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In this week’s extensive and engaging Washington Watch episode, Tony Perkins takes listeners through the intense negotiations and strategic moves that led to the passage of the reconciliation bill, a crucial part of President Trump’s legislative agenda. With in-depth discussions from political insiders and key leaders like Missouri Congressman Eric Burleson, listeners gain exclusive insights into the complex dynamics behind the scenes on Capitol Hill. From the triumphs and trials of House conservatives to President Trump’s negotiating prowess, this episode offers a front-row seat to political history in the making.
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From the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview, Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
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On this vote, the yeas are 218, the nays are 214. The motion is adopted.
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That was House Speaker Mike Johnson announcing the package of the reconciliation bill, which became the centerpiece of President Trump’s legislative agenda. Welcome to this July 3rd edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Tony Perkins. Thanks for tuning in. Well, after setting a few records along the way, the House finally got the reconciliation bill across the finish line. However, it required intense negotiations between House conservatives and the president himself. We’ll talk with Missouri Congressman Eric Burleson, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, about how it all came together. Also joining us will be Phil Wagman. He’s a White House correspondent for Real Clear Politics. He’ll have some insider analysis on the week that was and what’s up next week. And by the way, one of next week’s key events, a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Monday between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In advance of that meeting, Likud ministers from Netanyahu’s party issued a petition calling on the Israeli government to declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, a significant move. What’s driving the timing of that announcement? We’ll talk with Ruthie Bloom from Israel, a former advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu. And finally, FRC’s Travis Weber and former Georgia Congressman Jody Heiss, the Friday host of Washington Watch, will join me to break down the week’s major developments. All of that and more coming up on this edition of Washington Watch. Well, just a few hours ago, following dramatic negotiations and a record-breaking speech by House Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to delay the final vote, the House did what many thought could not be done before the self-imposed July 4th deadline. It passed the Senate version of its one big, beautiful bill. All but two Republicans voted for the legislation while all Democrats voted against it. However, along the way, intense negotiations brought some side agreements that made the bill more palatable. Here to discuss this, Phil Wagman, who is the White House correspondent for Real Clear Politics. Phil, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. So a lot has happened over the last 36 hours. Actually, if you go back to the Senate passing this, it’s been an intense week in Washington. Give us a sense of how things have unfolded from the White House perspective.
SPEAKER 19 :
From the White House perspective, the most valuable player here is probably Speaker Mike Johnson. He’s got to be the MAGA point guard because he got this thing across the finish line. I’m mixing my metaphors here, but you get the point. I mean, even President Trump and Vice President Vance, they were not certain that this would get passed out of the House ahead of this 4th of July deadline. There was a lot of consternation. There were a lot of members who said that this thing was unpalatable. They couldn’t do it. And in the end, rather than the Obamacare repeal failure that I think defined the first year of Trump’s first term in office. Instead, he gets to put his signature to something that really does make good on the promises that he made on the campaign trail.
SPEAKER 03 :
And there were some, as I mentioned, some intense negotiations between the White House directly, the president himself rolling up his sleeves, getting into these conversations. Of course, I think this is where the president, he kind of relishes the negotiations aspects of this. But in the end, people come away happy. I mean, it’s almost like buying a new car. You know, you feel like you got a deal on both sides. The conservatives did not like the bill that came over from the Senate. No one wanted it to go back to the Senate because who knows what would have come back if it came back. This was a win-win for everybody.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, I mean, certainly the spending levels in here would probably give Dave Ramsey a heart attack. It’s not exactly the most fiscally conservative package that Congress has ever put forward. But to your point, there were intense negotiations, and a lot of these House Freedom Caucus members who said that they were a no, in the end, they folded. the narrative right now is that they didn’t get anything but i think that you’re really putting your finger on the main issue which is that there were a number of side deals and my suspicion is that we’re going to learn a lot more about those what i mean by that is different ways that the president can execute some of the things in this law. I’m still checking with my sources. I’m trying to run this down. But I think there are some things that are going to make conservatives happy. Otherwise, though, I mean, the White House is thrilled. The one big, beautiful bill, now they’re calling it the bridge to the golden future. And Caroline Levitt told us just a little while ago, there’s an encapsulation of Trump’s entire agenda.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Phil, I can assure you that in the days ahead, you will see that the Freedom Caucus guys didn’t fold. In fact, we’re going to be talking with Eric Burleson a little bit later. There were what I would describe as conservative offsets that the executive branch can do through policy that were kind of offsetting the amended aspects of the bill from the Senate that made the bill kind of unpalatable to conservatives. For instance, the Planned Parenthood defunding went from 10 years down to one. Transgender funding was completely out. So those were a part of those intense conversations. And I think, as you said, that information will be coming public a little bit more in the days ahead. But this does really cement the president. I mean, so This has been the focus since January. Now it’s across the line six months. What does this set the stage for next?
