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How you feel about the likelihood of a shutdown or the progress being made on this ICE reform issue probably depends on who you ask on Capitol Hill. So we're going to ask someone there right now joining us, I'm pleased to say live from the House is Republican Congressman Brian Style of Wisconsin. He, of course, is the chair of the House Administration Committee. Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. Sarah, It's good to see you. It's been
a while since we've talked. As you just heard Tyler say, it seems that there is still a bit of daylight between Republicans and Democrats on what reforms both can actually get behind. Sir, what would you be willing to accept.
Kelly, Welcome back. Here we are again Democrats threatening your shutdown, in this time a portion of the federal government if they don't get their way. I think what we need to do is have cooler heads prevail. The Department of Homeland Security is an essential agency that covers not only ICE, but also Coast Guard, TSA, and other essential federal government programs, and so the threat of a shutdown is unproductive at
an absolut minimum. We should pass a continuing resolution, and in fact, the House pass complete funding from the entire fiscal year in a bipartisan vote. So at the end of the day, what we need to see is Senate Democrats come to the table to make sure that we can get sixty votes in the Senate fund this for
the full year. Allow cooler heads to prevail, and I think what we're seeing is more and more local jurisdictions cooperating with ICE and that prevents some of the more challenging situations that we've had.
Hey, Congressman, there are a lot of questions about the way this goes, and the calendar is not a friend. At the moment, there was only a two week continuing resolution, So here we are again up against the deadline. If Democrats and Republicans can't come to terms in the next couple of days. Here, would you support a continuing resolution of that duration again or should it be something longer so we don't have to keep coming back around on these.
You know, I don't love curs, but boy, they're better than shutting down the government for a portion of the government. In this case, two weeks is pretty insufficient for Congress to operate. It's too bad that's the case. I'd be open to even a slightly longer cr But again, this final negotiation is going to take place between about ten Democrats in the United States Senate with President Trump. It's
trusting that they can land this plane. Cooler heads prevail, getting local jurisdictions to cooperate with ice, and giving that time to reach agreement on this funding deal, I think is what's going to ultimately be required.
Well, so while the work on a funding agreement happens in the background, Congressmen, you of course are doing work of your own, including holding a committee hearing on election integrity today as well, of course having introduced the Make Elections Great Again, the Mega Act around Election Security, that Act as well as the Save Act, which of course is a kind of tantem effort going on. Congressman was criticized by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski as effectively federalized elections.
Is that what you are intending to do? How do you avoid doing that?
Article one, section four gives authority vote to the states to operate elections, but also the authority for Congress to make sure that there's clear laws to make sure that we have confidence in our elections. The Mega Act, a portion of which is the Save Act, puts forward common sense reforms to reinstate America's trust in our elections. I think it's common sense that we should require, for example, photo identification when an individual goes to the polls, I
have to do that. If you want a board an airplane, you want to open a bank accounter, Heck, you want to buy a six pack of beer, you need to show photo identification. So it's common sense, it's popular. This is far from the takeover argument that some are attempting to make. It's putting in baseline standards so that all Americans have confidence our elections are being run accurately and fairly.
Do you worry about mission creep here? If I can use that term, Congressman, When you hear President Trump talking about nationalizing elections and taking it out of the hands of the states in the case of sanctuary cities or states that have sanctuary cities, he says Republicans should run those elections of isolating about fifteen states he thinks need that kind of attention. Does that run against the conservative principles that you bring to the table.
Well, I think what it is is putting in baseline standards that are needed to operate our elections. Again, the states are going to be the ones operating the elections, but I do think it's appropriate to have a federal standard with which every state must meet in an absolute minimum. Sixteen states, for example, don't require photo identification when an individual goes to vote. Again, I think all fifty states
should require that. We should end elections on election days so the American public knows the results of elections on the night of the elections. These are core principles, They are common sense, and they instill confidence in our elections.
What we saw from the state of Georgia after they implemented election integritary reform in twenty twenty one and they've run two statewide elections is high voter participation, increasing confidence and as that occurs, more and more people are likely to participate, which is a good thing for our democracy well.
And as we consider what will be on the minds of the American electorate as they go to vote, Congressman, we know the economy always features quite heavily and the impact certain fiscal policies and others have on the economy, like for example, the impact of tariffs that have been
levied by the Trump administration. They were supposed to be just a few hours from now a procedural vote, a rule vote on what Speaker Johnson is pushing, essentially extending a prohibition of calling snap votes on repealing the president's tariffs. We now understand that has been postponed to eight thirty pm this evening. It seems there's a little bit of trouble in the water here, Congressman. Is a few of your colleagues have suggested that they will not be voting
with the Speaker on this. What are you hearing, Well.
There's a lot of dialogue and discussion as to exactly how we move forward. I think we have an opportunity here to work with the presidents we strike trade deals, in particular with our allies, to bring those trade barriers down to give American markets access into foreign markets. For far too long, countries like China have taken advantage of US trade agreements. In holding countries like China, along with
our allies, accountable, I think is absolutely essential. We're going to have a lot of dialogue and debate over this or the next handful of hours, but at the end here. I think the goal is to create these trade agreements with our allies, and I think we have an opportunity to do that.
You know, the Supreme Court at some point is going to rule on this Congressman. In fact, we thought we would possibly even know by now, how would that potentially argue or complement a law passed by Congress when it comes to the veracity of this teriff regime.
Well, for a number of years beyond just this administration, we have seen executives, both at the presidential level as well as governors, use emergency orders to take actions that they would like to take without legislative approval. We saw that all throughout the period of COVID case before the Supreme Court. I think could be depending on how it's written, transformative.
As we understand emergency powers. Many of the tariffs that the President put forward are dependent on those emergency powers. The Supreme Court may rule, but I think in lieu of that, I think what we would like to see is the President continue to work and finalize these trade agreements with our allies to provide real stability in the trade agreements that we need to keep our economy strong.
And just finally, Congressman. On the subject of the economy, President Trump suggested in an interview with Fox's Larry Cudlow that the economy could be growing at fifteen percent under the leadership of Kevin Warsh if he is confirmed a sped share take a listen.
We should be at fifteen percent. I'll tell you if our new head of the FED, who I think is going to be great, and he's a really high quality person, but if he does the job that he's capable, we can grow at fifteen percent.
I think more than that.
You sit on the Financial Services Committee, Congressman, do you buy fifteen percent GDP growth in the United States of America?
Well, wouldn't we all love to see it? But I think we got a ton of run room in front of us. The underlying economy in the United States is strong. If we continue to work to remove the burdens that have been put in place through red tape, through high regulations, through taxes, and we work to empower the American economy, I think we're going to continue to see strong economic growth.
I think it's great that the President is out there cheerleading for the country and putting a high bar in front of us but we should all be working to drive forward economic growth. In particular as we look at a period of time where debt and deficits are significant challenges in front of us. The biggest answer to get out of this situation is to grow the economy at rates that we haven't seen. We've seen strong economic growth
over the course of the past few quarters. I think we have an opportunity to continue to build on that success.
Congressman, it's great to have you back. Thank you for the insights. As always, Ryan Style of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Admin Committee,