(light upbeat music) (light upbeat music continues) (upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) - Welcome to "Meet the Candidates" ahead of the March 19th Illinois primary election.

I'm Jak Tichenor.

We're joined by Democratic U.S. Representative Nikki Budzinski of Springfield.

She's running for her party's nomination in the 13th Congressional District.

Congresswoman, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having me, Jak.

- For folks that don't know you, you spent a great deal of your early career working for the labor unions, Laborers' International Union, United Food & Commercial Workers, and you were later on Governor Pritzker's transition team, and most lately before your congressional term, in the Biden White House.

Tell folks why, let us know why you think you're the best candidate for the position.

- Well, I've spent my entire career working on issues that support working families.

I've brought that passion with me to Congress.

And the experience that I've had, both working in the labor movement, working on behalf of firefighters, making sure they had the training and equipment they needed to do very dangerous jobs in our community, working alongside meat cutters and retail workers, making sure they had safe working conditions and good pay and benefits.

You know, you mentioned that I've been in public service.

I have experience, as you've mentioned, working both in state and federal government that I think has given me the experience to be an effective member of Congress.

Some of those issues, though, that I've worked on to support working families while serving in Governor Pritzker's administration, were, I had the opportunity to lead negotiations through his office in raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the state of Illinois, something I'm really proud of.

It had been nine long years since any working man or woman in the state of Illinois had seen a nickel increase.

So to be a part of that effort and knowing what a difference it makes for working people is really the experience I bring to the office that I have today and I wanna continue to build on to support those families.

- How would you consider yourself in terms of where you come down on the political spectrum from left to right?

Left, central?

- I consider myself a pragmatist, a common-sense elected official, and I said this when I was running for office the first time, and I very much believe it still today, I'll work with anyone that's gonna help working families in central and southern Illinois.

Sometimes that means working across the party aisle.

I'm really proud to be bipartisan.

The majority of the pieces of legislation I've introduced, I've introduced them with Republican colleagues.

I also work really closely with members of my own Democratic caucus to put forward legislation that I think is gonna help working people keep more of what they earn and help bring down costs that I know are still very top of mind for a lot of families in downstate Illinois and central and southern Illinois.

So I'll work with anyone to get things done.

I wanna deliver results, and that's how I would, you know, describe my political philosophy.

- As you travel the 13th District, what do folks tell you is the biggest concern of theirs or the biggest issue confronting them?

- You know, it still is rising costs.

It's still the cost of everyday groceries, it's putting gas in the tank.

I hear a lot about childcare.

Childcare is something that we have a pretty broken system right now that I think is an impediment to folks kind of getting back into the workforce.

And so I think we need to be tackling these things.

I often talk about how working people need to be able to keep more of what they earn.

Some of the things I've been very supportive of are the child tax credit, extending that to help working families keep a little bit more of what they earn when they have children at home trying to provide for them.

I also have been very vocal about extending the Affordable Connectivity Program.

We have a very high number of families in central and southern Illinois that rely on that for affordable high-speed internet access, and, Jak, we know after the COVID, we need to be connected both for students, for people at work settings.

So internet accessibility is really important for working families.

So those types of common sense things that help keep things more affordable, tackle higher costs and prices.

That's been my top priority, and that's the top concern I hear when I travel the district.

- Another concern, of course, that comes up in conversation is that dealing with the situation at the southern border.

Senate Democrats and Republicans came up with a compromise idea a few weeks ago, but Speaker Johnson said no to it, as well as the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump.

What kind of border protection plan would you endorse?

- Well, let me just say, just yesterday I was standing with colleagues, again, urging our speaker, Mike Johnson, Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, to bring that bipartisan Senate package to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.

That bipartisan Senate deal that was made would actually help to secure our border, providing more funding at the border for staff, for personnel, for border control.

We also have a broken asylum system.

That bipartisan piece of Senate legislation, which I think is also critically important when we're talking about fixing our broken immigration system, is shortening the wait times for those that are legally trying to enter the country through the asylum process.

Right now, that takes years.

What was put forward in a bipartisan basis in the Senate was shortening it to months.

I think there are common-sense solutions that Republicans and Democrats, again, on a bipartisan basis, we can tackle our broken immigration system if we have the will of some of those in the House Republican leadership to bring that kind of common-sense measure to the floor.

I'm gonna continue to call on that.

More funding to secure our border, fixing our broken asylum system, creating a legal pathway for those legally looking for status into our country.

Those are common-sense solutions that I think Democrats and Republicans can get behind and I've been very vocal about supporting.

- What about the Dreamers who were brought to this country as children and have lived here most of their lives?