SPEAKER 19 :
I think this sets the stage for his legacy. I don’t mean that as a cop-out answer here, but compare where we are today from where we were in 2017, when there was a very tense standoff with North Korea, when Obamacare repeal was faltering in the Senate and would eventually fail there, and when Donald Trump was really bedeviled by the Mueller investigation. It’s night and day now. This is completely different. and i think with this bill in particular what you see is sure there’s some typical gop framework but more than anything this is the flavor of donald trump he got the no tax on tips the no tax on social security codification of his 2017 tax law uh… there’s border security funding in here uh… ice uh… issues me borders are tom home and he tells me that the portions are gonna skyrocket as a result of this bill and then there’s also you know increase funding for the military so i think what this shows is that you know donald trump he’s kind of a disease enough of his power and i’m not certain what comes next there’s there’s gonna be uh… you know opportunity for another reconciliation bill perhaps next year uh… but we’ll have to it will have to see you know donald trump uh… This is his party, and he, with his allies, delivered.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me go back to, as you said, mixing your metaphors, the point guard there with the speaker running that. So let’s talk about that for a moment because now the attention in Congress turns to the appropriations, something that actually hasn’t happened. The normal appropriations process hasn’t happened in almost two decades. And so they’ve already passed one appropriations bill off of the House. They’ve got, I think, three others have come out of committee. So they still have about nine or so to go. Are we going to see that happen in Congress where fiscal responsibility policy comes back into play through that normal process? Perhaps.
SPEAKER 19 :
I mean, Congress really does enjoy their end of the year omnibus and cromnibus bills. Generally, when there’s a deadline, that’s when the work gets done. But, you know, to your point about Speaker Johnson, he was able to get this bill finished when there was an arbitrary deadline. The 4th of July is just something that Donald Trump wanted. If the House failed If a number of these holdouts didn’t switch their vote, I mean, it would have been a delay. It would have been a setback and a disappointment for the White House, certainly. But they would have had another bite at the apple. I think that with a funding package at the end of the year, typically when it bumps up against the Christmas holiday, that’s much more of a do or die situation. And I’m not certain if some of these fiscal conservatives are going to be even more aggressive. Certainly, they’re going to have an incentive when they see in the press that a lot of people are saying that they didn’t actually get anything. But I think to your point a moment ago, that the implementation is crucial here. Maybe that lights a fire underneath them. We’ll see. But the closer you get to the end of the year, the closer these guys are thinking about campaigning for reelection. This was the big lift, and they accomplished what they wanted to.
SPEAKER 03 :
It certainly was. The other aspect you have on appropriations, which is going to make it difficult, is you have to reach the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. You pointed again to Mike Johnson. How did John Thune, as the Senate leader, the majority leader in the Senate, how did he do?
SPEAKER 19 :
I think that he looked at the same thing that haunts Johnson. Johnson is haunted by the failure of Obamacare in 2017, and this time around, Thune clearly made a calculation that that wasn’t going to happen. There was a lot of wrangling with the moderates and conservatives, but he got this thing across the finish line, not to detract from Leader Thune’s accomplishment here, But I think that every senator wants to grow up and be president, and they’re all sort of in their own silos. Johnson was confronting the House Freedom Caucus, who was promising to vote as a bloc. In this case, I think the big difference between past legislative fights with Trump and the one big beautiful bill is he really has remade the Republican Party in his image. And some of these folks who were roadblocks last time around, like Mitt Romney or Jeff Flake, those guys are gone. The Republican Party has transformed, really, in Trump’s image.
