation that we will be undertaking and reviewing for the next several weeks.

Brigid Bergin: Tom, thank you so much for calling WNYC. Congresswoman, I wanted to ask you about the House also passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act yesterday. There's another voting rights bill that's been held up in the Senate the For The People Act. Can you talk briefly about how those two pieces of legislation differ?

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: The For The People Act is much more expansive not only on the voting rights issues but on other issues like getting dark money out of elections, making them more transparent, things of that nature. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act was more specifically dealing with the things that the Supreme Court had done to actually weaken part of the responsibility and the accountability of states and municipalities and other voting districts, and to address the kinds of voter suppression initiatives that we're seeing being passed on the state level. It was strictly about voting rights, whereas the For The People Act is much more expansive than just that.

It's something that it's going to take a longer time, I think, to address because the whole issue, particularly of who donates, who's accountable, who report some things of that nature, what do we do about all this money that's involved in campaigns is an issue that is going to be discussed and negotiated for a while. The whole corporations being treated as people and being able to contribute. All of that I believe touches upon the need for reform in our Congress. On both sides of the aisle in both houses, there are differing opinions on this. We have to keep working on it.

Brigid Bergin: Congresswoman, we have some callers from your district that we want to share with you. Let's start with Barbara in Monroe Township, New Jersey. Barbara, welcome to WNYC.

Barbara: Thank you and thank you. I'm so happy to have this opportunity to speak to Representative Coleman. I live in Monroe Township. I use a Philips Respironics machine for my sleep apnea. Philips recalled the machine because it has a carcinogen component. They were not responsive in any way to calls for me. When

The New York Times published an article earlier this week, suddenly I got a response from them.

The problem for me though, and for many, many others, is that Medicare will not replace these machines, which cost $1000 at least to replace. The issue is if you've had two machines from them, that's it. Neither one of the problems with my machine was my fault. The first one stopped working. The second one has been recalled and I'm out here, as are many others, having to face a very large expenditure on our fixed incomes.

Brigid Bergin: Not an infrastructure issue exactly, Congresswoman, but a constituent issue.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: Yes. Hey, this is the first time that I've heard of this problem. My own son is on a sleep apnea machine. I'm going to find out what make it is as well. I'm going to ask if you would call my office and allow us to look into this and see what other colleagues are experiencing in their communities and see how we need to approach this with CMS. My number is 609-883-0026. You can either ask for my deputy chief of staff, Kari Osmund, or you can ask for Jordan Lewis. Either one of them we'll get back to you.

Brigid Bergin: Wonderful. Barbara, some direct constituent service right here on WNYC for you. Robert from Monroe in New Jersey is another one of your constituents, Congresswoman and Robert, what is your issue?

Robert: My issue has to do with highways. New Jersey happens to be the most congested state in the union, as you probably well know. Yet the amount of money we get per capita compared to other states is ridiculous. One of our biggest problems is we have a major road running our state called Route 1, which most people know because if you look up for north, you're hitting Maine and you look south, you're hitting Florida.

Yet we have very few overpasses and we have a tremendous amount of traffic lights which then cause a lot of congestion and at the same time cause accidents. What can we do to create overpasses on this road and get rid of all these traffic lights? I do know that there's a lot of some essential property there but many industrial property that go right up to the road. I think this needs to be changed. What are your thoughts?

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: Wow. I've got a lot of thoughts as it relates to highway construction in the United States of America and in New Jersey in particular. I think that in many instances was intentionally designed to separate and disrupt neighborhoods, particularly lower-income neighborhoods. I see a lot of construction taking place now particularly on 95 and somewhat on 295, creating overpasses and things of that nature. I know New Jersey could benefit tremendously from more access to reliable public transportation.

That's one of the things that are being proposed in the infrastructure bills. I believe that we're seeing now a lot more overpasses being constructed on 95 and 295 that

probably affect our area because we're right on both the turnpike, the 95 and 295. There is a plan for smarter transportation planning. There is a plan to get more cars off the road and there is a recognition that our response to the congestion that we're seeing is not to create more lanes, but is to create more options. I'm not the expert here,

I'm not the engineer but I understand what you're saying as a problem. Yours is one problem of several that the secretary of transportation and the subcommittee that I'm on, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development on the Appropriations Committee, are addressing. Thank you for raising it. You're absolutely right. New Jersey is a very giving generous state. For some reason, they think that we don't need to get as much back as what we send to Washington, DC.

Brigid Bergin: Congresswoman, in our last minute or so, a couple of minutes, I need to ask you a couple of questions of course about the situation in Afghanistan. Two of your colleagues in the house took a secret unauthorized trip to Kabul yesterday. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Peter Meyer, a Michigan Republican. They say they were trying to push the president to extend that August 31st deadline from withdrawing from the country. First, what's your position on that deadline? Should it be pushed back?

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: I think I'm going to support the President on this. A, we needed to get out of there. Everyone knows that we needed to get out of there. B, getting out of there was not going to be any different six months from now or a year from now than it was right now. I think that the President has met with the G7 allies, and they've talked about the fact that they're going to be engaged in making sure that Americans, third world countries, other countries troops over there as well as our Afghan allies are protected to the extent that we can.

We've already taken out 70,000. We got out 12,000 just yesterday. It requires us to be very robust in this but we must protect those who worked with us and we must protect the Americans that are there. That's a promise that we made. We just need to keep working at it and keep negotiating with the Taliban. I don't think that the President was given a very good option. I believe that at the end of the day, we will do the very best and we will protect those who have worked with us.

Brigid Bergin: We're going to have to leave it there with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman: Thank you for having me. Have a great day

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