CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Vicente Gonzalez

Interview

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Let's bring in Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.

And, Congressman, just first want to get your message to lawmakers in your party, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are right now planning to vote no on the infrastructure bill.

REP. VICENTE GONZALEZ (D-TX): Well, I certainly hope that they reconsider this.

This is a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that will be transformative in our country. It'll repair roads and bridges and ports of entry and drainage problems that we have -- have been deteriorating for decades now. This is an opportunity to bring over a billion dollars in resources to every single congressional district.

So any member who decides to vote no on this very important infrastructure is going to have a lot to explain back in their districts. And I certainly hope people reconsider that.

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Now, I am confident that it will pass, because I think that there -- the vast majority of members believe that -- in the importance of it, and we believe also that we're going to have some Republican support on this bill when it comes to the floor.

CABRERA: In order though, to get what progressives want via the reconciliation bill, Democrats need Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on board. As Manu was discussing, the president's meeting with them today.

But take a listen to what Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said about these two Democratic holdouts in the Senate.

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REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): It is saddening to see them use Republican talking points. We obviously didn't envision having Republicans as part of our party. And I hope that they will understand that Democrats need to be united.

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CABRERA: Is that helpful?

GONZALEZ: Well, I'm not sure if it's helpful, but we -- the Democratic Party is a big tent.

And we have a lot of different points of view, which is good for America. I think we debate things thoroughly. And there's -- it's just part of the deliberate deliberation that goes into getting the bill to the floor, getting it passed, and getting it to the president's desk.

CABRERA: And it's such a critical time, obviously.

Like Manchin and Sinema, you are one of the more centrist Democrats. Unlike those two, you're supporting the bigger economic package, what has been described as the $3.5 trillion bill, although we know that number could still change.

So, as the president meets with Manchin and with Sinema today, what does he need to say to them to get them on board with the bigger package?

GONZALEZ: Well, I think they need to agree on everything that's in this package, and also agree on the pay-fors.

For example, many moderates, as myself, are not so -- I'm not so concerned with the price tag as I am for -- the on the pay-fors. We want to make sure that any taxation is fair and just and across the board and that we don't in any way punitively tax one particular industry, for example, the oil and gas or the energy industry in Texas, or anyone else in this country.

We need to make sure that it's fair and balanced. But at the same time, we do need to pass both infrastructure and reconciliation. This reconciliation bill, as the infrastructure, is going to bring two million jobs to the country. It's going to improve economies across the country.

It's going to get -- for the first time in history, our seniors will have a dental and hearing and vision care. For the first time in history, we will be negotiating, Medicare will be negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to assure that our senior citizens in this country have reasonable pharmaceutical pricing and are -- will have a pre-K programs.

Kids out of out of high school can now go train at a community college tuition-free for two years. These are amazing investments in American society that I think are long overdue. And it's a one-in-a-generation opportunity. We need to get this done.

And I'm confident that we will.

CABRERA: Well, and the polling shows that the majority or at least more Americans are in support of both of these spending plans.

So, if everything crumbles in these next couple of days, how will Democrats explain it to voters?

GONZALEZ: Well, I'm certainly hopeful that it doesn't crumble and we -- it's not something we have to explain. And I'm confident that we will get it passed.

It's not easy, because, as I said, there's many points of view within the Democratic Party. But at the end of the day, we are working to do what's right for the American people. We are working to get people back to work, to get our infrastructure up to par.

If you travel around the world and come into the United -- come back to the United States, sometimes, you feel that we're falling behind to Western Europe or Asia or other places around the world. We need to have cutting-edge, first-class infrastructure in this country. And this is going to not only create two million jobs while doing it. It's going to improve our infrastructure and bring us up to the standard that we should be.

And this reconciliation is going to be so helpful in so many areas of American society. And I'm fully confident that we will get both of them passed. This is just part of the deliberation that goes into it on every complex bill. Nothing is easy, and everyone has issues, depending on who they represent.

But at the end of the day, every member gets over a billion dollars of infrastructure funding that goes to their districts. That's going to create tens of thousands of jobs. That is going to improve conditions for their constituents in terms of drainage, roads, bridges, water reservoirs, ports of entry, airports.

CABRERA: Right.

GONZALEZ: We need to get this done.

CABRERA: Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us.

GONZALEZ: Thank you.

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