SPEAKER 03 :
Interesting point. I think you’re right. Phil, we just have about two minutes left. I want to shift to next week after the Fourth of July break. By the way, I hope you have a great Fourth of July. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be here for a meeting with the president on Monday to discuss. a ceasefire for Gaza. But in advance of that, and I’m going to talk about this in the next segment, but in advance of that, the Likud ministers issuing a statement calling on the Israeli government to declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. Is there some fear that the Trump administration may be pushing for that old two-state solution?
SPEAKER 19 :
We’re going to see the details. We’ve heard some leaked out about different governing structures. But I think that the through line here is that when Donald Trump is solidly on Israel’s side, he’s up to the hilt. I mean, we saw that with these strikes on Iran, the most fateful decision. He was willing to do that. But also, the president has been more than willing to push back against Bibi Netanyahu. He has been more than happy to give him not the whole loaf, but half. So we’ll see how those negotiations play out. But very much, I think that Prime Minister Netanyahu, he’s going to be coming to the White House certainly after his armed forces pulled off an incredibly successful attack. But he’s going to be coming there in debt to the United States because the United States is the one that finished the job with those 14 bunker-busting bombs that dropped on Fordow and other nuclear facilities in Iran. I think that Donald Trump, not Bibi Netanyahu, is going to be driving that meeting.
SPEAKER 03 :
We will see next week. I think you may be right. Certainly, President Trump is really shaping that discussion with coming in behind Israel and taking on Iran. I think also you’ve got negative news coming out of Gaza. It’s going to set back, I think, the prime minister just a bit. Phil, always great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. Happy Independence Day. Thank you. All right. Same to you. I think it’s going to be very interesting to see. Israel started the fight, but the United States under Donald Trump came in and finished that off when it came to Iran. But the expansion, and we’re going to talk about this in the next segment, but the expansion of the Abraham Accords, which is a real possibility now, I think has Israel a bit nervous about what they might have to get to secure, give to secure those territories. Hey, don’t go away. We’re coming back right after this.
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The family is the oldest, most tested, and most reliable unit of society. It is divinely created and sustained, and yet there are those who are always tampering with its values and structure. That’s why we need organizations like the Family Research Council that can effectively defend and strengthen the family.
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Family Research Council began over 40 years ago, like all great movements of God, with prayer. Today, rooted in the heart of the nation’s capital, FRC continues to champion faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
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FRC is one of those bright lights that helps us focus on true north. And I shudder to think had they not been here that it could have been worse, worse, worse.
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The Family Research Council is key. It’s one of a handful of groups that I think will determine whether our children live in a country that enjoyed all of the freedom and all the opportunity that we enjoyed in this great land.
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It’s just a wonderful parachurch organization that doesn’t seek to take the place of the church, but it seeks to assist the family and the church as we try to move forward successfully, not in a defensive mode, but in an offensive mode as we seek to live our lives according to the Holy Scriptures.
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FRC is not going to be whooped.
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You know, we’re going to fight. We’re going to take a stand. And again, we don’t retreat. You will never see in front of this building here in Washington, D.C., a white flag flying. We will never step back. We will never surrender. And we will never be silent.
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Hello, friends, this is Tony Perkins. You know what? We just finished our 21 day family Bible challenge through the book of Matthew. And if you joined us, I pray that it has already borne fruit in your life and in your home as you place the Lord and his word at the center of your home. Now, our journey through the Bible doesn’t end here, though. The challenge was a part of our stand on the word Bible reading plan. And from here, we’re going to cover the rest of the New Testament. And now that we finished the book of Matthew, let me ask you, would you consider joining us for the rest of the journey through the word of God? In 10 to 15 minutes a day, you’ll see how the good news of Jesus transformed the lives of common people, people just like you and me, and how those same people transformed the known world through the power of the Holy Spirit. I invite you to continue the journey with me and discover the life-enriching power of the Word of God. Visit frc.org slash Bible for a reading plan. That’s frc.org slash Bible to learn more. Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for tuning in. All right. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as I mentioned, will be in Washington next week to meet with President Trump to discuss a ceasefire for Gaza. The arrangements have pretty much been made. It’s whether or not Hamas will join in. Now, in advance of this trip, as I mentioned, the Likud ministers have called for the Israeli government to declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. I think it’s probably a historic statement, certainly significant. Joining me now to discuss this and more live from Tel Aviv is Ruthie Bloom, columnist and senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate. She is also a former advisor at the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Ruthie, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for staying up late and joining us tonight.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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So let me ask you this. How significant is this meeting next week between President Trump and the prime minister from the perspective there in Israel?
