Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth on Serving in Congress

Congress isn’t just “too partisan” right now. It’s drifting away from the basic job the Constitution assigns it, and that has real consequences for Maryland families. In the latest episode of the Pittman and Friends podcast, County Executive Steuart Pittman sits down with Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth to talk candidly about what it’s like to serve in a triple minority, why it’s disheartening to watch the legislative branch stand down, and how she keeps her focus on delivering for the district anyway.

We get specific about what “wins” look like when the headlines are loud, but people’s needs are local. Congresswoman Elfreth walks us through her work on the House Armed Services Committee and why the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is still one of the last reliable vehicles for legislating. We cover district priorities tied to the Naval Academy, disaster mitigation planning, protections for Greenbury Point, and a bipartisan push to expand veteran access at military medical facilities that have unused capacity.

Then we head to the Chesapeake Bay, where policy meets dinner plates. Blue catfish are an invasive species hammering oysters and rockfish, and Congresswoman Elfreth explains a bipartisan approach that treats invasive aquatic species as a national problem, not just a regional headache. We also dig into the affordability issues people raise at town halls: childcare access, workforce shortages in hospitals, and the ripple effects of Medicaid cuts and rising Affordable Care Act premiums that can flood already strained emergency rooms.

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Sarah Elfreth

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Welcome back to Pittman and Friends Friends Okay, we're gonna cut that. All right.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Get it out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Welcome back to Pittman and Friends Podcast. I am here with my friend, Congresswoman Sarah Alfred.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Thanks for having me. This is exciting.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Yeah, it is. It is. I can't believe we haven't had you yet.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I think you asked me like right after election day last time, and I was dead tired. So I'm glad we I can finally get on. Good.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Yeah, probably. And this is gonna, I think this is gonna be even better because you've been in Washington now for a bit of time. Is what it feels like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, um, so you and I go back. I mean, obviously we met during the during the 2018 campaign. Actually, you came to my house and I didn't know you very well. I think I'd heard of you, I might have seen you once or twice, and uh you were desperately looking to find a Democrat to run for county executive, and nobody wanted to do it, and and somehow talked me into it. So you at the time were of course running for state senate, and you won. Um I think you had green shirts, what did they say?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

A woman's places in the Senate.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

A woman's places in the Senate.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

And now they say a woman's places in the House of Representatives.

When Congress Gives Away Its Power

SPEAKER_03 1:12

Yeah, you yeah, you don't want to say just in the House. No, that wouldn't be the right tone. Um so I will just start out by saying that I'm a big fan. And I'm a big fan partly because you are such a hard worker and hard fighter, and I I never want to be on the opposite side, because I think you might want. Uh no. Because because you really do your homework and you get it done. And so I'm so glad that you're on our team and that you're representing us in Washington. So um why don't you start out by well, first of all, how is it?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Really hard. Um I don't sugarcoat that for for anybody. And I think our politics would probably be better served if we were a little more candid about about how challenging these times we find ourselves are.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Aaron Ross Powell So you're about to get candid.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah. Um it's really challenging, and it's not even a you know, it's not a partisan thing. It is not easy to be in the minority, and especially in a triple minority that I find myself in, but it's really that is that is something I could navigate. I've worked with the other side of the aisle my entire career. Every bill I ever worked to pass in this in the State Senate, 91 bills in six years, every one of them was bipartisan. It's really the challenge right now is the abdication of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle of so many of the roles and responsibilities that our founders intentionally placed in Article I, um, war powers, uh, power of the purse, uh, and just the overarch and others, but really the overarching sense that we are a co-equal branch of government. And watching uh many of the decisions of this White House disproportionately and acutely impact our district, because we have 45,000 federal workers, obviously immigration uh has been weaponized, uh a lot of funding for the things that we care about have been sl has been slashed. Watching all that occur and then watching the legislative branch just stand down has been really challenging. And that's not to say I don't have friends who are Republicans. I have actually a lot of friends who are on the other side of the aisle these days. But it's overarchingly been really disheartening to be a part of an institution that hasn't hasn't isn't fighting with every tool our founders gave us. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

