Interview with Kumar Barve, candidate for US House of Reps. from Maryland’s 8th District.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A member of the Maryland General Assembly for almost 25 years, Kumar Barve is no stranger to hashing out legislation in his beloved home state. After effecting change on various levels during his tenure as a Maryland state delegate, which includes leaving important imprints on healthcare, the environment, and technology.
As the first Indian American elected to serve in a state legislature in United States history, Barve has represented a Montgomery County district in the Maryland House of Delegates since 1990.
Barve is now running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland’s 8th Congressional district which encompasses parts of Montgomery, Frederick and Carroll Counties.
Barve is currently the Chairman of the Environment & Transportation Committee. His committee has oversight of the environment, land use, state ethics and transportation policy.
Prior to that, Kumar served as the Majority Leader of the House. In that capacity for 12 years, he was the floor leader for the Democratic Party, and a senior member of the fiscal leadership of Maryland. He helped guide the policies that resulted in balanced budgets and the maintenance of the state’s Triple-A bond rating.
Barve, 56, grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Montgomery County Public Schools before graduating from Georgetown University, where he received a B.S. in Accounting. His father emigrated from Bharatpur, Rajastan, while his mother was born in Schenectady, N.Y.
He resides in Rockville, Maryland with his wife, Maureen Quinn, who serves as a Commissioner on the Maryland Worker’s Compensation Commission.
In a phone interview with The American Bazaar, Barve discusses his motivation to run for Congress, and what his agenda offers. Excerpts:
What are your key motivations in running for Maryland’s 8th congressional district, especially considering how crowded the race for the Democratic nomination is?
I’ve been able to do a lot of great things at the state level on so many issues — but it’s the state level. I am looking forward to working hard for middle-class workers’ wages and opportunities and working in the fight against global warming. Being a member of Congress — being a voice on the national and in some instances the international stage is an uncommon opportunity. I look forward to it, my supporters are really looking forward to it as well, so it’s an opportunity to really do some good in a way that goes beyond the borders of the state of Maryland.
You mentioned that you have served as a Maryland state delegate for almost 25 years. In which ways will your previous political experience translate to Congress?
As a state legislator and as a senior leader in the Maryland General Assembly I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of work on a lot of issues and have a lot of victories for the people of Maryland. Whether it is regulating health maintenance organizations, whether it is closing corporate tax loopholes and using the money to freeze tuition at the University of Maryland system for four years. Whether it is requiring the use of renewable energy or cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay — all of those experiences are good in and of themselves, but also point toward what my agenda is going to be as a member of congress. And of course I have the experience of building coalitions and passing difficult pieces of legislation. I have a history and track record of working well with Republicans and conservatives and taking everybody’s point of view into account so that we can pass bipartisan legislation and we need more of that at the national level.
You serve as the CFO of an environmental company in Rockville, Maryland, and have also been key in pushing legislation to protect the environment. As an assumed proponent of responsible nature conservancy, how has your purview changed since Martin O’Malley relinquished governorship?
The views I take with respect to the environment have not changed, except now as chairman of the committee I’ve become even more convinced that we need to be proper stewards of the environment. The difference in Martin O’Malley leaving means that we have a Republican governor who is not as dedicated to the environment as I might be and as Martin O’Malley had been. So it’s more confrontational. But having said that and being a person who is willing to confront over issues where I feel strongly such as global warming and reducing pollution into the Chesapeake Bay, I’m also willing to work with the governor. So, on all of those issues we took a very tough stance of standing up for what we believed in but I also communicated my willingness to negotiate and try to solve problems. To a very great extent that’s exactly what happened in my first year as the chairman of the Environment and Transportation Committee.
Between your various accomplishments during your legislative career, is there one you would consider your magnum opus?
The first truly large piece of legislation that I passed was the one that had to do with getting rid of preexisting condition limitations and allowing patients to choose a physician of their choice. It falls under defining consumer and patient gripes versus the power of insurance companies. For me the core of all of this is the doctor-patient relationship, which is crucial and has to be at the center of any effective healthcare reform. The law that I was involved in that accomplished these things have since been copied around the nation and major elements of them have been incorporated into the Affordable Care Act as well. So I guess my early work on healthcare and health insurance reform was the most important in the sense that it’s the most immediate in its impact on people, because a person’s health is the most important thing. There are other things I’ve worked on that I’m also very proud of — whether it’s renewable energy, or closing corporate tax loopholes so we can build the best public school system in the United States. But I suppose making sure people have good healthcare and a good relationship with their healthcare provider is the most important thing.
