Rep. Tom Malinowski: Biden's first 100 days focused on 'solving problems'

Representative Tom Malinowski (D) of New Jersey spoke with Yahoo Finance about President Biden's progress during his first 100 days, including the upcoming infrastructure plan, U.S.-China relations, and tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: For more on this, we want to bring in Congressman Tom Malinowski of New Jersey. And Congressman, thanks so much for joining us here. Let's just start with what President Biden has done in his first 100 days. Jess Smith just laid that out for us. Of course, he tackled COVID-19. He had that $1.9 trillion COVID package. He's laid out plans for infrastructure, for education. He's also talked about his plans for foreign policy. I'm curious just to get your take on the initiatives and the actions that President Biden has taken over his first 100 days.

TOM MALINOWSKI: I think it's been incredibly refreshing. There's been a focus on solving problems and taking action, less on creating drama and tweeting and social media craziness. I think most of my constituents profoundly appreciate that. We appreciate the American Rescue Plan, which is keeping individual families and small businesses alive in New Jersey and across the country, which has lowered the cost of health care by hundreds of dollars a month for a lot of my middle class constituents, that is allowing the small towns in my district that I represent to be able to provide services to their people without raising property taxes.

It's a pretty big set of achievements. It's one bill, the American Rescue Plan. If we had split that up into 12 bills and passed all of them, I think people would be saying already that this has been one of the most productive legislative sessions in modern American history. And of course, we're now hard at work, looking at the jobs and infrastructure plan that's going to, I think, propel America to a much more productive and competitive economy. So I'm very pleased.

JULIE HYMAN: And Congressman, to follow up on the infrastructure piece because that's the next big initiative that the president is going to be embarking upon, it seems like this one is going to be more of an uphill battle. For you, as you talk to constituents, what do you think is sort of most important measure or piece of infrastructure that they want prioritized?

TOM MALINOWSKI: Well, that's easy to answer for New Jersey. We need the Gateway Tunnel. It's a massive infrastructure project that connects New Jersey and New York, allows our railways to continue to carry commuters to their jobs and our economy to keep moving forward.

And that's a symbol of what the country needs because across America, we have years, in some cases decades, of overdue investments in basic infrastructure, from roads to bridges to tunnels to railroads to airports to ports to broadband connections to the electric wires that bring electricity to our homes to the pipes that bring water to our homes, clean water, we hope. All of that needs to be done.

And we have this opportunity now, coming out of the COVID crisis, with interest rates at record lows, to make these investments. This is not a partisan issue in New Jersey. It has become, like everything else, a partisan issue in the Congress. But I think we're going to overcome that and deliver what the overwhelming majority of Americans want.

JULIE HYMAN: Congressman, something else that perhaps has bipartisan support is the US posture toward China. And I want to talk to you about that. But before I do, I want to play a little bit of what the president had to say about China in his address.

JOE BIDEN: The investments I propose tonight also advance the foreign policy. And in my view, that benefits the middle class. That means making sure every nation plays by the same rules in the global economy, including China.

In my discussions with President Xi, I told him, we welcome the competition. We're not looking for conflict. But I made absolutely clear that we will defend America's interests across the board.

JULIE HYMAN: And Congressman, I know you have been vocal on China as well. I want to ask you specifically, though, on China policy, are tariffs on China going to be permanent? Should they be permanent?

TOM MALINOWSKI: So let's take a step back. I think we are in a contest with the Chinese government, with the Chinese Communist Party about the most fundamental questions facing the world, about human rights, about whether big countries should be able to bully small countries without consequence, about the rules of trade, about whether we have an obligation to be good stewards of the planet, about the rule of law, things that matter to every single person in the world.

And the tariffs are one tool in that fight. But the important thing is that the United States, with our allies, contest those questions and that we win.

But you know the most important thing that we have done for our China policy in the last three months, in my opinion? The most important thing we have done is to make America first in the world in fighting COVID. We were last in the world in the last administration. It was an embarrassment to us. It made it impossible for us to say that the United States of America, our democracy, was the model that the world should follow.

The next most important thing we should do in this contest with China is to invest in infrastructure in the United States so that when people come to our airports, when people drive our highways, when people visit our cities, when they see how Americans live every single day, again, they look to America and our democracy as the model.

Let's open up our country to refugees once again so we're that shining city on a hill that people want to come to, including people from Hong Kong. Let's rebuild our alliances with democratic countries, like NATO, our European allies, South Korea, Japan, Australia, instead of treating them like dirt like we did in the last administration. Those are the things that are important.

As for tariffs, I don't think unilateral tariffs on China work. I think the important thing there is that we act in concert with our allies. That's what makes us strong. And I believe this administration will do that.

SEANA SMITH: Congressman, then, of course, is the enforcement part of this. So the US still calling for China to do more to protect intellectual property. But what's the best way to go about that? How do we make sure China stops stealing our secrets and we become a leader on this?

TOM MALINOWSKI: The most important thing, as I said, is that we've got to be in this with our European and Asian allies. The thing that frightens the Chinese government the most is when the United States works together with others. Their strategy is to isolate us from France and Germany and the United Kingdom and Australia and Japan and South Korea.

And the last administration basically did their work for them. Yes, they imposed tariffs on China. Yes, they were tough on China. But they launched trade wars against Canada and Mexico and the European Union and Australia and all these countries at the same time. You can't do that.

We have to be focused, exclusively I think, in being tough on trade, we've got to be focused on China, work things out with the Europeans and our other allies, and make common cause on this issue of intellectual property rights. At that point, I think tariffs, particularly if they're multilateral, can be effective.

JULIE HYMAN: Congressman, thanks for your time this afternoon. We appreciate it. Representative Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey.