Q&A: Rep. Steve Pearce tests water for 2018 run for governor

CLOVIS — Steve Pearce, Republican representative for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, was in the region Wednesday morning to discuss jobs, immigration and health care.

He said he was also here to gauge public feedback on his prospect of running for governor in 2018.

Here are excerpts from an interview:

Question: What brings you to Clovis?

Pearce: This is our district work period that is around Memorial Day and that’s always a big time for all of us. Then we generally take the next week here while we’re in the district. So we’re just traveling around New Mexico.

So I swing up here and I represent right up into this edge (near Clovis). When I come into Clovis people say ‘I can’t vote for you, but you can vote for us.’ Meaning that we have a lot of the same values.

We’re also ... very aware that people are asking us if we will run for governor and some people are asking us why would we run for governor. So we expect those kinds of questions.

I haven’t made a decision yet, but I tell them I’m here to get input if you have ideas.

Q: Any insights so far from the tour?

I think we’re all concerned about where New Mexico is. I tell people that it just breaks my heart: this state is better than dead last in many regards in the good things and dead first in the things that are bad.

I’m worried about the grandkids, if there’s going to be nothing here for them, frankly.

My grandson wants to major in aerospace engineering and there’s not many high tech jobs in New Mexico so those are things that need to be fixed. It’s a modern economy, so let’s do what we can.

Then there’s the poverty. You just can’t live in prosperity and watch your neighbor in desperate poverty, and we’ve got some of the deepest pockets of poverty in the entire country here in New Mexico. And I think that as a state, as individuals we should be called to do better and to integrate those people into the workforce and help them get the skills to reclaim lives.

The drugs obviously are a huge problem and contributing factor, but let’s do what we can to cure those deep-rooted systemic poverty issues and I think all of New Mexico will lift itself up, because your heart and your spirit improve when you see those having tough times start to succeed.

Q: There’s a lot to think about, especially if you are considering a run for governor.

It’s a huge deal because I’m currently in Congress and could not run for the Congressional seat (if I ran for governor), and people have a justified concern that I might lose that seat if I didn’t run.

I tell them the fear of losing the state is a bigger fear. You reach a point where you let enough of your brain capital disappear, you let enough of your young people leave that you literally don’t have enough of the intuitive knowledge that is necessary to build an economy.

We have companies leaving New Mexico all the time. So, let’s figure out why they’re leaving. Let’s stop the outflow; let’s then start developing a culture in the state that will attract new people.

People want to bring new businesses to New Mexico. They like the open air, the clean skies, they like our environment, they like the landscape. We just make it so hard for businesses to do their work here. The states around us have prospered and we haven’t.

Q: Where do you think revitalizing the state economy begins?

It begins in the attitude of the government towards businesses. Business owners tell me that the government seems to tell them that you’re lucky to be able to do business in New Mexico. The attitude should be that we as New Mexicans are lucky to have you as a business owner here providing jobs for us.

So usually attitudinal problems just need a new point of view. You need to change your reference point. Change the attitude of the agencies: make it inviting for people to bring business here and we’ll get more expansion.

Second thing that we need to do is that, especially around Air Force bases, we used to have a lot of contracting available on bases. The military and all the agencies have gone to these massive, large nationwide contracts, to where somebody living in Clovis probably can’t bid on something nationwide.

So I have already approached the Air Force and the different branches of the military. Let’s start breaking these big bundled contracts up to where local people can really get a better deal — a better deal for the Air Force and a better deal for our local contractors. We need the economic strength.

Q: What are your priorities for the immediate future and remainder of your term in Congress?

We always work on the jobs issue because people just need to know that they can feed their family. So that’s a priority. We’re digging into this deep poverty that I’ve talked about. We’re taking the lead nationwide (on housing), and we’ll continue to do that.

I am also the subcommittee chairman of a brand new subcommittee on terrorism and illicit finance. Congress has never had that focus before, so I started that committee and we’re working internationally … cyber attacks coming into the U.S., sex trafficking, drug trafficking, all those things come under our committee’s jurisdiction.

We’re right at the center of probably the most important issue facing us in the near future. Many countries have tremendous capabilities — Russians are probably the best in the world; that’s because their computer systems are so sorry that in order just to get the computers to work they have to get to be pretty proficient. And when they find really good software and things, they’re hacking in and they will do massive damage.

... It’s extraordinarily complex and very fast moving — probably the fastest moving committee in all of congress right now.

Q: And in a very busy Congress right now, at that.