Former President Trump tried to end that program.

The Supreme Court stopped that.

But it's still a topic of conversation amongst Republicans.

- It definitely is.

And I support Dreamers being able to have citizenship.

These are young people, as you said, Jak, that were brought into this country at a very, very young age.

This is the only country that they know.

Some of these Dreamers also have served in our military, and so I really very much believe that we need to create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in this country, and that's long overdue.

- Governor Pritzker and other governors have called on the federal government to provide more direct financial aid to help states like Illinois deal with thousands of new asylum seekers.

They've been arriving by plane or bus in the state, and it's stretching the capacity of cities like Chicago to be able to adequately deal with them.

What role should the federal government play in terms of helping foot the bill?

- Well, we need to be leading with compassion, of course, but I think what we're seeing in cities like Chicago and New York City and many cities across this country is just a symptom of the larger problem, which is a broken immigration system in this country.

If we were able to secure our border, which I've consistently been vocally advocating for more funding, again, for Border Patrol agents, more funding for technology at our border.

One of the concerns that I've had is around fentanyl getting into the United States at our border.

We need to secure that border.

That takes resources.

Again, that's why I support the bipartisan deal that was negotiated out of the Senate, and I call for immediate action, which I think will help address some of these larger symptoms that we're facing as it relates to the migrant crisis and our broken immigration system.

- The Supreme Court, of course, overturned "Roe v. Wade," leaving it up to the individual states to deal with the issue of abortion.

Majority of Democrats and Governor Pritzker in Springfield have worked hard to protect abortion rights or reproductive rights in the General Assembly, but many congressional Republicans are pressing for a federal ban on abortion.

Where do you stand on the issue?

- I've been pro-choice my entire life.

I believe that a woman's right to make her own decisions about her own body is a freedom that that woman should rightfully have, and it's a decision that she should be able to make between her doctor and herself, and I think that a politician does not need to be in that doctor's exam room with her.

I have been a very vocal advocate since getting to Congress about protecting a woman's right to choose.

As you mentioned, Jak, in the state of Illinois, we are what they refer to as a safe-haven state.

Many of the, two of the community, or several, actually, of the communities, including Champaign, Fairview Heights, Granite City, have clinics where women that are coming over from Missouri, other states up as very far to the south of us, coming up seeking reproductive healthcare.

I wanna be there to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to protect a woman's right to choose and protect our status as a safe-haven state for women looking for refuge and the ability to exercise their freedom to make their own decisions about their own body.

- You touched upon this in your opening remarks, having to do with the economy.

The gross domestic product for Illinois has now surpassed the trillion dollar mark in the last couple of years.

The state's an economic powerhouse, but a lot of the benefits that come along with it haven't exactly worked their way down to a lot of folks who live in the 13th District and others around the state.

In terms of what could the state be doing better and what could Congress be doing better to grow jobs in central and southern Illinois?

- Well, we've seen that happening actually through investments that have been with the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that happened.

I've been able to work with the Biden administration to bring back some of those federal grant dollars.

The 13th district, the village of Savoy on the furthest eastern side of my district, was able to receive one of the only RAISE grants, which was a $22 million investment in a grade separation project.

Why that's important, that's job creation.

That's also economic development for the village of Savoy, and that addresses some longstanding public-safety issues.

In the city of Decatur, I was able to help advocate, along with the city, to get a rail grant helping to address another public-safety issue in Brush College Road, one of the most dangerous intersections in the city of Decatur.

We're only able to do that with federal investment, and I highlight the bipartisan infrastructure law as just one example of what I've been able to work collaboratively with local, state, and federal leaders to bring back federal dollars to help address infrastructure needs that we have.

But in addition, through those infrastructure investments, we see good job creation, we see economic development.

That's good for central and southern Illinois.

So I'm continuing to look for those types of opportunities.

In my first year, I was able to bring home well over $300 million in federal grants to do just those types of projects that I just mentioned, Jak, investing in our communities, investing in our people.

I'm gonna continue to work toward that as I serve.

- Let's dig a little bit deeper into the topic of transportation infrastructure.

Central and southwestern Illinois are home to major interstates, railroads, and river-based commerce on the far western side of that district.

What more needs to be done?

You talked about the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

What are some of the projects, if you had a wishlist, what would they be?

- Well, I'd highlight for you the inland waterways and investing in our locks and dams, which are, as you know, this district is big.

It goes all the way up to St. Louis and includes the Mississippi River.

That's really important for our agrarian economy.

Agriculture, we know for the state of Illinois is our number one economic driver, and in order for our family farmers to get their goods to market, we need to invest in strong infrastructure foundation.

