CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Judy Chu

Interview

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BROWN: President Biden this Saturday with an answer to CNN's question trying to stay optimistic with his economic agenda on the line and neither end of his own party budging. After the President's visit with lawmakers on Capitol Hill Friday, the White House now says he and his team will continue close engagement with Congress through the weekend.

And he plans to hit the road this coming week to rally support as he tries to save his infrastructure and social safety net bills. But today, Kyrsten Sinema, one of the moderate Democratic senators refusing to vote yes on both bills, as progressives are demanding, slammed House Democrats for putting off the infrastructure vote. She calls it quote, "inexcusable and deeply disappointing."

She adds, "Over the course of this year, Democratic leaders have made conflicting promises that could not all be kept and have at times, pretended that differences in our party did not exist."

Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu of California is a member of the Progressive Caucus. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining me.

REP. JUDY CHU (D-CA): Thank you for having me.

BROWN: So Congresswoman, your Senate colleague didn't call up progressives or Speaker Pelosi by name, but clearly, that is who she is blaming. What do you say to her?

CHU: I would say that we will pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill. We will pass the bill, but it will be with the Build Back Better bill. It'll be two bills voted on together. And the deadline to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill was an artificial one.

There was actually no reason to have voted on it by this last Monday or this last Thursday. It was only something that certain Members of Congress wanted. But in reality, we can vote on both together, and I know that the bipartisan infrastructure bill is very, very important to Senator Sinema.

So I think that we will be able to come together on both of these bills. We just need a very, very active dialogue to make that happen. But actually, I am optimistic. President Biden came to our Democratic Caucus. He pitched the importance of both bills and how they could be transformative for Americans, for working families.

And I do have to say, this is one thing that everybody in our Democratic Caucus could agree on. We want to make the lives of American families better, and we can do that by providing jobs, by providing tax cuts, and by lowering costs for American families, as we can do with Build Back Better. [20:20:26]

BROWN: I want to get more to your optimism that you're expressing in just a second, but when asked, because you mentioned the vote, you said there was an arbitrary deadline that was set, but it was something that the Speaker, Speaker Pelosi had told moderate Democrats, this is what I'm going to do to allay their concerns.

And so you have Senator Sinema saying, canceling the vote betrays trust, not only on the Hill, but among voters. Does she have a fair point?

CHU: Well, Speaker Pelosi did her best to put the bill forward, but it was actually President Biden's final words on the Hill that said to us that it was important for both bills to be brought up together.

And also, of course, there were many that would not vote for just a bipartisan infrastructure bill alone without the other because these bills are partners to one another, these bills complement one another.

One deals with the roads and highways, the other deals with the working families who would provide the labor force to build those roads and highways that would make their lives better. So these are integral to one another, and I'm confident that in the coming time period, and in the coming weeks, we can find a compromise for the Build Back Better bill and also pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

BROWN: Just to be clear, would progressives -- would you be willing to vote on the infrastructure bill if there is a framework and agreed upon compromise, a framework for the spending bill?

CHU: Well, I would have to see what that framework is. I actually felt optimistic or more optimistic, I should say, because when President Biden came yesterday to our caucus, he finally came back with a number that he felt that the senators could deal with, and that was $2 trillion.

Now that is lower than the $3.5 trillion that we had wanted, and in fact, is below the $6 trillion that we started off with. But nonetheless, I felt optimistic because it was a number. It was something that we could deal with, something that we could look towards and start shaping our priorities on, and that's what President Biden challenged us to do.

BROWN: Behind the numbers though, of course, are tough decisions you are going to have to make on where the cuts are going to be. The head of the Progressive Caucus, Congresswoman Jayapal told members this week to quote, "hold the line." They did.

But last night, she suggested to Anderson Cooper that she could be open to a lower number than $3.5 trillion for the social safety net. Let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): You know, 3.5 was our number. We're going to go back and see what we can do on that, because we understand we've got to get everybody on board. And actually, we've been saying that for some time. We just need to have this negotiation.

We need to have an offer from the two senators that you know, don't want to do 3.5.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, she is obviously referring to Sinema and Senator Joe Manchin. Congresswoman Chu, Manchin told Dana Bash weeks ago, he was open to $1.5 trillion. President Biden now seems open to a $2.3 trillion compromise, and then around that, but I want to flag a question "The Washington Post" raises and that is, like I said before, where do you cut?

Do you sacrifice areas like fighting homelessness or the climate crisis, or helping seniors versus the poor? Or childcare versus school lunches? Where would you start?

CHU: I would like to see what we could do to perhaps shorten the time period for each of the programs, or perhaps be able to lessen the amount of provisions that are in a particular bill that is out there.

So I think that there are things that we can do to shave off elements in each of these programs. We also, however --

BROWN: Than say, rather than 10 years may be limited to five years for funding, correct?

CHU: This is exactly what I'm talking about. Yes.

BROWN: Okay. All right, I know some of your colleagues have said that, as well.

All right, thank you so much, Congresswoman Judy Chu. We really appreciate it.

CHU: Thank you so much.

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