Very busy. Trump said before he was inaugurated, “I would fasten my seatbelts if I were y’all.” We move at a little faster pace (now) and he was absolutely correct. And I think we should move at a faster pace regardless of whether we have a Republican or Democrat.

People are anxious because the Congress doesn’t seem to function or seems lethargic. Trump, you can like him or dislike him, but he has removed the lethargy from the town.

And he never seems to get too pulled into it — there’s this cyclone raging around him and he keeps doing his stuff. He’s got tremendous focus.

It is like he doesn’t even know the wind’s blowing. It’s an amazing talent. It’s a very big talent, to stay focused. And again it doesn’t mean he’s always right or judicious, but he is always moving.

Q: You recently released a statement on the president’s proposed budget, can you tell us more about that?

Kind of the most important thing when we talk about the budget is to understand that people want to make it more complex and important than it is. You put a budget up on the wall and it is simply an idea sheet.

The actual spending of the money is in the appropriating bills and they do not have to go along with the budget … Our point was that this budget is the first budget submitted by any president in a long time that actually reaches a balance point.

Every state has to balance their budget year to year and yet the federal government allows itself to run deficits and debt. Our debt right now is overwhelming and many people say the biggest problem we face is debt and deficit.

If you dig down into (the budget) — this area, because of the concentration on the military and rebuilding the military, is going to be very well served.

(Trump) is upping the spending — on military planes, on our people, on our facilities — dramatically. So New Mexico because of that is a fairly big winner.

If you get over to Carlsbad, so again pretty much in this area, the WIPP (Water Isolation Pilot Plant) site is extremely important, and the budget for it is actually increasing, and they’re upgrading that. Well that’s about 1,000 jobs here but more importantly it’s where the nation stores its nuclear waste…It all goes in the ground between Carlsbad and Hobbs. So it’s good for the nation and good for jobs here.

Q: Do you think there is a likelihood of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) being revisited, and will that affect Cannon Air Force Base?

They’re looking at the BRAC process. We’ve been through a couple and this base almost closed 12 years ago, and we became very involved in finding a new mission and getting that and keeping it open.

(Right now) BRAC is only hypothesized. It has to be declared by Congress, and then evaluated by an outside agency. It’s supposed to be kind of political free, though it’s not actually that.

I don’t see any risk that this base will be considered for closure anytime soon. The process of establishing the BRAC is complex and it’s also very visible. It’s not like it can come up behind you. It’s a long, long dedicated slow process. So there will be no sudden changes here.

The mission here is very stable. It’s not only that the base is a good base. It’s that the people here are doing a mission that is vital and exactly in line with the view of where our military needs to go.

We used to have large, large armies, and so big bases with large movements of people. Now then we’re all set up in strike forces and Special Operations and things like that. So the mission and the base are extremely vital. All of that argues for stability.

Q: How will the pending health care bill serve the residents of New Mexico?

The amped up emotions (regarding the health care bill) are simply people who are trying to exploit the situation and cause fear in people. There’s not any reason to fear because the process is slow, dedicated, and it takes months to get these bills together.

The first bill (presented by Trump) was in my mind going to result in higher cost and less service for people. So I said OK, I’ll vote against it.

It doesn’t mean I want to watch the system collapse. (Trump) was very frustrated.

When the new bill came out, there were reasons I could have voted no. It didn’t move us a long way in the direction we needed to go, but it was better. So, the second one I voted for it. It was better. It was not tremendously better. So now it’s over in the Senate.

The main thing we did was separate the most expensive people out and we gave a government safety net under that. The people with million dollar cancer, heart surgery where it costs a million dollars to replace their heart — you don’t have to pay for that. So I think that the price will come down for most New Mexicans …The costs will drop dramatically, and I think then that more healthy young people will get back into the program.

Healthy young people make health insurance work.

Q: What are your latest thoughts on Trump’s talk of a border wall?

We have told the Trump administration — same as we’ve told the Bush administration and Obama — that a physical wall is going to be very expensive and it’s not going to offer the security that you’re asking for. This physical thing sounds good in DC but it’s not going to work.

If you watch the Trump administration, I think it was a few weeks ago they said in some places we might not have an actual wall. That’s because my office has been peppering them, saying “Why are you going to spend $15 billion dollars when it’s not going to work?”

Let’s be practical, let’s be pragmatic, and let’s do the right thing for the American public.

On immigration, I also think the president is adapting our viewpoint on that. From 2003 when I first (joined Congress), our position has been that we need to secure the border and we need to reform legal immigration. It’s too complex right now. We want people to visit, we want people to come here and immigrate here. You need to stabilize the pool of people and offer guest worker programs.