Outgoing Rep. Miller on partnering with Republicans and serving Americans

HARI SREENIVASAN:

Finally tonight: What do politicians say when they no longer are running for office?

Yesterday, we featured an exit interview with conservative Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. Tonight, we bring you a conversation Gwen Ifill had with a man known as one of the most liberal members in Congress, retiring California Representative George Miller.

GWEN IFILL:

Congressman Miller, thank you for joining us.

There are some people who say, after 39 years in Congress, you stayed too long, but why leave now?

REP. GEORGE MILLER, (D) California: Well, I felt it was a good time.

I wanted some of my time back. I wanted to come home to California, and I think I have amassed a record in the Congress that I'm very, very proud of. And so I just — it just felt right, after 40, years, that it's time to go home.

GWEN IFILL:

You know that you arrived in Washington in 1974. In fact, you and Henry Waxman are part of the last of a class of post-Watergate members of Congress who came here to change the city, to change Congress, to change the world. Both of you are now retiring this year. Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

Well, I accomplished a big part of it.

When I think of the legislation that I had the privilege of being involved with, in some cases writing, that became law, the access for children with disabilities to public schools in this country, a right they really didn't have, or certainly many states weren't honoring that right of disabled children to be able to go to school, the right of parents and communities and others to know about how their schools are performing, how their children are doing, the No Child Left Behind law that I wrote with President Bush, and certainly the Affordable Care Act that we did under President Barack Obama.

You know, 40 years ago, I campaigned on national health care and ending the war in Vietnam. And when that bill was signed into law by the president, and I'm in that room, it started to look to me like I had reached the top of what I came here to do.

So it's been a wonderful, wonderful career. I have loved every moment of it, every moment of it.

GWEN IFILL:

If you accomplished all you set out to do, all the things that you just named, are these things that you think a Congress as it is made up now could accomplish?

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

This is a much more difficult environment.

But I'm an optimist. You have to be if you're going to be in the Congress. And I, in fact, believe that it's starting to turn. I think, you know, I'm not happy with the Republican takeover in the Senate, but they now own the Congress in that sense. And I think they're going to have to meet the responsibilities and the expectations of the American people.

And I think, to get that done, they're going to need to partner, just as I had to partner with Republican presidents and with Republican chairmen and Republican leadership to get the things done that I wanted to get done. And so I really think this may be the beginning of a new chapter in the congressional diaries, if you will.

GWEN IFILL:

We talked to Congressman Saxby Chambliss, who is also retiring — Senator Saxby Chambliss is also retiring. And he talked a lot about bipartisanship and the need for partnership as well.

Who would you say in the current Congress you were able to reach across the aisle to and work with?

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

Well, I have been able to work — certainly, in our Committee on Education and Labor, work with the — with the chairman of that committee, Congressman Kline from Minnesota.

We have been able to report legislation to the floor. We have been able to report controversial legislation to the floor and get it to the president's desk. And I think — but it was very difficult the first 18 months, but the last six months, I think there's a recognition that all members of Congress are accountable for the Congress doing its job.

And I think, if you just want to push that off and say, well, the Tea Party won't let me do the job or this person won't let me do the job, that's not going to sell at home. They want you to come and to produce. They want you to produce on their behalf. And I think the Congress is going to feel that heat more in the next Congress than maybe they have felt it the last couple of Congresses.

GWEN IFILL:

But I'm sure, as you know, there are people from the other party who say things like single-party passage of the Affordable Care Act, which you just cited as one of your proudest accomplishments, or even the president's efforts on executive action have poisoned the well in a way that makes it harder, not easier, for bipartisan to happen.

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

I think, for many of those members of Congress, that's an excuse. I don't think that is a reality.

The Congress is a place where you wear long pants, you wear belts and suspenders, and you go to work every day and you figure out how to get these things done. And you can't keep lamenting what happened five years ago, three years ago, six months ago. You have to get these things done.

That's what the people charged you. They charged you to come to Washington and work on their behalf. And to do that in a legitimate fashion requires a bipartisan effort. Sometimes, they will choose to go the road and test whether they can do it all by themselves. That's expected, too.

But the fact that, at the end of the day, if you're going to really reinvest in this country, if you're going to keep America in its leadership role, you're going to have to have that bipartisan cooperation.

GWEN IFILL:

What advice would you give members — citizens, voters, people who are exasperated with Congress, exasperated with Washington? What would you say to them as you leave Washington now, leave all of this behind, presumably? Should they just throw up their hands and give up on Washington?

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

They're the shareholders. And what elections are about is holding — is holding — is holding the officers, if you will, of the endeavor, in this case members of Congress, accountable. I would like to see more Americans get involved in elections.

I think we're getting fewer voices involved in elections with more power. And I would like to see the people come back to the election process. And it's not enough just to say, oh, they're all no good. What about — what role did you play in electing your member of Congress, your member of the United States Senate, the president of the United States?

That's how a democracy thrives, is when the people are engaged.

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

… participate.

GWEN IFILL:

While you were in Washington, and especially in the last few years, you were very tightly allied with the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi.

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

Sure.

GWEN IFILL:

As you leave Washington and go back to your home district, what advice do you leave for her and for other members of Congress as they try to, I guess, dig themselves out of the hole of public perception we're talking about?

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

Well, I think they have got to make their own weather.

I think it's pretty clear, in this election, there's great deal of concern in this country about the fairness of the economy, whether or not the Congress is in fact working for American families, whether or not the middle class is going to be able to participate in the growing prosperity in this country.

Much of that prosperity has grown for a very few people over the last couple years. There may be a chance with this recovery that it could be shared in a wider fashion. And I think that is going to be very important to American families.

And I think that's what Nancy Pelosi has stood for. Working alongside her is like working alongside Vince Lombardi. I mean, this is a serious person who understands this system and how it can work on behalf of the American people and how in fact it very often works against their interests.

I think that question is rising to the top. And I think that the Congress, regardless of party, is going to be held accountable for this question of, who's working on our behalf? Who's working on our behalf, so that we have — more of us can share in this prosperity?

GWEN IFILL:

George Miller, Democrat of California, retiring after four decades in the House of Representatives, thank you very much.

REP. GEORGE MILLER:

Thank you.