Congressional candidate Scott Wiener on why you should vote for him

Washington stopped working for us a long time ago. In Congress, I'll pass Medicare for all. I'll lead the movement to lower rents and restore the dream of home ownership. I'm Scott Wiener. State Senator Scott Weiner is running to represent San Francisco in Congress. He's running for the seat that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has held for nearly four decades. Weiner has served as a state senator for the last 10 years and will face off against San San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. on Election Day next week. All right, we have done extended interviews. We are doing them with both of the candidates. We spoke last week with Supervisor Connie Chan, and now State Senator Scott Wiener joins us here in the studio today. We appreciate the time. Thanks for having me. Good to have you on, absolutely. Let's start, you know, I mean, obviously, affordability is really top of mind for voters in this election, and a big part of that is the cost of housing. And obviously, that has been a big part of your track record. You have touted the numerous pieces of legislation That have been designed to sort of speed up housing projects, you know, focused on land use issues. How does your approach, your focus on trying to increase the housing supply translate into the U.S. Congress if you are going to win? What specifically would you do at the federal level to increase the housing supply for people in San Francisco and try to bring down the cost of housing? Yeah, so the cost of living in general is it's crushing people and it's energy costs and child care and health care and just so many aspects of life that are just really dragging people down and Trump's illegal war in Iran is making it worse and housing is one of the key things that is making people's lives much more expensive and much less. Sustainable. And it's pushing people out of communities. And so we've worked very hard at the local and state level to build more homes and to bring down the cost of housing. And the federal government. It needs to be a full partner in building the millions of homes that we need in this country so that people can actually have a home and afford a home. The federal government used to play a big role in terms of funding and partnering with local communities to build mixed-income housing so people at different income levels can have a place that they can afford so people can actually pay the rent or even buy a place, and we need to bring that back. We also need to support low-income renters so that they don't become the next wave of homeless people But what do you say to those people who argue, you know, this isn't just about a supply issue and that we can't build our way out of the problem? It is, in significant part, a shortage. Thank California, back in the 50s and 60s, when we were a much smaller state, was building 300,000 homes a year. We're now almost three times bigger, you and we're lucky to build 100,000 homes in a year. So we've almost tripled in population, very and our housing construction has gone down by like two-thirds. And so we have a massive shortage. Now, we need all sorts of different kinds of homes and homes much. that people can afford, including for lower-income people, for seniors. But we need to be very clear that there are a lot of people in our community, in San Francisco and elsewhere, who are on the verge of being pushed out. Who if they lose their apartment, they're going to have to leave young people who want to start a family and make a home here Who don't see any pathway to doing that because of the obscene cost of housing and if we don't build the homes that we need That is never going to change. So I say let's build the housing. You have proposed a program that would offer incentives to cities for every new home that gets built, $10,000 in federal funding for every new unit. Explain a little bit more about how this would work and why you believe on a national level this would help to increase the housing stock and bring costs down. And what would a program like this cost, do you think? Yeah, so in addition to requiring cities to actually approve housing and allow them Thank you to healthcare and housing and so many other needs So lets reverse Those tax cuts and lets let's actual ly invest in our communities It's transforming the economy, the Bay Area as we know it. And the Bay Area is obviously at the center of this change. Do you support stronger federal safeguards for A.I., even if that means kind of imposing some additional requirements on the those that are actually leading in this industry? Yes, absolutely. And I was the first lawmaker in the country back in 2023 to propose regulating A.I. around safety and protecting communities because the bottom line is A.I. is probably the most powerful technology in human history. And to me, the bright red line is AI needs to benefit humanity and not harm humanity. And so that means we don't need self-regulation by large corporations. We need government to step in. ...and pass laws to protect the public. I've done that work in California, and Congress has not done that work. It's been 30 years since Congress has passed any significant tech regulation, and Congress needs to step up, and I will be part of the team in Congress to get us to step up and protect people from the risks of AI. You have said, though, that you oppose a broad moratorium on new AI data centers. What sort of restrictions would you support, though, to try to make sure that these centers are being built in the right places and that they don't negatively impact local communities? So my view is that no community should be forced to accept a data center. That should be a local decision that the local community makes about whether they want a data center or not. Many, many communities will say no, and they should have that right. Right. Some will want it. A data center for their particular reasons. And I don't think that Congress should step in and ban every city in the entire United States to say you are prohibited from ever even considering a data center, even if you want it. So that's not, to me, the role for Congress. That is a local decision. I also believe that there should not be. taxpayer giveaways to data centers and data centers should be required to generate their own clean energy and to use recycled water so that they are not putting upward pressure on people's electric and water bills. Something else that we want to get you to weigh in on is Proposition 40. Most people at home know it as the billionaire tax. Where exactly do you stand on this proposal and what concerns, if any, do you have about it? Yeah, so I'm a strong supporter of progressive taxation, including wealth taxes, and that's why I'm supporting Elizabeth Warren's proposed wealth tax, it's called the ultra-millionaire tax, that will tax wealth above $50 million, and it will be a sustainable... Ongoing revenue source to fund critical needs for our community. So you're not supporting Prop 40? So Prop 40 is, the issue with it is, it is a one-time and one-time only tax, and then it's gone. And it's a one-time tax to support health care, and health care is not a one-time expense. And so we should not create more... I'm going to have to get more Ups and downs, instability in California's tax system. I'm going to have to get more In California, we go from massive surpluses to massive deficits. It's chaotic. It's unstable. It's not government as it should be. And so we should have an ongoing source of revenue tied to wealth and not have a one-time tax, which is what Prop 40 is. And that's why I don't support it. All right. So you broadly support the notion of wealth taxes, but not... I don't like this particular approach that Prop 40 takes. Yeah, and I'm aligned on this with the California Teachers Association and with Planned Parenthood and the building trades unions that are also opposing it. So there's a real divide among progressives on this proposal. Yeah, certainly. Let me ask you here about Speaker Emerita, Nancy Pelosi, who you are looking to succeed here in this contest here. At one point, you said that you would not announce your run. for this congressional seat until Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement, but then in October you entered the race before she had made a decision. Can you talk about sort of what that process was like for you to make that decision? Why did you decide you were not waiting any longer, and how much do you worry about alienating some of Pelosi's supporters? Listen, I have enormous respect for Nancy. Pelosi and I think she I think the world of her and she has moved mountains for our country and for our city and I also care deeply about San Francisco having the best possible representation and last year the Speaker Emerita had did not indicate that she was running again and we were getting close to the filing deadline and there was a gentleman Who was coming in and writing millions of dollars of checks of his own money to try to buy the seat. And I did not think that that would be a good representation for our city. And so he was the only person who was running and we were getting close to the filing deadline. And so I decided to enter the race to make sure that San Franciscans had an alternative, had someone who actually had committed himself, which I have. to the city for a very long time. And so I, like I said, I think the world of the Speaker Emerita, but ultimately this is about having the best possible representation for San Francisco, someone who's going to fight for housing and health care and clean energy and to protect immigrant communities and to protect our democracy from this disaster unfolding in Washington, DC. It's not about any one individual. It's about our community. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us and to our viewers. We really appreciate it. State Senator Scott Weiner. Thank you. Thank you so much. And a reminder, folks, that we had an interview with Supervisor Chan last week. We posted it in its entirety on KTVU.com, our YouTube channel and the Fox Local app. And we will be posting today's interview with State Senator Weiner in all of those places as well.