COLORADO SPRINGS — For the first time since the final contentious House Speaker vote on Capitol Hill, 3rd Congressional District Representative Lauren Boebert is speaking to a television station.
Representative Boebert joined us live from D.C. Monday morning.
Brie Groves began with, "the big question on everyone's mind is, what caused Boebert to change her vote to present?"
Boebert responded with, "I think it's great we took a little extra time to make sure that we got this right, to begin with. Members on both sides of the aisle, including those who were against us and attacking us and even those who we were working with through the process, are now praising this as a win for the American people because when each individual member has power, their constituents are empowered. That's what really matters, strengthening the voice of the American people. From the very beginning, I said if you are going to demand more responsibilities, you have to have more accountability. That's why my red line, to begin with, was the motion to vacate. We got that single motion member to vacate. So there is now accountability on the speaker, the second in line to the presidency of the United States. There were many changes we were able to make to the rules package and to personnel and to the way congress functions. My constituents have been telling me for a long time that congress was broken, so this last week I joined 20 of my colleagues to engage in this rigorous debate about what was wrong with congress and how we can fix it. Ultimately, we saw some concessions we made, and that was my deciding point, to go with present. Even that was a little bit longer than some had hoped it would be, Including Speaker McCarthy, but there were things we wanted to make sure were ironed out before we passed those final notes and sealed the deal. We wanted to make sure this was locked in for the American people. "
Ira Cronin continued the line of questioning with, "I think a lot of people, Congresswoman, now after all the wrangling it took to get the speaker elected. Some might be saying, 'wow, if it's this tough just to get this done, what kind of business is the house going to be able to get done for the people?' It sounds like you're very hopeful that this will be effective going forward."
Boebert responded with, "Yes, absolutely. I believe that this is going to strengthen the Republican conference. That this is going to give each individual member more authority and more empowerment to represent their constituents. For years, leadership in both parties have worked to consolidate power at the top, and this last week we broke the trend and returned much of congress' power back to these individual members. Even CNN was saying Democrat members think that these changes are good for Congress and for the American people. There are many things that are beneficial to the American people. I truly believe that this is going to unite us and strengthen us. That was my goal all along. Who is going to unite the Republican party? Who is going to take these concessions like filing amendments to the 12 appropriations bills and have them made in order as long as they cut spending? That doesn't matter if it's myself or AOC. One of us can find wasteful spending and submit an amendment to cut that spending. We'll have a vote on it. This is one huge thing, single subject legislation and the bills that are going to be brought to the floor. Moving forward, I think this is beautiful. It took a few extra days. From home, I'm sure it looked messy, but hey, I'm a mom of four boys. Chaos and dysfunction has been a part of my everyday life for quite some time. Truly, this past week in Washington, D.C., was the most productive week I have spent in Washington. It was amazing to have 434 members of Congress together on the house floor debating issues that matter. It took a few extra days, but I think we got it right here."
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