ICYMI: RSC Chairman Pfluger Joins Scott Jennings Show to Discuss Victories Republicans Have Secured

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Case You Missed It: Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman August Pfluger joined the Scott Jennings Show to discuss the newly introduced COUNT Act, Democrats defending illegal immigration, President Trump’s bold action to protect the nation’s capital, and the legislative wins of the RSC in the historic Working Family Tax Cuts.

Watch the full interview here or by clicking on the image above.

Highlights from the interview are below: 

Scott Jennings: “Let me talk to you about the census. Back in 2019, President Trump issued an executive order that would put a citizenship question in the census. Biden reversed this order. You have introduced legislation called the Count Act, which would codify the 2019 order. Tell us, where does that stand? And you think we'll see a vote on that in this Congress?”

Chairman Pfluger: “I certainly hope we will. And I think there's political will amongst Republicans to only count citizens. President Trump did have this as an executive order in his first term. The Supreme Court, as it was challenged, actually upheld the fact that we should only count citizens in the the census. Just look at what Biden did for four years. There's no question why [Biden] wanted to overturn this. He wanted to do so because they held open the floodgates of illegal immigration. They poured millions of people into blue states. And we know for a fact that states like California and New York and among others, have too many representatives, have too much funding and have too many electoral votes, which doesn't just impact congressional elections, it actually impacts the presidential election. So this is not just a two or four year deal. This is going to go all the way to 2028 and to 2032 unless we can do something about it. We must only count citizens. I'm proud of this act. I think it's going to receive not just partisan support. I think you're going to see people on the Democrat side are going to go, you know what my district demands that we do things transparently and above board, and we haven't been doing that. The COUNT Act gets us there.”

Scott Jennings: “First of all, over the last few days, we've in our own hemisphere now full of drug traffickers, apparently off the coast of Venezuela. We're seeing a military buildup in the Caribbean and around Central America. What are your thoughts on that? There was some debate over the weekend, obviously, the Vice President and Rand Paul of Kentucky, my home state, got into it a little bit on social media. Where do you stand on using the military for this kind of activity?”

Chairman Pfluger: “Well, I'll start with the threat, and the threat is that hundreds of thousands of young Americans have been killed by drugs, and the threat that the cartels pose for public safety and to the security of this nation is incredibly high, and it's been that way for a long time, and the President has the authority. I'm glad to see him do this. I myself am a veteran, a fighter pilot, and these folks that are deployed down to the Caribbean, I'll just say it's long overdue. It's long overdue that somebody took the initiative to bring the fight to them when they're bringing the fight to our houses, to the tragic ends of teenagers and young people who, unfortunately, are dying at the hands of cartels and the product that they're sending over here. So I'm glad that something is being done about it, and applaud President Trump's efforts on what he has done.”

Scott Jennings: “What does the Republican Study Committee do? I know it's a group of conservatives. You all are discussing policy. What are you doing, you know, goals with the group, and how often do you get folks together?”

Chairman Pfluger: “The Republican Study Committee is, as it's known here in Congress, the RSC, we meet weekly. We have 189 members, but we also have smaller policy-focused groups that get together, those that are focused on energy, are focused on national security, some that are focused on the budget and balancing the budget, and we get together to form policy to push the conference in a more conservative direction. And it's had a huge impact, especially on the Working Families Tax Cut Act, where we actually got money put back into people's pockets. And I'll just tell you one example. As we were building that legislation, you know, we met with the Speaker and leadership and many of the leaders within the Conference Committee, Chairman, and whatnot, we really pushed to make sure that our families and those that are retired would see a noticeable difference in the money back in their pockets.”

Scott Jennings: “Democrats swing into action when it comes to representing what's in the best interest of illegal aliens. Has this been surprising to you? I mean, it honestly is. It's been kind of shocking to me to see just how animated they get on the issue of just deporting people who've come into the country illegally, particularly those who are violent, like Abrego Garcia, who is the poster child for this. You don't want these MS-13 gang bangers in the country, and there's really no question he was here illegally. And yet this is, you know, this is kind of become their latest hill to die on. It's sort of politically shocking to me.”

Chairman Pfluger: “Well, it is, and I know many Democrats who personally and privately disagree. But where are they? When the debate starts, why are they not standing up to that radical left side, which has taken over the Democrat party. So in essence, they've doubled down. What they've doubled down is the complete dissolution of law and order. That's what they're saying, is we don't want law and order in our cities. We don't want law and order at the border. We don't want law and order on the deportation of violent criminals. We stand for the criminals. We stand for those that are victimizing our communities. That's exactly where the line has been drawn. I'll tell you, I think the most politically genius move that President Trump has done is to get into the cities like Washington, DC, and talks about Chicago, of putting federal agents and even National Guard troops into these cities to get rid of the crime.”