PETROWICH: Let's start off with an overview of your transition from state senator to Delaware's lone congressional representative. You're now 100 days into your service. What has the process been like going from representing Delawareans at the local level to representing them at the federal level? How have those two roles differed for you?
MCBRIDE: Well, when I campaigned for Congress, I said that I would work with anyone who was willing to work with me to help Delawareans and to stand up to anyone who was willing to work with me to defend Delawareans and to stand up against anyone who I believed was hurting Delaware. When I was in the Delaware State Senate, obviously we were moving our state forward. We were passing Paid Family and Medical Leave. We were raising the minimum wage. We were passing my Protect Medicaid Act of 2024 to infuse our Medicaid with new resources to improve it and expand it.
Obviously, in the last 100 days in Congress, it's been a lot more of defending Delaware than what I had to do in the State Senate, but I continue to employ the same strategies and approaches that I used in the State Senate, which was to bring Delaware elected officials together across political parties, to deliver for my constituents and that's what I've continued to do in Congress. In just 100 days, despite having to defend Delaware from this administration trying to steal millions of dollars from Delaware and Delawareans, despite having to defend Delaware from Republican efforts to gut Medicaid, I've still been able to work across the aisle to deliver for our state.
I introduced legislation with bipartisan support to provide consumers with protections and to help support our farmers and lower the cost of groceries for Delaware consumers. When the administration announced that they would be gutting funding for small and medium sized businesses in manufacturing here in Delaware and across the country, I brought my colleagues together to lead the effort to defend that funding, and the administration listened and reversed course, restoring funding for manufacturing jobs here in Delaware, saving more than 400 jobs and preserving roughly $75 million in economic activity here in Delaware.
And so, it's been a different environment, it's been a different set of circumstances. We're certainly having to defend a lot more than what I had to do in the State Senate, but fundamentally, the job is similar. The job is the same and the approach is the same – to deliver for Delawareans of every political background and do so by bringing Democrats and Republicans together in Congress to advance compassionate and common-sense solutions.
PETROWICH: You touched on a lot that I'm hoping we will break down a little bit further later as well, but one big difference seems to be when you introduce a bill in the Delaware General Assembly, it's likely to get a hearing and lead to a vote within a matter of months, if not weeks, right? But you've introduced some legislation that you just mentioned with your colleagues in Congress that are not moving quite as quickly. So give us some of the highlights of those bills you've introduced, and what navigating this new legislative process has been like for you.
MCBRIDE: Well, Congress just takes a bit more time than the Delaware State Senate – things moved a little bit quicker in Dover than in D.C. But one of the first steps, particularly in this Congress, given who controls the Congress, is to find bipartisan support for legislation. That's critical in advancing legislation in this Congress, in this time.
And I'm proud that I was the first freshman Democrat to introduce legislation this Congress. It was the Ending Scam Credit Repair Act – legislation that is bipartisan that would protect Delaware consumers from predatory behavior by so-called credit repair organizations, which charge large upfront fees to consumers who want to improve their credit score, all on empty promises, and these organizations often will do almost nothing to actually try to improve a person's credit score after they've charged them a large fee. That bans that kind of predatory, abusive behavior. I joined with a Republican representative in introducing that legislation just a week into serving in the House. It's before committee, we're having conversations with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to hopefully move forward that legislation this Congress.
The second bill that I was really proud to bring Democrats and Republicans together to introduce was the Save Our Poultry Act, which is legislation that would unlock critical funding for research around effective strategies to combat avian flu. This is legislation that was a byproduct of a constituent coming to me – a poultry farmer in Middletown, a guy named Mike Puglisi – who approached me in my office to share his experience in 2022 when one bird in his flock was exposed to avian flu, he had to call his entire stock, which obviously is devastating for a farmer. Fortunately, he was able to survive, but a lot of farmers can't withstand that kind of financial loss.
