Teresa Leger Fernandez:
Hi, I’m so sorry. I was on with our vice chair of the caucus, Pete Aguilar, who’s just a wonderful mentor and friend.
Mary-Charlotte Domandi:
Cool.
TLF:
Yeah. When you, when somebody like that is, you know, we need to talk about different issues and you know, he is, as you can imagine as being vice vice chair of the caucus, he’s like being pulled in so many ways. So when he gives me a half an hour to walk me through and give me ideas, I take it. Anytime anybody starts a brand new job, it’s very difficult. You always have to learn the ropes. And I am starting a brand new job as a Congresswoman in an incredibly fast-moving moment in our history. And what I was just doing immediately, before I got on the phone with you was talking to another Congressman, who has a leadership position.
And what I love right now about my colleagues is how generous they are with their time. Because there is so much that I don’t know about how Congress works and how you can have leverage and how you make something happen. And to be able to call a seasoned Congressperson up and say, this is an issue in my district. It’s on something that has nothing to do with my committees, but it has to do with this. Like how do I make something happen here? And for him to take the time, despite the fact that he’s been pulled in even more different directions than I, because he’s got leadership, and to give me a half an hour of its time and walk me through how I get this interest addressed for Eastern New Mexico in the upcoming infrastructure bill, it’s like so heartwarming and generous and talks to the fact that people want to help you get work done for your district.
And they might be in California, or they might be in Milwaukee or something else, but they still recognize the fact that we are all both doing a national work and a district work. And I love that. So, you know, in terms of like a reflection of what I did today, that is the one that I wanted to share, was this generosity of spirit. And the fact that there’s so much, I don’t know. There’s no manual about this. This is all about networking and relationships. And these are the ways in which we build power and rebuild effectiveness in these relationships with each other.
MCD:
Do you want to go a little bit into what you actually talked about and how he helped you to then turn around and help your district?
TLF:
Yeah. We were talking about the fact that there is, uh, a lot of needs in terms of infrastructure, but with regards to this one was very much in regards to highway infrastructure. And where is the money going to come from? There is always a reauthorization of the highway transportation act. And where was it now? When was it going to get reauthorized? Well, turns out that they did a one-year extension, and instead of doing a full reauthorization, they did a one year extension. So it’s going to come up. So we are in a beautiful opportunity now with the new president and the new needs of saying, let’s get bipartisan support for this infrastructure bill. Let’s look at the fact that we need to raise the gas tax. We need to spend all this money. The gas tax can help raise them, whereas if they would have done this a year ago, they wouldn’t have never been able to raise the gas tax. So we need to get this stuff done. And how do you finance it? This is one of the ways. But then how do I get some of the funds that I know they need in this part of Eastern New Mexico for projects? I now have, based on my conversation with this mentor, I now have a path as to how I get answers to the question of how I get this done. And then if there needs to be a legislative tweak, I now know where it needs to go. And that would, what this tweak would do, was make sure we can get some of the federal monies flowing to a park particular need regarding some highways in Eastern New Mexico. So it was great, because like this issue came up this morning. I told them, I don’t really know about that. Let me find out. And I could call my colleague who sits in leadership, who sits on transportation and infrastructure and he can walk me through it and boom, boom, boom. I now know what we need to do in my office to try to create this opportunity in the Eastern side of the state.
MCD:
Now the gas tax I would imagine is somewhat controversial since people still need to get around and they don’t want to have to pay more for gas in their car. How do you defend that? How do you think about that?
TLF:
We have to be careful because something like a gas tax can be regressive, which I think is what you’re saying, is that, how do you defend anything that’s regressive, right?
MCD:
Yeah.
TLF:
Increasing a gas tax is something that you do if you also want to move away from a fossil fuel generated transportation system. So it’s something that we need to get to because we know that when gas prices plummet the incentive for not purchasing more gas-efficient cars and vehicles and trucks plummets as well. And so the gas tax is one of those things that influences what we’re going to do with regards to moving away to a green new deal. So it’s one of the things we need to do. There are ways in which we have talked about within the progressive movement of an increased gas tax is really key, if you want to get to a place where you’re going to have less reliance on fossil fuels for your cars and more reliance on more efficient vehicles, you know, eventually electric vehicles.
TLF:
So there’s different ways in which you get there, but then how do we then assist those families that are at the lower end? And there are so many policies that we are pursuing right now that are going to send more resources to families who are making less money. Everything isn’t always a, you move this here and you do an exact corresponding here. The levers that can be moved are multi-faceted and you need to look at the many different aspects of an economy. But if we never want to raise our gas tax, guess what? We’re never going to move away from fossil fuels.
MCD:
So the idea is the pandemic is over, we’re vaccinated, I can now get back in my car and go to work. Oh, I’m paying way more per month because of the gas tax. But I’m also getting more per month because of tax cuts or something like that.
TLF:
Tax cuts. And you know, we’re going to be sending a lot more to lower income. People would be American family act with the child tax credit act where the earned income tax credit, with a lot of different things. You’re going to be sending more to people with regards to that. And you know, we have to recognize that this is one of the policies that we need. There’s a lot of ways in which raising the gas tax makes sense. In our unwillingness to raise it for all these years, including in New Mexico, we’ve been unwilling to raise the gas tax. We need to raise the gas tax. We don’t have a way of funding our highways, look up what our highways look like. And it’s because there’s such a reluctance to raise the gas tax.
MCD:
So that’s how highways get funded?
TLF:
In New Mexico, everywhere. Yeah. In New Mexico and in the United States highways get funded by the gas tax.
MCD:
So on another topic, have you been following the impeachment?
TLF:
I’ve been in meetings all day long, but from what I understand is the Trump defense rested after a very short period of time. I haven’t seen, I am too busy during the days to see any of it. So what I do is at the end, I have it recorded. And then at the end of the day, we stay up late watching it all. Unfortunately I don’t get to see it, but I think it is so essential. Like last night’s manager, representative Neguse and lead manager Jamie Raskin were just incredible. I love it when we’re constantly relearning what we already know, but doing it in a way that is fresh and Jamie Raskin’s recitation of the constitution and of the philosophers and thinkers and—let’s face it, we don’t call them activists, but they were activists. They were the activists of the day, you know, bringing that to bear about what we are and this idea that we are so imperfect, but we have been working together better. But what they gave was, I was so amazed. It was so wonderful.
