Mary-Charlotte Domandi:
So it’s 100 days since you were sworn into Congress, and today we’re looking back and looking forward. I wanted to ask you first, you came into Congress with a lot of knowledge, a lot of political experience, but what are some things that you’ve learned in these hundred days that you didn’t know before, what’s been surprising?
Teresa Leger Fernandez:
In answer to that question, first I’m going to do a caveat. I didn’t have a lot of political experience because I had never participated as a candidate before. So I didn’t have that kind of experience, but what I had was advocacy experience. And I think that that’s one of the things that I’ll start off with that I learned, is that Congress is very much impacted by advocacy. So the caucuses that I am part of the bills, that we live work on—we are constantly listening to the voices of people in community advocating for issues. They make a big difference. And so that’s really nice to hear, to think that okay, because the Sunrise Movement does what it does the legislation we are working on looks different than if they weren’t there doing the work and having all of those amazing, energetic, smart, committed individuals, pushing issues. And so that the work that people do on the ground in the community in advocacy makes a big difference. We are listening to it. I just finished a meeting, and one of the issues was what is the groups on the ground? Think about this is this supported so that we know that we have community behind us when we push an issue. We all thought it was important, but now it’s nice to be on the other side and realize that it is.
MCD:
And what are the main issues that people have been advocating for that you’ve felt like, yeah, this is something that we got to listen to.
TLF:
Everything I’ve worked on. So immigration: we make sure we’re listening to the people on the ground. So whether it’s the attorneys who are part of national organizations, or it’s Somos Un Pueblo Unido, who I met with last week, and the people we heard from, were the immigrant workers themselves. They were telling us their stories. They were sharing with us their deep tears over family members they lost. So they are advocate groups, we’ve listened to them. Voting rights. We listened to those people who’ve lost their voting rights. We listened to Stacey Abrams. We listened to the person who, the attorney who actually did the Holder case, which blew up the Voting Rights Act. So it’s at every level. I mean, name an issue that I’ve worked on And there have been people in the community who are both experts in the field or experts in the field because they are community. Every single issue I’ve worked on had that today. We had a hearing about saving Oak Flats from a copper mine that was rammed through doing the Trump administration. And we listened to the tribal members. We listened to the hydrologists. And we also listened to the mayor of a town who was looking forward to having this mining activity. So every single issue that we worked on, we are listening to the people in the community. And I call experts the people in the community. You don’t need a PhD or a master’s to be an expert in my mind, and we are listening to you.
MCD:
So were there other things that have been surprising for you?
TLF:
I’ve often talked about the generosity of my colleagues who have wanted to make sure I’m doing all right, who have invited me to co-lead bills with them, who have agreed to participate my bills, who’ve pulled me aside and given me advice about how to maneuver this environment. And I’ve loved that, the generosity. Today Don Young, who is the Dean of the House, who is the oldest, longest-serving member of the House from Alaska, a Republican—his generosity, I want to talk to you about some bills, and he and I are co-sponsoring bills together. So there’s a lot of generosity that we might not really appreciate from afar, but that here, it’s definitely here. And I’m outside so my apologies to everybody who might be listening and hearing this, the noise of the world around me.
MCD:
It’s all good. What has been most difficult, most challenging for you?
TLF:
I think what’s been most challenging is the same thing as that that’s been most challenging for all Americans and all people of this planet—that to begin a new job doing COVID has meant that I haven’t been able to develop the kind of relationships that you get from person-to-person work that you get from being at a committee hearing in person and taking those few minutes afterwards, or before, to say, Hey, I liked that line of questioning you were doing, it made me think about this, or let’s work together on that. So the lingering, the conversations and insight that come with when you linger afterwards, and when you can have those conversations, everybody who’s listening to that knows how a Zoom meeting medians and boom, you’re gone. You don’t have that, ah, let me pack up my stuff and have a conversation with this person and therefore develop a relationship. So the lack of direct personal relationships that come from just being in each other’s, in the same space, has been hard. But that’s been hard for everybody, so I share that with everybody listening.
MCD:
So what do you feel have been the biggest accomplishments so far? And obviously, you know, you’re not just one person, you’re part of a collective, you’re part of a caucus, you’re part of a Congress…but what do you feel that has been your proudest accomplishment or accomplishments so far, and what are your top goals for the rest of your first term?