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very significant, as have been all his meetings with President Trump. And we’ve seen the results of those meetings. I mean, let’s not forget this amazing victory, that joint victory that Israel and the United States had in defanging Iran’s nuclear program.
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Now, as I, you know, and I’m pretty close to this, my read on this is I see in my previous meetings with the prime minister over, I think I’ve met with him three times since October the 7th. Number one, get the hostages back. Number two, eliminate the threat of Hamas. Number three on the list was the existential threat of Iran. Now, Iran being taken out, as you said, defanged their proxy network in shambles. Now there’s this discussion, once again, of expanding the Abraham Accords, which we see Saudi Arabia, Qatar potentially recognizing Israel. I mean, we could see peace, at least a manageable peace is in the foreseeable future. But there are some like Saudi Arabia and others wanting to say, well, we’ve got to have a two state solution. We’ve got to find a state for the Palestinians. We’ve got to carve out some land for them. Was this statement by the Likud ministers kind of preemptive to make sure that’s not even on the table?
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m sure that was part of it. But another part is the Abraham Accords, when the Abraham Accords were announced and they were signed in September 2020, during President Trump’s first term in office. Ahead of that announcement, Prime Minister Netanyahu had said that on July 1st, we’re going to declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. That was in 2020. And then because of the Abraham Accords, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that he would postpone that in order to sign the Abraham Accords, probably because President Trump asked him to. And he agreed because this was so important to sign those accords. And now that we’re back again with discussions of the Abraham Accords, I think that these ministers, also this is the first time that Israel has had a completely right-wing government with many religious members, that should take the opportunity to remind Prime Minister Netanyahu that this is still on the table, especially ahead of his trip to Washington, and especially given the fact that Israelis understand that a two-state solution is just ridiculous. There is no two-state solution.
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Well, post-October the 7th, which Gaza was a de facto two-state solution, and we saw that that was nothing more than a launchpad for terrorism, the polling in Israel is very clear on this. I think there’s only like 20% or so of the population will entertain that old notion of a two-state solution. So it’s clear that the Israeli public does not have a tolerance whatsoever for this continued international conversation of Israel once again being forced to give up land for peace. It doesn’t work.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, it’s always land for war. It has been proven again and again and again. Israel has done everything to make peace with the Palestinians and always conceding territory, and it never works. The opposite happens. Now, it’s not only the October 7th massacre and the war in Gaza that makes Israelis understand that this is just impossible. It’s that there’s a huge amount of terrorism going on in Judea and Samaria. And the Palestinian Authority, that was a de facto state, sort of, according to the Oslo Accords, it was a pre-state, didn’t even condemn the October 7th massacre.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Well, and also, you know, people in the United States who don’t necessarily know the geography of Israel, but when you compare Judea and Samaria, which is the heart of Israel geographically and from its heritage standpoint, it’s 24 times larger than the Gaza Strip. So if you consider all of the problems that have emerged from Gaza, just imagine magnifying that by 24 times.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, exactly. But you know, the discussion about the yanking Jews out of their homeland in order to make room for a Palestinian state, that was just part of it, that there are many more people in Judea and Samaria. But this is the biblical heartland of the Jewish people, number one. Number two, it is not occupied by Israel. First of all, Israel cannot occupy its heartland. Three, when it was occupied, it was occupied by Jordan. And in the Six-Day War, when Jordan joined in with all these Arab armies, Israel. That was when Israel won the war, and that is when those territories came back to Israel, so to speak, and it had nothing to do with Israeli occupation.
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I know, I like, I’m trying to remember which member of the Knesset made this point, it may have been Ohad Tal, said, how can you occupy Judea? That’s where the term Jew came from. How can you occupy the very place that you came from that your name was derived from? I think it’s important as the American people being educated and standing with the right of Israel to declare sovereignty over the entire region of that country that is there. Anytime we get into dividing the land, it never works out well for Israel or for the United States. Ruthie, I got 30 seconds left. I’ll give you the final word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, my final word is that I’m hoping that this summit between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump will reveal some kind of bombshell, so to speak, about and some way to get the hostages out of Gaza without kowtowing to Hamas.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Well said. Ruthie, thank you so much for joining us again. Thanks for staying up late.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you so much.