So this legislation would make sure that we are designating avian flu as a disease that the federal government would be unlocking more funding to research effective strategies to combat that preserve our agriculture community, that preserve their stock, that preserve goods at the grocery store for Delaware consumers because when a farmer has to call his stock because of avian flu, not only is that a financially devastating toll on his business or her business, it also reduces the stock of chickens available to produce eggs or to be sold at a grocery store, which increases the cost of those goods for all consumers. And so we're working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to try to advance that legislation too.
It takes time, but I'm cautiously optimistic that despite the current party that controls Congress, despite the division and partisan rancor in Congress, that we can continue to make progress on those types of bills and others that we'll be introducing in the weeks and months ahead.
PETROWICH: In addition to the legislation you're working on, it seems as though a lot of the work being done by Democratic legislators is fighting back on the federal funding cuts by the Trump administration, as you mentioned. So you have publicly condemned several of these announcements, but you worked particularly hard to push back on the administration's call for nearly $13 million in funding from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program to be cut. It's now reported that the administration is walking the decision back, and funding for the program will now continue through at least the end of the fiscal year. So can you explain what the Manufacturing Extension Partnership is and why you feel it's crucial to fund, particularly for Delawareans?
MCBRIDE: Well this is a program that helps to support and empower small and medium sized manufacturing businesses here in Delaware and across the country. These programs exist in every single state. And a couple of weeks ago, the Trump administration, alongside a series of – dozens over the course of the last 100 days – illegal actions to unilaterally strip funding of critical programs in our communities across the country.
The Trump administration announced a couple of weeks ago that they were going to slash funding for the 10 state programs that were up for renewal. Delaware was included in those 10. Now this was a first step in defunding this program over the next several years nationwide. When I saw that, I knew it needed a response. Manufacturing is a critical part of Delaware's economy, and as the President has – I think disingenuously – said, we are all committed, he's committed, to restoring manufacturing jobs in this country.
Now, he's undermining that goal by eliminating programs that help to support small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses. But everyone's in unison in wanting to defend manufacturing, so it was outrageous that this administration would seek to devastate this program that produces jobs in the very industry that we all want to see grow in this country among small and medium-sized businesses. So I brought my colleagues together, more than 80 colleagues, to demand the administration restore funding for that program here in Delaware and in the other states that they had slashed funding for.
Fortunately, the administration announced that they would be reversing those cuts after we spoke out and reached out. Now, as you mentioned, it's through the end of the year. We're going to have to keep fighting to protect this program, but it's a bridge toward helping to restore and preserve these programs as funding permanently across the country. This is a program that helps to support more than 400 jobs, $75 million in economic activity here in Delaware. I visited a small business in Magnolia, Delaware, that had been the beneficiary – Sumuri – of this funding in particular.
An administration slashing this program would devastate small and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs in manufacturing here in Delaware, particularly high-tech manufacturing. I'm glad that they've reversed this cut, and it shows that when we fight back, we can win. We can rein in the worst excesses of this administration if we fight hard and we fight smart. And I'm proud that just in 100 days, we've already, because I brought colleagues together, we are already able to save hundreds of jobs in this state and millions of dollars in economic activity that benefit not only those businesses, but all Delawareans that they serve, that they produce goods for and that they employ.
PETROWICH: Another thing you mentioned was Medicaid. So during your time in the Delaware Senate, you were a fierce advocate for the Medicaid program and continue to be and funding for public health in general, serving as chair of the State Senate Health and Social Services Committee. In fact, one of your final legislative acts in the state legislature was passing the Protect Medicaid Act of 2024, which will result in more than $100 million in new funding to protect, enhance and expand Medicaid for Delaware patients. That act is set to go into effect in the new fiscal year, which begins in July 2025 for Delaware. Can you explain if this new federal funding source is threatened in any way and your concerns around the landscape for Medicaid in general under the Trump administration?
McBride: Well, I was proud during my time in the Delaware General Assembly to tackle some really big issues. Including, as chair of the Health Committee, bringing together Democrats and Republicans to pass the Protect Medicaid Act of 2024, which is set to result in the largest ongoing infusion of new resources into our state's Medicaid program – which one in four Delawareans rely on for health coverage – the largest ongoing infusion into that program of new resources since the Affordable Care Act passed a bit over a decade ago.
Unfortunately, while I hoped to be entering Congress at a time when we’d be building on the progress of the Affordable Care Act, when we’d be building on the progress that I helped deliver here in Delaware with the Protect Medicaid Act of 2024. Unfortunately, I'm entering Congress at a time when we are having to defend that program from a heartless Republican budget that would result in the largest cut in Medicaid in American history. A cut that would devastate care for one in four Delawareans, including nearly one in two kids in this state, devastate care for people trying to get treatment for cancer, devastate care for new moms, devastate care for seniors in Delaware or people with disabilities who rely on assisted living support or facilities.
I'm doing all I can, alongside Sen. Chris Coons and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, to sound the alarm about these cuts, to fight back against these cuts. I've already voted against these cuts twice in Congress as this legislation begins to make its way through the legislative process, and I'll continue to fight to not only defend Medicaid, but to improve it.
We should be protecting and improving Medicaid alongside Medicare and Social Security, but instead, we're in a position where we have to defend it from an administration that is trying to gut Medicaid, an administration that's trying to privatize Medicare, an administration that's trying to demonize Social Security – calling it a Ponzi scheme – in an effort to ultimately privatize it. These are lifelines for Delawareans, and I will stop at nothing, as I promised during the course of the campaign, to defend Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
PETROWICH: If these cuts were to go into effect, based on the Protect Medicaid Act, is there any other source of funding you think that can be tapped, or any other way that you're looking at to help bring more resources into Delaware specifically for this program?
MCBRIDE: Well, there are a lot of unknowns around the specifics of the cuts. What we know is that Republicans have now voted twice to require cuts to Medicaid. What those specific cuts are remains to be seen.
It is possible that this heartless Republican budget could undermine the progress we made here in Delaware with the Protect Medicaid Act of 2024. It's something I'm keeping a close eye on. There is a world in which the Protect Medicaid Act of 2024 unfortunately – it might not be able to be used to expand and enhance Medicaid as it was originally intended. It might have to be used to fill holes that this administration is creating by slashing Medicaid funding at the federal level.
So it remains to be seen exactly what those cuts will look like, exactly what the parameters of those cuts would be. We know they would have real consequences, no matter what shape or form they are in for patients and providers alike across Delaware. It will make healthcare more expensive, it will make healthcare harder to get, it will undermine coverage for some of the most vulnerable in our state. But the specifics will allow us, once we know them, to understand exactly how that Protect Medicaid Act will play in and how it will be impacted and how it can be used to help to offset some of the devastating consequences for Delawareans.
And I will continue to fight back so that we don't see any cut to Medicaid because we still have time. This is still in the legislative process, and if enough people speak out and fight back, as I continue to lift the voices of Delawareans who have reached out to me to share how Medicaid has either enhanced their life or saved their life – I've not given up yet on saving Medicaid at the federal level from this Republican budget that would devastate it.
PETROWICH: Before you were even sworn in, and particularly during your first few weeks in Congress, you faced various pointed attacks from your Republican colleagues around your identity, ranging from public misgendering to even bathroom bans. But I do want to note, you've also had a lot of support. You were notably the first openly transgender member of Congress in U.S. history, but you've always centered your platform around your policy goals, not your identity. Can you reflect a little bit, though, on how this hostility from some of your Republican colleagues, not all, and even the public, and how that has impacted your time in office, if at all, and how it's evolved during your first 100 days?
MCBRIDE: So I think what was so key in the way you asked that question is that you reinforced the truth, which is that it's some of my Republican colleagues. This is a handful of members of the Republican caucus who won't work with any Democrat, can barely work with their own Republican colleagues, who have decided to try to get clicks and attention. That is what this is about.
