INTERVIEW: Rep. Marlin Stutzman on the new Middle East, crypto, and rescissions

THE LOWDOWN:

• The Middle East is being remade in real time, and Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R., Ind.) is adapting with the times. Stutzman was also one of the first lawmakers to meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new president.

• Stutzman spoke with the Washington Reporter following news that President Donald Trump is lifting virtually all sanctions on the country, a move that Stutzman supports.

• Stutzman is optimistic that the Middle East, from Syria to Saudi Arabia can be “an economic powerhouse.”

• Closer to home, Stutzman is eager to see Crypto Week take off, tying the burgeoning industry to agriculture in America’s heartland.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R., Ind.) didn’t plan on becoming one of Congress’s go-to experts on Syria. In fact, during his first stint in office, Saudi Arabia consumed more of his time.

The Middle East is being remade in real time, and Stutzman is adapting with the times. Given both new realities on the ground, and the large Syrian community in the Midwest, he has spent no shortage of time working on the region. Stutzman was also one of the first lawmakers to meet with Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new president.

Stutzman spoke with the Washington Reporter following news that President Donald Trump is lifting virtually all sanctions on the country, a move that Stutzman supports.

“I was recently there, getting to see what was going on in Syria firsthand,” he said. “Over there, you have people who are trying to make a living. You have people that are trying to survive.”

“You have people who are trying to recover. I was having a conversation with Rand Paul yesterday, and we were talking about what makes a difference in these countries, and it's trade and it's commerce,” he continued. “Having the ability to buy and sell and then support your family, feed your family, clothe your family, is essential.”

Under Trump, Stutzman said “we're giving them a chance, and we're giving the new administration there a chance, in spite of the background of al-Sharaa.”

“And the thing is, those sanctions can always be slapped back on if the regime or administration misbehaves,” he said.

But, Stutzman is optimistic that the Middle East, from Syria to Saudi Arabia can be “an economic powerhouse.”

“If Saudi Arabia can do it, if UAE can do it, there’s hope. We have a little bit of a blank slate in Syria. And so watching al-Sharaa and learning about him about his vision for the future is giving us all optimism. There's an opportunity here for trade. The trade lines between India, the Middle East, and Europe are huge. If you have free commerce and free trade in those regions, it's going to be good for people, and that's how you start limiting war and death, and these terrorist cells being able to train and eventually do damage, the United States.”

Closer to home, Stutzman is eager to see Crypto Week take off, tying the burgeoning industry to agriculture in America’s heartland.

“With crypto,” Stutzman explained, “it's very natural for us in the Midwest to think about the ability to to make transactions around the world quickly and safely. Not everybody has access to the Export-Import Bank.”

“It's a far reach for a small business in Fort Wayne, Indiana,” Stutzman continued. “Ex-Im is supposed to be focused on smaller businesses, but they're focused primarily on Boeing and GE and other global companies, but I think this also gives tools for transactions to take place.”

Stutzman, who has made a career as a fiscal hawk in Congress, has a simple message for his colleagues across the Hill when it comes to passing the rescissions package.

“Pass the bill,” he said. “This is the easiest thing possible.”

Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Marlin Stutzman, lightly edited for clarity.

Washington Reporter:

We saw the Trump administration lift basically all sanctions on Syria. How do you think that's going to end up turning out?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

I was glad that he did. I was recently there, getting to see what was going on in Syria firsthand. Over there, you have people who are trying to make a living. You have people that are trying to survive. You have people who are trying to recover. I was having a conversation with Rand Paul yesterday, and we were talking about what makes a difference in these countries, and it's trade and it's commerce. Having the ability to buy and sell and then support your family, feed your family, clothe your family, is essential. These are pretty basic things for us in America, but in a country like Syria, after the Assad regime has been in power for 50 years, the country is just broke. To see the excitement and optimism in Syria, even after all of those years, and then to have the sanctions lifted up, I think we're giving them a chance, and we're giving the new administration there a chance, in spite of the background of al-Sharaa, we’re giving them a chance. And the thing is, those sanctions can always be slapped back on if the regime or administration misbehaves.

Washington Reporter:

This isn't your first time in Congress. When you were first here, was Syria something that you focused on as closely on as you do now?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

So no, it was actually Saudi Arabia back then. Back then, you had the Arab Spring around 2013 2014 that was popping up, they almost tipped the regime over in Iran, Twitter was just kind of becoming mainstream around the world. And as we were talking to young people in the Middle East, they were excited about the ability that they had just to communicate and to spread information to people. When I got to Saudi in 2014, the Arab Spring had hit Saudi and they gave everybody a week's vacation, and they gave everybody a bonus check to just buy the peace. 2014 was 13 years from 9/11 and they wanted to have normal relationships with the United States. Our message to them was, ‘look, there were terrorist training camps in Saudi Arabia. Too many of the 9/11 pilots came from there.’ We can't forgive that and move on. Well, now, Prince Salman has really turned Saudi Arabia away from extremism. The United Arab Emirates has too. And so with Syria, I've got a lot of good friends who fled Syria who live in Indiana and Illinois that I’ve become really good friends with, and we’re always interested in how do you defeat Assad? That family was in power my whole life. If you'd have told me that Syria would change regimes without a shot being fired, we'd all be like, that's impossible. At first, the intelligence network that was coming out of Syria made it hard to know what to believe. If Saudi Arabia can do it, if UAE can do it, there’s hope; we have a little bit of a blank slate in Syria. And so watching al-Sharaa and learning about him about his vision for the future is giving us all optimism. There's an opportunity here for trade. The trade lines between India, the Middle East, and Europe are huge. If you have free commerce and free trade in those regions, it's going to be good for people, and that's how you start limiting war and death, and these terrorist cells being able to train and eventually do damage, the United States.

