On WMUR’s CloseUp, Senator Hassan Discusses Her Fight To Lower Gas Prices, Her Trip to the Southern Border, and Standing Up For Reproductive Freedom

In case you missed it, this Sunday Senator Hassan joined Adam Sexton on WMUR’s CloseUp to discuss her work to get results for Granite Staters — and her commitment to taking on Big Oil, protecting reproductive freedom, and strengthening border security. In the interview, Senator Hassan discussed her push to suspend the gas tax, her successful calls for the Biden administration to release more barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the importance of holding Big Oil accountable for posting record profits while keeping gas prices sky high. 

The Senator also laid out why she is visiting the Southern Border later this week and the importance of securing our borders. And with Roe vs. Wade on the precipice at the Supreme Court, she discussed the need to stand up for a woman’s fundamental liberty to control her own destiny — and called out New Hampshire Republicans’ efforts to eviscerate women’s reproductive freedom. 

Here are some highlights of Senator Hassan’s interview:

On Suspending The Gas Tax and Lowering Energy Prices: “We need to do everything we can to lower the cost at the pump in the short term. That's why I've been pushing for a federal gas tax holiday. It's why I successfully pushed the administration to release petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve earlier in the year, I kept pushing, and now we're seeing this announcement that they're going to release a million barrels a day. [...] But what we're seeing from Big Oil right now is also deeply troubling. They are making record profits while they are also allowing the prices at the pump to spike. So I also think it's important that we call on them to use the capacity they have to increase supply, and that should help impact lower prices. But we also need to look at things like implementing a windfall profits tax to provide a disincentive to them for really using these profits for stock buybacks and to enrich their stockholders rather than helping consumers at the pump.”

On Her Trip To The Southern Border: “Well, first and foremost, we need to have secure, orderly and humane borders. And that's why since being in the United States Senate, I really have worked to make sure that I'm listening to frontline law enforcement at the border, making sure they have the resources, the physical barriers, the technology, and the personnel that they need to make sure that we are living by the rule of law at the border. [...] But what I think is really important here is we need to be pushing the administration more to really listen to frontline personnel and make sure that we have in place the technology and the barriers, the personnel to really deal with what we are going to see surging at the border, especially if they go ahead against the recommendation of many of us and remove the Title 42 authority. I'm headed to the border for my third trip next week to really get that firsthand look that you can get from Customs and Border Protection and really make sure that we're doing what we can. We have increased personnel there, we have provided significant resources in the bipartisan infrastructure deal to beef up our ports of entry. I'm going to be looking at vehicle and cargo inspection and also though looking at the spaces between ports of entry and what kind of technology, drones, sensors, cameras, we need to make sure we're detecting people who are trying to cross unlawfully.” 

On Standing Up For Reproductive Freedom: “I've sponsored the federal legislation that would protect a woman's constitutional right to control her own destiny and her own reproductive health. And I think that this is one of the areas where we've seen some really troubling developments at the state level here from the Republican Party, which has passed the first abortion ban in modern New Hampshire history and continues to indicate that it will work to restrict a woman's liberty, defunded Planned Parenthood. [...] But this is going to be a significant issue because this is about women's liberty — our opportunity to really chart our own course, make our own decisions about if and when to have a family and make our own decisions about how we can best lead our family. So it's a really concerning time, I think, for women and all people who really respect individual freedom.”

###