Van Drew Argues For Border Wall

U.S. Congressman Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd, argued for meaningful compromise to reopen the federal government, including on border wall funding, on the national Fox TV news show “Sunday Futures with Maria Bartiromo” this week.

“We are a nation of the rule of law, and we do need some type of barriers,” Van Drew said on Sunday morning. “In some places it may be electric, in some places it may be drone, in some it may be an actual wall. But we do need to ensure our security.”

View his interview on the show’s website here.

He also said it should be combined with a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows young people brought here as children by their parents to stay in the U.S.

Van Drew has introduced bills in the House to refund both the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration during the shutdown.

There is a wing of the Democratic party that believes “we need to ensure we negotiate as much as possible, as soon as possible, 24/7,” Van Drew said.

“It’s disgraceful to see our Coast Guard on soup lines ... These are real people that can’t pay real bills. We’ve got to get this done,” said Van Drew.

A member of the Blue Dog Coalition in the House, made up of moderate and conservative Democrats who argue for fiscally responsibility; and the Problem Solver’s Caucus, Van Drew said there are Democrats who are pushing back against the Pelosi wing of the party.

Resolving the shutdown is taking so long, “you will see more and you will hear more (pushback). It doesn’t mean we’re fractured and split apart; it means we need to get this done,” Van Drew said.

He suggested a panel be nominated by both sides to sit down and determine what border security would look like. And he said some type of barrier fencing needs to be part of it.

Bartiromo also asked what Van Drew was trying to say when he voted “no” on Pelosi for House Speaker, rather than offering a different name.

“I was trying to say I thought we needed a better process,” he said, “that we really needed something that represented at least what my constituents wanted.”

That would be “somebody new that doesn’t have some of the pre-existing ideas and feelings and attitudes towards some of the folks that are there from the past.

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/van-drew-argues-for-border-wall-compromise-on-fox-tv/article_b4418d88-509a-57f5-be58-0742fe1d7b75.html

 WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew gave his first speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, calling on his peers to support his bills to fund the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration during the partial government shutdown.

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/politics/van-drew-s-first-house-speech-calls-for-coast-guard/article_86af5df3-581b-5575-ab5d-6b489b96a268.html

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Thirty-one days into the partial government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer to ending the impasse than when it began, with President Donald Trump lashing out at his opponents after they dismissed a plan he'd billed as a compromise.

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/politics/shutdown-goes-on-as-trump-offer-doesn-t-budge-democrats/article_ad74df57-fb25-57d4-9a70-d4d38ab9acc5.html