Rhode Island Democrats Pressed On Legislation That Is 'Ready To Go' If Dems Retake Congress In 2026

Forbes Breaking News

During a town hall on Monday, Rhode Island Democratic lawmakers were asked about prepared legislation that is 'ready to go' if the Democrats regain control over Congress in the 2026 midterms.

Transcript

00:00Let's go to the center aisle here.

00:02Hi, I'm Alan Rittner. I live in Middletown.

00:06I'm glad I didn't come to feel better.

00:10I've written to all of you, and I get your letters back saying that you know what's going on,

00:17and you wrote a letter, or you're keeping an eye on it,

00:20and you know the red state representatives are in trouble if we have elections next year.

00:28Can you give us some assurance that there's work going on behind the scenes

00:36to have legislation ready to go the day the Democrats take back the House and Senate?

00:44And the second part of that is, can you give us any idea if anything good is going on in Congress,

00:53any relations that are working good, anything that's being judged good?

01:07Tough question.

01:09There are some good things, which is, and I'll point out, on our side in the Appropriations Committee,

01:17Senator Collins of Maine and Senator Murray of Washington State are working closely together.

01:25We expect, as we did last year, to pass out of our subcommittees and the full committee we hold

01:33a bipartisan bill that truly takes care of all the needs that the country has,

01:39at least to the best of our ability.

01:43Again, the big roadblock immediately in front of us is reconciliation.

01:48We might be so undercut by that that it's difficult, but they're working right now.

01:55I'm working with them, but they're working right now.

01:58That's the good news.

01:59And I think, you know, we can't give up.

02:02We won't give up, but the pressure that's being put on our Republican colleagues

02:09is beginning to be apparent, and you can see the effect.

02:14And if we get four on either side, we can start passing amendments

02:20that send strong signals to the White House that, you know, their free pass is over.

02:27But it's tough.

02:28I would echo what Jack said, and he's a very decent and polite individual,

02:38but let's just say that some of his colleagues on the Armed Services Committee

02:41probably have a pretty sour taste in their mouth right now about having voted for Secretary Hegseth.

02:52And that does pile up.

02:55The other thing is that Congress doesn't just legislate.

02:59Congress can also investigate.

03:02And the cure for corruption is investigation.

03:07And I will tell you that Gabe's colleagues are already starting to think about

03:14what congressional investigations should begin

03:18as soon as the House gets taken back.

03:22I say the House because the House can issue subpoenas that can't be filibustered.

03:31We issued subpoenas in the Judiciary Committee, and they got filibustered on the floor.

03:37So people just blew us off, said, no, I'm not going to answer.

03:40Tough bounce you.

03:40In the House, people went to jail for violating subpoenas.

03:47So we can't really – there's a huge investigative piece that the House can do with subpoenas.

03:54And as you can see with your plain eyes, it is a target-rich environment for corruption investigations right now.

04:03And, in fact, Gabe's colleague, Jamie Raskin, had me over to speak to a whole bunch of House members

04:15about precisely what kind of targeting they should be doing for oversight

04:19in the event that November 26 goes well, which, God help us, it will.

04:25So – and I would say briefly here that, you know, Elon Musk does not want to be in front of Congress, right?

04:33And so that is some – that's a north star why these – I know we're at a nonpartisan event,

04:38but why the elections next year matter a lot.

04:40And there will be ways to stay in good touch with me to help us accomplish that mission of taking back the House

04:51because that really is a north star.

04:55And I care about the Senate guys too, but I care about the House.

04:59And then to the second question about bills in a next Congress, you know, one that I'm very focused on.

05:06I referenced earlier, I know the Senate's got its way and the House has its way as well,

05:11but on Social Security and ensuring the solvency there and making sure we – frankly, actually expand benefits,

05:19benefits that we have not expanded, the base benefits since 1971.

05:24People are surprised by that every single time I say that.

05:27So we have – so that is on the agenda.

05:30If you go across the committees, there are opportunities where there's legislation that, you know, we're sitting on right now.

05:39We just need to be in charge.

05:40Now, it doesn't mean we'll have a president who is going to sign those things,

05:43but we have to, you know, start by getting them in, passing them, and then moving forward.

05:48And hopefully, you know, we'll have a brighter prospect down the road in another election to come.

05:55A quick thought.

05:57We're all in this mood of, oh, my God, the world, the sky's falling, et cetera.

06:03The Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

06:10Our candidate for the Supreme Court took about 10-plus districts that Trump took.

06:17Our turnout was extraordinary by Democrats.

06:21Elon Musk was running around giving him a million dollars, you know, a vote, et cetera, and it didn't work.

06:28Now, we can't say, well, we're all set, et cetera, but we have the issues, I think.

06:35If we can communicate them to people, if we can energize our base, if we can get our vote out critical,

06:41and one thing I should say, if we can engage more significantly young people,

06:46then we have – we'll be back.

06:49We'll be back.

06:49All right.

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