Washington Reporter:

What is it about the Midwest that attracts so many people from countries like Syria?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

I think they have some of the same values that we do, like hard work and family. Our weather is not like the weather in Syria. They're looking for opportunities they get here in the United States; there are manufacturing and low skill jobs available in the Midwest because of manufacturing and agriculture. We have a large Burmese community in Fort Wayne, and they came there for manufacturing jobs and ag jobs. The Midwest is also very welcoming, and people look out for each other and are very hospitable. They want to treat others as they want to be treated, but at the same time, they are family oriented. The friends that I have, they're very much about their families. They're always talking about their families back in Syria, and if they can someday help their family in Syria, that's what they want to do. It's been impressive to see the Syrian community reengage back in Syria after all these years and want to rebuild Syria. They have great pride in their country.

Washington Reporter:

The last time you and I spoke, I was sitting in a bomb shelter. The Middle East has been remade a lot in recent years, including in the past month. What's your assessment of that?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

It could be an economic powerhouse. Israel is kind of at the center of that. They're known as startup nation. They're a strong democracy. They've got this uncanny ability to create something out of nothing. Talk to the Syrian people, they're all such smart people. They're all doctors and entrepreneurs and business owners. They've just got a good work ethic about them, and they want to build, but they've seen over time, they’ve got terrorists, they’ve got dictators that continue to destroy what they've built. They've got history that hardly any other country has. And they're situated so well between the West and the East. But also there's a spiritual component as well. You have the biblical times right out of Jerusalem. The Muslims, the Christians and Jews are situated in that area. And there's a lot of meaning there for all three religions. And if all three religions can respect one another and work together and build, the opportunities are endless.

Washington Reporter

Looking closer at home, this is Crypto Week; how is this a thing that impacts people in Indiana?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

One thing you know you have to understand with agriculture and manufacturing, those are both very international industries. For the United States, our number one export is agriculture. A lot of farmers, people in agriculture, understand the opportunities. Not only do we feed the United States, but we feed greater parts of the world as well. There's very much a vision, a view globally, that even though we're in the middle of the country, we like where we are situated, but we also realize that there's a world to feed as well. With crypto, it's very natural for us in the Midwest to think about the ability to to make transactions around the world quickly and safely. Not everybody has access to the export import bank. It's a far reach for a small business in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Ex-Im is supposed to be focused on smaller businesses, but they're focused primarily on Boeing and GE and other global companies, but I think this also gives tools for transactions to take place. There's a lot of interest in Africa in my district, because they've got some of the most fertile soils in the world, and you have a whole continent there that needs to be fed. But because of the government's instability in so many of those countries, it makes it hard. So if you have the ability to deal in currency, like Bitcoin, with people in Africa, you actually can get somewhere and know that your currency is going to be safe, rather than it being worthless the next day because of government instability.

Washington Reporter:

The Senate is taking up the rescissions package. What's your message to your colleagues across the Hill?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

Pass the bill. This is the easiest thing possible.

Washington Reporter:

What do you think is the most important cut there?

Rep. Marlin Stutzman:

With NPR and PBS, everybody's like, that can be done in the private sector. But I think also the foreign aid; people are tired. We have helped so many other people around the world with foreign aid. So, for example, Portland, Indiana. I was talking with the superintendent of schools there a couple of weeks ago. And when the school was built during the early 80s, the school system had 6,000 students in the school system. Today it's got 3,300, almost half. That's because jobs have left. Families have had to leave because the manufacturing jobs left. Agriculture has consolidated, so you have fewer people in agriculture just because of bigger equipment and growth and consolidation. They're having to go somewhere else, even though they loved their community there. They see all this money going overseas and then being spent on woke ideology, and it upsets people. A million dollars in a town like Portland to finish their downtown would increase not only the community sentiment and pride, but the town is struggling because jobs are going overseas because of bad foreign trade policy. Why send a million dollars into countries that don't like us? We could put that money into infrastructure. Our infrastructure in a lot of our small towns is aging and it's going to have to be updated, which is always more expensive than new infrastructure. That's why people support Trump, because they've bought into America First, not America only, but America First. We've got to be healthy so we can support others.

Washington Reporter:

Congressman, thanks so much for chatting.