Rep. Williams talks vaccinations, border wall, infrastructure

Congressman Roger Williams stopped in at the Wimberley Valley Chamber of Commerce breakfast last week before coming to the Wimberley View office for a one-on-one interview. This is part one of a two-part interview with the congressman. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Wimberley View: We’ve seen a lot of federal government work on COVID-19 over the last year, what do you see the federal government’s role from this point forward as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Williams: I think we’ve got to be amazed that we got a vaccine out as quick as we did. That was the private sector, I get it, but it was pushed by the government. So to get that vaccine was really, really important. We’re seeing the results of it right now. As far as the role of the federal government, I don’t think we should mandate that people have to wear a mask. People are smart and will make the best decision for what they think it is... There’s times I wear a mask, or sometimes I don’t. But that’s a personal responsibility to do that, as opposed to a government mandate.

WV: Let’s take it a step further. There are a lot of vaccines that are required for school kids to go to school. Do you foresee that for the COVID-19 vaccine or would it be something more like the flu vaccine that is optional?

Williams: I think it’s pretty well divided whether the government should mandate that you get a vaccine. Vaccinations, through the years, have always kind of been assumed we’re going to get those for school. And in the last couple of years people have kind of backed off that, but I don’t think the government should be in a position to mandate that you have to have a vaccination. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve had my shots. If you want to do it, do it. I mean, if it helps, it helps... But that’s your personal decision not to be demanded by the government that you have to do.

WV: Do you encourage your constituents to get vaccinated?

Williams: If I get asked, I tell them I’ve been vaccinated. It’s worked for me, and if it helps over the long run, why not? But again, if they say, ‘No, I’m not getting vaccinated.’ Well, that’s their decision.

WV: Moving on from the COVID conversation. We live in one of the fastest growing areas in the United States, if not literally the fastest growing county. We’re seeing the census data come out, and that may be the case. What can the federal government do, or rather what is the federal government doing to try and help keep up with that growth here in Central Texas or in your district?

Williams: This growth is happening. The interesting thing about growing communities like this, you get one crack at it to get it right or get it wrong. The federal government, I think the best thing they do is to step out of things. I think if they’ll collect our taxes, defend our borders, and house the infrastructure, get the heck out of the way that would be great. I think the big thing they do is keep taxes low. The tax cuts work and it puts more people to work, creates more opportunity for risk and reward. That’s because more money comes into communities, more money comes in the hands of the people. I think that’s a huge deal. I’m a business guy. That’s my background. I still own a business. And if you burden the people with high taxes and high regulations, it stunts growth. So I think the federal government can step back and let communities grow. I’m a big 10th amendment guy. Let states decide what they want to deal with what communities need to look like and so forth. But the federal government can do one thing right now, and that is defend our borders. And we have a lot of people coming up here who don’t belong. We have a lot of people, two million, we’re going to have in this country by the end of the year. We don’t know who they are, what they are, how they think, where they’re from, nothing. If we were controlling our border like we should be, and having the people come through the ports of entry, not between the ports of entry, that’d be a lot better on communities. But right now you look and jails are overcrowded. You look and schools are overcrowded, law enforcement is overwhelmed. The federal government could do a lot by just defending borders, which would be a big thing, especially right here in Texas. You got all this growth coming up... If the federal government will do what they’re supposed to do and defend our borders and cut taxes that will go a long way to help communities.

WV: What do you think are the correct actions to take in order to defend our borders, as you say?

Williams: Adhere to the law. You shouldn’t come over here legally. If your first decision to come to America is to break the law, I got a problem with you. And the fact of the matter is we need to secure the border. Whether you like President Trump or not, his policy worked. Crossings were way down. You’ve seen those numbers compared to what they are now. But we need to complete the wall. I was down there a couple of weeks ago, and it’s got gaps in and out, and people come through the gaps. We need to complete the wall. And we need to put more judges down there, so they can take these people through due process and turn them back around. If we let them and we’re going to give them a court date, we need to give them a date. We’re letting people out without even having a court date. And we need to stop catch and release. That’s ridiculous to catch these people and release them. And we need to test them for these viruses that are coming out from South American, COVID and Delta. We’re not doing that. So that’s a big problem. I put that burden on this administration. They inherited two things, a really good economy, and they inherited a pretty secure border where people were coming through doing it the right way. And of course, they’ve blown all that up on both sides.

WV: So you support the state putting money towards investing in both judges and testing for people crossing the border?

Williams: That would be part of it. We removed a lot of our judges down there that were taking these cases, but now they’ve been removed. There’s such a backlog that you’re having to release them and release them to family members, or people that know them. But they never get a date to come back. Even (if they have) a date to come back, I’ve seen that only about 10% do. That’s a real problem. So that’s the job of the federal government is to secure the border, and that’s part of securing the border.

WV: So you do agree that investing in the judicial infrastructure down there on the border in order to get outcomes is a correct action?

Williams: Yes.

WV: On that note, what about some of the people who are coming across that are claiming asylum? What are your views on that?

Williams: Well, asylum is asylum. You’re not supposed to actually get asylum unless it is a contiguous country. So you’ve got people coming up from Central America. Well, it’s not contiguous to this America, and we’re giving them asylum for anything. Asylum is designed for if your life is in peril, you can ask for asylum from the next country to you. We have blown up the asylum laws and people are claiming asylum and letting them in, so that system has gone awry also.

WV: I want to move back towards what we were talking about with growth before we started moving towards the border discussion. What are your views on the infrastructure bill?

Williams: If there’s anything that should be bipartisan in Washington, it should be infrastructure... We need the best highways. We want the best highway. We’ve had the best highways, rails, airports, seaports, all that. Broadband (internet) is now part of infrastructure. We want the best of that. I’m all for it. But when we start having to define what is infrastructure, and we talk about social infrastructure, this and that madness, and then (it has nothing to do) with roads and bridges. It begins to be a problem. We need to get back to where we know what infrastructure truly is. Now we’ve got this $1.2 trillion bill that was i.e. bipartisan out of the Senate coming over to the House to look at. I want to look at it. I want to find a way to support it. I’ve got to see what’s hidden in it. Unfortunately there’s always hidden little nuggets that sometimes keeps you from supporting something. But I want to find a way to support it. And one of the big problems I have right now is it does not have enough private sector involvement. $1.2 trillion dollars, we don’t have that. The Chinese have that. We borrow from the Chinese. If we let the private sector build our roads and bridges, much like we’ve done in Texas, we can cut that down tremendously. We can cut that down. We can save that $1.2 trillion if we let the private sector build our highways and be able to get a return on investment over the next 60 or 70 years. They take care of it. They can do it cheaper. They can do it better and quicker. It’s going to have to have a huge private sector component for me to be able to support it. That’s a big deal to me. And the $1.2 trillion, we don’t have it, so the more that the private sector gets engaged, the less taxpayers have to pay.

WV: There is the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and then there is the attachment, the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that is currently out there. What do you think about that?

Williams: It is a disaster. It’s a joke. Okay. It’s got everything in there. You’re going to have to really read that to see all what’s in there. It adds more IRS agents to go after Main Street America. It gives amnesty to illegals. It has life issues in there. It’s just a bunch of stuff that I could never support. And, of course, what the politics is of it now, is (Speaker of the House Nancy) Pelosi wants the house to vote on that before they vote on the infrastructure bill. She doesn’t even have the votes on the Democratic side for that. And we’re going out next week to see if we can clear this out. But if she makes us vote for a $3.5 trillion boondoggle before you vote for an infrastructure bill, I don’t think it’s going to pass.