I can see that being really hard for you. Because I remember watching you go into the Maryland Senate and you were a rising star very quickly, getting a lot of things done. But how how kind of loyal you were to the institution and how much respect you had for the institution. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Before I'm a Democrat, I'm a legislative branch knob. I mean, and I think we all should be. It's it's the most American thing, right? If you think about and I taught political science at Towson University when I was in the Senate, and so I I nerd out about this, but uh over the course of of human history is is how we evolved to the the to the three branches of government our founders gave to us. And they were not, it's not a perfect system by any means, but they are very intentional about the the potential of the moment we find ourselves in. Very intentional about guarding against um what they would call maybe a tyrant, uh what they would call somebody who They seem a king or two, huh? Yeah. And and and that's why, especially in the House, and I I know I used to be a State Senator, but I now have allegiance to the House, you know, when they framed the Constitution, they put the election of state senators of U.S. Senators to State Houses. And the only in the Constitution, only directly elected federal representative you had was your congressperson. And so to watch that the people's house.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

The people's house.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, to watch that degrade. And to be very fair, you know, I'll I'll be fair to the President right now, it it did not start with him. It's been a slow drip over the last 60 years, I would say, particularly around war powers. And then really in the last 30 years around uh power of the person budget and appropriations, we have just ticked away and given away a lot of our power. And it's something I'm very concerned about because it's it's we now have an imbalanced system.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Yeah. Yeah, that must be. I I think that is sort of fundamental to what a lot of people are feeling about the times that we're in, that that um even those of us who don't love some of these institutions realize now we have to protect them and they're there for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah. Trevor Burrus, I don't agree with every decision of the Supreme Court, but you know, frankly, they are in many cases the kind of last uh defense here for many things.

Why She Ran And How She Works

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Yeah. Well, okay. So then why'd you run? I mean, you didn't know it was going to be like this, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

No, I don't think anybody. I would suggest this is probably the toughest time to be in Congress since the Civil War. Just the the long-standing division, uh partisan division we've seen that's really been in the last 30 years gotten so much worse. Um obviously a president who was just So you knew that going in.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

You knew you were walking into like a war zone. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

And you know, I before I made my decision, I called folks like Senator Brubb McCulski, who's been a huge mentor to me over the years. I called Senator Ben Carden. And my style uh in the State House was very collaborative, it was very collegial, it was very you know, you you worked a bill. I have I have former Senate President Mike Miller in my head every day in the Congress, work your bills. You know, things don't become law because they're a good idea, they become law because you you focus, you strategize, you partner, you collaborate. And that's very um out of vogue, I think, in in federal politics today. You know, I have a lot of colleagues on both sides of the aisle who are very focused on going viral. Um that's not something, A, I'm I'm good at. It's not organic to me, but it's also not my style. And so I was concerned, can I fit in in this present Congress? And I I have.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Are your skills the skills that even work in in this Congress? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

It's tougher because there's a lot of folks who just kind of look at me like I'm crazy. Um and I've gotten some pushback for trying to negotiate. But at the end of the day, I I I respond, I didn't come here for to vote no for two years. That's not what my constituents deserve. It's not what I ran on. I I ran on this idea of getting things done. I won't curse on your podcast. You say getting things done. Okay. Um and I didn't go to just push no every time. And so I'm I'm trying, we've had some success. I'm excited. You know, I know folks feel really disparaged right now with what's happening. I would love to talk about some of the wins we've had because you know this. We have to be optimists in this work. We couldn't do it every day if we weren't looking towards some of the wins. Um, and that's what I'm really focused on.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Yeah. Yeah. And I would hope that I I mean I know that you're you're well aware that if you look at the numbers in the polling, there's a very good chance that the House is going to flip at least, right? To a Democratic majority. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

I'll take the politics out, like the partisanship out of it. I think what most Americans care about is affordability or lack thereof. Um I hope we talk about BGE bills today, because it's a huge problem. I just bought my first house, I just paid uh an astronomical BG ⁇ E bill, and I know so many people are are really struggling to make ends meet between energy costs, housing costs, child care, elder care, groceries, health care, all these things. That's what Americans want us to focus on. Put party aside and focus on that. And I don't see, you know, I don't know how many votes I've taken, a couple hundred votes so far in the in the Congress. Very, very few, if at all, none meaningfully address the affordability crisis, some kind of nip at its heels, but nothing that I think the American people want us to focus on. And I think I hope they will they will speak with their votes next year.

