Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) will make the Education and Workforce Committee a leading committee next Congress if he has his say, he told the Washington Reporter in an exclusive interview. 

“Ed and Workforce is key to all that America is made to be,” Walberg, who is running to chair the committee in 2025, said. “Education should have one goal in mind…it should provide the ability for people to work. As simple as that: educate to work. And right now we have kind of lost that. We need to bridge the gap between the needs of the workforce and job creators and our higher education. Bring business, the workforce entity, into the education entity, making them work together.” 

Most Americans started tuning into the Ed and Workforce Committee, which is responsible for the ouster of multiple college presidents at elite universities, following the terrorist attacks of October 7. But for Walberg, the attacks didn’t change what the committee has aimed to do for years: expose “the rot that’s in our higher education institution system.”

This year’s hearings, in which presidents of schools like Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern, and more, were grilled by Congress, showed Walberg — and the tens of millions of Americans who watched — that “those presidents were just pathetic[; it was] horrific that they had no moral clarity about what academia and their purpose is all about: to educate a moral majority in this country.” The hearings demonstrated that colleges, and K-12 schools, are “a closed network, and…Jewish students, were put in fear, literally for their lives at times, and radical professors who saw their purpose to be change agents.”

All of Ed and Workforce’s high-profile hearings took place in the Capitol this year, but Walberg wants to take the hearings on the road. “I believe that some of our best hearings we’ve had have been off-campus hearings, either places of business or at schools,” he said. “I can see going to schools and putting them on the spot…Additionally, I can also see us going to our government agencies, the Department of Labor. I think one of the best ways to start change is to bring in the sanitizer of light.”

Elsewhere in education policy, Walberg noted that, while eliminating the Department of Education is not feasible, he wants to “look at individual aspects of it and either reauthorize it or say we’re not paying for that particular initiative, because it’s not meeting the needs of what education is all about,” and added that he’d love to see Betsy DeVos reprise her role as Secretary of Education, should Donald Trump win in November.  

Walberg also wants to take a blowtorch to what he calls the Biden-Harris administration’s “arsenal of bureaucracy.” Walberg made it clear that he is not anti-union; his father was a labor organizer for part of his career, and he himself worked at the United States Steel South Works plant on the South Side of Chicago in his younger years. “I’ve come to see unions as valuable when they’re needed, but when they go beyond and begin to impinge upon the economy and the ability of the employer to provide the jobs that are necessary, I have a problem,” he said.

The 2024 election cycle has shown the chasm between union leadership and workforce time after time, and it’s with the rank-and-file where Walberg has found the most success. He pointed to Monroe County, in his district, which has an extensive union history, which led many to vote for Democrats for decades. 

But over time, Walberg said, he noticed that union members are changing their political orientations: “All of a sudden, especially when Trump came in, and he added to that, that he is a tough guy who spoke their language, who wanted to make their job secure, and keep China and other countries from taking those jobs away. All of a sudden they are not Democrats anymore, at least in their voting processes.” 

However, Walberg is far from a pushover to union leadership. As he surveyed the union landscape, he singled out the leadership of United Auto Workers (UAW) for focusing on “special interests and other priorities, not necessarily the concerns of the rank-and-file. Rather than solely focus on the interests of their workers, the UAW’s leadership called for a “ceasefire” in Gaza. 

Walberg doesn’t favor government overreach in workplace disputes. “There are certain things that government has to stay out of: for instance, the definition of joint-employer, independent contractor, the walkaround rule we can go on on down the line, those workplace rules that the Department of Labor is arbitrarily putting in, really putting a thumb on the scale, in many cases, for the union leadership, but not for the benefit of the rank and file,” he said.

An area close to Walberg’s home where educate and workforce complemented each other is in his district’s Adrian College, where Google partnered with the school to offer computer and data science courses, and the school’s alumni have easier access to employment at the tech giant, which won’t have to spend time ensuring that they are properly trained. 

Another space where Walberg wants change is in expanding short-term Pell Grants. “There are manufacturing sites in my district that are giving apprenticeship programs, internship programs, all for the purpose of training employees that they need, and they’re not getting what they need from four year institutions,” he said. “If they meet the standards, the quality that would require, the outcomes, why not offer a short-term Pell Grant for that? I think we need to expand that.”

As a Michigander, Walberg is on the front lines in the Biden-Harris administration’s push for electric vehicle mandates. He has a simple takeaway: “Government mandates generally don’t work.”