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And folks, if you’d like to weigh in on this, text LETTER to 67742. That’s LETTER to 67742. Stay with us.
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for Bible believing Christians to know what God’s Word says on these issues and to learn how they can apply it to their lives. And we believe that the more Christians that we equip, that’s how we’ll change the nation.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for tuning in. Well, of course, the big news going into the July 4th weekend, President Trump’s signature piece of legislation, the one big, beautiful bill, has passed the House. But it didn’t get there without plenty of twists and turns. The bill gained support from House conservatives after President Trump made some key executive policy commitments to help offset the Senate’s more problematic revisions. Joining me now to talk about this, Congressman Eric Burleson, who is a member of the Pro-Life Caucus and the Values Action Team and the House Freedom Caucus. He was a part of the negotiations process as this unfolded this week. Congressman, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks so much for joining us. Great to be back, Tony. Now, you may not be able to get into all the details because some of this stuff is still being worked out. But tell us a little bit about the negotiations that paved the way for a number of the conservative Freedom Caucus members to get to a place where they could support this bill.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, thank you. And thank you for for that. for seeing the bill for what it was and not being just a cheerleader as an organization. You guys really did your due diligence and saw the bill the way that we saw it, which was that it came back from the Senate with some flaws in it. And we felt like we had to address some of those flaws before we felt comfortable moving forward. And I think that I can stress what those flaws were, that the Planned Parenthood language Instead of a 10-year ban, it being a one-year ban, you had the transgender language that for government funding for transition surgeries and gender affirming care, that language was thrown out. We had a lot of language related to the Inflation Reduction Act, the Green New Deal stuff that was watered. We felt like it had been watered down. And so the fiscal costs of the bill, because they made the tax cuts permanent, we have grave concerns about our national debt and the deficits. And so those were all things that we brought to the White House and to the administration. And we were willing to give them the latitude to figure out how we can address those concerns without directly putting it into the bill, because we felt that there was a huge risk If we were to get those things in the bill and then send it back to the Senate, because who knows if Lisa Murkowski or someone like her gets their hands on it again, they’re probably going to make it worse.
SPEAKER 03 :
So, I mean, this was really you are talking about the… President of the United States, known for his negotiations, and he knows it’s a two-way street. And so conservatives negotiated with what I would describe as conservative offsets to what the Senate did to the bill. As you talked about Planned Parenthood defunding, it was 10 years when it left the House, it came down to one. But you were able to engage the president and you in particular, I’m told by those in the meeting, helped really lean in on the issue regarding the abortion pill, the abortion drug, and getting the administration to a place to have a policy there that would be reflective of its pro-life credentials.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s right. And so whenever I had an opportunity to talk directly to the president, I stressed to him, Mr. President, Missouri is in a lawsuit. Our Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued the Biden administration because after you left office, Mr. President, Joe Biden eliminated the restrictions on mifepristone and these basically abortion by male procedures. And I said, and it’s just been devastating. I said, there’s young women, some of them are dying. Many of them are getting gravely sick. And it’s just irresponsible. Even if you’re not pro-life, it’s not good for women’s health. And of course, you and I are strongly pro-life and worry about the baby as well. And the president, his staff did not think that he would be receptive, but I think he was extremely receptive. We had a great conversation about it, and we’re going to be continuing that conversation. And I really welcome your help in this as we educate the president. He wants to learn more about this topic, and he’ll learn all sides of this before he makes a decision. But at least we’re able to move the needle.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think you’re absolutely right. I think the resistance that we have encountered before has been the staff around him. But I think when you his position has been post Dobbs, the states have a right to protect the unborn. Now, I think it’s for at every level of government, but that’s his his his position. And the abortion pill is undermining that. Because states like Missouri, states like my home state of Louisiana, who also they’re actually suing or they’ve indicted a doctor from New York that has been mailing abortion pills into the state of Louisiana. So I think it’s consistent with his stated policy. And I appreciate the fact that the Freedom Caucus members didn’t. conform to the pressure to get something done, but rather they looked at this objectively and were willing to take the political pressure to negotiate a better outcome. And I think that’s what we have here. I think we have one big, beautiful bill that lost a lot of its glamour in the Senate. Well, I think it’s now got a good coat of makeup and it’s ready for primetime now.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, some of these changes that we got or these executive actions will be made clear soon. Some of them not so clear. It may take a few months for people to see and for the White House to reveal. But I’m confident that President Trump and his team will follow through on their agreements with us. And look, it was not easy and it’s not fun. to be in the middle of the meat grinder in the arena and have the whole world screaming at you, your phone blowing up because people in district are having their phone blow up. It’s not fun, but you know what? That’s how we save this country. We need people to be strong and not be a rubber stamp and fight for what’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and I appreciate, Eric, you doing that, and I appreciate you coming on the program today to talk about it. Have a great Fourth of July weekend, and we’ll talk to you soon. Folks, stick with us. We’re coming back with more Washington Watch on the other side of the break as we continue to take a look at the one big, beautiful bill.
