(upbeat music) - Welcome to "At Issue."

I'm H Wayne Wilson.

Thank you as always for joining us for a conversation on current issues.

This time, we're going to Washington, DC and beyond because we're gonna be talking about the debt ceiling, the Farm Bill, Ukraine, and many other issues affecting our nation.

And we're very pleased to have with us the recently elected Congressman representing the 17th District, Democrat Congressman Eric Sorenson.

Congressman, thank you for being with us.

- Thank you for the invitation, H. It's good to be with you.

- The Congressman has a very busy schedule, so he is in Washington, DC.

So we thank you for carving out a little bit of time to tape this.

- Thank you.

- Let's start.

First, before we get into the issues, you've been in Congress for a touch over four months now.

Do you have a sense as to the difference you feel for what Congress is doing and what your expectations were of Congress prior to entering Congress?

- Yeah, I think the expectations were difficult going into this because I had questioned whether or not, do people have to have this political background in order to succeed in Congress?

Instead, looking back on it, I believe we need more people that will come to Congress with that background of service, understand what the value of service is.

And for me, I worked for a TV station in Rockford and the Quad Cities for nearly 20 years.

And so through the hard work of proving that the information that I could give to my community was fair and truthful and accurate, I earned the trust of the people.

But now that I'm in Congress, I realize that some of the best members of Congress, they don't come with a political pedigree.

They don't come to Congress with wealth.

They come with life experience to be able to serve in Congress alongside a pediatrician who wants to help get more access to healthcare, to work with teachers in Congress.

We have a member of the freshman class who she and her husband own an auto mechanic facility in Washington State.

And now there's a meteorologist, somebody who has spent their life trying to make sense of a complex issue, such that our communities understand their place.

- And yet, with that in mind, at least the public perception is is that when you get to Congress, you're a Democrat, so you fall under the leadership of the Democrats and a Republican would fall under the leadership of McCarthy.

And so we see, at least on the major issues, we see this partisan divide.

How does that concern you?

- Well, the fact that our politics is getting more and more polarized these days, that concerns me greatly.

And I look back at my neighborhood and I look back a lot and I think about the neighbors that live on my street.

We come from different backgrounds.

We have different politics.

We know who's had a Biden sign in their front yard or who had a Trump sign in their front yard.

But I'll tell you what, I know that in my neighborhood, on my street, the Republicans that I know, they had an Eric Sorenson sign in their front yard.

We need to get back to the politics of neighborhoods, talking about our values instead of talking about politics.

And I will tell you that I am so grateful every day that I get to represent this district without having that intermediate step of being bombarded with politics.

And here's a case example is when I got to Congress, to orientation last year after I was elected, I chose to sit down across the table from the people that I didn't recognize.

Now, those turned out to be the Republicans that had just been elected.

And when they found out that I had a background in meteorology, that I believe that when we talk about the climate crisis, that we have to talk about the science and how the science can move us forward, I created the friendships, and I will call them friendships because on my iPhone, I get texts almost every day from a new member of Congress on the other side of the aisle.

And so I think we need to make sure that we are solving the problems that way.

And that may make me a little bit different than most.

- Congressman, you mentioned climate change.

Let's talk a little bit about that.

Is there any discussion at all on Capitol Hill about doing something to reduce CO2 emissions, et cetera?

And we may go to the pipeline situation.

We have some CO2 pipelines that are coming through West Central Illinois, et cetera.

What do you see happening there?

- Yeah, I've met with executives at companies like Amarin, how we can make sure that we are moving toward electric generation that isn't going to have an impact on our climate.

Also, we've been having extensive conversations here on Capitol Hill concerning permitting reform such that we can, in a way, to fast track the ability for us to build the electric power lines of the future.

I look back and I'm inspired by some of the things that we've already done in the past.

When you look at the interstate highway system, that was largely built in about 30 years.

When you look at the interstate pipeline system that we have, that was built in 30 years.

When you look at telephones and even rural electrification, these were all done in short order.

We need to make sure that as we accelerate in our response to climate, that it's gonna have immediate impact.

And so that's why I'm working with those union pipe fitters.

I'm in the business of making sure that we're moving forward in a way that is going to have a positive impact on our kids and our kids are gonna determine, their success is going to be determined by how we act.

- Congressman, much of your district is rural.

A lot of farmers in your district.

So the Farm Bill, which is authorized every five years, expires September 30th.

We need to renew it.

It's been renewed 78 times since 1960, so this is not new turf.

What are the issues surrounding the Farm Bill?

And then before you answer, let me preface for the audience that the Farm Bill isn't just for farms.

A good portion of it, in fact, a majority of it is SNAP program, the nutrition program.

Republicans have suggested with regard to the SNAP program that the age for seeking employment be raised to 55 in order to qualify for this and also that states are allowed to exempt those people from that 50, what is currently the 50-year age.

What's your take on where the Farm Reauthorization Bill is right now?

- Well, first, talking about SNAP, we need to talk about this in the terms of food security because that's what this is all about.