“The government mandated to auto companies that by 2032, around two-thirds of new vehicles have to be at a certain emissions level that was something that that could not be met by anything but a vehicle without a tailpipe,” he said. “While the Democrats would say that’s not a mandate, if the only thing that can meet that standard is a vehicle without a tailpipe, then it’s a mandate, and we’re playing semantics here.” 

Despite much of higher education placing a priority on the theoretical over the practical, Walberg sees very real consequences to his work: “we need to promote an education system that considers China as a competitor and threat to us, and find a way to educate our workforce to outmaneuver and outsmart China. They’ve told us they want to defeat us. They told us they want to take over and become the top country in the world, the most powerful manufacturer, military might, all of that. They’ve said that. I’m told by my military friends, that when an enemy tells you what they want, believe it,” he said.

“Why do we increase our reliance on China?” he asked. “I would have thought that after COVID, finding out that we couldn’t even get 3M masks for ourselves without going to China, that we couldn’t get the drugs we needed without going to China, that we should really be concerning ourselves with China in the sense of finding a better way to beat them. I think that’s where it comes down to say to our academic institutions like the University of Michigan, Michigan State, your research, land grant facilities. We expect you to do that. We expect you to get beyond China. Our American companies, my gracious. You competed against each other. You beat each other to a pulp at times. But you achieved. Now why are we having to go do what China wants to do?”

To defeat China and allow for a healthy relationship between education and workforce, Walberg has a simple proposal to his fellow policymakers: “Don’t get in the way of the innovator. Don’t get in the way of the free market system, capitalism, approach. Don’t get in the way of the private sector that comes to innovative ideas. I don’t care whether it’s helium, I don’t care if it’s natural gas, I don’t care whether it’s fish scales from the fishing industry to make our power.”

That said, he isn’t optimistic that fish scales can power America’s future. “I think that’s a little fishy,” he said.

Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.), lightly edited for clarity. 

Washington Reporter:
This edition will be published on the one year anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attacks. From your standpoint, how did that change what you wanted to accomplish this Congress with the Ed and Workforce Committee, and how do you think that changes what your campaign is focusing on to chair it in the next one? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
I don’t think it changed what we want to accomplish. But what I think what it did is it focused us in a good way on the rot that’s in our higher education institution system. And I appreciated how Chairwoman Virginia Foxx grabbed onto that and gave us purchase power by bringing in those college presidents, those university presidents, elite university presidents. That’s how you would describe them. And asking questions and seeing that these presidents did not have control of our campuses, in fact, they were empowering professors to indoctrinate and actually hurt certain students on their campuses. The answers that I received from some of those presidents were just pathetic, horrific that they had no moral clarity about what academia and their purpose is all about: to educate a moral majority in this country, well-suited, well-fit, well-trained to work in whatever work environment they get in, plus facilitate a culture and a society that is open. What we saw was a closed network, and at the expense of Jews, in this case, Jewish students, who were put in fear, literally for their lives at times, and radical professors who saw their purpose to be change agents away from the opportunity and freedom that Americans saw. 

Washington Reporter:
You’re a Michigan guy, so cars are important to you. We’ll get to that in the workforce segment. But what is your bumper sticker slogan on Ed and Workforce chair? And how is this campaign different for you than running for reelection this November?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Well, it’s a different ballgame. You’re campaigning to your peers and asking them to trust you to lead a committee that I contend ought to be considered an A committee. And that’s really my slogan. Ed and Workforce is key to all that America is made to be. Education should have one goal in mind. Well, you can have expanding your mind and concepts, etc, but it should provide the ability for people to work. As simple as that: educate to work. And right now we have kind of lost that. We need to bridge the gap between the needs of the workforce and job creators and our higher education. Bring business, the workforce entity, into the education entity, making them work together.

Washington Reporter:
Do you think there should be more proactive steps by both the companies and the colleges to make this happen? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
It’s all about connecting students with the skills sought by employers. And creatively, if employers have more skin in the game this can start to reduce college costs. So, students graduate from school with skill sets desired by employers, and they graduate with significantly less debt.

