Kamala Harris tells WPR she supports abolishing the filibuster to restore abortion rights
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris told WPR’s Wisconsin Today on Monday that she supports ending the filibuster tactic to restore Roe v. Wade and protect abortion rights across the country.
“I think we should do away with the filibuster tactic for Roe,” Harris said in an interview that aired Tuesday morning. “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be exactly what we need to actually put back into law the protection of reproductive freedom and the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own bodies without their government telling them what to do.”
As vice president in 2022, Harris said she supported ending the filibuster to protect reproductive rights and voting rights. As a presidential candidate in 2019, when she was still a U.S. senator, she also said she would support ending the filibuster to pass environmental legislation known as the Green New Deal.
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A filibuster can be used to try to delay or block a vote on a bill. If it were abolished, the US Senate could pass certain laws with a simple majority without having to overcome a 60-vote hurdle.
Harris’ interview with Wisconsin Today comes days after her fourth campaign visit to the state.
She also discussed her proposals to improve housing and support for first-time home buyers and pointed to her experience as California Attorney General holding polluters accountable.
WPR has also invited former President Donald Trump to appear on Wisconsin Today.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Kate Archer Kent: You’ve said you want to work with Congress to pass federal abortion law. How do you plan to get enough support in Congress to restore abortion rights when you’ll likely have to filibuster the Senate to do so? There are potential legal hurdles.
Kamala Harris: Let me start by saying to all of you listening, you need to re-elect your Senator Tammy Baldwin because we need the votes in Congress to do exactly what you’re saying. And that’s true.
It is well within our power to maintain the majority in the Senate and reclaim the House of Representatives.
I also want to emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and critical to how we move forward, it is also about what we need to do to hold the Senate and win seats in the House of Representatives.
KAK: There is a shortage of affordable housing in Wisconsin. The median home price in our state has increased by 41 percent since September 2020. You have proposed a down payment of up to $25,000 for first-time buyers. What would one have to do to qualify for this type of assistance?
KH: First of all, I want to say that part of the housing problem in our country is that we just don’t have enough supply, so part of my plan is what we need to do to increase supply and help people get their foot in the door, and that includes the $25,000 down payment.
But let me back up for a minute. You see, I grew up a middle-class kid. My mother worked long days, she worked weekends, and she was able to save enough that when I was a teenager, she was able to buy our first house.
So I understand what it means to be a renter for virtually my entire life and know first hand what it means for families to own a home. But it’s hard. It takes a lot of time and that was many, many years ago and the American dream of homeownership has become even more unattainable.
So my policy and my new plan to address and solve this problem is two-fold. First, I will work with the private sector and developers to incentivize them to build three million new homes by the end of my first term. And second, to go back to your point, there is the possibility of a $25,000 down payment for first-time buyers. And that’s the threshold: first-time buyers.
Again, the point is that people need help, literally and figuratively, to get their foot in the door. Once they are able to do that and have enough money for a down payment – people work hard, they save, and the monthly payments will be more attainable for them.
But that down payment is one of the biggest obstacles for first-time buyers to even get into a position where they can afford to buy a home.
Frankly, owning a home is one of the best ways to create family wealth and multigenerational wealth, so the connection between this point and what can be a lifetime of economic opportunity for an individual or family is very clear to me.
KAK: You’ve said that if elected, you would work with private developers to build those three million new homes and rentals during your first term. How will you encourage the construction of new housing that is affordable for the people who need it most?
KH: Part of it is tax relief and creating tax breaks for home builders – but for home builders who have a mission to build homes that are affordable for the middle class, for workers, for families.
Second, we need to cut through the red tape that currently exists at the local, state and federal levels, really, so that we don’t unnecessarily impede the creation of additional housing that lowers the cost of home ownership and rental.
I have a plan to go after corporate landlords. They need to be held accountable. We’ve seen this in so many places across our country. These companies come in, buy a lot of property, and then drive up the prices. It becomes too expensive for people to afford to live where they work and where they want to live.
Here, too, the perpetrators must be held accountable. But this is obviously a multi-pronged approach, because there are many factors that contribute to high rents and affordable housing.
My plan is to try to address many of these issues simultaneously so that we actually have the net effect of reducing costs and making home ownership more affordable.
KAK: Communities across Wisconsin are struggling with toxic PFAS contamination in their water supplies. Our state Department of Natural Resources is invoking a decades-old law to clean up chemicals that are persistently spreading in water and holding companies accountable. If you win the White House, would that lead to more federal regulations on PFAS?
KH: Well, let me start with this. I have been involved in these issues for a long time. Twenty years ago, when I was elected District Attorney of San Francisco, I established one of the first environmental law divisions in a district attorney’s office in the country.
As Attorney General of California, I have been instrumental in ensuring that we enforce rules and standards to reduce PFAS, which we must do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and hold polluters accountable.
This is a long-standing work and, frankly, a deep-rooted and long-standing commitment to address these issues, dating back to my time as Vice President.
We are in the process of providing nearly $2 billion in funding to help Wisconsin and Wisconsin communities combat toxic PFAS chemicals.
Some of our other work, where I’ve played a leadership role, frankly, is addressing and removing lead pipes. And then of course protecting the Great Lakes from the climate crisis.
I just have to also mention that this is in stark contrast to my opponent. Donald Trump refused to protect communities from PFAS, and he has consistently sided with polluters instead of Wisconsin families.
And I think there’s a big contrast here on a very critical issue, which is the public health and welfare of the citizens of Wisconsin.