SPEAKER_03 8:37

Okay. Okay. So a lot of us think of uh in Congress the things that you work on are the things that are in the national news. And unfortunately we get most of our news as national news because local news is not really they don't have the reporters, they don't have the funding. Uh so um but I've noticed that a lot of the things that I hear about that you work on are local. Yeah. So where do you want to start? Chesapeake Bay?

Armed Services Wins Through The NDAA

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, let's start with Chesapeake Bay. Yeah. So I um I serve on the House Natural Resources Committee, so I get to do some bay work there. Um I get to do park stuff, fisheries, like things we care about. And then I serve on armed services, which uh, you know, I did not do defense policy at the State House. It's new to me. I come from a military family. I've represented the Naval Academy for almost eight years, but it's a whole new behemoth of a policy area. But I really wanted that committee assignment because it's frankly the last bastion of legislating that happens in Capitol. Um I mentioned before appropriations cannot pass a budget on time. We've been living continuing resolution to continuing resolution. HASC, Armed Services Committee, um, is the last place that we've consistently passed a bill every year for 62 plus years called the National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA. And there's a lot you can get done through that bill. And I we had a really good year last year for local priorities, stuff around support for the Naval Academy when it comes to having um a disaster mitigation plan for big storms. We were able to get uh, and I know you've been working on this for years, and it was total partnership, but prohibiting a second golf course from being built on Greenberry Point, which is really important to folks at home.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Oh, it's very prohibitive. Very prohibited?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

I don't know if there's scales of prohibited, but yes, it is. I think working with Senator Van Halen, working with you, working with a lot of folks uh and the advocates, um, it is it is done. And with with the caveat being that it has to be remained open to the extent possible for public use, which is really important. Another under what we have not talked about in that bill, um, I did a tour of every Maryland military installation last year. And whole day long meeting with base command, meeting with enlisted members of the of the armed services to hear kind of the quality of life challenges they experience, and then going out of the fence and meeting with the business community and hearing all of the jobs that uh go into supporting our defense community. And when I was at Walter Reed in Montgomery County, they mentioned that they have the capacity, they serve active duty military and the best in the world, especially around like uh, you know, uh limb repla not limb replacement, but but um prosthetics and people who have lost limbs and really great on traumatic brain injury. They have capacity to serve active, not just active duty, but also veterans. And obviously we have so many veterans in this community. And so I thought I'd have to wait until next year to work on that. Turns out I have a Republican colleague from Kansas who has a similar similar army hospital in the same position with capacity, with medical staff that need to keep up their certifications and keep up their training who also wanna open up access to veterans. And we partnered in conference committee uh of that bill last year, and we got it done. And so really is now gonna be open to veterans? It will be open to veterans, which is huge for when we're working on the when. But uh, they are now allowed to do it, and now we've got to work on the implementation plan and obviously the the getting the word out plan.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

But we will have to let our veterans commission know. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah. No, I we we want to partner with everybody because I think that's the question you and you've gotten asked and I get asked. Like, how is our from a voter, how is my life better? Because of which you're because of like if I vote for you, how are you gonna make my life better? And I think those are some small wins that I've been able to get in the minority by partnering with kind of out-of-the-box people to get that done. And that's what I'm I'm really focused on, are those tangible wins back home.

unknown 12:33

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Yeah. Yeah. So so um You asked me about the bay though, and I did not answer that.

Blue Catfish And A Bipartisan Fix

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Well, yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

We had talked about their blue catfish and all kinds of things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So on blue catfish, uh and we tried to approach this work as it's obviously impactful to the Chesapeake Bay. Blue catfish are super invasive, have no natural predator, are just vacuuming up baby oysters and rockfish and all these things.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

I gotta say, I've been out there on my pontoon boat and I can't catch any. I you know, I see they're everywhere, and I haven't found caught one yet.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

You you shouldn't use it because I think you don't have the license, but electroshocking is is the best way to get them out. Um but for folks listening at home, if you see it on a menu, eat it, it's delicious, it's nutritious, it's not your typical catfish, so it's not a bottom feeder and and they're really, really tasty. Eat it. Um but we wanted to zoom out and think about okay, this is specific, a specific crisis to Maryland and Virginia. But invasive aquatic species are a problem across the country. They have uh mu zebra mussels in California, they have uh Asian carp in the Mississippi River, they have snakehead in Arkansas. I've actually never had snakehead, and I need to. My Republican chair of the House Natural Resources Committee is from Arkansas. So I went to Congressman Westerman and I said, you have snakehead, I've got blue catfish, let's figure out a way to tackle both together. And so we put together a pilot program specific to blue catfish that we hope to expand across the country. We need to eat our way out of the problem, so order it. But also we can create a pathway to uh to get this blue catfish or other invasive species to the pet food industry who are in constant need of cheaper protein. Um if we can keep that all in the country, we're cutting down on shipping and we're cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, all those things. And we need to make sure we're compensating the watermen for catching those blue catfish, especially the ones that are too small or too big for public consumption. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