Would you say there has been any insight you’ve gleaned specifically within the context of being the first Indian American to serve in a U.S. state legislature?
When I first got elected as a legislator — and I was the first Indian American to be elected to any state legislature — of course I was curious as to how I would be received. It was very positive, people didn’t know what to make of me and they discovered that I’m hard working and that I have a sense of humor, and they also discovered that I was a team player for our common objectives and goals. What I have discovered is that in America people want to have a government that looks like the American people and they want a person who breaks the glass ceiling in any category, whether it’s gender, ethnicity, religion, people cheer for the underdog. People cheer for the person who breaks the glass ceiling, does well, and accomplishes things. It’s been a very positive experience for me and it’s been a very positive experience for my colleagues, I believe. And I have to say, when I grew up, nobody looked like me in elementary school. I was the first Indian American kid in Rosemary Hills Elementary School that I’m aware of. Being different wasn’t good, necessarily, in the 1960s. I had to stick up for myself, I was picked on — as a lot of kids are, I’m not saying that’s a unique experience — but I know what it’s like to be treated like you’re different, because when you have a name like mine and you’re a Hindu — you’re different. But I also know what it’s like to be different, and effective, and accepted as well, so I’ve seen both sides of it and it’s great that the good side has happened after the bad side. That there’s progress.
I’d like to switch gears for a moment to specific legislation. What are your thoughts on the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
I wouldn’t have been supportive of that. Let me tell you my overall philosophy in respect to job creation and America’s place in the world. I support international trade but right now in American there are 4 billion jobs going unfilled because we don’t have people who are qualified to fill them. What we’ve typically done in international trade deals is we’ve entered into the deal and then we’ve told the American worker, “Don’t worry, we’ll get you the training you need for different jobs. We’ll take care of you.” And typically, that’s not been the case in recent American economic history. So, my view is, let’s fill those 4 million jobs, the vast majority of which I believe are not outsourceable. Let’s do the training now and then when American industry is in a stronger position to manufacture and to create goods and services to sell into new markets — then we should consider these types of agreements.
Critics of that stance might argue that the American workforce is undertrained. Would you agree with that facet of the argument, in saying that we do need to invest more in homegrown labor skills?
That’s exactly what I would say. Many countries — Germany, Sweden, are at the cutting edge of training workers for what the Harvard Business Review has described as the middle skill range of jobs. In other words, there are jobs in industry — welding for example. In healthcare — being a respiratory technician. Half of those 4 million unfilled jobs are in manufacturing. Those empty spots are there because the United States as a nation has not decided to commit adequate money, adequate resources, and adequate research programs to get those skills to people.
We need to do that now — immediately. Everybody would be winner. Corporate America’s labor is a winner, the individuals whose skills are upgraded and get better salaries, they become winners. That is a key component in my message for the U.S. Congress. The United States’ economic growth in the 1960s was largely fueled by the G.I. Bill. We trained people and gave them educations where previous generations weren’t able to. Today, what we need to do is to train people to be welders, to be data technicians, to be respiratory techs. We also need people to do computer coding, but there’s a whole skill range in the middle of the American economy that’s gone missing and that’s what we should make our top priority.
Do you think you’ll be able to garner support from both sides of the aisle were you to take your agenda to Congress?
I certainly hope so, because both sides of the aisle benefit from this. This is a classic example of an issue that shouldn’t be left versus right, or Democrat versus Republicans. This is an American ussie where everyone has a stake in success. That’s how you build a coalition, by taking into account the interests of everybody so everybody takes an interest in coming to the table and negotiating a compromise. You have to get everybody to come out for there to be winners all around in some fashion, and I’ve done that in the Maryland Assembly on many occasions.
And you believe that will translate to the national level.
Let me say this — no one person can change America, but I want to be at the vanguard of a new breed of practical, legislators who are willing to work hard and take everybody’s point of view into account so we can accomplish things. I think that there is a hunger for that in the United States. In talking to members of congress, I know that many of them feel that way too, we just need a critical mass of legislators who feel that way in Washington.