Washington Reporter:
What do you think should be done to reform the Department of Education to prioritize outcomes?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Return on Investment. They’ve got to be thinking that way. I’m a realist. Reagan said, the closest thing to eternal life on this earth is a government agency or government program. But we can go into the Department of Education and look where they’re missing it. Betsy DeVos is quoted as saying something like, since 1979 when Jimmy Carter implemented Department of Education to fill in the gaps in the educational experience, we’ve spent over a trillion dollars, and we’ve seen no gaps filled, in fact, many gaps have gotten worse. And so going in the Department of Education, for instance, the FAFSA division there. FAFSA — we simplified FAFSA congressionally in a bipartisan way, and they screwed it up. They had three years to implement and they failed. They’ve had to delay it, and now we’ve passed legislation out of Committee to give a hard and fast date, you have to have it working on October 1. We need to go into those departments, have a field hearing, it may be in the lobby of the Department of Education, bring FAFSA agency down and ask these questions. ‘Why did that happen? You’ve had three years. We simplified it. You used the excuse of COVID to stay away. A lot of you are still staying away from the office building, and you’ve let our students down. We need to take a close look at the Department of Education, and really look at individual aspects of it and either reauthorize it or say we’re not paying for that particular initiative, because it’s not meeting the needs of what education is all about. 

Washington Reporter:
You’re one of the most plugged in people in this education realm — is there already a current rumor mill on who might be the Secretary of Education in either a Trump administration, who you think would be great or who you would be particularly concerned about in a Harris administration, running the department?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
I’m concerned about anyone running it right now, if it’s a President Harris, I mean, the amount of prevarication we’ve seen from this office.  I don’t know who would be there if Trump wins. Betsy DeVos, the former Secretary of Education, she and I have been good friends for years. We worked together very well. I worked with her when I was on the education committee back in the state legislature, worked with her on choice and education proposals, etc. She’s indicated if the President asked, she’d be willing to consider it but that is going to be up to President Trump, and I am confident he will make a great selection. Secretary DeVos took the slings and arrows from the academic radicals out there strongly and stayed firm. The Title IX reform that she did, goodness gracious, she was hung in effigy in so many places, but she braved it because it was necessary, so a person like her who has the guts to do what needs to be done, and the belief that education is a priority for this country at all costs and it cannot be hijacked by academics who want to be change agents and go away from what made this country great and take away the freedom of what academics ought to be. 

Washington Reporter:
We saw, in part with Gov. Glenn Youngkin winning, that Republicans are starting to really lean into education, especially in the aftermath of COVID. Your committee, of course, had the most-viewed hearing of all time this Congress, and you’ve been leaning in on this a lot with your PROTECT Kids Act, for example. How have you seen Republicans, going back to your time in the state legislature, try and make education an offensive and winning issue?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Great question. My staff is sick and tired of hearing me quote the Northwest Ordinance, which is part of our Michigan Constitution and isn’t in the U.S. Constitution, because we don’t say anything about education in the U.S. Constitution, but the Northwest Ordinances said, ‘religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,’ so education is something we ought to lean into and say, for the benefit of this country, for the continuation of this country, for a country that is historically, the most compassionate country in the world, never asking anything for ourselves but giving, giving, giving, defending, caring for, leading the way in manufacturing, leading the way in agriculture, leading the way in research, leading in so many areas. All of that comes from an educational base meant toward what? An outcome which is work or something that benefits morality, religion, knowledge, good government and happiness. They go together. And I think Republicans, if we can present that, go to the parents, and say, ‘listen, this is what we’re missing out on if we allow our education to continue to slip away from the fundamentals and say, ‘here’s truth, here’s fact, here’s debate, take it and grow from it.’ We have to get the focus back on education rather than indoctrination. I’m going to say it. That’s what frustrates me about classifying committees as A, A-, B+, B, B-, whatever. And Republicans look at Education and Workforce as a B, B+ committee. Democrats look at it as an A committee. At times, it can be a challenging place to be, but I think if we don’t do it, we lose what really makes America what it is, and we make it more difficult for us to do things in other spaces like the energy space and the innovation and creativity that makes America great. If we don’t educate our students in a real way, we’ll lose our opportunity to lead the world. So this is a big deal, the Education and Workforce Committee. 

Washington Reporter:
It pains me, as a UChicago alum, to say this, but perhaps some great inflation is necessary from the B, B+, to an A on the committee scale for Ed and Workforce. 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
And I’m going to try to do that! 

Washington Reporter:
What do you think the Democrats’ opposition to your PROTECT Kids Act is, for example?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
I think they fear parents having the authority with their kids in such a way that they could shut down the activists’ efforts. So parents, all of a sudden, during COVID, they’re looking online and saying, ‘wait, Ms. Smith, why are you saying that? No, no I don’t agree with that.’ Many Democrats don’t want parents to upset the apple cart. They had control of education. They’ve got the classroom. They’re going to be change agents. ‘Get out of our way’ is their belief.

