MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript
Interview
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Congressman, thanks so much for joining us tonight. I know it`s been a rough week.
REP. FRANK PALLONE (D), NEW JERSEY: Thanks.
HARRIS-PERRY: Now, what`s the latest on the ground there in New Jersey concerning the flooding? What are you seeing?
PALLONE: Well, there is still a lot of flooding and certainly a lot of damage. As you know, it was not so much from the ocean, which is what we expected during the hurricane, but rather from the flooding of the
rivers, and whether it`s the Raritan or the Delaware, or some of the tributaries that run into those, it has been a tremendous amount of flooding -- as you can see from some of these pictures. In some cases,
it`s getting worse even though it`s a few days after the hurricane.
HARRIS-PERRY: Look, I`m pretty distressed as someone sitting in a city that is currently being, you know, overcome by basically a marsh cloud that Eric Cantor is basically making federal disaster relief funds part of
political gamesmanship. Shouldn`t emergencies be separate from politics?
PALLONE: Absolutely, Melissa. This is outrageous on the part of Cantor and the House Republican leaders. I mean, the fact of the matter is, traditionally, I`ve been in congress for 24 years now. Emergency
supplemental appropriation bills were exactly for that, emergencies. And the reason is, the reason they bypassed, if you will, the budget process is because we wanted to get the money to the states and the towns and to the people quickly because they were in distress.
So, to suggest that somehow now, you know, we`re going to wait around for months or even a year while we can find funding cuts elsewhere and have this debate, and, you know, horse trading, if you will, for a long period of time and everyone`s going to wait when they are in distress, I think, is outrageous. I mean, basic government function is to help people in distress. If the government doesn`t do that, what is its function?
So I really resent the fact Cantor and other House Republican leaders are trying to make this into some policy or political fray. It`s outrageous.
HARRIS-PERRY: It`s been said that disasters do not discriminate. You know, ultimately when that flood water comes, it doesn`t care if you`re a Democrat or a Republican, whether your house is red or blue. So, given we have people obviously on both sides of the aisle suffering in these states from disasters, how is this going to play out for Republicans politically, given they`ve made it political? Do you think that Eric Cantor and House Republicans are going to reap a kind of political whirlwind behind this?
PALLONE: Well, I hope that they recant. In other words, you know, Cantor has made this statement. I know he`s repeated it again or his staff said that he means it, but I`m hoping that both Republicans and Democrats from the areas impacted by hurricane Irene will simply step up and say this is not acceptable.
Again, it`s a question of not getting the relief out, because if you don`t do this quickly and do some kind of emergency appropriations bill, which we`ve done for as long as I can remember, then it`s going to be
distressful for the states and towns and the people. I mean, you`re talking FEMA, grants and loans that go to individuals and small businesses. You`re talking about money that goes to localities to pay for police and
fire and rescue workers.
I mean, it just doesn`t make any sense to treat this as, you know, as if you would treat something that you can, you know, sit around and argue over for months and years. That`s not the way we do business. That`s not what the federal government`s role is, so I`m hopeful that cooler heads prevail, I guess, is the best way to put it.
HARRIS-PERRY: Sure. And, Representative Pallone, you`re on the Democratic side of the aisle. But your Republican Governor Chris Christie has had an awful lot of praise for FEMA in response and FEMA`s response in the past couple of days. What are your thoughts on the ground there about how FEMA is in fact responding in the state of New Jersey?
PALLONE: Well, I think the cooperation with the federal government, with FEMA, with the state, with the governor, with the local governments, has been unbelievable. I mean, I`ve never seen such preparedness. And, you know, you mention you`re from New Orleans -- I couldn`t help but think that because of Katrina and some of the other hurricanes that we`ve experienced, that when people were forewarned and said you have to take preparations, you have to take this seriously, they did take it seriously. I think in part because they remembered Katrina and they remembered what happened in New Orleans and they believed that this was real.
But certainly, the governor, the president, and the local mayors all re-enforced that and made sure people got out and were evacuated so that we didn`t have even more damage or loss of life than we had.
HARRIS-PERRY: Well, certainly all of us in New Orleans are happy to see that things are operating better at the federal level this time than they did in 2005.
So, Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey -- thank you so much for your time tonight.
PALLONE: Thank you, Melissa.
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