Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat from Washington state, says Congress needs to prioritize issues that everyday voters care about, like regulating too-bright headlights and reducing exposure to microplastics, in order to help lawmakers climb out of the hyperpartisan mess on Capitol Hill.
“Most Americans don’t view themselves primarily through a partisan lens,” Gluesenkamp Perez told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman on the On NOTUS podcast. “They view it through the relationships around them and what they do for the day.”
Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez is On NOTUS: An Unlikely Path to Congress
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez joins NOTUS’ Reese Gorman to discuss how her religion motivates her and how Washington state is different from D.C.
Gluesenkamp Perez, a second-term lawmaker, says partisanship has “become the point of the legislative agenda.” She is a co-chair of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition and frequently frustrates her fellow Democrats for not toeing the party line.
Earlier this year, Gluesenkamp Perez championed an amendment to investigate overly bright headlights, which passed the House Appropriations Committee unanimously in July.
“I’ve had members of Congress tell me, ‘Oh my God, someone’s finally doing something about headlights,’” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “It’s like, this was always available to you to look at how the regulatory world has not kept pace with the technology and just what the everyday experiences are.”
Gluesenkamp Perez said her perspective on the importance of everyday issues has roots in her religious upbringing.
“We’re called to be in the church because you ought to know not just what’s going on in your own tax bracket but in society at large,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “It’s an accountability toward each other and not just being able to build bigger barns and store things up on Earth but to have a longer view of what life is worth living and what you want to be doing with your time.”
She added that the distance between congressional and constituent priorities is the result of a concentrated pool of government staffers.
“If you are actually running a farm, you can’t walk away for a summer internship and build the kind of résumé that most congressional offices are looking for,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “And so, it’s become a really specialized, sanitized, scientific lens, and I think that that is pretty corrosive to political discourse that’s reality-based.”
On NOTUS is a weekly podcast in which host Reese Gorman talks to lawmakers about how they got to Washington, D.C., and what motivates them. You can download or listen here.
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