Washington Reporter:
Apples are primarily red and green, and you’re seeing this red-green alliance of the communists and Islamists, which I think has been one of the hallmarks of what you’ve been dealing with in this Congress. Do you have plans for next Congress on doing field hearings on either campuses around the country or in communities to talk about these issues? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Yes, we do. I believe that some of our best hearings we’ve had have been off-campus hearings, either places of business or at schools. I can see going to schools and putting them on the spot. And I can see going to schools, say, the ones who’ve bridged the gap between needed skills and education, and saying, ‘why is this working? What’s the benefit that you’re finding?’ Additionally, I can also see us going to our government agencies, the Department of Labor. I think one of the best ways to start change is to bring in the sanitizer of light. But that is the opportunity. I think we have to keep our heat on these universities. We’ve had four presidents leave office.

Washington Reporter:
Although they kind of have just gotten rehired by the other schools recently. 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Yes, but they’re on notice. I think we have to keep that pressure. And it can’t be just on anti-Semitism, but we have to go after that. All students have to be safe. All religions or non-religions ought to be safe on campus, but we have to keep them aware that at least this committee will be watching them and what they’re doing with with safety of students on campus, what they’re doing with the freedom of students to assemble on campus, religious, First Amendment liberties, etc. All of that takes constant oversight. It doesn’t take a Department of Education.

Washington Reporter:
Do you think that Jim Harbaugh’s suspension was out of line?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Of course I do.

Washington Reporter:
Is there anything that can be done to ensure that there are consequences for students and non-students who have been breaking the law during anti-Israel campus demonstrations, and the violent anti-Semitic assaults on campus when you see the local authorities not doing their jobs? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Well, I think that’s where we shine a light on them. I don’t think we have the authority, and I don’t necessarily think that we ought to promulgate rules for individual institutions, but I think we ought to use the committee to shine a light on them. I think we ought to speak to what needs to be done. I think we ought to call on presidents. I think we ought to talk with law enforcement if it is a violation of what they did in trespassing on a campus as non-students and whipping up violent demonstrations or demonstrations that prohibit free exercise of students’ life on campus, then the weight of the law ought to be carried out on that.

Washington Reporter:
You were just mentioning FAFSA. What have you learned, as far as from an oversight standpoint, that should be done to ensure that this goes off without a hitch next year? And what do you think about student loan reform from a legislative standpoint, should be done there?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
I think the federal government ought to have a very, very light touch in education. And FAFSA is a light touch. That’s an assist to allow parents and students and academic institutions to understand the financial needs of an individual student. We need to make sure we are fostering responsible lending, and making sure that a student is, number one, entering into an academic institution with a clear understanding of how much their major will cost them and how they will be able to pay it off. And we’re not going to give you more than justified by the major that you’re receiving. The PLUS Loans, we have to look at that, which takes all limits off for graduate students, and they’re the ones with some of the big debts that we have our concerns with. But growing the economy where you have jobs and opportunities for students to get into, to know that they can, in a reasonable period of time, pay off their student loan. I think we’re starting to see evidence that parents have come to a point of not feeling guilty or that they failed if Johnny or Susie doesn’t go to University of Chicago, but goes to a trade school, knowing their child can come out in 16 months or two years and have a job that in many cases is closing in on six figures, and student loan debt is almost nonexistent, I think that type of competition will promote more creativity at our four-year institutions and even our community colleges to better define what their purpose is and deliver results.

Washington Reporter:
One of the biggest areas in education that probably would have taken up a lot of your time before all of your hearings about campus anti-Semitism was the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision. It seems that colleges have been trying to still discriminate based on race in admissions. Has that been your experience? Is that what you’re seeing these colleges doing? If so and if not, how do you ensure that they are complying with the law?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
For many universities, it’s about more than just defying the Supreme Court, it’s what they believe; they believe they are change agents. They’re trying to bring up downtrodden, and I’m certainly not against bringing up the downtrodden. Let’s do it the old fashioned way, merit, opportunity, doing it within the framework so that they can succeed, not sticking them in an institution when they’re going to fail just because we think they ought to be there, and saddling them with tons of student loan debt in the meantime. Go back and do plenty of research, that’s what’s happening in a lot of cases.

