Updated on: May 17, 2026 / 1:31 PM EDT
/ CBS News
Add CBS News on Google
The following is the transcript of the interview with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Suozzi, Democrat of New York, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on May 17, 2026.MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation, and the co-chairs of the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus, Republican Brian Fitzpatrick joins us from Langhorne, Pennsylvania, Democrat Tom Suozzi from Queens, New York. Good morning to you both, gentlemen.REP. TOM SUOZZI: Good morning.REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK: Good morning. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to start with you, Congressman Fitzpatrick. You know, CBS estimates that the net impact of all this redistricting is that Republicans are going to get roughly nine seats- get them nine seats closer, I should say, to keeping control of the House. I mean, presumably that's the outcome the president was looking for here. Why are you concerned that you know driving towards the majority through these methods is actually a negative for your party?REP. FITZPATRICK: It's a terrible thing for our country. Margaret, gerrymandering is one of the most, if not the most, corrosive things to our democracy that I can imagine. Tom and I completely agree with it. Our entire bipartisan Problem Solvers caucus agrees to it. We met this past week to start taking measurable steps to fight back, because you know part of the challenge, Margaret, is you know much like how elections are conducted, these district lines, it's largely a function of state government and state legislative action. The only jurisdictional hook we have on the federal system is funding, so particularly the Help America Vote Act, the so-called HAVA funding that passed after the Bush v. Gore hanging-chad election. You know, we can tie that money - it's billions of dollars that get sent to the states to carry out their elections. We can tie that funding to certain reforms, and one of the things that has to happen - only seven states, by the way, do this in America - is have independent citizen commissions, with computer-generated line drawing assisting them, to make sure that we have more balanced districts in this country.MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I understand the effort and the intent, but Congressman Suozzi, your party's leaders also gerrymander- gerrymandering, and your group, as we just heard from Congressman Fitzpatrick, you're supporting efforts to stop it. But it looks like your members are going to be directly impacted themselves. About 45 members of your caucus may face redistricting. You've said it's going to kill the country. I mean, how does it actually kill the ability to reach across the aisle like you gentlemen are doing?
