Transcript: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on "Face the Nation," July 17, 2022
CBSN
The following is a transcript of an interview with Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser that aired Sunday, July 17, 2022, on "Face the Nation."
MARGARET BRENNAN: One of the more startling numbers from last week's Consumer Price Index was the cost of rent, which is soaring at the fastest pace in 36 years. Here in the nation's capital, average home rental costs have jumped more than 11% in just the past year. The national rate is nearly 6%. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has made the push for affordable housing a part of her agenda, and she joins us. Good morning, Mayor.
More than 2 million federal employees face a looming deadline: By midnight on Thursday, they must decide whether to accept a "deferred resignation" offer from the Trump administration. If workers accept, according to a White House plan, they would continue getting paid through September but would be excused from reporting for duty. But if they opt to keep their jobs, they could get fired.
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.