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Family Research Council is committed to advancing faith, family, and freedom from the East Coast to the West. So FRC is going to Southern California for this year’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, October 17th and 18th at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills. Join us for this powerful gathering of Christians desiring cultural renewal and spiritual revival. The Pray, Vote, Stand Summit brings together Christian leaders, issue experts, and government officials for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action. Together, we will seek God’s guidance for our nation and engage in meaningful discussions on the intersection of faith, government, and culture. If the spiritual foundations and the cultural walls of our nation are to be rebuilt, we all have a role to play. May we each find our place on the wall as we build for biblical truth. Register now at PrayVoteStand.org. That’s PrayVoteStand.org.
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How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to this Thursday edition of Washington Watch. Be sure and check out the website, tonyperkins.com. Better yet, get the Stand Firm app and you can keep up with Washington Watch every day, no matter where you are. You can also get our news and commentary from a biblical perspective, the Washington Stand, and I believe, most importantly, our daily devotional, Stand on the Word. All that can be found on the Stand Firm app. Well, our word for today comes from Luke chapter 2, where Mary and Joseph present Jesus at the temple for the first time. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” So led by the Spirit, Simeon entered the temple just as Mary and Joseph arrived with Jesus. He took the child in his arms, praised God, and declared this. For my eyes have seen your salvation, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and Mary marveled at his words. Imagine their awe as this spirit-filled man confirmed what they already believed but would need to cling to in the years ahead. Like Simeon, we’re called to be spirit-led. You never know what a word of encouragement offered in faith and obedience may strengthen someone for the road ahead. To find out more about our journey through the Bible text, Bible to 67742. Well, to say that it’s been a wild week would be an understatement. But it culminated today with the House passing the Senate’s version of the one big beautiful bill. Now, there were a lot of negotiations behind the scenes over the last 36 hours, sleepless nights and tireless efforts. not just for those on the Hill or in the White House, but our team also here at FRC working around the clock to make sure that faith, family, and freedom were represented in the final outcome. Joining me now to discuss this, Travis Weber, FRC’s Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs, and Jody Heiss, former Georgia Congressman and now FRC Senior Fellow, as well as the Friday host here of Washington Watch. Travis, Jody, thanks for joining me. Thank you, Tony. Travis, let me start with you. I know Kana Gonzalez, who was on last night, he worked through the night, and so we’re letting him take a little nap. Talk a little bit about the efforts of your team and how they were engaged in the process.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, so Tony, this has to do with the one big beautiful bill, right, that many people may have seen in the news and see a lot being written about it, a lot being talked about it. It’s in the headlines in D.C. as Trump’s been pushing for it, the president’s been pushing for it, the House and Senate are engaged on it, right? But we’re looking out for the way this piece of legislation deals with these issues of faith, family, freedom. specifically the protection of the unborn and the way it’s dealing with the abortion issue and the human dignity of us being created male and female and gender transition procedures for minors, an issue that’s been with our nation in our nation’s spotlight for several years now. So these are things that we’re looking for. as they intersect with this bill that’s many, many pages, a lot of text, a lot of issues being addressed. So the framework, the analysis is through that lens, Tony, as the team engages. So we’re in the process of analyzing the text that’s being considered, but then assessing the many amendments that are being considered, negotiations, different positions of, as you will often note, a deliberative body in the case of the House and the Senate addressing a mammoth piece of legislation like this. All of those factors go into the process, and this is why it often requires late hours as the process, the work of the House and Senate are going into the late hours. And, Tony, this is the way in which we’re approaching it and zeroing in on the issues that we care about.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Jody, you’ve been there on the Hill for some of those late night votes, but you’ve worn both hats. You’ve been inside Congress. You’ve also been a key part of the Family Research Council. And I know that you were on the phone talking with colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus throughout the night. And we just had Eric Burleson on the program on the previous segment. And he was talking about how helpful it was to have FRC not join the crowd of cheerleaders. In fact, I think we were the only organization that said, wait, I think we can do better than what the Senate sent over. How important is that when you’re on the inside trying to work for a better outcome and you look outside and there’s very few allies on the outside?