Are all have you guys back on a normal sleep schedule yet?

After the budget negotiations last week?

Tom, I'll start with you.

I have four kids, so I've never had no sleep schedule, but more, I guess, more normal than it was for sure.

Debbie, when it comes back to you, if it comes back, are you expecting more midnight sessions?

I think we're going to see a lot of midnight sessions by summer.

You?

That's because Republicans don't want to see us doing business in the light of day.

But I love them both.

Shots, shots fired.

I mean, we we pass this bill and here we go.

And I don't know, in Michigan, it gets light out by like 6 a.m. this time of year.

So we were in perfect broad daylight.

So some in.

Morning, middle of the... We got up at like 4 a.m. Bill for you.

Why start these sessions at 1 a.m.?

Well, first of all, that was a timing issue and a timing decision.

I'd go back, check the tape.

I remember during the Pelosi years of the speakership, having some awfully late nights into the middle of the night into getting done with voting at two, three, 4:00 in the morning.

So this is this is not new, folks.

I just don't think it's reasonable.

The process really was rammed through.

Even the Republican members of the committee, the final bill that we passed in the dark of night, yeah, the sun came out.

But when you're starting to close committee meetings at 1:00 in the morning, that's a pretty clear message that you're not wanting a lot of daylight on it.

And I don't think there was a single person in the chamber who had read the bill when it came when it came to us for a vote.

And there's a lot in it that is going to raise costs for most families in Michigan.

What's the biggest issue facing Michigan and what can all of you do at the federal level to tackle it?

I'm an optimistic guy.

I was actually voted most optimistic of my high school class, I think.

And I think that's because I thought it was the Lions year every year.

And it is this year that it is.

See, you know, I finally you are the most optimistic.

You can start charity golf any time.

Right.

But but I'm I remain optimistic about it.

I think we got the great you know, the fundamental points of what we need to grow our economy.

We've got a workforce.

You know, we need to grow that and develop that.

And you look at the fundamental things that business leaders look at for where they're going to grow and expand their operations.

They look at talent and workforce as their number one and number two probably combined.

Basically our number one consideration, they look at infrastructure.

We need to improve that.

I'm proud and thankful to serve on the Transportation Infrastructure Committee with I represent McDonald Rivet.

We got a Coast Guard ice cutter approved in this reconciliation process for the Great Lakes.

So that's going to be another improvement in advancement that we have.

That's another big win for our region, for our state.

And, you know, we have to look at what those fundamentals are instead of trying to jumped the shark with the new thing every time, what if we just get back to the basics and look at energy costs, infrastructure, talent development, our education pipeline and those things that are disciplined and you need to do them.

And I think that will naturally lead to better economic opportunity for our state.

I feel like I've spent my entire career working on the child care problem, that I hear it really.

Michigan's lost 40% of our child care capacity in the last ten years.

It is it is an economic emerging economic crisis to be able to, you know, and child care costs are somewhere generally between 12 and $14,000 a kid.

Yeah.

So we just have to make it.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done.

But, you know, we're I'm working on a bill with with a Republican member to be able to make on the affordability issue, being able to use 529 to help pay for child care expenses.

So that I think is incredibly important.

And we and and something that we all kind of agree on.

We have to figure out this child care issue.

I think a lot of people don't even understand the unintended consequences of what's happening.

And I know my colleagues join me.

These two are friends.

Tom and I are working on veterans together.

I've got to make sure that our VA hospitals still have the doctors and nurses and our veterans can get care.

We've got and I know that everybody here does You know, I've found out last Friday that some of that some many of our Head Start programs may have been shutting on Friday if they didn't hear about their funding.

Well, sometimes it's finding the right person to help you.

So thankfully yesterday, we got calls to every Headstart agency that was going to be impacted.

This I found the right person at HHS.

But, you know, our universities and the research and the scientific grants and the kind of generational research that's going on, making sure that everybody has access to clean, affordable water is a basic human right.

We all celebrated Flint being taken off that list, but I still want to get the lead out of every pipe in America.

And I could go with 20 more.

It's not a dull time.