I just had a great idea for fast food restaurant, man. Aaron Ross Powell What's it called? Aaron Powell Just the cat you know, the catfish or or or just the invasive. I don't know what you call it. I don't have a name yet. Okay. But if it was simply just the invasives in the bay and it was just around here, you know, and you get, you know, your fried catfish po-boy and like they do it down in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

It's delicious, yeah. So the bill uh passed committee and it's going to be on the floor next week, and it's my first bill, standalone bills by itself on the floor. We got stuff done like, like I said, through the NDAA last year, so wins. But this is really exciting in a bipartisan again, it feels small.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

Yeah. But it's agree with the person on other stuff. You just have to agree on that bill. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

And we're doing oysters and uh freshwater mussels next.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Oh, really? Which is exciting.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Not for pet food, but for the yeah.

Childcare Access That Scales Fast

SPEAKER_03 15:24

I know you're an ex expert on oysters. Um can nerd out all day on oysters. Yeah. Yeah. Um what else? I mean, okay.

unknown 15:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Yeah. How about once if let's say if you'll have have the majority.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

If I am not in the minority next year.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Trevor Burrus, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

The majority.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Yes, yeah. Uh huh. Let's just throw in there that the Senate does the same thing because we're optimists or I'm not partisan here. I'm just I'm not- I I take back the optimism part. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Let's just assume as a scenario that the House and the Senate flipped.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

How does the world change for you?

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Well, I think we have to be ready on day one to deliver. And I have this kind of internal fight, not fight, but like discussion within our Democratic caucus around we need to be big and bold with our vision and our agenda. But we also have to think about what is implementable quickly that is actually going to positively impact people's lives. And that those are the things I want to I want to work on. So for instance, what we're going to do, uh what bill we're drafting right now is based on a Maryland program, and you've done such great work on highlighting the child care affordability crisis here in Aneurundel County.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

We have highlighted, we've not fixed it. We've highlighted.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

But it's going to take it's, you know, I think look for folks listening at home, and I used to teach, I used to teach public policy to really bright young students, and I would I would always try to convey to them you're not going to fix policy challenges that are decades, if not centuries, old with one bill. Like it's going to take multiple things to actually move the needle and help help people again. One thing we want to work on nationally is a program in Maryland that when we we lost so many child care providers during the pandemic, especially home-based child care providers. Um we lost 800. And that's you know it's not like child care was affordable or accessible pre-pandemic.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Are you talking about in the state or are you talking about the phone? In the state. In the state of Maryland, okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

And it's just when we don't have that supply side, we're just exacerbating the affordability crisis. So there's a program in Maryland that's very small, and its focuses on helping childcare-based, family-based providers who are just so happen to be like 99 percent women and and vast majority women of color who want to open a child care facility in their own home. It helps them with startup money, it helps them cut through the red tape, it helps them with their certifications and their regulations and you know buying the furniture that kids need. And that program has been so successful, it's opened up 3,000 child care seats in the last few years. Yes. And it's only in a couple of counties. And it's it's, you know, I used to be an appropriator. It only costs the state and I Trevor Bureau Trevor Burrus, why is it only in a couple counties? Because it's only funded at$430,000 a year, and don't worry, I've already talked to my friends at the State House about plussing that up.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

But was this set up as a pilot for those counties? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

I don't know if it was a pilot it I I'm not sure the the history of it, but the point is I think it's a well I'm gonna find out because I want it in Ronald. Yeah, no, it's a super creative way of you're gonna have to tackle this problem eight seats, ten seats, five seats at a time in order to open up access for parents. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

And you can move a lot faster that way than building a child care center. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