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Tony, you just used a key term that I think a lot of people probably perhaps miss or don’t fully understand the power of it, and that is providing cover. There is enormous pressure when you come into a vote series like what took place last night, enormous pressure. even the building up to it, not just the vote series itself, but the process of getting there and the whip process where they’re trying to find out how you’re going to vote before it comes to the House floor and all these types of things. Enormous pressure. And in the midst of that environment comes an organization like FRC. And let me just publicly say a huge, huge thank you to Travis, to his team, to Kana, to FRC, FRC Action, and Tony, to you personally for your involvement. I cannot overemphasize the power and the impact, the significance that FRC played in what took place last night, much of which we will see unfold in the weeks and months to come. But to provide cover at a time like this means that in essence, when you have an organization like FRC that carries a big stick, where you have conservatives who want to have good scores and a good relationship with FRC as one of, if not the most premier Christian organization on Capitol Hill. People want to have a good score with FRC. And so when FRC comes into a picture like last night, holding up the biblical truth of marriage and life and these type of things of the transgender, male and female, all these type of things, it provides representatives hiding, if you will, behind the cover of FRC to stand for their biblical values as well, and to do so with a large organization that is going to carry with it many, many other representatives. And so for the presence of FRC to be there last night and to provide that kind of cover and that type of capacity to stand for biblical truth in the midst of enormous pressure cannot, cannot be overstated.
SPEAKER 03 :
When you look at the process, and I know that, you know, I had a conversation with the Speaker. They want to get this bill through, but there were some major changes in the Senate. And fortunately, the members of the House Freedom Caucus said it’s just too much. We’ve got to negotiate some… Now, for the bill to go back to the Senate, I understand that would be, as Eric Burleson pointed out, Congressman Burleson pointed out a few moments ago. I mean, they understood that was a nonstarter because what would come back would probably be even worse than what the Senate sent over the first of this week. But this administration was willing to make some policy changes. compromises. So, Travis, when we look at kind of the two big issues that we were concerned about was Planned Parenthood going from 10 years defunding down to a year and then, of course, the transgender, forcing taxpayers to fund transgender procedures. They got some major offsets from the administration some commitments. They’re looking at the mefaprestone, the abortion pill, which is now 63% of abortions. That’s being mailed into states. That’s something that, as Eric Burleson talked about earlier, they’re going to have conversations following up with the president and his administration.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, Tony, that’s that’s right. And so for any folks looking at this process and thinking, well, well, that the House bill has one year, you know, provision for Planned Parenthood funding to be cut off for a year. What’s wrong with that? Well, of course, that is that is good. But we have to examine the larger context. The original House bill, the 10 year ban on that funding. It goes to the Senate. The Senate drops that to one year and they cut the provision was cut out. That would have barred or that would have barred tax dollars from going to gender transition procedures for minors. So those areas we were obviously concerned about and that’s what we’re working hard to see them addressed and ultimately could not be in. We’re not inserted back into the bill or in the final legislative text. But Tony, as you’re referencing, we want to advocate for strong positions on those areas and so because of of the reduction the the change that we saw in the senate we’re looking at what else can be done and executive action in these areas is something that can be taken and adva we can see advancement to protect lives in the first one, the chemical abortion issue, really abortion drug, bifepristone, that the FDA has had history of regulating or offering safety protocols going back to the year 2000. And over the years, we see different approaches to this, but clearly an area that needs to be examined by the FDA right now. to to increase the safety protocols over the dispensing of that abortion drug which is now being trafficked across state lines mailed around the country to different states to circumvent state pro-life protections for women this is an area that the administration can address and take action on the second one being No federal dollars going to any gender transition procedures for adults or children, period, flat ban. Our tax dollars should not be funding them for children or adults. So that’s an area that we would have seen addressed in the original House-passed bill. It was taken out of the Senate. So this is an area that we at Family Research Council still very much care about and want to see addressed.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and we’ll see, as Jody mentioned, the days ahead, some of these things, how they actually take shape and come out. But the Freedom Caucus members that are part of these negotiations are very confident, very encouraged to the place where they all came to a yes vote on this bill. Jody, you’ve been in some of those negotiation sessions. Congressman Burrell said a few moments ago when we were talking, said it can be uncomfortable. Describe what that’s like, you know, sitting there in the Oval Office trying to negotiate with the negotiator, the one who did the art of the deal.
