Arizona Capitol Times, July 10, 2009
By Jeremy Duda

Between the recent cap-and-trade bill and the alternative energy provisions of the stimulus act, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has seen some of her top priorities take center stage in Congress this year.

But with issues like comprehensive immigration reform and a massive health care overhaul on the horizon, Giffords and her colleagues have a lot on their plates, and there are no obvious answers. On health care, Giffords is talking to constituents, listening to the experts and even hobnobbing with the president in search of the best solution.

In a telephone interview that required a half-dozen breaks so Giffords could run back out to the House of Representatives floor to vote, Arizona’s motorcycle-riding Blue Dog Democrat spoke with the Arizona Capitol Times about energy independence, Congress’s ambitious agenda and whether Arizona can look forward to another stimulus package.
What is the likelihood that there will be a second stimulus act, and would you support one?
At this moment I’d like to see the stimulus dollars distributed to the states, put into action and the jobs actually created. The stimulus bill that we passed a few months ago was about an $800-billion piece of legislation, and approximately 40 percent of the bill went for tax cuts, but a significant amount went into reinvesting in our nation’s infrastructure.

A lot of shovel-ready projects were funded, as well as our education system, including community colleges and universities, also the K-12 system, and a lot of our research institutions that had been underfunded for many, many years. So at this point, I don’t believe that members of Congress have an appetite to pass an additional stimulus bill until we actually see the dollars in the first bill distributed to the states and the jobs created that we had anticipated.

How effective do you think the first stimulus act has been?
I think in some ways it’s been effective in terms of allowing the American people to know that these resources are being made available. The challenge right now is that the money has been very slowly distributed to the states, or the states have not, because of their own budget crises, not been in a situation, like in the case of Arizona where we haven’t actually been able to pass a budget, been able to take advantage of those dollars.

So I know that additional funding to the science agencies has been helpful. I know that, in terms of states shoring up their overall budgets, they can look to the federal dollars and know that they’re there. But the reality is that we’d like to speed up the process. So like I said, going back to passing another stimulus, at this point in time we need to make sure the first stimulus works before we add an additional piece of legislation.

What more can the federal government do to help the economy recover?
Obviously we’re fighting two wars right now, so in terms of redeploying our troops from Iraq and assisting the Iraqi people to secure their nation so that we can leave that country, we are refocusing a lot of our efforts on Afghanistan. The resources that have gone toward these wars have been very large, so not having to spend that money in Iraq and Afghanistan – or specifically in Iraq. Afghanistan’s budget is not nearly as (big) as Iraq’s – that will be important.

The best way that we are going to get out of this crisis is by re-growing our economy. And looking at manufacturing in this country and trying to keep a solid infrastructure – for example, the auto industry – was something that we thought was a priority from the national security standpoint, and also from an economic standpoint.

Now, I voted against the auto bailout bill because I didn’t believe the auto companies had provided sufficient information or a good enough plan. … But now that we are a majority shareholder in GM and Chrysler, we’re talking about really millions of jobs when it comes to the indirect effects of the auto industry. So one (way the federal government can help) is looking at manufacturing in this country and those sorts of jobs.

When you understand that right now we are exporting about $400 billion a year to pay for foreign oil, being able to produce America’s energy in America not only will save us money when it comes to the investments that we’re making abroad and the money that we have to borrow in order to secure those energy sources, but the money that we could create by taking advantage of this new energy revolution. And that’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about solar energy.

And the third way is the money that we’re planning to save with health care. Right now, approximately one in every five dollars spent in our economy goes toward health care. So one of the reasons we’re having such a vigorous debate right now on health care reform is because we have close to 50 million Americans who don’t have health care. The leading cause of bankruptcy in our nation is because of health-related emergency. We spend well over 50 percent more than the next country behind us when it comes to costs associated with health care. Yet almost 50 million Americans don’t have access to it, and another 20 million are currently underinsured. So in terms of helping our economy as well, having a healthy work force is absolutely critical.

What type of health care system would you like to see passed by Congress? Do you support a public option?
Right now, because I’m not on any of the three committees with jurisdiction, I’m currently weighing in through my involvement with the Blue Dog Coalition, and also through the New Democrats. And right now we’ve seen a couple of drafts and we’ve had meetings almost morning, noon and night on health care reform. I’m weighing in largely from the perspective I’ve gathered from my constituents. I had a health care town hall a couple weeks ago where we had over a thousand participants.

Arizona has some really unique challenges. We’re directly on the border. We are disproportionately impacted with the costs of illegal immigration. We have a large retirement community. And my district has a lot of lower-income individuals. So the challenges associated with us in Arizona are just different than the folks in Connecticut.

One of my top priorities is no matter what we do that it’s paid for, that we don’t push the bill off on future generations. My second top priority is that if we do something that it encompasses all Americans, that we don’t rack up a $1.5 trillion bill that will only cover 11 million additional Americans.

That’s not acceptable.

Obviously cost will be a major issue in the debate. How can we pay for health care reform?
As a Blue Dog, I’m very committed to PAYGO. The president has said that he’s committed to PAYGO. So that will be one of the largest obstacles that we will have to deal with if we’re going to pass something out of the House with support from the Democrats.

