- Representative Seth Magaziner is just weeks into his first term, but soon will be the Senior Congressman from Rhode Island.

- That jump in line, of course, comes as representative David Cicilline made a surprise announcement that he's stepping down this May.

Magaziner has his work cut out for him as he joins a bitterly divided Congress.

But he told us recently that he's up to the challenge and inspired by generations of his family, both old and new.

- Congratulations, you are now members of the 118th Congress.

- [Presenter] Representative Seth Magaziner joined a history making Congress before he even took the oath of office, but not for the reasons he had hoped for.

- I was not expecting to be sworn in at 2:00 AM on a Saturday morning, but, you know, it just shows that under the Republican leadership in the house, unfortunately, there's a lot of chaos and division.

- Congress finally has a new house speaker.

Kevin McCarthy won early this morning, putting and end to today's of rockus debate.

- [Presenter] Magaziner says the rockus debate that played out on the house floor throughout 15 rounds of voting likely foreshadows what the next two years will look like on Capitol Hill.

- [Biden] Let me give you, anybody who doubts it contact my office.

- [Presenter] President Biden's State of the Union may have offered a glimpse of that too.

- But it's being proposed by individuals.

I'm politely not naming them, but it's being proposed by some of you.

Look... - There's so much disarray on the Republican side of the house that in order to consolidate the support for the speakership, Kevin McCarthy had to essentially give the keys of the house over to the most radical members of his party.

- [Presenter] The January 6th attack on the US Capitol highlighted the polarization within the country.

As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, Magaziner says stopping domestic terrorism is a top priority.

- Well, first we have to make sure that law enforcement have the tools and the encouragement and the support of Congress to continue to combat extremist groups, whatever their ideologies may be whether it's far right, far left, or something else.

- [Presenter] The congressman says another major threat facing national security is the rise of authoritarianism around the world.

He points to leaders like Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, the former president of Brazil, Jaire Bolsonaro, and Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

It's one of the reasons why Magaziner says it's critical that the United States continue providing aid to Ukraine.

The war recently reached its one year mark.

- The biggest risk that we have is that Ukraine falls to Vladimir Putin and that Putin doesn't stop there.

So I've been clear from the beginning, we should not commit US troops to the war in Ukraine.

This is the Ukrainians war to fight, and they know that.

But military supplies, humanitarian aid, intelligence support we should continue to provide.

- Is there any reason you can think that you would support having US troops get involved in the war in Ukraine?

- I think that's a absolute last resort, but Russia needs to know, if they were to attack US military facilities in Europe or our NATO allies, there will be severe consequences.

I rise today to offer my first general remarks on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

- [Presenter] During his speech, Magaziner talked about his two grandfathers, veterans and working class men who came of age during the depression.

One was a steel worker, the other, a bookkeeper.

- Neither of them worked very glamorous jobs, but with a lot of hard work and a little help from their GI Bill, these two children of immigrants were able to buy houses for their families, put their kids through school and earn a ticket to the middle class.

That's the way it's supposed to work in this country.

- The first speech that you recently gave on the house floor you alluded to both of your grandfathers and you talked about how they were able to accomplish the American dream.

I think if you ask most middle class Americans, they'll tell you the American dream is becoming harder and harder to attain.

- Absolutely, and that's why I'm doing this.

I mean, you're right, people are working harder and harder and having a tougher time paying their bills and keeping up.

We gotta bring back manufacturing jobs.

We gotta lower the cost of healthcare, lower the cost of energy.

We've got to improve public education so everybody can send their kid to a great school.

- [Presenter] Magaziner splits his time between Rhode Island and Washington DC.

- Nine or 10 days a month in DC and the rest of the time here.

- [Presenter] He looks forward to being home with his wife, Julia, and their 16 month old son, Max.

- I was able to bring Max my son onto the floor of the house with me which was a really special experience.

He made a lot of friends with members of Congress from around the country, and it was a very special day.

- [Presenter] Magaziner joined the Congressional Dads Caucus.

He wants to advocate for issues like paid family leave, universal preschool and childcare funding.

- Particularly for my generation, the millennial generation that's coming up, I think there's rightfully an expectation in our generation that fathers play an equal role in raising children as mothers and advocating for things like childcare and paid leave and preschool shouldn't just be left to women members of Congress.

- Congratulations again.

- Thank you so much.

- [Presenter] The 39 year old Democrat recently welcomed his constituents to his new office in Warwick, including former Congressman Jim Langevin.

- What I really want to talk about for just a moment today is the important work that's gonna be happening in this office.

- [Presenter] Magaziner may be new to Congress, but Rhode Island's former state treasurer has been around politics his whole life.

His father, Ira Magaziner, was a policy advisor under President Bill Clinton.

- The dinner table conversations when I was a kid were terrific.

They were mostly about policy, less so about politics.

It was more, you know, how do we make schools better?

How do we make healthcare better?

How do we make sure that everyone has opportunity regardless of their race or religion?

It sounds wonky and it sounds nerdy, but that's the stuff we talked about when I was a kid and it left a real mark on me.

- Did that start to pique your interest in pursuing a career in politics?

- I always knew I wanted to do some kind of service.

I didn't necessarily think that I would run for office one day until I was well into adulthood.

- [Presenter] Magaziner spent two years teaching elementary school students in Louisiana through Teach for America shortly after Hurricane Katrina.

It was during that time that he says he decided he wanted to run for public office.

- I wanted to be part of fixing these structural things that were holding back working people.

I mean, these kids, you know, most of their parents worked hard, worked two or three jobs and just couldn't break out of this cycle of poverty.

- [Presenter] One way out of this cycle says Magaziner is to bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States.

It would also reduce dependency on other countries.

- You know, remember when the pandemic first came and there were a lot of empty shelves?

You know, you couldn't get hand sanitizer, you couldn't get toilet paper, you couldn't get all kinds of stuff.

That I think was a wake up call that we need to make more stuff in the United States again, instead of relying on places like China.

- You have some ambitious ideas.

How do you hope to accomplish that given that you're in the minority party and you're a freshman legislator?

- One of the concessions that Kevin McCarthy made in order to become speaker was agreeing to something called a discharge petition.

Under a discharge petition, 218 members of the house can sign a letter saying we want a bill to be voted on by the full house and he is required to allow that vote to occur.

What that means practically is that we only need to find five Republicans to join with the Democrats to force a bill to the floor for a vote on almost any issue.

- [Presenter] And Magaziner says he doesn't have to look far for encouragement.

- Being a new dad, it's motivating.

I mean, that's why I'm doing this.

That's why I'm working so hard in Congress to fight for working people is because I want Max and all children to have a future where everyone who's willing to work hard can do the right thing, where every kid can go to a good school, where everyone can retire in dignity, where we've turned the page on climate change and gun violence.

Looking at him when he wakes up in the morning is a reminder of why I do this work.

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