San Diego's Rep. Vargas On The Budget Bill, Homeland Security, Salton Sea

ALISON ST. JOHN: As the year draws to a close we've invited all five of our congressional representatives to join us while they are home from Washington for the holidays. Democratic Congressman Juan Vargas accepted our invitation and I spoke with him earlier about how he's representing San Diego. Vargas represents the 51st Congressional District which includes the southern parts of San Diego down to the border with Mexico and then swings out to encompass a huge swath of the Imperial Valley, El Centro and the southern half of the Salton Sea. Vargas easily won reelection to the seat after his first two years in Congress. Here is our interview. Congressman, thank you so much for coming in. JUAN VARGAS: It's a pleasure to be here, thank you. ALISON ST. JOHN: In the last couple days is in the House and the Senate over the weekend passed a huge spending bill which avoided a potential shutdown of the federal government. You were the only San Diego congressional representative who voted against that package. Why was that? JUAN VARGAS: That's right. I did vote against it. I didn't think it was a good package. I think there were a lot of good things of their and I could see why people would vote for it but some of the shenanigans went on at the end I just could not support. I mean if you take a look at what they were doing with increasing the amount of money that goes into politics allowing these big corporations and companies to put more money into politics we ought to be taking money out rather than putting it back in campaign spending is outrageous we ought to have public spending where I just think that is the way we ought to go that was going some of the wrong direction some of the giveaways they had also the Department of Homeland Security only funded for a very short period of time because they want to come back and defend the support the Executive Order pertains to so in other words they want to take those four or 5 million families that would get help under the presidents Executive Order and destroy those families I'm not going to vote for anything like that. So there's a whole host of it things in there that were bet there were just too many in there to hell with that I'm not going to vote for that. ALISON ST. JOHN: Let's talk about immigration in a minute but I want to here how you said about Sen. Elizabeth Warren's take on the package which is that it gives big banks a huge giveaway and opens the door to future problems down the line financially what did you think about that objection. JUAN VARGAS: I think it was a legitimate objection that being said I do think there's an opportunity here for compromise. I think we can do that and we always should look at that for example you could regulate some of these transactions better where they wouldn't be whiskey and would in fact help the banks bottom line in the sense that they could maintain a solvency that we want. So I think there's a way to get there. Not this way. This is the wrong way and I think she had a great point. I was working closely with her. I like her and I think she was right on this. ALISON ST. JOHN: So what you feel is missing from that bill. JUAN VARGAS: Well, one of the things I think is missing is this. There's a lot of money that we use and people are starting to figure that out as we should and myself included that we use for bad things like torture money. You know if we are going to torture people we ought to put a line item in the budget that says for torture so that people can take a look at it and say wait a minute what does for torture mean. That is the money we used to torture people. Or that is the black ops that we are doing, or something like that but we ought to have more transparency I think that people would have more trip respect for the government and more respect I think the government would give to human rights around the world so we would not get into things like this when we are out there torturing people to get information that ultimately that they do not give or they give incorrectly and also we are torturing innocent people and it's just an outrageous thing that we should not get into and I think if we have more transparency there will not be as much is this. ALISON ST. JOHN: As you said hot funding for homeland security is going to, beginning February January is that a place where you might introduce this kind of idea. JUAN VARGAS: I might introduce in the bill to but homeland security not so much to be honest with you that's not where the funding, that's more into the intelligence committee, CAA community in more in that defense ALISON ST. JOHN: But you see an opportunity to introduce that in the coming months. JUAN VARGAS: Absolutely and I want to do that I think we should have more transparency in this. I think the American people most of whom at least are outraged and they should be outraged. Torture is a horrible thing and for us to be involved in torture when we are telling all these other countries they cannot do it, we shouldn't do it. ALISON ST. JOHN: How do you see that as being something that might actually protect us from engaging in such activities in the future JUAN VARGAS: Because it was done in darkness. It was done under cover. I've had the opportunity now to go to Afghanistan and I wanted to go see one of these prisons and in fact I did get that chance and I wanted to see I wanted to walk around the whole prison to see if we are continuing to do these things and in fact I was able to do that and I did not see any of these holding pens where we used to torture people. Think that we've gotten rid of it but I think more transparency, more oversight by us, by people in government but also ultimately by the American people. I think the American people are outraged that we did this. And again I think more transparency is better here. ALISON ST. JOHN: That is an interesting strategy. So the package that did pass, what is going to mean for people in the 51st District. JUAN VARGAS: Again it had some great things in their credit want to think Darrell Isa and Duncan Hunter and my two Democratic colleagues of course Scott peters and Susan Davis. Because they gave full funding to the San Ysidro port of entry. So we can continue to improve that port which is good for all of San Diego especially for my district. Again it was wonderful to work with Republican side of the aisle here. They've been fantastic and I want to throw a big thank you out there to both of those guys. They've been great to work with especially my