Five Freshmen House Members Discuss Their Plans for New Session

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• GWEN IFILL:

  Finally tonight, five freshly minted members of Congress's incoming freshmen class, and to Margaret Warner.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  While a few House races remain to be decided, it's clear that there will be at least 42 freshmen when the new Congress takes office in January: 29 are Democrats; 13 Republicans; and five of those new members join us today.

  Democrat Yvette Clarke will represent New York's 11th District, comprising most of Brooklyn. She spent the last five years as a member of the New York City Council.

  Democrat Tim Walz will represent Minnesota's 1st District in the southern part of that state. Walz is a geography teacher and football coach who spent nearly 25 years in the Army National Guard.

  Democrat Ed Perlmutter will represent Colorado's 7th District in the suburbs west of Denver. A lawyer, he spent eight years in the Colorado State Senate.

  Republican David Davis will represent Tennessee's 1st District in the northeastern part of the state. He owns a health care company and spent eight years in the Tennessee House.

  And Republican Kevin McCarthy will represent California's 22nd District in the state's agricultural Central Valley. He served two terms in the California House, the last as minority leader.

  And welcome to you all. Welcome to Washington. Welcome to the NewsHour.

  REP.-ELECT TIM WALZ (D), Minnesota: Thank you.

  REP.-ELECT ED PERLMUTTER (D), Colorado: It's great to be here.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Let's start by having each of you tell us briefly why you came to Washington, beginning with you, Tim Walz.

• TIM WALZ:

  Well, first of all, thanks for having me. I think the reason I'm here and what my constituents were sending me here to do was to have a vision for this country that would extend beyond politics, that would extend beyond the next election. And in southern Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is located, and where leaders in renewable energies, they want to see a vision on what we're going to do in this country, in terms of health care, especially in terms of renewable energies.

  And that's what I would like to see done early in these coming years. They don't want to see this incremental growth; they want to see massive growth when it comes to renewable energies.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Kevin McCarthy, what about you?

  REP.-ELECT KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), California: Well, I think this global economy, I'm concerned about the United States being able to compete. I think we need a tax system that's more fair, simpler, and allows us to compete with Europe, and China, and India. And I think that will enhance our ability to create more engineers and make us able to compete and continue.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Yvette Clarke?

  REP.-ELECT YVETTE CLARKE (D), New York: Yes, I have a very diverse constituency. They have two really strong concerns right now, and that is how we're going to remove our troops from Iraq, and immigration reform that's very humane. And I'm going to be very focused on those issues.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  Ed Perlmutter?

• ED PERLMUTTER:

  I'm coming from a district that's right down the middle politically, right down the middle financially. I think the economy is an issue, about the squeeze on the people in the middle.

  But for me, one of my kids has epilepsy, and stem cell research holds out so much promise for people with epilepsy, and Parkinson's, and Huntington's, and diabetes. And, you know, I'd like to be here to see that we really do use the science that we have available so that that promise is fulfilled for people, you know, like my daughter.

• MARGARET WARNER:

  And David Davis?

  REP.-ELECT DAVID DAVIS (R), Tennessee: Thank you for having us today. I come from a very Republican district, a very conservative-leaning district, so they want to make sure that we have those same values and heritage that our country was founded on. That's one of the things that brought me to Washington.

  And then, being a health care business owner, I'm a respiratory therapist by training, so I've been taking care of patients for almost 30 years. And I'm a business owner, so economic development's going to be very large in the things that we look at as we go into the future.