CNN "Cuomo Prime Time" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Katie Porter

Interview

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CUOMO: Calls for the FDA, to authorize a COVID vaccine, for kids, are growing, every day. Parents, teachers, even, the American Academy of Pediatrics, have joined the chorus. Now lawmakers are leading the fight for answers.

Last month, more than 100 members of Congress, led by Democratic representatives, Ro Khanna, and Katie Porter, signed on to a bipartisan letter, demanding a briefing, from the FDA, to clarify this timeline.

Congressman Porter joins me now.

It's good to see you. Three weeks ago, what have you heard?

REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Well, we did get a response, back from the FDA. It was very brief. Essentially repeated what we already knew, which is that the FDA is working on it.

But we did schedule an in-person briefing, when we're back in Washington, so that Congress can get more information.

I think the biggest concern I have is just the confusion. We have people saying, beginning of next year. We have people saying, November. Pfizer is going to submit the data in September.

We missed a real opportunity to be in conversation with parents at back-to-school, which is really, and trust me, as a parent, I'm getting a lot of information on back-to-school time, would have been nice to have a better sense of what are the steps in the process, and what is the potential timeline.

CUOMO: Right, because we care about the kids. I mean, you've got two teens, and a 9-year-old. I've got two teens, and an 11-year-old. We care about them being sick, the younger they get, right? It scares parents more and more. So unfortunately, the bulk of the kids that we're most worried about are in the age category that can't get vaccinated.

So, here's the fine line, for you to walk. You need to get it done. But if they say you're rushing them, then you're really in the soup, because now people aren't going to want to take it.

PORTER: Well, I think that's exactly what we're concerned about is the information flow.

So the more that the FDA tells families about "These are the steps in the process. This is where we are. This is what comes next. This is what we're looking for scientifically. These are the data that we're - they're collecting," the more transparent they are, the more trust they're going to build in the process.

So, when the science says that it's safe to vaccinate kids, we'll have parents, ready to go, trusting and informed. So, nobody is suggesting that we rush the science. What we are suggesting is that the FDA could keep Americans better-informed about this process.

CUOMO: Right. And look, they don't have a great track record for this. This would be for emergency use for the kids.

[21:30:00]

And they had all this data. And we kept having all these big shots, come on the show, and say, with the regular vaccine, for adults, "Look? It's fine. It's really good. They're just crossing the T's and dotting the I's. They already have all the data they need. It's fine. It's fine. They're going to approve it."

But they didn't approve it. And you had about one in three people, who are vaccine-hesitant, not resistant, say, "Yes, that would matter to me, if it were approved." So, they didn't do that great, the last time. They're not doing it great this time either.

PORTER: Well, and it's a black box, right? So, we all need to trust the FDA and the scientific process. And I do. But, as a member of Congress, I also have an obligation to get answers, and to do oversight of the FDA.

It's their job to build that trust, in the vaccine process, in the Emergency Use Authorization process. And part of that is helping parents understand the steps. What is coming? What is next? How many kids in the trial? What's the steps?

And back-to-school, we've known back-to-school was coming for a while. My kids start counting down the day, that school starts, the day they get out on vacation.

So, we could have used that critical back-to-school time, to inform parents about what to expect, when they were likely to see this vaccine, to answer questions about it. We missed that opportunity. But I'm going to try to get information, and share it with my constituents, as much as I can.

CUOMO: Look, I mean, we had orientation for the middle-schooler today. And everybody's running around, "Oh, I've got my mask," because the kids have to have the masks on in school. It's public school. But they want the kids masked up.

And people are on edge. They want the information. And you're right, Congressman. If you don't prepare the parents, when they're told to give the kid, the vaccine, they're going to have all those questions that they could have, right now.

Now, let me ask you about something else that I think is actually trickier, as a situation. You want to prioritize child care in the new budget bill. And I totally understand the need.

But politically, I think that your party is in a jam, because you have this spending bill, somehow married to the infrastructure bill. And I've been saying for a long time there's no way these two things happen at the same time.

