CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Executive Order on Immigration Reform

Interview

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TAPPER: Senators Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire, and Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, are here to specifically to talk about ways get Washington to work. They co-authored a chapter in the new book, "Money Ball for Government".

Senators, thanks so much for being with us.

I want to get to the book in a second.

SEN. KELLY AYOTTE (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: But, first we have breaking news that's not really irrelevant to what you want to talk about.

Now, Senator Ayotte, I'll start with you. I get that Republicans don't want President Obama to act unilaterally on immigration reform, but do you think this is going to poison the well for cooperation on everything, as many Republican leaders are suggesting?

AYOTTE: I actually don't think, Jake. I think that we really want to get things done for the American people, focus on the economy, creating a better climate for job creation, and it also goes to the work that Senator Warner and I are doing, on making sure the government is more efficient and effective. So, I don't think that it will poison the well.

But what it does worry me is that it will poison the well on immigration, and we have to get our broken immigration system fixed.

TAPPER: Senator Warner, what about you --you were just reelected narrowly, fighting off that red wave by talking about the importance of working across the aisle. I saw a lot of your commercials. Is President Obama making a mistake here by acting unilaterally, do you think?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Well, this was a piece of legislation on immigration that Kelly and I agreed on. We had 68 senators. It may not have been perfect, but I wish the House would come back with something. Other presidents have acted on immigration through executive order, President Reagan, President Bush.

What I'm hoping is that whatever the president does and I'm not -- I haven't seen the details yet, that there may be some phase-in time and hopefully that will spur the House into action so that we could at the end of the day get it fixed legislatively. That's the better long- term solution.

TAPPER: Senator Ayotte, what about that? I mean, what Senator Warner says is accurate. The House Republicans haven't acted. AYOTTE: Yes. But Jake, you could identify any number of issues where

either the Senate Democrats didn't act or the House Republicans didn't act. And it comes down to this -- I would hope that the president would follow his own advice from 2011 where he was asked about this very issue, and he said, that's not how our democracy functions. It's not how our Constitution is written, it was written so that Congress could be weighing in on this issue and we're stronger when that happens.

TAPPER: Senator Warner, the book says that governor needs to take a more data-driven approach, steering money toward programs that are driven to work, away from programs that don't. You guys don't do that already?

WARNER: I kind of believe we don't.

Jake, I was in business longer than I've been in government. And when I was governor of Virginia, we've got named business managed state. I know what Kelly and I have been on sometimes makes people's eyes roll back into their head. But we spend less than a dollar on every federal dollar we spend, really evaluating what works and what doesn't work.

So, Kelly and I have said we'll roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of looking at actual program effectiveness. We've worked on legislation to eliminate redundant reports. We are looking now at program elimination.

I think if we're going to try to save dollars, this kind of really hard core focusing on data is one of the ways we can -- and there's no Democrat or Republican, this is data-driven approach how we govern.

TAPPER: Senator Ayotte, what are some of the areas where this approach can work?

AYOTTE: I think we need to start with the obvious, Jake. GAO issues report every year on programs that should be eliminated or evaluated and really what we want do is make sure that we're investing our taxpayer dollars on programs that actually work.

So the work has already the initial work done. We've got to take this up and get things done and base our decisions based on metrics, data and are these programs getting results for the American people.

TAPPER: Senator Ayotte and Senator Warner, thank you so much.

AYOTTE: Thanks, Jake.

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