INTERVIEW: Rep. Marlin Stutzman on second reconciliation, Big Three passive firms, and Charlie Kirk's legacy
Rep. Marlin Stutzman wants Trump to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, explains why he was the first in Indiana's delegation to back mid-decade redistricting of his state, and more.
Should Congress embark on a second — or even third — reconciliation package this Congress, Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R., Ind.) wants it to include “tax policy items [and] housing policy items,” both of which he told the Washington Reporter in an interview will play heavy roles in the 2026 midterm elections.
“There are a lot of people who would like to see interest rates reduced to spur the activity in the economy, and those are pieces that we're going to focus on, and then any other reforms and government spending cuts that we could do, or that the administration would find and ask for those, are all important pieces to look at,” he said, adding that Congress may need to tackle trade if the Supreme Court rules against President Donald Trump in a tariffs case.
“Another thing, though, that is going to be interesting to see — and I hope the Supreme Court rules in favor of the administration on the tariff policy — but there's a chance that we may have to even move tariff policy through a reconciliation package,” he said.
But, hours after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Stutzman said that he believes that “the Charlie Kirk assassination is going to be part of people's psyche coming into the 2026 election.”
“I want to honor Charlie for all that he did,” Stutzman said. For him, Kirk’s assassination hits close to home, because one of his sons ran a Turning Point USA chapter in college. “The legacy that he is leaving is incredible. If any in the left are celebrating his death, shame on them, and watch out, because I think millions of young people were affected this week, like many of us were affected after 9/11.”
Stutzman, who serves on both the House Committee on Financial Services and House Budget Committee, said that he thinks “Congress is going to have to play a role” to ensure that the Big Three passive firms — BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street — stop playing politics.
In fact, Stutzman brought up a recent Financial Services Committee hearing at a business roundtable in Indiana’s 3rd District, and he said that “hard working Hoosiers” are frustrated with how the Big Three operate.
“They just don't think of going and buying shares of a company and then trying these backdoor games to push a political agenda,” he said. “That's just not how they think. When I start talking about it, they just immediately start shaking their heads in disbelief that that actually happens…when you have people who hire a company with nefarious plans, that makes your job that much harder, it's very frustrating, and to push an agenda inside these companies is wrong.”
“To jump in and go after Eli Lilly or Cummins or Coca Cola, it's not necessary for that to happen,” Stutzman said.
Eli Lilly itself, he said, is a “legacy” company in Indiana. “They obviously have a lot of support from Hoosiers, there are a lot of jobs that have created, which is something that Hoosiers are proud of that they've done over the years,” he added. The Reporter was first to cover the multi-billion dollar investment Eli Lilly announced earlier this year.
That expansion, Stutzman said, “and their growth here, shows the commitment from not only the company to the state, but also from the citizens of the state towards the company. We're proud of companies like Eli Lilly that continue to grow here. It creates more jobs. It creates higher population numbers, because people are moving here, not only for jobs at Eli Lilly, but also for the jobs that go along with it, like the ancillary jobs — restaurants, hotels, other companies that would potentially be suppliers. There's a lot of excitement about it.”
Finally, Stutzman compared Indiana’s success with businesses to Illinois’s failures next door. In the same way that he supported Trump sending the National Guard to Washington, D.C., he also would support a deployment to Chicago, if Gov. JB Pritzker (D., Ill.) and Mayor Brandon Johnson refuse to do it themselves.
But it is Illinois’s egregious partisan gerrymandering that led Stutzman to make the unusual step of backing mid-decade redistricting in Indiana; Stutzman was the first federal official in Indiana’s congressional delegation to back redrawing Indiana’s map, which could jeopardize Rep. Frank Mrvan (D., Ind.).
“The Illinois maps are what really pushed me over the edge,” he said. “And the fact that these are sanctuary states take in potentially millions of illegals and then count them in the census, that is completely unfair, and it is an imbalance to the voting citizens of the state of Indiana…I need to fight for Hoosiers to make sure that there's equal representation for Hoosiers in Washington and across the country for states that may not behave like the liberal states are.”