So that is roads and bridges.

But we can't forget our inland waterways.

I was really proud, in the last two weeks, we've been able to pass what they call a minibus, which is a part of our federal budget.

We have another vote coming up in another week or two on the second half of that.

But in the first half, I was able to secure $120 million of investment in our inland waterways to continue to invest in locks and dams.

Which I think is really important.

Again, job creation, economic development, supporting our family farmers, supporting our agricultural economy.

Those are the kind of common-sense, bipartisan issues that we should be coming behind, and those are the kind of investments I'm gonna be continuing to fight for.

- In terms of K-12 education, I know that you were familiar with that in the first Pritzker administration.

The state of Illinois mostly funds K-12 education through local property taxes and state funding.

What role does Congress actually have in terms of leveling the playing field between our more affluent school districts and those who are not as fortunate?

- Well, we need to always be making sure that we in downstate Illinois and central and southern Illinois, we're getting our fair share of the dollars back for our public school system.

A very strong believer in a public school, public education, as I think that's one of the greatest equalizers we have in our country today.

Making sure that no matter your zip code, your child can get a good quality public education is critically important, so I always fight at the federal level to make sure we're making and getting those federal education dollars back home.

I think one of the issues that I've heard pretty consistently though, too, is around teacher shortages as well.

I'm sponsoring a number of different pieces of legislation to support how we're recruiting and retaining educational professionals.

That includes paraprofessionals, those support staff.

Those are our folks that are driving buses, those that are working in our cafeterias, in addition to our educators.

And so making sure that we're also paying those folks a good wage, incentivizing them to stay in our communities in central and southern Illinois and teach and address a teaching shortage that we have, I think is also equally important to discuss when we talk about investing in good public education.

- In terms of higher education, same basic question.

The federal government has a smaller role in that, but higher education is one of the major economic drivers in this congressional district with U of I in Urbana-Champaign and of course U of I Springfield.

What role does the federal government have in trying to keep more Illinois students in Illinois instead of pursuing their higher education outside our borders?

- Sure.

I've been very proud to partner with the great universities that are throughout the 13th District.

You named a few of them, Jak.

Obviously my alma mater, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, but we do have UIS, we have Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, just to name a few.

I think there are things that we can be doing and I've actively been doing in my first term in office to advocate for keeping our students right here in central and southern Illinois.

One of the things I was very proud to be a part of announcing is we're a Tech Hub finalist for the Economic Development Administration, creating an entire bioeconomy within Decatur, Monticello, and also Champaign, investing in bioprocessing and fermentation.

This is really exciting what's happening in central Illinois, and it's through public-private partnerships with the University of Illinois, their phenomenal, world-class educational programs that they have, the students that are accessible to us at Urbana-Champaign.

But also partnerships with our community colleges, Parkland Community College, Richland, helping people get the skills training that they need.

Maybe some require four-year degrees, but some require less, but getting them into this bioprocessing and fermentation industry, which could be up to a $200 billion industry that we're working to invest in in central and southern Illinois.

So my hope is that through those types of investment and innovation, we're going to be having the opportunity to retain students that are getting their education in our communities, have them stay, have them earn a living, have them make a family right here in central and southern Illinois.

We're able do that through investment and innovation, and those are the types of opportunities that I think are transformative and I'm gonna continue to be looking for in Congress.

- Congressional Democrats and Republicans are still trying to hammer out a new Farm Bill for the country, and, of course, agriculture's our leading industry in the state of Illinois.

What, in your view, should be in that final bill once we get away from the continuing resolution we're operating under?

- Right, yeah.

I'm very eager to get to a Farm Bill.

As you know, Jak, it expired in September of last year.

We extended it for another year.

I'm very hopeful, and I think this is very important, that this be a bipartisan Farm Bill.

Farm Bills have always historically, typically been bipartisan, and so that's what I'd like to see, us coming together on a number of different issues.

Obviously, I think things like providing support for the safety net crop insurance is critically important.

Protecting our nutrition title, which provides critical aid to families that rely on SNAP, I think is very important and does also support our family farmers.

I have really two important initiatives within the Farm Bill that I'm hoping will be included.

One is support for our young and beginning farmers.

Why that's so important is, you know, when we recognize that the average age of a farmer in this country is now 58 years old, and we recognize as well that agriculture, as you mentioned, Jak, is our number one economic driver, we've gotta be thinking about our pipeline of young people that are coming up behind them that are gonna be taking over our corn and our soybean production, which we are really leading in the country on.