And do you think that you can find a way, through your party, to get a reconciliation bill done on spending that gets anything done that you want?

PORTER: Absolutely. Look, when we talk about infrastructure, we talk about making an investment, in our economy. We talk about how improving roads or bridges or ports would help our economy grow, would help us compete globally.

It is the exact same conversation with regard to child care. The lack of affordable child care is creating a productivity crisis. It's creating a weaker economy. And there's no American, whether they are parent, or not, who doesn't benefit from a strong economy.

So, these things are absolutely tied together. They're tied together in President Biden's "Build Back Better" plan. And they're going to be moving through Congress, at the exact same time.

It doesn't do any good to create roads and bridges, if workers can't leave their homes, they can't leave their children, to go to those jobs.

CUOMO: Now, they got to write the bill.

Let me just tell the audience, the part of it that I think is very interesting. "Low- and middle-income households would pay no more than 7 percent of their income, on child care, for kids younger than age five."

Wages for those in the child care workforce would also be raised to $15 an hour. Now, that is really important, because that's the group of parents that struggle the most, to make ends meet.

But do you think that you should just draft that bill as a standalone? Because the moderates in your party, and - I don't think it's just Joe Manchin. I think you got several of them. They just let him do the talking, in the Senate. They don't like the price tag.

PORTER: Let me be clear. Investing in child care is worth every single dollar we put in it.

Let me give some quick facts. Women's workforce participation is at a 30-year low. The job numbers that we saw in August, 12 percent of those jobs went to women. And child care in this country, in more than half of the States, cost more than in-state college tuition.

It's not just low- and middle-income families, who can't afford child care. It's all American families, in the exact same way that we see a lot of families, up and down the income spectrum, struggling to afford college.

So, I'm pushing for a bill, in which no American family has to pay more than 7 percent, of its income, for child care, and those lower- income workers won't pay anything. That's going to give us the maximum workforce participation.

It's going to help businesses put workers into jobs. It's going to help women go into leadership positions. It's going to help us be globally competitive, with other countries, who have, long ago, made these investments, in child care.

We absolutely need to make this investment in our workforce, if we want to have a strong, stable, and growing, economy, going forward.

[21:35:00]

CUOMO: I disagree with none of that. And, in fact, we have seen that exacerbated, by COVID, and kids having to stay home from school.

And, very often, it has been mothers, who have been sacrificed, to have to stay home, because they - now they can't work. They're not getting back into the workforce as quickly. There's no question.

I'm saying, the politics, are you better off making it a standalone, because I do not think that you're going to get through your own party, a bill that has anywhere near the price tag that you guys keep throwing out there, of $3.5 billion - trillion, wherever it is that they're not going to want to do it.

Should you try to go small ball here? This is very important. Make it a standalone, make people have to vote on this.

PORTER: We need to do this part and parcel, because part of what we're conveying is that women are part of the workforce. Women are part of the economy. This matters.

We tie these things together, because they are tied together, in reality, in people's families. You can create jobs. You can build roads and bridges. But, like I said, if people can't leave their houses, they can't take those jobs.

With regard to what this is going to cost, look, it's an investment. You look at every dollar you spend, and what is our economy going to get back. And also, we are not done in Congress, working to figure out how we're going to pay for this bill.

We have large corporations that are paying nothing, nothing, in taxes, even as low- and middle-income families, and parents, are dropping out of the workforce, because they can't afford, to even get to their workplaces, with child care.

So, we need to raise the revenues, through having a fair tax system, so that we can pay, for things that will make our economy grow, for everybody.

CUOMO: I am not questioning the problem at all. I just want that to be clear.

I am just saying, when you mix this remedy, this wrong, arguably, and the remedy, in with all the other stuff that's going to be in that bill, it may get, at a minimum, slowed up, if not, hacked up in, for the sake of some deal. That's why I was laying it out there.

I appreciate you making the case. It's hard to rebut, because the facts are the facts.

Congresswoman Katie Porter, the problem, you are right about. I hope your solution helps a lot of families, and a lot of women, in this country, because they need it. Thank you for joining us.

PORTER: Thank you.

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