WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Banking, and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, today joined Squawk Box on CNBC to discuss the negotiations between the White House and Congress on the Budget Resolution, along with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovering wasteful and fraudulent spending.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the Budget Resolution negotiations: “There’s been a lot that’s been done by executive order, but in this case, we’re working very closely, again, with the House and the Senate together, and we’ll work closely with the White House as well. We’re coming up into a point where the American public really expects us to deliver. It’s about energy independence. It’s about our national defense. It’s about bringing inflation down. All of this has to be addressed, also in the context of the broader tax cuts that President Trump wants to see in place, because that will have long-term positive implications for the economy. So, it’s a complex process. The House is working at pace on its product. We’re moving forward in the Senate, and I’m certain the White House is going to step in, and we’re going to have to bring all of this together pretty soon […] I think the conversations are on a regular basis between Leader [John] Thune, and also Budget [Committee Chairman Lindsey] Graham, as well as with [the Speaker of] the House, Mike Johnson. I think they’re working very closely. Mike Johnson obviously has a higher hurdle. He’s got a very narrow margin to navigate with. They put a product together right now, a larger product. Senator Graham, the Budget Committee [Chairman], who put something together, that would be a little bit slimmer, really focused just on energy independence, national defense, and the Coast Guard. But what we’re trying to do is keep things moving forward and make certain that we’ve got options as we come into the spring here. But what I want to do, and I’m setting process aside, I’m not too hung up on whether it’s one bill, two bills, or three bills. I think President Trump feels the same way. We just need to deliver on what the American public has asked us to do. And that is to step up, bring inflation under control, get energy independence back on the forefront, and get our southern border corrected and fixed once and for all when it’s all said and done.”
Hagerty on DOGE’s discoveries of wasteful spending: “The critical aspect of it here is that DOGE has been underway for three weeks. We’ve got to start moving in the right direction. We’re looking at a situation now where we’ve got a thirty-seven trillion-dollar budget deficit that is so significant, and we’ve got to begin moving again in the right direction to become more fiscally responsible. I think what DOGE is uncovering is the fact that there’s a considerable amount of waste, fraud, and abuse that’s in the system. If we go about the process of systematically uncovering that, two things will happen. One is that there’ll be immediate opportunities that DOGE will uncover that they can address. The other more significant component is that they’re going to be signaling back to the legislative branch that we’ve got major areas that we can come in, reform, modify, and cut, but the whole streamlining process ought to have, in the long run, not only the impact of reducing the deficit spending, but also increasing our efficiency as a nation. Both of those things combined, I think, will have very positive implications for our deficit, for our fiscal situation, in the long run. And I think it’s something that we’ve absolutely got to get started on. I think the American public are ready for it.”
Hagerty on the success of confirming Trump’s cabinet nominees: “In terms of President Trump’s influence, the American public spoke loud and clear. We’re cognizant of that here in the Senate. The point is President Trump is entitled to his team. He’s put together an incredible team. They’re very disruptive. I think what we want to see, what the American public wants to see, is real change, and you’ve got people coming into office to do that.”
Hagerty on the Democrats in disarray: “The Democrat party is coming unraveled. And I think frankly, a lot of their allies in the media are as well, because I’ve heard the term ‘constitutional crisis’ over and over again. And now that we’re presiding in the United States Senate, because the Republicans have taken the majority, I’ve had the benefit of sitting there on the Senate floor listening to, time and again, my Democrat colleagues coming in saying that if, for example, Russ Vought, who is now our OMB Director, were he to be confirmed as OMB Director, millions of people would die, that we’re in a constitutional crisis. This isn’t happening. There are not people piling up dead on the streets. And this crying wolf constantly, I think, just discredits the Democrat party. They need to figure out where their core is. They need to get back to the basics and join us in governing, rather than just these shrill cries, again, because I think people are just becoming numb to it.”
Hagerty on negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war: “You’ve heard a lot of speculation about what’s taking place. One thing I want to be careful to do, Joe, is not get ahead of the negotiating team. Last night in Riyadh, they agreed to put a high-level team together to focus on bringing this to resolution. I think what we all want to see is an end to the death, to the carnage. What’s happened in Ukraine has been absolutely awful. I think we’d all like to see that come to an end. President Trump has clearly been focused on that. I’ll let that team get to the point of negotiating the details, and the last thing I’m going to do is try to get ahead of them and start speculating right now. But I think one thing is clear: the American public wants to see this come to an end. I think the world needs to see this come to an end as well, and I’m hopeful that that’s going to happen post haste.”
Hagerty on the transparency of the Trump Administration: “In terms of bringing the country along, I’d go back to election day where seventy-five percent of the American public said that we were on the wrong track. They want to see change. I think that opens the opportunity for us. And if you look at what’s happening right now, President Trump is holding daily press conferences. That’s transparency that we’ve not seen in the past four years, and I think that’s refreshing to the American people. As you say, they may or may not agree with a particular policy point, but what we’ve seen is transparency at a level that we have not for many years.”
Hagerty on resignations within the federal government: “This is disruption. Look, I’m from a corporate background, when you’ve got a situation like we’re facing right now, with amounts of debt and deficit spending that we’re dealing with, you’ve got to come in and deal with it in a very rapid pace. Some people are uncomfortable with that; I get it. They can find another place to work. I also lived in the first Administration; I served in President Trump’s first Administration. There were a number of people that resigned for high sounding reasons, but I think it really was having to do with their own career and where they hope to land next. So, I think we should just let this move forward. Again, it’s early in the process. There’s going to be disruption; there’s going to be change, but I think overall we’re moving the direction that the American public wants to see us move.”
###