And also understanding that as of today, 89% of SNAP benefits are gone after the third week.

Okay?

So it's not enough today.

And so what concerns me is the fact that we are conflating the debt ceiling with the budget.

And I think these have to be two different discussions, but we need to make sure that our families have food security and that those benefits remain and they're not slashed because those have real impact on real people.

And while that does have a big impact on the Farm Bill, I'm also focusing, as I'm hearing from family farmers, we need to strengthen crop insurance as we're seeing more severe weather events that are happening more frequently.

They're affecting our farmers.

We need to make sure that we stand by them and that they're going to be resilient.

And so crop insurance is so important for me.

Making sure that we're using science and innovation for smart agriculture is important.

Make sure that we have sustainable farming practices in addition to protecting food security.

- You mentioned the debt ceiling.

That seems to be top of the news right now.

Can you discuss a little further what the prospects are?

We know that the president has truncated his visit.

He's not going to Indonesia.

He will go to Japan, but he'll come back because of this issue.

Could you elucidate a little bit more on why the Republicans and the Democrats are not cooperating?

It appears they're not cooperating, and as you mentioned, the Republicans have tied the restrictions in the budget to raising the debt ceiling.

- Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm an internal optimist here, but I think the discussions that are going on between leadership and the Democratic party, also the Republican party and the president, are going to get us to an agreement.

But look, I think the bottom line here is defaulting on our national debt should never be an option.

We have to put that clearly.

Look what the rest of the world is going to think.

What are they going to think if we don't pay our bills?

If we're willing to take money, but then say at the end, "You know, I'm not gonna pay that back."

I'll tell you, I'm gonna be honest with you, I've got credit card debt.

I've got that bill that comes due every month and it's really hard to look at that number.

But you know what?

I have to pay it because it's my obligation.

And so we have an obligation to pay our debt.

And especially looking back at the previous presidential administration that made all of these cuts to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars and trillions of dollars that we're paying for today, we've gotta make sure that our word is good.

And so also understanding that for people back home, that defaulting on our debt will have immediate ramification.

It's making sure that we're doing what's right here in Washington such that social security, those that get those social security payments that they're required to live, that you continue to get those, making sure that our veterans are taken care of, because that's what's an issue here.

It's Medicare.

I mean, all of these things are in play because the Republicans want to use this as a political leverage tool.

And it shouldn't be used that way.

- Not only is it an economic issue for this nation, but it would harm the standing of the US dollar globally because already we know that China is trying to supplant the dollar as the global currency with the yuan.

So this is not just about the United States economy.

- Correct.

I mean, it's where where will our place be on the world stage?

As we're coming out of a pandemic, where are we going to decide to be?

And so, I mean, we look at the economic implications, whether that's in Canton, Illinois or across the planet.

And the way that I think about this is the people of our district, they placed a certain level of trust in me to be their Congressperson, right?

And when we look at the rest of the world, the United States is the most trustworthy.

Why?

It's because we've shown our work.

We've done the hard work and we pay our bills.

And so we have to show the rest of the world that we're good for it.

- Let me turn to the question of the banking system.

We've had several banks, regional banks that failed.

Does Congress have any role in trying to secure a safe banking system beyond what the Federal Reserve already is responsible for?

- Right, and I'm glad that you asked that question because I had members of the Illinois banking institutions in my office here just in the past couple of days.

And I asked the question, with what happened with Silicon Valley Bank, could that have happened here in Illinois?

And luckily, in the state of Illinois, we've got the safeguards in place that that couldn't happen.

We have to look at SVB was a very unique situation where it grew exponentially just in a matter of years.

10 billion dollars went to 100, went to 150 billion dollars and there were no safeguards to say, hey, let's slow down, pump the brakes.

And so the bank failures as we have, they're scary, sure.

But we need to make sure that all insured are good and realize that in the state of Illinois, we've got more banks than any other state and that these are going to be secure financial institutions because we cannot afford to have the confidence in our local banks go down because they're the lifeblood of many of our small communities.

And also understanding that we're not going to bail out bad banks and what happened with SVB did not cost the taxpayers of the district.

And I'm pleased about that too.

- Just for clarification, Congressman, Illinois has more banks than any other state in the nation?

- When I was having my meeting in here just recently, that was what was conveyed to me.

So I take them at their word.

The Illinois bankers, they should know that fact.

- I want to turn to the border crisis down in Mexico.

Title 42 expired that was instituted during the pandemic under the Trump administration.

And there was concern that when May 11th arrived, that Title 42 would expire and that there would be a sudden rush.

Thus far, it doesn't appear that there's a sudden rush.

So question one is what can you attribute that to?

Question two is there is a caravan of women with children, not necessarily men, women with children coming from Honduras, Guatemala.

And then question three with regard to that is you have introduced a couple of amendments, a border patrol one to add more border patrol, and the fentanyl bill amendment.

So could you give us an overview of the border crisis?

- Right, and it is a border crisis.