TLF:
We all can just celebrate over and over again, the American Rescue Plan, because there is so much in there that is important, and that we were able to do. And it is transformative in the nature that we have passed the expansion of the child tax credit, that we’ve prioritized those people who are most impacted, that we’ve prioritized small businesses over big businesses in the American Rescue Plan in a way they didn’t do a year ago. So all of those are significant. I mean, to have been part of a bill that was that large and to have sat through committee hearings and helped frame it and help discuss it is just—what an amazing thing to go back and tell my grandkids about…I was there when we began the transformation of the American society, and started saying, let’s get equity back into the way we think about the world. Let’s make sure our working families are receiving the kind of attention that they need, and it’s not just a focus on buildings and big corporations. I mean, it is huge. The American Rescue Plan is huge. Seasoned members of Congress say it is. Speaker Pelosi says it’s one of the most significant pieces of legislation she’s ever worked on. So the fact that I’ve been here two months and we were able to do that is huge. But our next big effort is of course HR1, which is now S1. And we are still remaining very hopeful. We’re hearing from our allies that they are going to do everything they can, that failure is not an option on that one, that they will get that passed, because that will then lay the groundwork for us being able to have a thriving democracy and everything else falls by the wayside if we can’t. If you really cannot participate in democracy, if you are able to deprive swaths of Americans from being able to participate in democracy, then we fail as a democracy. And so that is the big one. And we will continue to constantly, even though it’s already passed the House, we will be participating in educating people about the filibuster, and educating people why it’s important to make sure it gets out of the Senate. Even though we’ve passed it through the House, we are still part of the effort to talk about the importance of it. And then we’re on to American Jobs and Family. And that’s a lot of my priorities. We’re going to try to get in there from addressing climate, to improving healthcare funding education, building the kind of schools we want. I have been saying since my campaign began that we need to invest in the infrastructure we need upon which communities can thrive. That’s what president Biden is saying. And his secretaries, and it’s like, wow, that there is this alignment of goals makes me giddy. It’s like, Oh my God, we’re going to get some of it done. Maybe not everything, exactly what we want, but we’re going to get some of that transformational work done.
MCD:
The way you’re talking about it and the way you say this is something you can tell your grandchildren you were there—it feels like a real sea change in this country, in American government, in the way we’re thinking and prioritizing. Does it feel that way to you?
TLF:
It absolutely feels that way up here. I mean, that is how you know, me and my colleagues are discussing this. Whether you hear it from leadership, I mean, when Speaker Pelosi speaks she gets giddy about the possibilities. It’s really wonderful to see the most powerful woman right now, we’ve got the President and then the Speaker next—when you look at the pictures, there’s the President speaking, and then right next to him is the speaker. They’re the two most powerful people. And she gets giddy about the possibility. So down to congressional progressive caucus, the congressional Hispanic caucus. Oh my God, this might be the moment, this might be the year that we can actually get immigration done. There are factors that might make that harder, but we’re going to keep going for it.
There is, I think, this focus on equity. And when we say equity, we mean that people who work for a living are able to have a shot at making sure that their kids have a better life. We don’t have that right now. We lost that. And that’s something we used to expect. And we’ve lost it. And so Janet Yellen, when speaks, you listen to her and it’s like, I like that woman, oh my God, look at what is she saying. The Secretary of the Treasury is talking about the fact that we have these archipelagos of wealth and poverty, that without governmental intervention are going to stay that way. And we need to not let them stay that way. So we need to actively make America a more equal place for everybody.
People understand the importance of the moment. They also understand that it is not guaranteed, and that it is going to take a lot of work to get it done, that we have very slim majorities. And so we are going to rely on community to come out. We need people everywhere. In New Mexico, give me a hard time about HR1 and S1, even though, you know I’m forward, and you know Senators, Lujan and Heinrich are behind that. But they need to be hearing all the time that that’s important, so we don’t forget to keep raising it. Wherever you are at listening to this, keep raising these issues, because it keeps reinforcing our determination and our commitment to work on these issues.
MCD:
So even if you know that your representative is in favor of something, you still should call or write and let them know.
TLF:
Absolutely. Find out what we’re doing. That’s why I did a plug for my, my weekly review. You need to see, well, what bills is she co-sponsoring, and what was she saying this week? Was she saying something I agree with or do I want to call her to task? Or do I want to say, yeah, go Teresa! So do that with me and whoever is your Representative or your Senator. Sign up for their newsletters and we’ll tell you what we’re doing. And you should tell us. Because it’s really good, we send letters back, we make calls back. I’ve called back some of the people that have written. Because of my schedule, I don’t get to call everybody. But we’ll either call or send you a letter in response to what you’ve told us about. And that way you’ll know where we stand.
