DPCC Co-Chair Cicilline: Democrats Were Elected to Fight for the People
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Cicilline, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on America's Newsroom on FOX News to discuss how Democrats will move forward with their proactive legislative agenda to reduce health care costs, increase pay and clean up corruption in Washington while also fulfilling Congress' constitutional oversight responsibilities. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.
"Well, look, we have taken the House back by 31 seats. It may go up as high as 38. Leader Pelosi is the declared candidate for Speaker. My guess is that she'll be the only candidate and she'll become our Speaker in January."
"Yes. Look, Nancy Pelosi led us to victory in taking back the House. She was a very effective Speaker. Got a lot done. She knows how to keep the caucus together. And, she'll be very effective. And, I think that is one of the reasons people aren't running against her. They recognize she has been a great leader for our caucus and she is going to keep us together to move forward on the issues that we all campaigned on - driving down health care costs, rebuilding the infrastructure of our country, raising family incomes and taking on the corrupting influence of money in our politics. We ran on an agenda. We have to deliver on those things. Leader Pelosi, I think is the person who is going to lead our caucus and make sure we do that."
"Well, look, we've always tried to work with Republicans, the whole time I've been in Congress. The reality is we have to move forward on the agenda we ran on, on the issues that matter in the lives of the American people. And, at the same time we have of course have constitutional responsibilities, oversight responsibilities. One of the things that has really disappointed me is we have pressed the chairman of my committee, the Judiciary committee, and we have a 500-page memo of all the instances where we have asked for oversight hearings. It doesn't matter who the president is, we have oversight responsibilities. And, we have to fulfill those. So, we should be doing both things. We should be move forward proactively on our agenda, raising family incomes, driving down healthcare costs, rebuilding America, creating good paying jobs and we have to also do our oversight responsibilities which have not been done for the last two years."
"We were elected to move forward on a proactive agenda and to provide a meaningful check on this administration and fulfill our responsibilities to do oversight. I think Mr. McConnell knows that. We will do that in a serious way and a responsible way, but we have a constitutional responsibility to do oversight of this president or any president."