Democratic colleagues. ALISON ST. JOHN: I think everybody wants to see the port of entry function a little better. JUAN VARGAS: That's right. ALISON ST. JOHN: So this package what in concrete terms will it do? JUAN VARGAS: It has $200 million to improve the port of entry so once a money is allocated is for the last stage of the project we will have concluded the whole thing Ysidro land port of entry, completed its expansion. And it's going to be much more expeditious. People should be able to cross in about 20 min. as opposed to three hours. ALISON ST. JOHN: How long will it be before that happens? JUAN VARGAS: In some instances it's already happening ALISON ST. JOHN: That's true but there is new money going to be adding lanes. JUAN VARGAS: And also pedestrian crossing, very importantly ALISON ST. JOHN: I also understand there's money for the Salton Sea, which half of it is in your district. JUAN VARGAS: That's right. Very little to be frank. Let's talk numbers here, about 300,000, and they need billions of dollars so a drop in the bucket, but it is in fact for research and taking look at opportunities we've have there taking some of the ideas that locals have been incorporating big plans that the state has if money was no object what would we do and we came up with about eight $10 million plan, there's no money for that so the locals have a lot of very good plans and we have to get there plans and incorporate them into something that would make sense and I think again for the local community there it's a big deal because I know that area. ALISON ST. JOHN: Are you holding out hope that more money might be allocated in the next year to the Salton Sea JUAN VARGAS: Absolutely. It's absolutely necessary, yes. ALISON ST. JOHN: Is that something you see coming up that something you could vote for? JUAN VARGAS: Yes, well again I could vote for if they do not throw in a bunch of shenanigans. This budget was a good budget in many ways but then they tack on an announcer and Christmas, but to tackle these little things on at the end is not a Christmas tree, they put on some poison pill for me that I just couldn't vote for as a progressive Democrat I could not vote for them. ALISON ST. JOHN: So the issue of homeland security funding is going to be coming on early in the next year and that will be tied to the president's executive order you know, lifting the threat of deportation for many immigrants. You see this as being a battle royale coming up in the beginning of the year? JUAN VARGAS: I think it's going to be a battle royale I think it's going to be a huge battle. I think people like myself who are present areas that have a lot of undocumented people and progressives throughout the country are going to fight hard to make sure that that doesn't happen because our values and also American values are not in favor and breaking up families what's that about and that's all that the deportations do. Take a family that is well functioning and children who were born here, American citizens and you drag mom away screaming and crying to deport her to a country she has not been to in 20 years, how is that right, how is that justice? It's a shame we've been doing it and now finally the executive order says we're going to stop doing that. We have to fight to make sure we will stop doing that. ALISON ST. JOHN: But as you say you have a lot of immigrants in your district, would you encourage them to take advantage of the president's executive order even though it's not, it's open-ended, it could be rescinded. JUAN VARGAS: Yes I am going to. It's a chance we're going to have to take, but I think even come I look at the presidential candidates that are coming up. If you take a look at Jeb Bush, the Republican who is probably going to be their main contender, I mean he takes a look at this and says these are not illegal acts. It is an act of love. You know, families trying to stay together that love each other, come on guys. So that is a Republican guy. As Democrats I think are going to be on the same page as the Republican guy saying, come on, let's make sure that we do not break up these families. We should not be deporting these families in the way that we been doing it's tragic. ALISON ST. JOHN: But Congressman Vargas, realistically do you think that Congress is going to be able to successfully pass any immigration reform next year or will it be a matter of defending the president's executive order? JUAN VARGAS: This is defending. We are not going to pass anything with this exception I think if it's close to the second year during the election the Republicans are going to have a great interest in doing something just because of electoral politics. You cannot have a presidential candidate now beaten up on immigrants. You cannot have it. We sell it happened this last election, the Republicans put out a pretty good candidate to be frank, but he said I'm going to make life so hard in these immigrants that they're going to self deport. Well that doesn't work. The last guy, the last Republican that won, Bush said this is me amigo, right amigo and the guy said sure I'm your friend. Well they one. And so I think that Republicans get they cannot beat up on immigrants and win the presidency. ALISON ST. JOHN: Now, you were involved not long ago in efforts to make it easier forChaldean Christopher Christians to come here from Iraq as refugees and I understand you were a Jesuit that came here once and in the 1890s your family took in a refugee family from Kosovo. What would you say to people in your district who are less than enthusiastic should we say, but welcoming refugees from neighboring countries like South America? JUAN VARGAS: I would say this, that we can never forget our humanity, our values as a nation. I still am one of those people that thank God that I was born here, raised here and I do think that the United States, our country is the greatest states in the world because of our values and we are not only a nation of immigrants but I think we are a nation of goodhearted people. So I would tell my neighbors can't you make a little bit of room for other people, how does that negatively impact you. It's just the opposite. We know economically it's the right thing to do, but it's morally spiritually and everything is the right thing to do some always very much in favor. I was able to travel to Iraq to meet with a lot of these questions up in our bill so I was up there very recently with Darrell I said, interestingly. And we were trying to figure out a way to help them while they are there because they are in horrible