Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) at a campaign event for President Joe Biden at Montgomery County Community College January 5, 2024. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) appears ready to bury the campaign trail hatchet he wielded against GOP Sen. Dave McCormick, saying he met with his new counterpart over dinner, and had a “great discussion.”
Fetterman said both he and McCormick “want a better Pennsylvania.” He made the remarks to reporters at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, which kicked off in Harrisburg on Saturday, one day after he became the Keystone State’s senior senator.
McCormick was sworn in as the state’s junior senator on Friday, after defeating longtime incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.).
Fetterman, who was a vocal Casey supporter and delivered powerful remarks during his farewell address to the U.S. Senate, said he and his wife Gisele met recently with McCormick and his wife Dina, a former Trump administration official, in Pittsburgh.
While Fetterman said he’s going to miss his “dear friend” Casey, he said he looks “forward to making a new one and working with him.”
Fetterman, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said he met with President-elect Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary nominee Brooke Rollins, and plans to vote to confirm her. While she may have some different views than him, he said Rollins “has a strong background.”
Unlike many Democrats, Fetterman has met with several Trump nominees over the past month and said he doesn’t know why it would be unusual to meet with them.
“Some I can vote for, like the incoming Secretary of Agriculture, or [Secretary of State nominee and Florida Sen.] Marco Rubio or Representative [Elise] Stefanik, and there’s others, perhaps, that I will not,” Fetterman said. “But whoever I vote [for], it’s going to be an informed choice. And I see that as doing my job. I don’t see that as controversial.”
Fetterman told reporters on Saturday that he’s eager to work with Rollins on the Farm Bill, which is more than a year overdue, as a member of the committee and to deliver for Pennsylvania’s agricultural community.
On Dec. 21, President Joe Biden signed a one-year extension to the Farm Bill in order to avoid a government shutdown.
A main sticking point for Democrats in negotiations of the next five year Farm Bill is protecting funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Fetterman said that the priorities of the Farm Bill will change with the new Republican administration and GOP majority in Congress, but he remains committed to protecting SNAP.
“I have always pushed back about, we can’t ever stand for cutting SNAP or going after, you know, hungry Americans,” Fetterman said.
Pa.’s Fetterman, U.S. Senate Dems seek answers from USDA on SNAP program changes
He said he hopes Republicans in Congress don’t target SNAP in the final version of the bill. “But… I’m always going to be the same consistent voice about not going after hungry Americans.”
‘Immigration is one of our super powers’
Republicans have fought publicly on social media in recent weeks over the H-1B visa program, which allows employers to hire highly skilled foreign workers. Fetterman noted that his wife Gisele grew up undocumented and said immigration is one of America’s “super powers.”
“Without immigration, I wouldn’t have the family that I did,” he said.
Fetterman said that immigration is going to be front and center in the upcoming administration and pointed out that Trump has said he supports “Dreamers” staying in the United States and that he hopes to work with him on that issue, while also expressing support for security at the U.S. southern border.
“So immigration has become incredibly divisive, and I can’t follow a lot of that kind of rhetoric, but I’m very, very front and center that we need a secure border,” Fetterman said. “If you are pro immigration as I am, I’ve been very consistent that we need an absolute secure border.”
In 2024, Democrats and Republicans struck a bipartisan deal on border security until Trump announced his opposition to the bill, which later failed.
Fetterman said he was disappointed that bill didn’t get across the finish line, but he expects to support an immigration bill in the new session.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.