We need to make sure that our border is secure.

When we look at, again, how this situation was being made and politicized over the past few weeks, so many residents, you'd turn on Fox News Channel and it would be that we were going to be inundated by refugees, and that never happened.

That was an inaccurate forecast because they didn't have good data.

And so it's understanding that we have a problem at the border.

How do we solve that problem?

And right now, the extremists on the other side, they don't want to solve this problem because they realize it's really good for them politically to run campaigns on.

And for me, my perspective is when we talk about immigration, we are talking about people here.

This is not a political football.

We can't play politics with what's going on there.

And that's why I did introduce that amendment that would have added 500 customs and border protection officers at ports of entry along the southern border.

Why?

Because the problem here is we have too many people.

How do we deal with too many people to figure out who is coming and going?

We need to make sure that there's a proper way, much like when we go to a grocery store, instead of waiting for 15 minutes because the lanes aren't open, I want to open the lanes.

Okay?

I want to make sure that as people are coming to our border to seek refuge, that they can be processed.

I introduced an amendment that would've spent 50 million dollars to expand a task force to go after fentanyl.

We understand that fentanyl is coming across our border at the legal points.

Okay?

They're coming in containers.

They're being smuggled in at the legal points, right?

We need to understand that that's the problem.

That's the source of the problem.

So we have to fund that problem.

This isn't about building a wall somewhere.

That's not going to solve the problem.

But in the end, the Republicans refuse to hear any of these amendments.

And that's what's telling to me here in Washington is that there are some folks here that would rather get on television, on a national news program and talk all about how the Democrats aren't willing to solve the problem.

Well, I can tell you succinctly through the data here that we want to solve the problem.

We're willing to do the hard work, but it's just not getting through this Republican-controlled Congress.

- So to be clear, the two amendments, fentanyl and border patrol, have not progressed at this point.

- Right.

They're still in limbo.

The Republicans didn't want to hear it.

They would just rather have a straight-up vote because they've got the majority.

They'd just rather have that and then have it be sent to the Senate, where it's gonna be dead on arrival, whereas what I would like to see is bipartisanship, where we work together to make sure that the bill is good.

And then what I will do is go lobby our senators to say here's why I believe that we should focus and support this bill.

That's the bipartisanship that I ran on and that's the bipartisanship that I believe is gonna make me the best Congressman for our district.

- Let's go overseas, Congressman, to the question of Ukraine.

The United States has been a leader in supplying both humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine during the invasion by Russia.

The European nations have also given the same, not in the same level, but the same types of materials.

Are we doing enough?

And what might happen if we don't do more?

- Right, and that I think is the million-dollar question.

But we have to understand that what we saw with Putin's aggression was the attack on a sovereign democracy.

And it's disheartening, it's distasteful to me now that we've got members here on Congress that are not willing to support Ukraine anymore because I look at what are the ramifications if we didn't support a democracy and Ukraine and let Putin invade a sovereign nation?

It would say to the rest of the world, again, that the United States isn't good for it.

The United States isn't gonna stand up for that.

And then I look at what does that mean for China and Taiwan and also an independent sovereign nation, right?

What does that mean for Iran and Israel?

What does that mean for our own democracy?

We have to make sure that we stand steadfast with Ukraine against this illegal occupation of their land and we have to support all critical democracies around the world, because surely on January 6th, that memory's not gonna go away and how close our democracy was to failing itself.

- In the couple of minutes we have left, could you suggest what might pass in Congress with regard to guns?

Is there anything that might, a universal background check or the AR-15 style weapons?

Is there any discussion on those issues at all in Congress right now?

- The hardest thing that I have to deal with every day is understanding that there will be more mass shootings before Congress solves this problem.

The hardest part for me, H, is I don't know if this is going to happen in Peoria or Canton or Galesburg or Normal or Bloomington, and that weighs on me because Congress is clearly not doing enough.

They're not doing enough.

We are not doing enough to find ways to reduce gun violence.

How on earth is it today that I need a fingerprint to open up my iPhone, but a gun on the street doesn't need a fingerprint of its owner in order to shoot?

What would that mean if a kid couldn't pick up a gun and fire it?

Why can't we utilize technology so that each round has a serial number on the inside so that ballistics can find out who shot the firearm and committed crime?

And then finally, I will say, why in God's green earth do we need weapons of war on our streets?

We need to do more.

And unfortunately, this should drive people to understand who they need to support, who they need to vote for because we need to make sure that the people get to Congress so that if it doesn't happen here in the 118th Congress, in the 119th Congress, we can get the job done.

- Congressman, thank you so much.

There's so many other issues we need to discuss, but we appreciate your spending the last half hour with us and we'll allow you to get back to the business of governing.

Thank you for being with us on "At Issue."

- Thank you, H. - And thank you, viewers, for being with us on "At Issue."

Next time we're going to take a look at something called Choose Greater Peoria.

It's an effort to attract top executives to Central Illinois.

We'll have that conversation next time on "At Issue."

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