Vermont Business Magazine Minutes before taking the oath of office to represent Vermont in Congress for a seventh two-year term, Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) recorded a video message to Vermonters to express his gratitude and outline his priorities for the new Congress, including fixing a broken institution—beginning with reopening the federal government—and an agenda focused on rebuilding middle class.
“This past election, the American people made a decision to change the majority in the House from Republican to Democratic. I see this as an opportunity for us, by the way we govern, to earn the trust of the people who made that call.”
Transcript of Welch Remarks
In just a few moments, I’ll be leaving my office and walking across Independence Avenue to the United State’s Capitol, and there I will take the oath of office to serve as your Representative in the United State’s House for the next two years, and I am very excited to get back to work. You know, this past election, the American people made a major decision, and that is to change the majority in the House from Republican to Democratic, and I am glad that they did, but I see this as an opportunity for us by the way we govern to earn the trust of the people who made that call, and we have two big jobs. One is to make this institution work and starting with re-opening the doors of government and getting federal employees working without pay to be paid, and we have to have an open process where different ideas will be heard, the issues will be debated, the opportunity for minority points of view will be considered. That is really important to the functioning of this institution, and second, we have to have an agenda that focuses on the challenges that working Americans are facing. Middle-class Americans are really having a tough time with stagnant wages and rising costs, and our agenda has to be to address healthcare costs starting with prescription drugs and to embrace an ambitious infrastructure plan that everyone says their for, but we haven’t passed, and it has to include a broadband deployment in rural America, it has to be about job opportunities for people who want to learn a trade or get a college education, and be able to get that without a mountain of debt, and it has to include an aggressive approach to addressing climate change. Americans, when we’re confident, we don’t deny a problem, we solve a problem, and we understand that taking on that challenge of climate change, we can actually build a stronger economy, as well as a safer environment. I want to get to work – I want you to stay in touch with me, nothing helps me more than hearing from Vermonter’s about your concerns and your beliefs. So stay in touch, go to my website, welch.house.gov. I look forward to representing you and working hard on your behalf for the next two years. Thank you.