President Trump’s revised travel ban won’t take effect for 10 days. When it does, Iraq will no longer be on the list of majority Muslim countries whose immigrants will be banned. Refugees from Syria will no longer be banned indefinitely. People who already have green cards or valid visas will be exempted from the ban. NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams sat down with a member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee — Rep. Donald Payne Jr. — to discuss the updated ban, the Affordable Care Act and more.
Williams: Thank you for being here.
Payne: Well, thank you for having me.
Williams: When the initial travel ban was released, there was chaos from the concourses to the courts. Does this new ban allay some of your fears?
Payne: No, I think that the president and the administration has looked into where they had issues with the courts and have tried to rectify those, but for us it’s still a Muslim ban. There are no two ways about it. It targets Muslims from those countries and even though Iraq has been removed, it still looks as a Muslim ban.
Williams: Let’s talk about town halls. You’ve had one yourself, they’re happening around the country. What are you hearing from your constituents? What’s their biggest concern?
Payne: Well, my constituents are very concerned about the Affordable Care Act being removed and what will it be replaced with. You know, for a lot of people, even though the administration puts a bad face on it and my Republican colleagues, it’s working for people. And so now, people are like, “Well, all right fine. You’re talking about removing it, but what is going to be removed? I have health care now, for the first time in my life and I can’t afford for it to be removed.”
Williams: I understand that House Republicans are preparing to unveil their plan to replace it this week. Some of it’s leaked. We know that there will be high risk pools set up, that there will be health savings accounts. Are those positives?
Payne: Well, it sounds like a positive, but my experience with the policies around the Republicans and the issues that they talk about being positive around, normally don’t work out. It sounds great right now, but let’s actually see what it comprises.
Williams: You’ve said before that you don’t think that they are going to come out with any kind of replacement.
Payne: No, no they’re going to repackage the Affordable Care Act, they have nothing. For eight years you yell and scream about how terrible something is and you want to replace it. You vote against it 60 times and then when you have the opportunity to finally present something, your hands are empty.
Williams: How would repealing it affect New Jerseyans’ health care?
Payne: It would impact tens of thousands of people that have gone into the Affordable Care Act and are finding that they like their health care now. It would be detrimental to my district, I know, and the state of New Jersey and the nation as well.
Williams: The National Cancer Institute has just released a study that demonstrates that the colorectal cancer rates are going way up for people who are young, relatively speaking. I know this is the fifth anniversary of the death of your dear father from colorectal cancer. Do you think the age, the minimum age for screening — the guideline was at the age of 50 — do you think that should be changed?
Payne: Oh, absolutely and even through my looking into it and learning about it, I was telling African-Americans that they should be tested at 40. So now, we’re seeing incidences in younger people in their 30s. So obviously, we need to re-look at when we’re asking people to get screened.
Williams: What more can people do to prevent colorectal cancer, other than being screened routinely?
Payne: Well, I mean that’s the key. It’s the most preventable cancer that there is, if it’s detected early enough. So, there’s no reason that we should have the numbers of people dying from this disease. It’s a matter of us continuing to try to get the word out every way we can and I do as much as I can. I just, once again, had a resolution asking that March be designated Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. President Obama signed it four times and we’re hoping to get the same signature from 45.
Williams: OK, thank you very much for being with us, Rep. Donald Payne Jr.
Payne: Thank you.