As Stutzman looks to the regularly scheduled 2030 census, he said that “the question needs to be [asked in the census:] are you here legally or illegally? We need to count them in the census, but they are not to be counted for the sake of drawing representative maps. So we count everybody, but they have to prove that they are citizens or not.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Rep. Marlin Stutzman, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Congressman Stutzman, thanks for chatting today. Let's start with the unfortunate news of this past week — the assassination of Charlie Kirk. You were just at an event with your constituents in Indiana; how is this reaching Indiana's 3rd District reacting to this? And more broadly, do you have any thoughts on how we can prevent our country from looking like the 1960s with political violence becoming a regular occurrence?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
I had a financial services roundtable this morning, with bankers and financial wealth managers and business folks, and life and death is still at the forefront of peoples’ minds in these circumstances. For a lot of the folks who were there with me, to them it affects their kids. Because, you know, their kids are college age or are in high school. The impact that Charlie Kirk had on millions of teenage and college age students is something we probably will not ever comprehend. I have two boys; one is a senior in Liberty University. The oldest, he was actually the president of the TPUSA chapter at Liberty; our youngest, he's in Bethel University in South Bend, Indiana. And even his baseball team was talking about it. My youngest son's baseball team was talking about the fact that Charlie was shot. Why and how? How could this be? At the same time, we’re thinking about and remembering 9/11; that attack came from Jihad and that was an outside threat against us. This is different. This is the question that I'm asking myself after learning a little bit about who Tyler Robinson is. He looks like a neighborhood kid; what impressed on him to take a .30-06 and run across the neighborhood and shoot Charlie Kirk? I mean, shooting anybody is bad enough; that's the question that I have: what caused him to do this? The fact that his father, maybe possibly turned him in, shows you the kind of family he came from. There are so many questions around this, like the rhetoric that this young man heard, this is a real problem that we're going to have to address, and my hope is that that can be addressed without any violence. It needs to be addressed without violence. That's what Charlie would have wanted. That's what Charlie was doing, saying ‘let's have a conversation without violence.’ He's sitting in the middle of 3,000 college students in a vulnerable spot with a shirt on that says ‘freedom,’ talking, and for somebody to take his life, is just awful. I want to honor Charlie for all that he did. The legacy that he is leaving is incredible. If any in the left are celebrating his death, shame on them, and watch out, because I think millions of young people were affected this week, like many of us were affected after 9/11.
Washington Reporter:
And even going back to the financial services roundtable that you were just at in your district, and tying that to the Financial Services Committee hearing from this week: what do you think Congress's role should be in stopping the Big Three passive firms from putting politics over shareholder value? Is this something that came up in the meeting with these people who you were just with in your district?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
Well, I brought it up just to share with them what we were working on. And as soon as I brought it up, just even when you start talking about the issue, you connect the dots really quickly. So many everyday, hard working Hoosiers are thinking about an honest day's work. ‘What do I produce of value? What can I serve that's going to bring value for a paycheck?’ And they just don't think of going and buying shares of a company and then trying these backdoor games to push a political agenda. That's just not how they think. When I start talking about it, they just immediately start shaking their heads in disbelief that that actually happens. It's frustrating to people because it's hard enough to make and build a business in today's environment, and with the regulations that we have, and with the competitive nature of business, that’s tough enough, and then when you have people who hire a company with nefarious plans, that makes your job that much harder, it's very frustrating, and to push an agenda inside these companies is wrong. Now, look, you know what? That's what we have c-suites for. That's what we have board of directors for. But to jump in and going after Eli Lilly or Cummins or Coca Cola, it's not necessary for that to happen, and I think Congress is going to have to play a role, because if it damages the value of a company, and there are damages that can be shown by these groups, there needs to be accountability.
Washington Reporter:
You mentioned Eli Lilly, which obviously is an Indiana company. We broke the story about their massive tens of billions of dollars of planned investment in America, which will include more investment in Indiana. How is that coming along thus far?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
Eli Lilly is one of our legacy companies in Indiana. They obviously have a lot of support from Hoosiers, there are a lot of jobs that have created, which is something that Hoosiers are proud of that they've done over the years. Their expansion here, and their growth here, shows the commitment from not only the company to the state, but also from the citizens of the state towards the company. We're proud of companies like Eli Lilly that continue to grow here. It creates more jobs. It creates higher population numbers, because people are moving here, not only for jobs at Eli Lilly, but also for the jobs that go along with it, like the ancillary jobs — restaurants, hotels, other companies that would potentially be suppliers. There's a lot of excitement about it. And Indiana is actually seeing a lot of growth right now with our manufacturing base, agritech businesses, and, of course, companies like Eli Lilly as well.
Washington Reporter:
And one of the subcommittees you're on on the Financial Services Committee deals with digital assets and AI; what do you see Congress working on on those issues for the rest of this Congress?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
Well, I don't know a whole lot more than getting the crypto legislation passed; that's obviously important to the president, and I think it's important to the industry to get some bumper lanes. A lot of us are still looking at AI. Frankly, the biggest policy piece related to AI is probably energy supply and data centers being built across the country. Google has built a big one in my district, in Fort Wayne, and then Meta is building one, Amazon building one in North Indiana, over in Rudy Yakym's district. The energy policy is actually the bigger piece to it; I had a question from a lady yesterday about how AI is going to affect education. And a lot of people are also looking at AI, and how does it affect manufacturing? How can they utilize it? Walmart announced that they're going to train all of their employees in ways to use AI. Is there anything that needs to be done to keep it in check? We're probably still learning some of those pieces. And I know Brian Steil and some other members are deep into that space already, we’re definitely going to keep looking at the issue. Where do we need to get engaged? A lot of us are all free marketers, so we don't want to just throw government into the mix until we actually know that it's something that needs to be addressed, and to protect anyone from being abused by it, but also we don't want to limit it and what it's capable of doing to help the economy grow and help companies grow and individuals use it as a tool for their own personal use.