This is about a handful of Republican politicians who are employing the strategies of reality TV to get more attention on social media. I don't have any time for that. I am not going to let these attention-seeking provocateurs do anything to distract me from what I am there to do, which is to focus on serious issues, to be a serious legislator, to bring people together to tackle the real problems that this country has.
Throwing fights about another member's pronoun or another member's bathroom use is silly season, and unfortunately, those Republicans are getting attention with their silly antics and their behavior, their schoolyard taunts, but I don't think that what they are doing speaks to the needs of their constituents. They'll have to answer to their constituents about what they're spending their time prioritizing, but I continue to prioritize lowering costs facing Delawareans. I continue to prioritize respecting all Delawareans, regardless of their background, regardless of their political persuasion. I continue to prioritize working with Democrats and Republicans alike to do serious work because this is a serious responsibility.
To be a member of Congress, especially at this moment in our country's history, is a serious responsibility. This is a serious time. It demands serious people, and it's unfortunate that there are a handful of members of the Republican caucus who are committed to being unserious.
PETROWICH: Congress is set to return on Monday. What can we expect your focus to be during your next 100 days in office?
MCBRIDE: Well, at the top of the list continues to be defending Medicaid from this Republican budget. It continues to be making sure that Delawareans are able to get the care and support that they need, especially as they are navigating a serious illness or a disability – that is what drove me into politics. It's why I passed Paid Leave at the state level. It's why I passed the Protect Medicaid Act, and I will stop at nothing to defend health care for my constituents.
I will also continue to look for opportunities where we can find bipartisan support for compassionate and common-sense solutions, like what I've already done in the first 100 days, and I look forward to introducing more bills in the days, weeks and months ahead, bringing Democrats and Republicans together to tackle serious issues facing my constituents, especially as it relates to our economy.
In addition to that, throughout all of my time in Congress, I will continue to be particularly focused on the individual needs of Delawareans who reach out to my office for help. Over the last 100 days, our constituent advocates here, our all-star team of constituent advocates, have returned or delivered $360,000 worth of money owed to individual Delawareans in the forms of veterans benefits that people who have served our country are entitled to, in the form of social security benefits that Delawareans and seniors were entitled to and deserved, in the form of tax refunds that people were owed.
People are reaching out to our office as a front door to the federal government in moments of stress and need, and we will continue to prioritize delivering for those constituents. I'm proud that in 100 days, more than 300 Delawareans have reached out to our office. We can't solve every problem, but more than 300 Delawareans have reached out to us for help, and we have a 100% satisfaction rate from those Delawareans who have reached out. Again, we've delivered $360,000 to Delawareans that they are entitled to from the federal government. We will continue to deliver to Delawareans what they are deserving of and entitled to.
And throughout all of that time, I've also traveled across the state because part of this job, it's not just being on the House Floor making speeches, it's not just introducing legislation, it's also meeting with Delawareans. And we've added 3000 miles to the odometer, traveling across the state over the last 100 days, meeting with farmers and first responders, meeting with doctors and nurses, educators, meeting with hospitals and federally qualified health centers, meeting with small businesses, meeting with individual Delawareans, hearing their stories, hearing what is keeping them up at night, hearing their hopes and their fears in this moment. And my job is to continue to travel across the state, continue to meet with Delawareans, so that I can continue to be a voice for them and continue to bring their stories and their voices to the halls of Congress, so that we continue to prioritize issues that actually matter to voters.
That will be my priority in the remaining year and nine months of my term. And it's also what buoys me because politics is a rough-and-tumble business at the federal level. There's too much toxicity and partisan division rancor at the federal level. But what gives me the energy, what gives me the hope, what gives me the determination to continue to do that work, are the conversations that I have with Delawareans, the support that I've received from Delawareans, despite what some members of Congress decide to do, and the awe-inspiring responsibility that they have entrusted me with over the next several years to represent them in the United States House of Representatives. And it's important to not only be grateful, but to continue to ground my work in what I hear from them.
