Interview with U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher on his first term in Congress

September 6, 2018 for WisPolitics.com

— U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher says he’ll continue championing efforts to overhaul an “all so broken” Congress in the wake of two GOP House members facing indictments from the federal Department of Justice.

The Green Bay Republican was active during his first term in working to “drain the swamp” through legislative efforts such as instituting congressional term limits and ending the amount of time members of Congress spend fundraising for reelection.

And he said Congress needs to look at the influence of money in politics as well as the constant re-election cycle following indictments of U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., surrounding misuse of campaign finances and U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-NY, for insider trading.

“The influence of money gets worse every single year, and that’s not the way it should be,” he said in a recent interview with WisPolitics.com. “I think we want people in elected office to spend every waking moment thinking about how they can legislate, how they can represent their constituents and not what can I do so I can raise more money for re election and use my office as a stepping stone or a way to get rich.”

In talking about the issue, Gallagher referenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, as examples that show “how many influence peddlers there are in D.C.”

Manafort was convicted in August for a series of charges related to financial fraud, while Cohen pleaded guilty to charges including tax evasion and violating campaign finance law.

The freshman rep also pledged to continue his efforts to “send a signal that this isn’t a career” by pushing to end congressional pensions and proposing lobbying limits. Gallagher had introduced legislation aiming to establish a five-year ban for members of Congress from engaging in lobbying at the federal level.

“If we continue business as usual in the swamp, in D.C., we are going to continue to get suboptimal results, and, on big issues, we are going to keep punting to the next generation — and that’s my generation,” the 34-year-old former Marine said. “That’s unacceptable.”

— On trade, Gallagher downplayed the Trump administration’s threats to leave Canada out of a potential NAFTA substitute as “more of a negotiation tactic right now than an actual final agreement.”

Gallagher said that while he has only seen the Trump administration’s talking points on a deal that would create a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, “the devil will be in the details.”

While the U.S. and Canada have resumed efforts to renegotiate NAFTA, an agreement Trump has called one of the worst trade deals ever made, the president tweeted Saturday that “there is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal.”

“If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off.”

Gallagher added he has been hearing concerns from 8th CD manufacturers and farmers who have seen price increases as a result of steel and aluminum tariffs imposed earlier this year.

He called tariffs “taxes that distort the free market” and said — referencing a Green Bay manufacturer — the increased prices often get passed down to the taxpayer.

— Meanwhile, Gallagher attributed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to weak foreign policy under past administrations that allowed for a “permissive environment.”

But he praised the Trump administration’s “very hawkish” approach to dealing with Russia, referencing defensive assistance to Ukraine and recent sanctions rolled out in response to a lethal chemical attack in the UK.

“If we are strong with Russia abroad, we also deter their willingness to attack us here at home,” the House Homeland Security Committee member said.

On election security, Gallagher noted the influence of cyber actors could be fought through better communication between federal and state governments.

Gallagher also said Congress is beginning to turn its attention to what he thinks is a bigger problem — Chinese influence and efforts to undermine the U.S. economy.

“Rather than putting tariffs on our allies… it’s [best] to unite the free world in opposition to the predatory practices of China,” he said.