In the News
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said during an Axios virtual event that the Federal Reserve Board needs to be able to give loans in rural and minority communities, which have been some of the most affected during the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: People in rural and minority communities have been disproportionally impacted by the coronavirus.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing California's Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives, said he doesn't think impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump will interfere with Democrats' economic agenda once President-elect Biden takes office.
"Having accountability, I think, will help this country actually heal. And then we have the rest of the time to pursue President Biden's agenda," Khanna said in an interview with "Marketplace Morning Report" host David Brancaccio.
Rep. Ro Khanna of California is a third-term progressive Democrat in the House who has made a name for himself as a strident opponent of the US government's interminable support for the "forever wars" — the numerous military actions that have gone on for years without congressional approval.
Khanna spoke with Insider columnist Anthony Fisher by phone on Friday, less than 48 hours after the deadly insurrection by Trump supporters on the Capitol during the Electoral College certification proceedings.
The following interview has been edited for style, length, and clarity.
Just 20 House Democrats opted to break with their party and their Republican counterparts late Monday to vote against overriding President Donald Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act, a sprawling bill that greenlights over $740 billion in military spending for fiscal year 2021.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one the few House Democrats who voted against overriding the president's NDAA veto, applauded his colleagues for having "the courage tonight to vote no on the bloated defense budget."
Government is supposed to help people in need, not abandon them to their fates. But that's not what's happening here in the increasingly Dickensian United States, where both hunger and the shoplifting of basic necessities are on the rise, and the unemployed live in increasing despair.
"It's unconscionable what's taking place," says Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
Known for his aggressively progressive politics, Fremont Rep. Ro Khanna has earned an unexpected distinction among his California Democratic colleagues in the House: most likely to have a bill signed by President Trump.
In fact, Khanna lags behind only one Republican lawmaker from California in having bills signed by Trump — and is likely to tie the mark by the end of the year.
When Congressman Ro Khanna introduced a resolution to end US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen without the backing of congressional leaders in September 2017, it appeared more like a statement against the violence with a minimal chance of passing.
Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna, the representative of one of the more economically muscular districts in the history of the nation, has introduced sweeping legislation — the 21st Century Jobs Package — aimed at bringing communities left out of digital and technical jobs and wealth growth, now concentrated in places like San Francisco and Austin, Texas, to rural swaths of the United States.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, introduced a bill aimed at expanding job opportunities in science and technology.
The 21st Century Jobs Act would allocate $900 billion over 10 years for research and development in emerging technologies, such as climate science, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.
It would further create a Federal Institute of Technology with 30 centers placed in locations that currently lack prominent technology facilities.
From natural disasters to a devastating pandemic, civil unrest and election security, National Guard and Reserve members face ever-increasing demands which can lead to injuries during service. But those same troops can struggle to access the benefits they've earned that their active-duty counterparts receive without the same challenges.
Veterans of those forms of service also face the same hurdles after they separate. Jerry Kromrey set out to change that.