100 percent. And and that's not gonna solve all the problems. We still have a workforce problem. Like I I've been to every base I've been to, military base in Maryland, every one of them has a great CDC child development center. There's a few that can't even open the classrooms because we don't have those early childhood educators because we're not paying them enough. We don't have like thoughtful strategic workforce pipelines of getting kids in high school excited for this and then the community college. And then like how do we do that? So this is not going to solve all of it, but I think it it's a creative way of of taking one of the most inaccessible things right now, which is childcare that has ramifications across the economy. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

Yeah. I mean businesses are desperately saying for to for their workforce they need to. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

And women disproportionately are making the economic choice to stay home if they can't make enough money to cover childcare bills. So if we can that's the kind of like I don't think that's going to make national news, but that's the kind of program that I want to focus on in Congress and and actually get those seats available and and open doors and and help communities that need it the most.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

Trevor Burrus That's the thing that is so um exciting about working at the national level is you Trevor Burrus, it's challenging, but yeah, but when you win, you win big, right? When you get something done, it it's everywhere. And often you like you find the things at the local level that works.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

And then you can convince all your colleagues.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

I came from uh Anoridal Medical Center today.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

For those who are listening, by the time you hear this, it will have been last week.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

But it's gonna be great, I assume. Um I was at uh AMC this morning doing a wall, I've been to every hospital in the district, and I learn more more every time I go, and we talked about work that workforce challenge that they're experiencing, that they don't have enough nurses who who want to go into the operating room, or they don't want they don't have enough um, you know, very various kind of like technical, don't necessarily need a bachelor's degree jobs that make the hospital run. My role in Congress is not dissimilar from my role at the State House, and and your role, we have this wonderful magical power to convene, maybe not legislate a solution if it takes convening.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Regardless of what's he's being kind.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

He means that I'm I force him to meetings with a whole bunch of other people to solve these problems. But it works. And so we thought today, and I'm gonna put it out into the the universe because we're gonna make it happen, we're gonna convene the hospitals in our district, we're gonna convene the community colleges in our district, and for listeners, my district is half of Anna Rundle, all of Howard County, a little bit of Carroll County. And then convene our community colleges and our four-year universities that have nursing programs. And how do we get everybody at the table to have this open dialogue about what are the mismatches in workforce pipelines and workforce needs? And that doesn't require legislation. That's just me using the power of my office to force people to sit at a table, brainstorm, strategize, and deliver for our constituents.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

However, when you do go to introduce legislation that comes out of these meetings, you can say that you convene people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And we have a good one this year as we're preparing for this upcoming NDAA came from our domestic violence roundtable. Um I don't represent Fort Mead. I have the fence line of Fort Meade. Represent the YWCA, which does tremendous work, and thank you for helping to fund them. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Federal Earmark, thanks to you. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, it's an incredible organization, and part of it, the challenge, and we haven't quite wrapped our head around it, so I don't want to make promises on the podcast, but it's one of those policy challenges that we need to solve. And we've made great progress. I don't want to disparage my predecessors. When it comes to military sexual assault, domestic violence, we've come a long way. Still so much work to do. The fact that a protective order on our side of the fence doesn't necessarily translate to on base, and vice versa, is a problem. And just like we have memorandums of understanding.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

It doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

We can do a bet we have but we have memorandums of understanding between any base and Anoronal County Fire for mutual assistance, right? Yeah. We can do something around those protective orders. So that's something I'm thinking about that came from one of our roundtables. Because again, the best ideas for bills come from those discussions and people just calling our office with an idea.

Medicaid Cuts And Rising ACA Premiums

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Yeah. Yeah. So you were around visiting the hospitals and and obviously you you know something about the way changes to Medicaid and Medicare and eligibility and from the Big Beautiful Bill. And we in the Andorental Health Department are preparing for that, trying to help people get through the process so that they don't lose their health insurance. Do you have any thoughts or advice or what are you hearing people are doing?

