ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today joined CBS Mornings and FOX News’ America’s Newsroom to discuss the frustrating hold up in Congress on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the governor’s $150 million Re-Fund The Police Initiative, and vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds.
On the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
“You know it’s really frustrating. I’ve been involved in this from the beginning. I pulled together a summit—unprecedented—of Democratic and Republican governors, senators, and congressmen back in April. We reached an agreement on this bipartisan compromise: $1.2 trillion, we got President Biden on board, it passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, 69 votes, two and a half months ago, and it’s been held hostage in the House by the progressive Democratic caucus, who is holding it up saying ‘we are not going to agree to President Biden’s compromise bill unless we get the $3.5 trillion of other non-infrastructure stuff. It’s not a compromise if you say we’ll only do it if we get everything we want. That’s just not the way things work. They can come back and debate those other things later.”
“Both parties have failed for decades, and we are finally at the goal line about to get it done for the American people, and we just need Congress to put aside their differences and really get it done, because it’s very important for the country.”
On COVID-19 Vaccines for Children
“Well I can understand the concerns because there’s been sort of confusing information, conflicting information sometimes, and so some parents are concerned, and we want to do whatever we can to make sure that they get the information they need and talk with their physicians, talk with the professionals, and we think it’s important for them to move forward. Our state is one of the most vaccinated in the country. We’ve done 98% of our seniors, 85% of all eligible Marylanders, and now we are ready for when we do get the approval to finally move forward with the 5- to 11-year-olds.”
On House Progressives Blocking the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
“It’s crazy. Look, we worked together on the bipartisan bill. We got Biden to agree to it. There’s no additional spending, it’s all paid for. $1.2 trillion. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate in August. Since then, the progressives in the House hijacked this entire thing. Biden’s bipartisan agreement was that we would take out all of that stuff. You can debate that and argue that later, but let’s get where we get agreement on the real infrastructure. Now the progressives are blaming Manchin and Sinema—the Senate’s already passed it. It’s the progressives that have been the problem, demanding wasteful spending on social programs. Trying to somehow conflate that with infrastructure is crazy. It’s also showing weakness on the part of the president who said that this was his signature achievement to get this bipartisan agreement that he had strong support from Republicans on. And now it’s a train wreck, it really is. It’s unbelievable.”
On the Re-Fund The Police Initiative
“I think it’s resonating really, really well, particularly among the people that are victims of crime in places like Baltimore City where we have 300 murders a year. We had a Baltimore City councilman calling for the abolishment of the police. We’ve got people all over the country calling for defunding the police. And I said ‘how are you going to make defunding the police better by taking away the funding?’ It’s like saying we want to improve education by defunding the schools. It’s absurd and ludicrous. It’s far-left lunacy. So I said, ‘we’re going to re-fund the police.’ We’ve put $150 million more in police so we can do better recruitment and retention and better training, teach de-escalation techniques, pay for body cams, more community policing. It’s going to help us do a better job of connecting with the inner city communities, but it’s also going to stop the violent crime.”
On the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
“You know it’s really frustrating. I’ve been involved in this from the beginning. I pulled together a summit—unprecedented—of Democratic and Republican governors, senators, and congressmen back in April. We reached an agreement on this bipartisan compromise: $1.2 trillion, we got President Biden on board, it passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, 69 votes, two and a half months ago, and it’s been held hostage in the House by the progressive Democratic caucus, who is holding it up saying ‘we are not going to agree to President Biden’s compromise bill unless we get the $3.5 trillion of other non-infrastructure stuff. It’s not a compromise if you say we’ll only do it if we get everything we want. That’s just not the way things work. They can come back and debate those other things later.”
“Both parties have failed for decades, and we are finally at the goal line about to get it done for the American people, and we just need Congress to put aside their differences and really get it done, because it’s very important for the country.”
On COVID-19 Vaccines for Children
“Well I can understand the concerns because there’s been sort of confusing information, conflicting information sometimes, and so some parents are concerned, and we want to do whatever we can to make sure that they get the information they need and talk with their physicians, talk with the professionals, and we think it’s important for them to move forward. Our state is one of the most vaccinated in the country. We’ve done 98% of our seniors, 85% of all eligible Marylanders, and now we are ready for when we do get the approval to finally move forward with the 5- to 11-year-olds.”
On House Progressives Blocking the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
“It’s crazy. Look, we worked together on the bipartisan bill. We got Biden to agree to it. There’s no additional spending, it’s all paid for. $1.2 trillion. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate in August. Since then, the progressives in the House hijacked this entire thing. Biden’s bipartisan agreement was that we would take out all of that stuff. You can debate that and argue that later, but let’s get where we get agreement on the real infrastructure. Now the progressives are blaming Manchin and Sinema—the Senate’s already passed it. It’s the progressives that have been the problem, demanding wasteful spending on social programs. Trying to somehow conflate that with infrastructure is crazy. It’s also showing weakness on the part of the president who said that this was his signature achievement to get this bipartisan agreement that he had strong support from Republicans on. And now it’s a train wreck, it really is. It’s unbelievable.”
On the Re-Fund The Police Initiative
“I think it’s resonating really, really well, particularly among the people that are victims of crime in places like Baltimore City where we have 300 murders a year. We had a Baltimore City councilman calling for the abolishment of the police. We’ve got people all over the country calling for defunding the police. And I said ‘how are you going to make defunding the police better by taking away the funding?’ It’s like saying we want to improve education by defunding the schools. It’s absurd and ludicrous. It’s far-left lunacy. So I said, ‘we’re going to re-fund the police.’ We’ve put $150 million more in police so we can do better recruitment and retention and better training, teach de-escalation techniques, pay for body cams, more community policing. It’s going to help us do a better job of connecting with the inner city communities, but it’s also going to stop the violent crime.”
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