Washington Reporter:
You're also on the Budget Committee. Obviously there's not a lot going on there in September. What are you planning on working on between now then end of the month? Based on what Senate Democrats are saying, there is a high potential for a government shutdown.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
There’s some conversation about maybe another reconciliation package, maybe two, this term. So we're talking through some of those pieces, looking at the CBO on how they score legislation. We had a really good briefing with them the other day and we asked them a lot of questions. That briefing gave us an opportunity to ask Phill Swagel the questions that we have on their scoring models, and my question was how much money they're spending over at CBO? From around 2022 they were around $60 million, and now they're pushing almost $76 million, so almost $20 million more over CBO. And I asked how did this happen? That's a pretty large jump, and ironically, it was blamed on inflation.
Washington Reporter:
What are your priorities that you would want to see in another reconciliation that weren't already in the first one?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
Some tax policy related items, some housing related items. I think that's going to be one of the biggest issues coming into the 2026 election outside of political violence. I do think that the Charlie Kirk assassination is going to be part of people's psyche coming into the 2026 election, but also the housing industry, interest rates. There are a lot of people who would like to see interest rates reduced to spur the activity in the economy, and those are pieces that we're going to focus on, and then any other reforms and government spending cuts that we could do, or that the administration would find and ask for those, are all important pieces to look at. Another thing, though, that is going to be interesting to see — and I hope the Supreme Court rules in favor of the administration on the tariff policy — but there's a chance that we may have to even move tariff policy through a reconciliation package.
Washington Reporter:
Charlie Kirk, as you were mentioning, was assassinated in a Republican state, in an area that doesn't have a lot of crime. And the National Guard's time is currently up in Washington, D.C. Do you want to have them come back, either via President Trump deploying them, or by Congress or the mayor requesting them? And what do you think about your neighbor to the west: Illinois and Chicago? Do you think that cities like Chicago should have the federal government send in the National Guard if their mayors and the governors are unwilling to ask for that to happen?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
It's a good question. I’ve been asked if I would want the National Guard to come into Indianapolis. Well, our governor is going to take care of the problem before that would even be on the table; he's going to work with President Trump to make sure that people are safe. That's the problem the Democrats have right now. They're not fighting for the safety of the American people. They're more concerned about the rights of criminals and drug traffickers and sex traffickers and murderers and rapists. That's who they're defending. And so I do support President Trump sending in the National Guard into Chicago, because if you don't have a governor or a mayor that's going to take responsibility, and the numbers don't lie — well, they may lie in cities like Chicago. What we do know is that Chicago is a dangerous city and I think that the president has a responsibility to keep Americans safe. Americans look to the president to keep them safe. We look to our governors. We look to our mayors, and when the mayors and the governors are failing, I think that that's when the federal government needs to step in. I'm glad that he brought the National Guard in to D.C., because I think that's a great model that shows the American people that it can make a difference. And if the mayor is willing to work with the President, they can clean it up themselves.
Washington Reporter:
Sticking with Illinois, it population loss is Indiana's gain; you were the first member of your federal delegation to want to do the mid-decade redistricting in Indiana. How'd you come to that decision? And what's the progress on that?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
There were some abnormal abnormalities to the election in 2020, but the Illinois maps are what really pushed me over the edge. And the fact that these are sanctuary states take in potentially millions of illegals and then count them in the census, that is completely unfair, and it is an imbalance to the voting citizens of the state of Indiana. There are potentially 10 million illegal immigrants; we don't know where they all live, but we know they're going to they gravitate towards the sanctuary states and that they have a huge number, and we know that about 100,000 people have moved directly from Illinois to Indiana in the last five years. So that's a big change; we are number seven in the country where people are moving to, and that’s because of Chicago, and it goes back to law and order, and because Democrats have manipulated the numbers and manipulated the policy compared to what Indiana has done, I need to fight for Hoosiers to make sure that there's equal representation for Hoosiers in Washington and across the country for states that may not behave like the liberal states are.
Washington Reporter:
I assume that in Indiana, unlike in California, this is fully legal, whereas in California, Gavin Newsom needs to blow up the state's constitution to eliminate five Republicans from office. Is that right?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
Yeah, that's right. Look, it is not normal. People are accusing Republicans of changing the rules in the middle of the game. There's no rule that says you can't redistrict mid-decade. My belief is that we found out that Democrats manipulated the maps to favor themselves. We should have expected it. But again, they're going to do it. Massachusetts is a 9-0, state. There are only three Republicans in Illinois, and California is going to try and max out. I think that's the thing. Democrats did this already, and now they're trying to redistrict places where they've already maxed out their districts to benefit them, and then as Republicans pick up seats, that’s because we didn't do that. It shows you the difference between the two parties.
Washington Reporter:
Look, I'm a Republican in Maryland. I couldn't agree more with your observation on that. And then last question, based on that, is how can Congress make sure that in the 2030 census that illegal immigrants are not counted, regardless of whether Republicans or Democrats are in control of the White House?
Rep. Marlin Stutzman:
The question needs to be are you here legally or illegally? We need to count them in the census, but they are not to be counted for the sake of drawing representative maps. So we count everybody, but they have to prove that they are citizens or not.
Washington Reporter:
Congressman, a pleasure as always.