MADISON, WI – U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) spoke with Kristen Welker on MSNBC this afternoon to discuss additional aid for Ukraine and COVID, progressive priorities, and the upcoming midterm elections.

Click here to watch the full interview, and find excerpts of Rep. Pocan’s remarks below.

“They’re both national security issues – what’s going on in Ukraine and having additional variants come out of COVID – if we’re not able to help other countries get vaccines and help right here in the United States. They should be linked. Unfortunately, the Republicans said ‘no new funding for COVID. You have to find unused dollars.’ Aid for Ukraine has to happen. If the quickest way is to link them, let’s do that. If the quickest way is not to and get both done, let’s not. But we have to get both done. And that’s ultimately our responsibility no matter what the rhetoric we’ve heard from some of the Republicans.”

“We’re going to keep trying to do a legislative strategy. The Progressive Caucus has encouraged the president to take executive actions. Get everything possible done in any way possible. Democrats have already done really big things – the infrastructure bill, the Postal Reform Act, the COMPETES Act, about getting the cost of computer chips down so we can really get at inflation. We’ve got a lot of things to juggle. If we can do it legislatively, let’s move those legislatively. If the president could do executive action, let’s do that. If we could do both, let’s do both. But the bottom line is action is the word that we all have to be following.”

“We’ve been encouraging [President Biden] to go higher, but honestly, doing an executive action, even on $10,000, is huge for the average person. We’re also encouraging things around climate change, on health care, on workers’ rights and protections. There’s a lot that the president can do, and I think will do because the Republicans aren’t moving anything forward in Congress. It’s incredibly hard to get anything done legislatively, but we’ve gotten a lot done. In the meantime, the president can also move ideas forward. Absolutely forgiving student debt is one of those, but there’s a whole big list, and you’re going to see more action from this White House.”
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