I just did a letter—a lot of people have been reaching out about the death penalty. And so we’re responding to that. That’s not one of the top button issues, but yeah, we’re going to take up a bill with that. And it’s good for me to know that most of my constituents want us to follow suit to what we did in New Mexico, which was eliminate the death penalty. So it’s like, okay, great. I was going to go that way anyway, but it makes me feel better to know that that is also what my constituents want.
MCD:
A lot of what’s happening right now in Congress, at least what it looks like from the outside, seems to be that breakdown, at least on the Republican side, of the idea of a loyal opposition—in other words, the idea that the minority party will behave in a way that’s responsible and constructive, and that puts the country and the citizens first, over party. Do you think that can be restored? And if so, what are the steps, what does that path toward restoring the idea of a real two-party system where both sides are working together.
TLF:
Passage of Senate1 and HR1, because you need to first have democracy. You begin with that. So people have to respond to their constituents. With gerrymandering you don’t have to respond to the majority of constituents; you can respond to a very small section of them. That is one spot that if you actually get that passed, then the idea is that more people will be voting. So therefore you must take a position that puts the people first really helps. So that is a very key thing. And so we’ll see what happens with this next—you know, if we get S1 passed out of the Senate in some form, we’ve heard that they want to try to get it; if they’re going to be able to get it, they want to try to get a vote on it by the summer, by the July recess, so that there is time for secretaries of state to begin implementing that.
So if you do that, then that sends such a strong message that you’re going to have get elected by the people you serve, because we’re making it easier, not harder, for them to vote. Then we better start paying attention to what they’re asking for. Because right now there’s strong support for the American Jobs Act. There was strong support for investing in infrastructure. Strong, overwhelming support for increasing taxes on corporations who pay zero or the effective rate for corporations as a whole is 8%. And so there’s strong support for that. And if you have to answer to your constituents, because you’re making it easier for them to vote, then you’re going to start supporting that.
And then you’re going to start negotiating around it rather than just saying the way I win—Mitch McConnell’s approach was, the way we win is by simply obstructing everything the Democratic party and the Democratic president want to do. And if you can’t do that, because you will be voted out, then the way you win and stay in office is by negotiating over your values and over your policy. So if you really believe that taxation should be low, well let’s figure out where it should be—not no taxation for corporations, but should it be in the thirties? Should it be 28? Should it be 26? But not where we’ve set it up where they don’t pay anything.
MCD:
If there’s one thing in Congress that you could change by waving a magic wand, what would it be?
TLF:
The filibuster.
MCD:
Yeah, that was a setup, I guess.
TLF:
Because you get everything. Because that takes us back to democracy. The founding fathers made it a majority vote because they did not want there to be supermajorities. Because there were super majorities that made governing impossible. So they actually intentionally made passage of laws by a majority vote. There are a lot of things our founding fathers didn’t do well, including the fact that they were only fathers, not mothers, but that is at the core of our democracy is making sure that’s majority rule and you actually can pass laws. And then, two, making sure that everybody gets to vote.
MCD:
So when we started this series, really before we started, one of the things that you said was that you saw this series of conversations as an opportunity for reflection for you during what would naturally be a very crazy busy time that doesn’t allow for a lot of reflection. Has it been that for you?
TLF:
Yes it has! Because, one, sometimes I’m just so excited that I’ve gotten on the phone with you and say, let me tell you what I did today! Or, I forgot what I did at two o’clock because I had so much more exciting, you know, other things I did from two to 10. So it has been good for me to slow down and try to focus on one thing, and to relay to you and to whoever’s listening. And then it’s also been really good for you to push me on issues, and for me to talk more broadly about things, rather than on the narrow issues that I might be working on, because it, it is all connected. So I’ve appreciated the conversations, and thank you very much for spending all these 100 days with me doing this.
MCD:
Well, it’s been a pleasure and an honor to do this series with you, and I wish you the best. And thank you and your staff for taking all this time.
TLF:
Yes. I really want to thank my staff, because they also had to come along for these hundred days. And sometimes it was very late in DC while you and I were having conversations. And we were like, Hey, we’re going to have this conversation. Can you help us here? Could you help us there? So they have facilitated this in the background. And I really want to thank Maria Hurtado especially.
MCD:
Maria Hurtado, thank you. And Teresa Ledger Fernandez. Thank you so much.
TLF:
Bye bye, Mary Charlotte. Bye. Bye everybody
MCD:
Hasta la proxima. Adios.
