WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom this morning to discuss how companies are alreadyexpanding hiring and increasing wages and bonuses as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and how Congress will keep that momentum going in 2018.
On the 2018 agenda:
“We know the things that we’ve been talking about for a long time and that is, number one, securing the border, working very closely with President Trump to make sure that he’s got the resources he needs to start building the wall. This is something President Trump campaigned on and even people that disagree with him know it was a front and center issue and the people across this country made a strong statement when they elected President Trump that they wanted to get the economy back on track, they wanted to stand for rule of law by securing our border, and it starts with these conversations, and ultimately I think we’re going to get an agreement.”
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“As you said it is going to be a busy year. But, you know, if you look at the things we have to do, it starts with trying to get a budget agreement to make sure we can properly fund our Department of Defense. With all the threats we see around the world – Iran in disarray but moving towards a nuclear weapon, North Korea trying to advance their ability to deploy a nuclear weapon, Russia trying to get more aggressive around the world. We need to make sure that our men and women in uniform have the tools they need and right now that’s in question, so we need to get an agreement to get a true defense appropriations bill that we can pass to the President’s desk so we can make sure our men and women have the things they need. And then work to continue getting our economy back on track, and I do think we need to look at things not only like immigration, but we also need to look at things like welfare reform, getting people back into the workforce as companies are going to be needing more workers.”
On immigration:
“The President actually has a real detailed plan on this for anybody that wants to go see it and it’s been out there for a long time and he got elected on this. But if you look at what the Democrats really want on Dreamers – if they’re sincere about it and I think this is an important point – when they had supermajorities in the House and Senate, Nancy Pelosi was Speaker, Barack Obama was President, they didn’t do anything on immigration. So, they weren’t serious about it back then, but we are serious about working to get a solution to this problem. It doesn’t mean amnesty, but what it does mean is border security, starting to build the wall, working with President Trump on that, and then working on an ability to get an agreement on the people that came here through DACA so that they don’t get amnesty but they do get something that we can actually get an agreement on. There’s a plan that can be reached if the Democrats are serious about getting an agreement.”
On American families and workers already seeing results from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:
“The good news is [the American people] already are starting to see [the results]. Yesterday I touted on our website, majoritywhip.gov/TaxReformWorks, we actually have a list of companies that have been giving raises, giving bonuses to their employees already with the tax bill just signed days into law. And then yesterday two more companies – Southwest Airlines and American Airlines – announced the same thing. I think what you’re seeing is this idea that American workers are in demand again. And so it will continue throughout the year. Just in my district, I’m going to tour tomorrow a local family-owned company called Blessey Marine. They’re doing the same thing. They made more than a million dollar investment in their workers because of this tax cut bill passed, so small businesses like that are doing the same things that the larger high-profile companies like AT&T are doing.”
On avoiding a government shutdown:
“Yes, we’ve avoided [a shutdown] in the past. In the House, the Republicans had to do it on our own before December 22nd. It’s going to get worked out before January 19th as well, but both parties have to be willing to come to the table. We’ve been there from the beginning, hopefully the Democrats get there too.”