conditions. So anyway I think it's a bipartisan issue. ALISON ST. JOHN: Let's talk about water which of course the 51st district a lot of the Imperial Valley. There was a so called drought relief bill which I believe you did not support. So what would you say the federal government needs to do in order to help California with the water situation we are in? JUAN VARGAS: I do think there is a solution we can get to that helps us as a state. This last bill, I voted for one previous to this which was a totally different bill. This bill basically was written really for Central Valley farmers. And basically what we were going to say is throw all the environmental issues under the bus and just help the big farmers and that is that. We were going to help the little families that are having all these problems because their wells are going dry. This is simply a bill to help big ag. And I'm not in favor of that. This is a bill that was drawn up for them, it wasn't for everybody. You threw all the environmental concerns under the bus. It did not help the poor people out there. This was simply big ag bill and I'm not in favor of that. ALISON ST. JOHN: Are you planning on trying to find other federal legislation that would help California with the drought next year? JUAN VARGAS: Yes, in fact we've been working with my colleagues and in fact we did pass a bill that I thought would be much better that incorporated all of these including the environmental issues and we are going to continue at it and we have to find a solution. Thank God we've gotten some rain here recently to give us a little bit of reprieve but the reality is, long-term we need a of long-term solution and we can work together and it cannot be just special interest legislation. ALISON ST. JOHN: Agricultural is one of the forms of employment out in the Imperial Valley but what else are you looking at to promote jobs in the district which is such a key issue for many people? JUAN VARGAS: One of the things that we've done on the Imperial Valley I mentioned is all the farms we have out there, wind farms, solar farms, all of these alternative energies that we promised are coming online and in fact they are being built in a very responsible way and we are very proud of them. Some of them, we've learned from some mistakes to be frank, originally. We did not incorporate and we should have I was not involved in that because I was not involved in office at the time but we did not incorporate religious sites from the Indians we have some very important religious sites to the tribes and they were not really taken a look at and we have to incorporate you know, their history, and I appreciate that very much. But at the same time there's great opportunities there to be taken advantage of and more that we can. And that's one of the great drivers out in Imperial County because farming has been great but at the same time has kept a lot of people impoverished. This alternative energy creates great opportunities middle-class jobs and that's what we're fighting for. ALISON ST. JOHN: Is there something in Congress three might able to get more funding for this type of initiative? JUAN VARGAS: Tax credits absolutely are essential to continue this..This is a big fight, a big national fight of course between those of us who believe in alternative forms of energy and do believe in climate change and the Koch brothers who are saying, no, let's keep burning the same stuff we are burning. We do not need these alternative forms they are too expensive. I think they are wrong. If you take a look at all the costs, all the costs of climate change I think the reality is that these alternative forms, these renewable forms of energy are better and cheaper in the long run. And we are going to have that fight and continue to have that fight and it is a good fight to have. ALISON ST. JOHN: We all know there is gridlock in Congress and from anything you've been telling a so far it appears that your relatively progressive in your Democratic views. Are there any areas where you feel like you can more easily ally with Republicans? JUAN VARGAS: Frankly I work very well with Republicans. One of the things I try to do is respect them and as I've from kudos that I think the two local guys here they are both friends. I mean, I think that both of those guys I can work with. ALISON ST. JOHN: Darrell Isa and Duncan Hunter. JUAN VARGAS: When it comes to the ideologies we part ways but when it comes practical things we can work together and I think the practical things we ought to work on together as Americans when it comes to the ideology, you know, we split quite aggressively, but as friends, not as people who hate each other and I think that's one of the biggest problems in Congress right now. I could talk to virtually any these Republicans and most of them are very friendly if you talk to them, and you don't call them names. But at the same time once we get into the politics we have very different views of the world. ALISON ST. JOHN: Okay in the minute we have left what are some of the priorities that you're really going to be focusing on next year in Congress. JUAN VARGAS: I think one of the priorities we have here locally is our economy. The economy is starting to really take off and we have to continue to make sure that that happens. We have to continue to make sure in my district of the border area gets funded to make sure that we do finish in fact as we are doing the port of entries there we also have to continue to work on the issues along the border for the infrastructure. We are building a connection now also the Tijuana airport that has to get completed. So there's a lot of positive things going on. We do have a lot of businesses interestingly moving back from China into Tijuana and also at Otay Mesa, continuing to facilitate their transition back to the United States and down the coast so there's a lot of positive things but a lot of them have to do with the economy be here we have to get it going we have to get a jump started and get it going but we have to push it along. ALISON ST. JOHN: We hope you can maintain a positive attitude in Congress next year. Congressman Juan Vargas, thank you for joining us. JUAN VARGAS: Thank you it's an honor to be here. Thank you. ALISON ST. JOHN: And stay with us, up next we will serve up a slice of Sacramento politics. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins is passionate about making it possible for students of all income levels to get a higher education. And encouraging more women to serve in Sacramento. That is up next.