SPEAKER_01 23:25

So what the county exec is referring to is the president calls it the big beautiful bill. Uh we call it the big ugly bill from last July. It was the largest cut to Medicaid and SNAP in American history. It was such a large cut to Medicaid, it triggered an automatic cut to Medicare. And it represents potentially tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Marylanders getting becoming ineligible for Medicaid. And what we talked about at the hospital this morning, and I talk about everywhere I go, is when people don't have health insurance, it's not like they don't get sick. They just don't have access the way that you and I have access through our employer-based health insurance. And the plan for when they do get sick is to go to the emergency department. Yep. And Maryland already has the longest wait times for EDs in the country, which is shameful. There's a lot of good work going on. When I was at AAMC this morning, they showed me some of the creative approaches they've taken to help open up beds and hope help get people through. And they've done great work. I was so relieved to hear the work around in partnership with EMS, getting folks offboarded from ambulances into the ER and checked in. Because that was a huge problem. When you and I first started running for office, it was a huge problem. Two or three hours EMS were st sitting at the emergency department that they couldn't go out and respond to other calls. So they've made great progress there, but there's more to do. And that progress will will just be totally slashed if folks don't have a primary care option. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

There'll be a flood of new people coming in that weren't there before.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

And it's a system. And you pull one lever and something else breaks. And if you pull this Medicaid lever without providing affordable options on the exchange, which like my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the president also decided not to renew tax subsidies for folks on the ACA, which is a huge issue we talked about ad nauseum last fall, but really important. 190,000 Marylanders were able to afford their health insurance because of those tax credits. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

And now it just got a lot more expensive.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Trevor Burrus, Jr. The amount of people who have called my office, I see on Facebook, I'm sure we're going to hear about it at the town hall, their premiums just skyrocketed. And I know you know this. It's not just folks on the ACA who had their premium spike, it's also employer-based health care. And one major employer in the district, not in Anorilla County, told me their premiums went up by 19 percent as a major employer in the district. So it's not just the folks on Medicaid or the folks on ACA. It's across the board. And again, I've not seen substantive policy solutions to this crisis coming from the other side of the aisle. And that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: That was a policy solution that created the crisis. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Right.

Town Halls Casework And Helping Federal Workers

SPEAKER_01 26:10

And listen, I want every I want the president to succeed if it means my constituents have health care, right? I'm not rooting for anybody to fail at this. So I it's you know an obligation you and I have to continue to put these ideas up and work with whoever wants to work with us to find a solution.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

So what are some other things that you expect? We do we have this town hall tonight. I know you've got a lot of people signed up. Um we're both going to be there. Um have I think people did people send in some of the uh the questions that they were gonna ask or the things that they want to raise? We got questions. What's on people's minds?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Um I'm not sure if my questions are in my memo, but typically, because this is the 23rd, 22nd. 23rd town hall. In 14 months in Congress. Um we do listen, if I could go back and tell myself a year ago, there's no perfect way to do a town hall. I don't know if you know this. I've done a lot of town hall. We've done really big town halls. We did like an 1800-person town hall at first. We did turn people away. Yeah. We had we had uh we had all these audio issues because it was a huge auditorium. Imperfect way to do a town hall. Then we went to like, let's do seven in small library settings. And then a lot of people didn't show up, which is fine. We still did them. And then we do virtual town halls, we do telephone town halls, and it's just the right answer is all of the ways consistently to make people feel like they have access to us.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Is the right way to do it?

SPEAKER_03 27:31

I hope people appreciate that uh you don't have to do them.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

And you know, um not all of my colleagues do them, no.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

I a lot don't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

And uh you know, I get I get yelled at at these town halls, and that's that's okay. Um, I always hope to not get yelled at. But um this is a fraught moment in our country.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Um and people's lives are really impacted, be it by affordability, be it by the weaponization of ice, be it by what's happening in the Middle East right now, like there's a lot that people are rightfully angry about.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Aaron Ross Powell Scared and angry.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

And when I was first elected, I I and I talked to Congressman Sarbanes regularly. Um I talked to Senator Carvin regularly. Yes, and I talked to Senator McCulski regularly. And Congressman Sarbane said something I thought was so at the time I like I believed him, but I didn't I hadn't experienced yet. He said, so much of your job as a member of Congress under a Trump presidency, because he had Trump won, is about pastoring to your constit constituents. Because people come up to me at the grocery store. I'm sure people come up to you at the grocery store. And particularly because I represent 45,000 federal employees and two to three times that in contractors. Like this time last year, when Doge was at its height and people who had dedicated their entire careers to federal service were getting summarily fired, in some cases without two weeks' notice, without a severance, and or programs people have been working on for their whole life, be it at museums or libraries or or the CDC or NOAA, and people come up to you in tears wanting you to save their program or save their job, it's really challenging because you and I got into this work to help people and solve problems. And it's been a really challenging year that I have not been able to solve every problem for everybody. But I have been able, I hope, to be there for people on their hardest days. And my office, we're so laser focused on casework, I know yours is too. When people call us and they're struggling to get their IRS tax refund, or they cannot get an appointment at VA, or they cannot they've been waiting years to bring over a family member from another country through our broken immigration system. We are there to answer the phone, to be a respectful, empathetic voice. And we've had a lot of wins that way. And that's my job at the Trevor Burrus.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