Washington Reporter:
Let’s shift to workforce, the other half of this committee. You have a blue collar background and  your district is filled with more union workers than the average Republican’s district. You have a long relationship with these workers. How does that inform your day job here and what you see your role being as chairman?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
My work at the United States Steel South Works, on the South Side of Chicago was made better because of what my dad did as a union member, and for a period of time or organizer at US Steel. I’m sure his working conditions, his benefits, his wages were not as good as what I had working there as a college student, with more safety requirements, better benefits, etc. So I’ve come to see unions as valuable when they’re needed, but when they go beyond and begin to impinge upon the economy and the ability of the employer to provide the jobs that are necessary, I have a problem. I look at unions in two ways, I look at the leadership, and I look at the rank and file, and that’s where I have benefited. Monroe County, for instance, that was Rep. John Dingell’s and John Dingell’s father before him, but now that is in my district. And so to not have someone whose last name was Dingell as a representative was strange to Monroe County at first, but when they got to know me. And I began to talk to them about those traditional values that they had, these Catholic, blue collar values, and they began to hear the same things they believed. So all of a sudden, especially when Trump came in, and he added to that, that he is a tough guy who spoke their language, who wanted to make their job secure, and keep China and other countries from taking those jobs away. All of a sudden they are not Democrats anymore, at least in their voting processes. So now Monroe County, which was the most union-based county that I have, is my strongest base of support. So it’s amazing when you talk to the issues that make sense to the working people, all of a sudden they come along. That’s why Sean O’Brien was smart as a Teamster president to speak at the GOP convention. He offered to speak at the Democrats’ convention, but they dissed him, and Republicans let him speak even though we may not agree on every issue, we agree on wanting to ensure the working men and women of America have opportunity in this country. He ultimately endorsed Trump by not endorsing anybody, and it said to his rank and file, which was a strong majority in favor of Trump, I think the same thing that the UAW rank and file have said to Sean Fain. Sean didn’t listen to his rank and file. I heard Fain interviewed recently on CNN, and he was asked why he endorsed Biden, and he explained because Biden’s for the unions. Then he was asked who the union rank-and-file is going to support? He said, probably Trump. Why? His answer was pocketbook issues. I think that’s where we get to it. So my efforts, in the workforce space, are for those things, making sure that you don’t take away the opportunity for a union if you need it. But then we also say there are certain things that government has to stay out of: for instance, the definition of joint-employer, independent contractor, the walkaround rule we can go on on down the line, those workplace rules that the Department of Labor is arbitrarily putting in, really putting a thumb on the scale, in many cases, for the union leadership, but not for the benefit of the rank and file.

Washington Reporter:
What do you think explains some of these union leadership prioritizing Gaza, China, electric vehicles, and their own workforce is a second thought. What do you think explains that disconnect? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
I think it’s because some of these unions, like UAW, are representing a lot more than auto workers. It’s about special interests and other priorities, not necessarily the concerns of the rank-and-file. But the rank and file is saying ‘no, I’m still going to be a union member. I still want my job, and benefits, and I appreciate the fight for better wages, but I’m not necessarily going to go along with those social issues.’ I think that’s where Republicans being smart and this committee being smart, we have the support base to do some things that help those auto workers, those Teamsters and their kids in the future, to have benefits that they wouldn’t have if we just let the Labor Department continue to regulate them.

Washington Reporter:
What are some of those Biden Department of Labor regulations that you want to push back on? And what do you hope to see from a Trump Department of Labor?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Where do I start… Overtime rule. That takes away the opportunity for college students on up to have a position that expands their capabilities for the future. It’s hurtful, so the overtime rule is something we need to push back on. We also want to push back on their attacks on association health plans. Trump saw the rationality in that.  We tried to pass legislation, I’ve led the fight in Congress, but Trump did it through executive action. Then Biden comes in and does away with that, we have to make that permanent. That speaks to the benefits and the opportunities for individuals. Things like the Walkaround rule. We all want safe job sites, but having a rule that permits an otherwise unauthorized and unqualified person to accompany a workplace inspection, is not the way to go. We’ve also talked about joint employer, independent contractor rule, taking away opportunities for individuals to succeed in their chosen profession. Taking away flexibility and really hurting our small businesses.

Washington Reporter:
You’ve done a lot on association health plans. Can you explain how you see those lowering health care costs? The 2018 election for example was almost entirely about health care. How do you see Republicans being able to also make that a winning issue?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Unions have attracted a lot of people over the years, including my dad, because of benefits like health care. You have a whole group of people combining together creating an economy scale that allows them the bargaining power to obtain high quality health care at an affordable cost. If it works so well for unions, why not take a chance to say that electrical contractors who joined together in an association, so that now you don’t have five employees, but 50 employees, or 500 employees in the system, I can now get a better deal on my health care and the contributions from employers and employees would both be reduced. 

