Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) joined host Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday morning’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report to share with listeners the state of the budget negotiations underway in the House; and in particular, expose what he characterizes as the purposeful handling of the House by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to result in another continuing resolution, instead of the regular order that he, the members of the House, and voters were promised.
Watch the in-studio interview:
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Patrick Leahy: 5:49 a. m., broadcasting live from our studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. In-studio. Our very good friend, Congressman Andy Ogles from Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. Good morning, Andy.
Andy Ogles: Good morning. It’s great to be here.
Great to be back, actually.
Michael Patrick Leahy: I know. You started coming here about two years ago, every other Thursday. Boy, are you at the center of, well, a big budget controversy going on. You were one of the few members of Congress who stayed up there over the weekend. To try and get something done.
Andy Ogles: Yeah. I mean, it was one of those situations where, you know, if you’re going to kind of be involved in that fight, you should stay to finish what you start.
And so most members went home, but myself and Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy the names that you would recognize, we stayed behind as well as some of the New York delegation; some of the Cardinals – a Cardinal is one of those that are on the appropriations committee but have seniority, they stayed – and we really tried to hash out what is the path forward look like.
From a conservative standpoint, we promised the American people, we’d pass 12 appropriations bills. That’s what we need to do.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, and you are one of the 20 – I guess we’d call them rebels – who went to 15 ballots and secured some promises from Speaker McCarthy.
Andy Ogles: Well, so that’s my frustration is, you know, in January, we had the Speakers fight you know, keep in mind that it’s been 26 years – so, since 1997 – before the House of Representatives has passed budgets and under regular order, it’s always a continuing resolution or an omnibus.
And in January, we told the American people that we’re going to conduct business the way that we’re supposed to. And so now, you get into May and June and July – 12 appropriations bills and only one had passed.
And so a leader would say, well, guys and gals, it’s July. We’re not done. I’m going to keep you here until we finish our business. And we’re going to get into a room and we’re going to work this out.
But what, what happened? We were sent home in August. I was an advocate for staying. We had a job to do.
We should have stayed in August. And this is why now in September, our backs are up against the wall because we didn’t stay and finish when we should have.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Now on Saturday afternoon there was a conference call with the members of the Republican caucus, the conference, and I don’t know how many people were on, but there’s like 200 or so of you, right?
Andy Ogles: Yeah. I mean, I’ll be honest with you. It was a whole bunch of, kind of, nothing.
Now, if you didn’t stay behind, if you weren’t in the meetings, it was an important call – but I knew about the rule.
So what happened was, and not to get too much in the weeds on this, but before you vote on a piece of legislation, there’s a rule vote that sets forth the parameters of the vote.
And so there’s a rule that we’re going to vote on that, that puts four appropriations bills all together under the rule. But then once we vote on the rule. Each bill will be taken up individually. So you can vote, you know, vote on Department of Defense or Homeland or one of the others, separately.
Now, that being said it’s again, it was important if you hadn’t been there, but I stayed behind. I was part of that conversation. We worked on and agreed that we would do one rule so we can move it forward, et cetera.
Michael Patrick Leahy: So Speaker McCarthy led that call?
Andy Ogles: Yes, he was on the call as was Scalise and Emmer and some of the others in leadership. And again, it was, it was about communication and updating.
Quite frankly there was, there was, there was no, you know, whipping. if you will – whipping being whipping votes – other than to say, ‘Hey, let’s continue to move forward.’
And there continues to be this push for a continuing resolution, which frustrates me because look, we said we’d pass 12 appropriations bills. We should pass 12 appropriations bills.
And if that means the government shuts down for four or five days, then that’s fine. We should hold true to our promise.
Michael Patrick Leahy: When you or Matt Gaetz or some of the other conservatives ask Speaker McCarthy, why are you not honoring your promise to take these 12 separate appropriations bills up one at a time?
What does he say to you?
Andy Ogles: Well, he kind of blames the process of, well, you know, this committee, that; and this person, that – but you know, he wanted to be Speaker. And again, the leverage would have been at the end of July when people are wanting to call home back to the districts because they have events, because they have fundraisers, because they want to be with their family to say, ‘Look, it’s the last week of July. We’re in the waning hours before we go on break, get her done or we’re staying and we’re going to stay until we finish.’
Guess what? My guess is we could have finished those 12 appropriations bills by mid August, right? But instead we were sent home and not only were we sent home for August, we were sent home for the first week of September, leaving only three weeks left to pass 11 appropriations bills. Because we did get one past, right?
And two of those bills are still stuck in committee.
So again, there was never a plan to get the trains to run on time. There was never a plan to get those two bills out of committee into rules, on the House floor before the end of September.
This was set up to have another continuing resolution. It was intentional and it ticks me off.
We made a promise. We should keep that promise.
And by God, I’m telling you a Motion of Vacate is coming. I don’t know who’s going to do it, but it’s coming. And the trains aren’t on time and there’s somebody to blame for it.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Andy I watched with great surprise Maria Bartiromo’s interview yesterday with Matt Gaetz. She sounded like a Democrat operative in the way she posed these questions. Well, are you shutting down the government? You’re giving Chuck Schumer an opportunity to, to jam through 12 separate votes.
I was shocked by the way she approached this. Did you have a similar reaction?
Andy Ogles: Well, actually, you know, I watched the video. In fact, I reposted it on my, you know – it’s Twitter, it’s X, I call it Twix, whatever you want to call it, right?
Michael Patrick Leahy: That’s very good, Andy.
Andy Ogles: But on Twitter and, but I was impressed with Matt Gaetz.
Man, he didn’t back down. He stuck to his guns. He made very articulate points. And to your point, like they’re, they’re starting to be this. mantra of if, if suddenly, if you want to hold people accountable if you want to do what our constitution and founding fathers intended, that suddenly you’re radical.
No, we’re just trying to uphold the role of government in our lives. And that being said, you know, the only way we get an omnibus, the only way we get a continued resolution is if Republicans betray the American people and side with the Democrats, make no mistake.
And so if we get jammed by the Senate on some spending bill, it’s because Republicans are accomplices to more runaway spending, more pissing American dollars away at a time when we should be cutting spending and making that the number-one priority.
And going back to the Speaker’s agreement, where’s the January 6th tapes, right?
Michael Patrick Leahy: That was one of the four things that you wanted.
Andy Ogles: That’s right. And so we have to set up a debt commission. So after World War II, there was a Byrd Committee. It was bicameral, meaning House and Senate. It was bipartisan. And they were looking for ways to cut spending because some of the programs, some of the spending during World War II weren’t needed anymore, right?
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, Andy Ogles; fascinating. You are at the center of this. We’ll talk more when we get back. Andy Ogles represents the 5th Congressional District. And I think, Andy… Probably one of the hardest working members of Congress.
Andy Ogles: I made a promise to go up there and fight, and that’s what I’ve been doing.
Michael Patrick Leahy: We’ll be back with more after this.
You’re listening to the Tennessee Star Report; I’m Michael Patrick Leahy. We’ll be back. State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson will join us after the break.
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