That we don't know about that are quiet and they're either quiet or wins.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

I get I get a weekly report, which is wonderful of the wins we've had that week. And they're they're small. They're we are able to get someone's passport. We were able to get somebody, you know,$10,000 in their retirement savings that were held up by Social Security. Like things that are so meaningful to an individual but aren't newsworthy.

SPEAKER_03 30:07

So tell us about who does that. You have a staff.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

I have a wonderful staff. Yes. I have a wonderful staff. Um very experienced staff. The good thing about when you have four members of the congression of ten of your congressional delegation retiring last year, um we have wonderful staff from all their offices with experience who can that I could hire. And so we picked up folks from every office who had experience. And um our district office is in Columbia in Howard County. Um I live in Annapolis, so that's kind of covered. Um but we have staff who, again, have have buckets of issue areas and they are just crushing it every single day helping people.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

Yeah. You do have some great people. And for people to get in touch with your staff, people to, you know, people who have constituent issues. Um how do they go about that?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Aaron Powell Oh I should have prepared to answer this question. Umfrith.house.gov uh is the right way to get us. And you can fill out many forms there if you have a question about you know a bill that I voted on, or if you have a casework issue again with IRS or VA, you can fill that out. If you um uh just want to give me your opinion, that's great too. Um you can all go elfrith.house.gov always. Can I plug? We also, if you have a young person who wants to serve uh at one of our military academies, we are crushing it this year in terms of acceptance rates at Naval Academy in particular, but all of our service academies, that's something to be very proud of. Young people want to see. It's so cool. I get to nominate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

I do remember hearing that that Naval Academy you had to get a member of Congress and put your name up.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Uh I do I don't want to overpromise I just got another West Point appointee today. Oh yeah. Uh but I make those calls myself, which is really cool. Really? Uh it's like a few moments of joy.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

You talk to the applicant or to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Yeah, I called the younger, the 17, 18-year-old who got accepted that we had nominated and the Naval Academy or West Point has accepted.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Oh, so they get a call from Congress from the U.S.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

From me before before they get their letter in the mail or in the portal. So that's really cool. So if you have somebody you can apply via our website if you need a flag, if you need whatever, all on that website.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

That's pretty cool. Yeah. So uh let's let's pause for a second. We're gonna cut here. Um so we have like how many limit minutes in are we? Oh, well then 10. Well, okay, I thought we were supposed to talk for another 10 minutes. We're at 32 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

That's what I meant. But you were at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

Oh no, no, don't worry about the calendar. 30 minutes is what we shoot for. Okay. Okay, so what we probably should do is a closer, because that was feeling like it was getting to the closer, you know, because we were talking about how to contact you. Yeah. Um maybe I'll ask you if there's anything we missed that you want to say.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

We can end on Chesapeake Bay. Does that work?

SPEAKER_03 32:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Yeah.

Whole Watershed Bay Restoration Goes Federal

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Yeah. So I'll I'll ask you if there's anything else and then you'll jump back to because it's your passion, and uh, and then and then I'll just say thank you and how great you are, and then and then I'll say you have the last word. Okay. Okay. Um I gotta say, this has been really fascinating. We could talk for hours and hours and hours. Um but uh we're gonna have to close up here in a minute. So is there anything anything that we've missed that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah, I think one of the the things I worked on at the State House really hard was Chesapeake Bay. And one of the reasons I you would ask me why I ran for Congress. I wanted to make sure somebody in the congressional delegation continued to carry the mantle, as Congressman Sarbanes and as Senator Cardin and Senator McCulski carried this mantle, not just for the state, but for the region. And we've been able, like I said, to do good work via my time on armed services and and supporting the REPI program, which you have been a beneficiary of over the years to conserve land.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