Washington Reporter:
Looking to the future of the workforce, how do you see things like employer training programs and Pell Grants fitting into ensuring that we do have a workforce that’s capable of thriving in the 21st century? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
If we have education in place that fits with the workforce, then why cloister off to four year institutions, community colleges? Why not short-term certification programs that put people in careers that can offer significant salaries? We came close to getting that done, we need to keep doing that. There are manufacturing sites in my district that are giving apprenticeship programs, internship programs, all for the purpose of training employees that they need, and they’re not getting what they need from four year institutions. If they meet the standards, the quality that would require, the outcomes, why not offer a short-term Pell Grant for that? I think we need to expand that. 

Washington Reporter:
We recently covered how one congressional district in Michigan only gives an 8 percent approval to mandating that consumers buy EVs. What do you see moving forward with the Democrats’ push for EVs? Rep. Elissa Slotkin is now anti-Gotion, for example. But what’s the future there? The demand seems to not be there, which then affects the supply. 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
Government mandates generally don’t work. The government mandated to auto companies that by 2032, around two-thirds of new vehicles have to be at a certain emissions level that was something that that could not be met by anything but a vehicle without a tailpipe. While the Democrats would say that’s not a mandate, if the only thing that can meet that standard is a vehicle without a tailpipe, then it’s a mandate, and we’re playing semantics here. That’s one legislation, my CARS Act was important, opposing what government can mandate on any type of vehicle. Rep. John James just passed a tailpipe CRA. The rank and file at the auto plant understand and have appreciation for better wages, it at least gives us a chance to set aside some money before we lose our jobs, because there will be need for fewer employees because EVs just don’t have as many moving parts. You’ve got heavier vehicles, these batteries that are there. You got problems to go with it. You don’t have enough charging facilities out there to deal with what they’re promoting by government mandate. And I think the autoworker understands that, the auto dealer understands that. They’re not opposed to EVs, but people don’t want to buy it, that’s why they trade them in. People also do not want to buy used EVs as much. They think ‘I’m going to have to pay to change the battery relatively soon, that’s very costly.’ So eliminating that or the EV mandate is supported by upwards of 90 percent of our population that see it as too early, too quick, too unplanned, and government promoting it without the reality in check that says, ‘is this what the people want?’

Washington Reporter:
How do you see China factoring into your work? 

Rep. Tim Walberg:
We need to promote an education system that considers China as a competitor and threat to us, and find a way to educate our workforce to outmaneuver and outsmart China. They’ve told us they want to defeat us. They told us they want to take over and become the top country in the world, the most powerful manufacturer, military might, all of that. They’ve said that. I’m told by my military friends, that when an enemy tells you what they want, believe it. I think you disregard China for anything except a competitor, And we don’t do what so many are saying. ‘They’re going to beat us at EVs.’ Well, so what? Are their citizens going to be able to afford EVs, without us sending them coal to fire up their engine plants? Let’s do what’s necessary to find something better than EVs if that’s the case. So that would be the workforce area, don’t get in the way of the innovator. Don’t get in the way of the free market system, capitalism, approach. Don’t get in the way of the private sector that comes to innovative ideas. I don’t care whether it’s helium, I don’t care if it’s natural gas, I don’t care whether it’s fish scales from the fishing industry to make our power. 

Washington Reporter:
Do you think that fish scales are the future?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
I don’t think so, I think that’s a little fishy. I get tired of hearing from companies that ‘China is going to get way ahead of us on battery production if we don’t bring them here.’ Well okay, but why don’t we go beyond it ourselves? Why do we increase our reliance on China? I would have thought that after COVID, finding out that we couldn’t even get 3M masks for ourselves without going to China, that we couldn’t get the drugs we needed without going to China, that we should really be concerning ourselves with China in the sense of finding a better way to beat them. I think that’s where it comes down to say to our academic institutions like the University of Michigan, Michigan State, your research, land grant facilities. We expect you to do that. We expect you to get beyond China. Our American companies, my gracious. You competed against each other. You beat each other to a pulp at times. But you achieved. Now why are we having to go do what China wants to do? The majority of their citizens are going to have tiny little cars that don’t meet the needs of American citizens. The only Chinese people with EV vehicles will be in Beijing.

Washington Reporter:
Anything else you’d like to add on any education or workforce issues?

Rep. Tim Walberg:
This is a passion for me. There’s a reason I fought for four waivers while still sitting on Energy and Commerce because this is a big deal for my district. 

Washington Reporter:
Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Congressman Walberg.