And I also feel strongly that the bill has to be bipartisan. Health care should not be a partisan issue. Democrats and Republicans should work together on this legislation and own this legislation.

The recent vote on cap-and-trade legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, split Arizona’s Democratic delegation, with Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Harry Mitchell voting against it. Why did you vote for the bill?
This legislation has the ability to – and it’s a broad piece of legislation – to truly transform our dependency on foreign oil. It’s critical to our national security.

Arizona is a real winner in this legislation. In CD8, the cost of this legislation, and this is after the 2012 implementation, will be about 46 cents a day, and the efficiency that we’re looking at saving will be a household reduction by 2020 of over $130. It’s also estimated, because of our solar resources and wind and other renewables, that the potential is to create 30,000 jobs in this state. I look at it as a jobs bill and a national security bill as well.

And there’s a lot of emphasis on new technology. For example, a piece of legislation that I worked on last year is called ARPA-E, and it’s modeled after DARPA, which was the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was the agency that developed the Internet and developed the stealth bomber. Some of the coolest stuff that we’ve ever developed in this country has come out of DARPA, and this agency, which will be housed in the Department of Energy, is very similar. It’s for the most cutting-edge advanced-energy research.

I was also able to add language into the bill that will be very helpful for increasing the use of renewable energy resources by the federal government, because currently about 80 percent of the energy used by the federal government is used by the Department of Defense.

In the big picture, I’m concerned about climate change. And instead of increasing this deficit, the energy act, American Clean Energy and Security Act … is deficit neutral, and it requires the polluters who are currently emitting dangerous carbon emissions to pay. Also included in the legislation are some provisions for rural communities and farmers, folks that I have over in the eastern part of my district, to be able to generate new incomes as well. So I look at this as a bill that will protect consumers and will help Arizona really lead.

What do you think Congress should in regard to the upcoming debate on comprehensive immigration reform?
I was very pleased to have been invited to the White House two weeks ago to be part of the president’s initial discussion on immigration reform. And what the president said is if he has any political capital left over after health care and after the energy vote, that he would put it toward a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

I was really pleased to see both Senator McCain and Senator Kyl at that meeting, because I think they have been and hopefully will be instrumental in passing a comprehensive bill. Even though you don’t hear about the problems with immigration, the problems are still there. Last year, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol, and I represent part of that area, apprehended 319,000 illegal immigrants. It’s slightly down from around 389,000 the previous year.

So we have the most heavily trafficked part of the U.S.-Mexico border. And because I represent four counties very close to the border, I feel very strongly that the federal government needs to step up and take responsibility for the enforcement of our immigration laws and reimbursing local entities for costs associated with the government’s failure to secure the border.

That includes SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) funding, and we were successful last year when SCAAP provided $17.4 million to the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies. Out of that $17.4 million, the Arizona Department of Corrections received $12.8 million to house approximately 5,600 criminal illegal immigrants. And Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Mitchell and I also achieved a major victory earlier this year when we got the House’s support on an amendment that appropriated $400 million toward SCAAP.

So I’m optimistic that with Janet Napolitano heading up the Department of Homeland Security that we’re going to see a smarter border policy. So far, the numbers have gone down in terms of the apprehensions. But the problem is still clearly there.

Speaking of our former governor, what do you think of the job Napolitano has done at DHS?
Janet Napolitano is very smart. She has a no-nonsense approach toward the work that she does. She was a very strong governor for the state of Arizona. I’m sorry to have seen her leave during a very difficult time for us here. But I think that settling into her new position at the Department of Homeland Security provides her an entirely new challenge.

Her successor here in Arizona certainly had her work cut out for her. What do you think of the job Jan Brewer has done as governor?
I know that Governor Jan Brewer is working really hard to try to put a budget together, and it’s very difficult dealing with a divided Legislature and a budget deficit as large as the deficit that we have in the state.

I’m concerned about the future of our state. I’m concerned about our public education system and our health care system and the people that rely on having a solid budget. But ultimately, I think Governor Brewer will be strong and I think that she will realize that she is the governor of the state of Arizona and settle better into her role, and lead the state for the time that she has remaining.

Who knows what’s going to happen in 2010 with her running or not running for re-election, but meanwhile there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in the state.

Brewer has run into a lot of opposition to her tax increase proposal. What do you think of the idea?
There are only certain ways to balance the budget, and she apparently did what she thought was an appropriate step. Because I’m not actively involved with the state budget, I’m not clear what the current options are for closing the hole.

You’re considered by many to be a rising star in the Democratic Party in Arizona. Have you considered running for higher office?
At this moment in time I’d just like to hold onto my seat while I have the passion and the energy to work very hard for the people of southern Arizona. I believe that I’m the first southern Arizonan in our history to serve on the House Armed Services Committee, and with Fort Huachuca and Davis-Monthan in the district and Air National Guard and an Army Guard unit as well in southern Arizona, I am very focused on readiness issues that affect the Air Force and also the Army.

So at this point, I’ve got a very tough district, a district that voted for President Bush twice; a district that did not support Barack Obama in the primary or in the general election, and right now I’m just focused on my job. And so far, so good.