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WASHINGTON – On Thursday, U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” to preview the day’s Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing, which will feature testimony from Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve. He also discussed the 2024 presidential election, inflation, southern border, and the appropriations package.

On the Banking Committee Hearing:

“One of the interesting discussions I thought yesterday in the House [Finance] Committee was centered around workforce and immigration policy. When you look at the barriers to the growth of the economy going forward, it seems like workforce is a pretty big one. We are at a point where we really have a human being shortage, where we are cannibalizing between industries and within industries. I might dig into that a little bit. Obviously, we are all curious about Basel III, and Regulation II, and the impact that regulation has.”

On the 2024 Presidential Election:

“The beautiful thing about this this election year is that the contrast between two candidates could not be clearer because they have both been presidents and both of them have a record, and middle-class Americans know which presidency they were better under economically. Middle America and middle-class America were the ones that were left out in previous administrations prior to President Trump, and they are the ones being left out now by the White House’s own admission, […] how they can blame that on greed or on Republicans, when they've been controlling the government for the last few years, that the government that raised interest rates and raised inflation, much higher than families’ incomes. I don't know how they can lay that on Republicans, and frankly, I don't think it passes the smell test for these very Americans who he says he is going to try to help.”

On Inflation and the Economy:

“You look back when [Biden] became president, and we were already coming out of the tough economy created by a pandemic. There was a lot of money flooded into the economy, because we were sort of flying the airplane while we were building it. Then Biden comes into office, and he wants to flood another $2 trillion - all borrowed dollars - when we are already coming into recovery, and that really was the fuel on the flame, in my view, of inflation. Then you throw on top of that the continued spending and when they used pure partisan politics to pass all of this spending—[…] and then you have a broken supply chain at the same time. All of these things were under his watch, and by the way, a 100 percent Democratic government watch.”

On the Appropriations Minibus Package:

“There’s a reduction from the 2023 dollars. There’s a slight increase on defense spending on the defense side of all this included in the next minibus that is going to be the bigger challenge for all of us. While we are not where we would be if we were in control, it's certainly an improvement, and frankly there wasn't regular order, which is always my greatest frustration, but there was more regular order this time then there's been for several years. Now, we didn't take each of them up one at a time, but at least the Appropriations Committee voted them all out in the Senate. These six bills passed out of committee by a total of 170 to one, which means there is strong bipartisan, even very conservative support, as well as democratic and liberal support in a divided government. I think it's probably the best we can do.”

On Border Policies:

“One thing I think we have to do is to elect a new president that will secure the border under the very same policies he did before, that this President has used to open the borders and welcome all of these people and put out the welcome mat.

“You have the sanctuary cities, who are suffering the most by this, who have put up the biggest welcome mat, and now they are regretting that. Clearly, we have to win the election. In the meantime, we have to use all the leverage we can to deny 60 votes whenever we have an opportunity to make some changes.”