SPEAKER 04 :
I mean, again, the pressure, the intensity of the moment is is indescribable. But, you know, I was in a Freedom Caucus meeting, I don’t know, probably a month or so ago when they were talking about this one big, beautiful bill, even then anticipating what was coming, anticipating. that the hour would be called upon them to stand in the gap and to negotiate and to negotiate in an authentic kind of way without caving. And so this is not something that just happened over the last 24, 36 hours. This has been anticipated. literally for weeks. And they knew, the Freedom Caucus did, that they were going to have to stand in the game, that they were going to have to stand strong. They didn’t know at that moment exactly what the issues were, but they were even then anticipating what some of those issues were going to be. And they were developing a strategy as to how to stand in the midst of that. So I think they went into these last couple of days well-prepared mentally, spiritually, and politically, knowing what had to be done for the good of our country, not just for political purposes. And I believe they went into the scenario about as prepared as they possibly could. And boy, I tell you, I’m just extremely proud. And I will say, too, that The Senate version, I totally agree. We could not have sent another bill back to the Senate. It would have been disastrous. So passing the Senate bill and then, in addition to that, getting some negotiating policy commitments on the table were huge. And these are not going to just simply be show votes. By my conversations, Tony, I am convinced that many of these members who were holdouts ended up coming on board because they are convinced that the things they negotiated for are actually going to become a reality.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. In show votes, none of these guys were willing to risk what they did for show votes. And I will say this. I had a similar experience in the first Trump administration. Back, you might remember the repeal and replace of Obamacare. The Freedom Caucus was kind of a holdout, and we were— a similar situation back then negotiating with the administration. And that’s how we got the executive order on religious freedom within the federal government. And they followed through on that. They did that. And so that’s a part of the legislative process of the give and take where you can advance. But in this particular case, there were clear offsets to the problems created by the Senate amendment. So, again, I can’t say enough good things about the Freedom Caucus at this moment because not only did they take a stand, but they championed the moral and social aspects of this bill that had been assaulted by the Senate and by the parliamentarian. And that’s a big statement.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s a huge statement, Tony, and I couldn’t agree with you more. The attacks were not just from the Senate and the Senate parliamentarian, but the Democratic Party as a whole. This whole bill, keep in mind, just for context, this whole bill, we are here because of horrendous decisions that have been made in the previous administration that are now being corrected or at least attempted to be. So there’s a lot of factors involved in this that need to be understood as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I assume, Jody, that you were probably relieved that you’re no longer in Congress. You didn’t have to sit through Hakeem Jeffrey’s record-breaking speech today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, when you see Hakeem take that long, you know there’s something good about to happen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, by the way, folks, we still want to lean on this administration, encourage them to take the right stand on the issue of chemical abortion because literally it is killing people. And so text the word life to 67742. Sign the petition. We’ll add your name to it. We’re going to back up the Freedom Caucus. with this information so that as they continue these conversations, we can get some positive outcomes. So that’s life to six, seven, seven, four, two Jody Heiss, Travis Weber. Thanks so much for joining me today. Have a great 4th of July weekend. And Jody, by the way, you can take off tomorrow. Okay. Okay. All right, folks, again, text the word life to 67742. The reason I said Jody can take off tomorrow, we got a special July 4th edition of Washington Watch. I’m going to let Jody take off the 4th of July and spend it with the family and grandkids. And I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July celebrating our freedom. But most of all, remember, our freedom is in Christ. That’s where true freedom is discovered. Until next time, keep standing.
SPEAKER 18 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family, and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