So a young and beginning farmer initiative, bipartisan, I'm doing it with my friend from Des Moines, he's a Republican, Zach Nunn, which would basically expand a USDA program that's already in existence for low-interest loans to help young and beginning farmers acquire land and compete with developers if they're looking to get into agriculture.

The second I'd like to mention that I've really been leaning on is the America Grows Act.

I mentioned the great universities we have in central and southern Illinois that are leading the way in agricultural innovation.

The America Grows Act would increase our funding for agricultural research and innovation in the Farm Bill by 5% consecutively over the next 10 years.

I think that's the type of investment we need to be making, not just to keep our competitive edge in agriculture here in the state of Illinois and also central and southern Illinois specifically, but to compete with other countries.

China is making large investments in agricultural research.

We see the UK doing the same thing, in the EU.

We need to be able to compete with our competitors, and I think that starts with agricultural research.

So those are two things that I'm in particular trying to lead on.

They're bipartisan, hoping they'll get into the Farm Bill, but also hope that the foundations that I discussed, crop insurance, nutrition program, protecting our conservation dollars in the Farm Bill, are also something that we see happen on a bipartisan basis.

- After the Clean Air Act of 1990, coal ceased to be one of the leading economic drivers for the Illinois economy.

What role does Congress have, in your view, in terms of developing new sources of renewable energy and other technologies to advance the idea of economic independence or energy independence?

- That's a great question, and, you know, I see the move to our clean energy economy as a transition, and so we need to be looking at a variety of different ways to help us make that transition.

One of the areas that I've been leading particularly on is supporting biofuels.

The Next Generation Fuels Act, which is something that would increase our ethanol mix within our lightbody vehicles.

It would lower the cost of the pump for working families, but also support our family farmers by increasing the usage of ethanol within our fuel mix.

I think that's just one common-sense thing that we can be doing on a bipartisan basis, it is bipartisan, to get that across the finish line.

You know, I think there are other things that we can be doing, including sustainable aviation fuel is something that we are actually making, processing, our soybean and our corn growers are a part of that.

Again, lowering our carbon footprint with partnerships with airlines like United Airlines in particular, using SAF, sustainable aviation fuel, will allow them, allow all of us to lower our carbon footprint, but also support our family farmers.

I think those are some kind of practical, bipartisan ways that we can be helping our transition to a clean energy economy while also supporting our industries within central and southern Illinois.

- We have about four minutes left.

I'd like to turn to some foreign policy questions.

What should the United States' role be in terms of continued economic and military aid to the state of Israel following the Hamas attack and what's going on in Gaza?

- Yeah, well, first let me just say, you know, it's a heartbreaking situation.

What happened on October 7th was devastating for so many families in Israel that had loved ones lost their lives when a terrorist organization, Hamas, came in and invaded Israel and took hostages.

I will say, Jak, I've had the opportunity to meet with some of the families of hostages, and it is heartbreaking the torture that they're going through.

Well over a hundred of them, and still some United States citizens, are being held hostage by Hamas.

We need to bring those hostages home.

I have growing and increasingly more concerns for some time now, actually, on the humanitarian crisis, though, that is going on in Gaza.

We need to be able to, at the same time, for innocent civilians that are in Gaza, be able to provide aid to them.

There are many stories of starvation, innocent, obviously, children and families that are dying, and so I'm encouraged by what the president has done in increasing humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But apart from all of this, I think I wanna also emphasize that I'm a very strong believer in a two-state solution.

I think in order to get to peace in this region, we have to provide Palestinians with their own state in addition to an Israeli state as well.

And so I think that working toward that, which I do believe the Biden administration is doing, is really important.

I believe in aid to Israel, but I also believe as a partner to that, we have to be able to provide humanitarian aid as well to those in Gaza.

- A minute left, a one question I wanna ask.

The Biden administration, of course, sent another $300 million in military aid to Ukraine.

This war is going into its third year now, and some congressional Republicans are questioning how much more can the United States offer in the way of continued aid.

- We can't afford to walk away from our support for the Ukrainians.

Ukraine were the underdogs when Putin invaded their country, trying to take away their democracy, their sovereignty.

And so what we've been able to do without providing a single American boot on the ground is to provide the support that the Ukrainian people need to stand up to Putin.

We have to recognize that, if Putin is successful in Ukraine, he will not stop there.

And once he moves into a NATO country, this is a whole different conversation.

We cannot afford to sit idly by and not stand up to Putin, and I've been consistently advocating that we get a bipartisan foreign aid package done that includes aid to Ukraine.

- Democratic Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski of Springfield, thank you for joining us.

- Thank you, Jak, for having me.

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