That the REPI program, I will say, is one of the reasons why Quiet Waters Retreat exists, the land that was going to be developed adjacent to Quiet Waters grant from that. And then there's another one that I think we're gonna have an event for, because you really made this one happen with the Chesapeake Conservancy, um, just saltworks, we call it, just just uh north of the Annapolis Mall.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

It's really exciting. Yeah, yeah. So protecting that land. I get to do some Chesapeake-based stuff through that, but on natural resources, we talked about fisheries and blue catfish, um, oysters and freshwater mussels, but also um the last thing I did in the State Senate before I came to Congress was called the Whole Watershed Act. And it was this crazy radical idea of all of the lessons I've learned in six years working on it at the State House, but also six years on the Chesapeake Bay Commission working with colleagues in Pennsylvania and and Virginia, Republicans and Democrats alike. And it was this radical notion that we could we had to, not could, we have to go bigger, bolder, and faster in our restoration work of the bay. We've done these traditional kind of random acts of restoration, one project here or there, and make us feel good, and we get a ri you and I get a ribbon cutting out of it, and it's great. But that's not actually moving the needle on water quality, and it's not getting us a higher grade on the report card, it's not getting more people access to the bay. So the whole watershed was all about how do we pick five major rivers, watersheds, in the state that are different, urban, suburban, agricultural, one that's attached to a different state, and and do 30 or 40 projects in that watershed and think about public water access and carbon sequestration and tree plantings and freshwater, all like throw everything at one watershed in five years. And can we move the needle on that watershed? And one of them is the Severn River, which is super exciting, because it's right. I did not to be clear to the listeners, I did not pick the Severn River. We let other people pick it. But I knew we'd have a lot of really great brainstorming and strategic watersheds across the state and and people thinking, again, bolder, bigger, faster.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

I g I gotta I gotta tell you though, that that so first of all, I was so um excited about the grant program for the watershed, the whole watershed um program and and the application for the Severn River. And last week on this podcast, I had Eric Michelson when we were talking about the process, and he reminded me that it was your bill. I'd forgotten that. I I I um I just I guess I thought it came out of the blue. Um six hard years of work. I mean the Moore administration has taken this, and you know, with Josh Kurtz at the helmet, it it's it's really exciting to me because you you did it in a way where and I think the governor gets this too, where it's an opportunity to engage everybody. It's like a community organizing exercise at the same time as an environmental protection exercise and and um so just brilliant, brilliant work.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Every year that we did were delayed in a permit uh on a on a restoration project was millions of dollars in taxpayer money being wasted and the project not getting done. And take St. Luke's in Eastport, for example, for folks listening. Um that took three years to permit that that stream restoration project. And we again we just have an obligation to move bigger and faster and bolder. So we're also we just filed a bill with Senator Alsterbrooks at the federal level requiring part of the the idea is that everybody works together. It's radical, convening. Um DNR, MDE, Department of Agriculture, local governments for the permitting side, nonprofit organizations. But I couldn't legislate mandating EPA be at the table when I was a state senator. So now I am. So it's really important to have those partners, an army corps for certain projects. Really important. Everybody's at the table, everybody's moving with speed, everybody's moving with purpose, and everybody's moving together. So I'm really excited for that, Bill.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

I gotta tell you, it is it is so exciting uh and gratifying to see um you take what you're good at and take it into Congress, even though it's a frustrating place to do it. Um, you know, when when the seat opened up and uh we had a conversation, uh, you know, my question was, you gonna do it? And and I think I was you know one of the early birds that to get out there and support you. But uh uh again, we're not being political here. But um, but it's humor. The reason I did it is that you have this drive to understand everything, to understand the nitty-gritty, to understand what you need to understand about a policy area, and then you do convene people, and then you do come up with legislation. And the longer you're in this work, the more you're gonna see these wins, like the the whole Watershed Act. Um and and sometimes people won't give you credit for it because they'll forget, you know, that it was you or whatever it is, and it doesn't matter. But no, credit's not the point.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

It's the thing is happening, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

I'll even say it. Shit's happening. So thank you for making sure it happened and and um and thank you for thank you for being our congresswoman, thank you for being on this on this podcast. And I will I will say one thing is that this could happen anyway. You get the last word.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Aaron Powell Okay. Um not that I have a script in front of me at all. You're listening to the Pittman and Friends podcast. If you would like to uh if you like what you hear, please hit the subscribe button, share with a friend, and join us for the next episode.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Amen. Thank you.