Rep. Kathleen Rice Talks Trump, Politics And Getting Things Done

Rep. Kathleen Rice is ready to fight. The Democrat from Garden City says she's listened to the concerns of her constituents and is willing to stand up to current administration when she feels it's right. However, she doesn't want to be obstructionist, and she is keeping an open mind as her term in Congress marches on.

Rice is currently serving her second term as the representative of New York's 4th Congressional District,which includes Baldwin, Bellmore, East Rockaway, East Meadow, the Five Towns, Lynbrook, Floral Park, Franklin Square, Garden City, Hempstead, Long Beach, Malverne, Freeport, Merrick, Mineola, Carle Place, New Hyde Park, Oceanside, Rockville Centre, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Wantagh, West Hempstead, Westbury and parts of Valley Stream.

Congress is a different place than it was when Rice first took office in 2015. But she says she's just as enthusiastic as she was when she was first elected to her position.

Patch had a chance to sit down and talk with the congresswoman about the state of Washington, her district and things happening around the world. Here's part one of our interview.

Patch: How is the term going so far?

Kathleen Rice: I’m just as enthusiastic post-election this race as I was in 2014. I was certainly hoping [Democrats] were going to be in a better position in the House, but we didn't pick up as many seats as we anticipated. It is difficult being in Washington when you’re in the minority, because you have no power to decide what bills are going to come to the floor, what issues are going to be addressed. So I’ve primarily focused, since I was elected, on building relationships across the aisle. Because Republicans have the power.

I have a lot of friends on the Republican side. That’s why I’ve been able to be successful in getting some legislation out of the two committees I’m on -- Veteran’s Affairs and Homeland Security. And that’s the way Washington should work. I think it worked that way in the past. We’re in such a hyper-partisan atmosphere now that it’s debilitating. And people don’t want that. They expect us to go to Washington and get stuff done. So that’s been very frustrating. I haven’t lost hope, because hope springs eternal, as they say. And as my sainted mother used to say, this too shall pass. I think things will get better.

We still have an administration that’s brand new. They deserve the time to figure out where everything is. I think we kind of forget that. There’s really no appropriate training you can get for being President of the United States. And for the first time in our history, we have someone who serving as chief executive who’s never been in the military and never served in government. As a result of that, the learning curve is even steeper than it would be. I just want to get things done, and I hope to do that soon.

Patch: When you first ran, is this what you expected?

Rice: I expected the partisanship. When I ran in 2014 -- I had a great job [as Nassau County District Attorney] that I probably could have had for the rest of my life if I’d wanted. And I say that without arrogance. I loved that job, and people liked the job I was doing and rewarded me by reelecting me twice. I knew that it was a hyper-partisan environment I was getting into. But I campaigned on the fact that I’m not a partisan politician, and I never have been. To the extent I had successes as DA, it always required me to reach across the aisle and work with elected officials on both sides of the aisle. And I made that promise. What I didn’t appreciate is how much of a drag it is to be in the minority. No one tells you that.

Patch: Do you view the Democrats as an opposition party?

Rice: I think there are certain people in the Democratic party that feel that’s the position that we should take as a party. I think that we should be an opposition party to the extent that, when a proposal is made by this administration that we can’t support, we should oppose it. But if there’s a proposal, like an infrastructure bill that’s actually paid for that’s going to help us rebuild roads and bridges and tunnels and everything else we need in our crumbling infrastructure, I’ll sign up for that.

Patch: What do you think of the president’s policies that have been proposed, and how do you think that they are going to affect the district?

The American Health Care Act would not be very American at all, to be honest with you. It was bad. There are Democrats like me who have no ownership over Obamacare -- I didn’t vote for it. I wasn’t there. So I can maybe be a little more objective about what needs to be fixed. You have a humongous group of Democrats that realized that things had to be fixed. And they didn’t even bother to reach across the aisle. They just did it themselves. And what they didn’t count on (although I don’t know how they didn’t) was the two separate factions in the Republican party that wanted to repeal it, but for totally different reasons. And to give one what they want, you turn the other one off. And vice versa. So it was never going to go anywhere.

As far as the budget the president put out, I could never support it. It would decimate Homeland Security. And the NYPD, which is one of the best police departments in the world -- it’s the headquarters for anti-terrorism things we’re doing here in this country. So it would decimate it, and I could never support that.

It kills the environment, and for an island like we live on, climate change is not an academic exercise anymore. It’s the reality of life here for people. And the fact that he’s brought people into the administration that want to debate climate change again is just going against all the scientific proof and is ridiculous. Not only from an environmental standpoint, but also national security. If you want to stop funding to terrorists, you can do it very easily by going to clean energy. That’s a national security issue.

The budget would totally eliminate the funding for the Community Development Block Grants that gave Nassau County $13 million last year. That’s a lot of money. So I could never support the budget. But I’m open. I’m always going to be open. To be fair, I think the president knows the end product isn’t going to resemble [what he proposed].

Patch: Do you think the budget this year is going to be a big fight?

Rice: Yeah. I do. There are programs that work for people, and it looks to me like Republicans just want to gut everything and give tax breaks to the rich. I’m not one of those people that says tax, tax, tax -- increase taxes on the rich. There aren’t enough rich people in our country to get us out of our fiscal hole. But they have to throw these poison pills in, like they want to kill Planned Parenthood. I can’t believe it’s 2017 and we’re talking about defunding Planned Parenthood, which offers quality healthcare to tons of women and men.

I’m hoping that the more moderate voices in the Republican party will recognize that there are a group of Democrats that want to get things done. But we’re not going to compromise on core services. We’re not going to agree to block grant Medicaid or screw around with Social Security or Medicare.

Patch: You sit on the Homeland Security Committee with Congressman Peter King, a Republican. Do you work with him on things, and do you see him as being a partner in budget negotiations?

Rice: I hope he will be. I can’t imagine how Peter King, who is the self-anointed national security expert in New York, how he could agree to cut all this funding, like the Urban Areas Security Initiative funding. It would cut Urban Areas Security Initiative funding to the NYPD by $44.6 million. It would cut New York’s funding through state Homeland Security programs by $19.2 million. How does Peter Kind sign off on something like that? He can’t.

In part two of our interview, Rice talks about constituents' reactions to President Trump's proposals, the situation in Syria and more.

Photo: Alex Costello/Patch