{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://cole.house.gov/media-center/cole-congress/cole-congress-guest-chairman-diane-black", "Cole on Congress with guest Chairman Diane Black", "2017-12-07", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "OK", "Tom Cole", "C001053", "cole.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. - Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) recently filmed an episode of his television and web show, Cole on Congress for December 2017. This month\u2019s program featured an interview with Chairman Diane Black, who represents the Sixth District of Tennessee and currently serves as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Elected in 2010, Black brings an extensive background of public service in the state legislature of Tennessee, as a registered nurse, a small businesswoman and an educator. She has served on the Budget Committee with Congressman Cole since 2011 and was named the Chairman of the committee in 2017.\nBefore running for public office and serving in the Tennessee State Legislature, Black worked in hospitals as a registered nurse. On what inspired her and pushed her to run for office, Black says:\n\u201cI never thought about myself running\u2026I was working in a hospital and saw what kind of care, or the lack of care that people were getting. The cost was breaking the state of Tennessee. [I] decided that maybe I could have a voice in this.\u201d\nDuring her time in the Tennessee State Legislature, Black helped shape healthcare policy for the state, which eventually inspired her run for Congress:\n\u201cI\u2019m very proud to have done a lot of things in healthcare there because my healthcare background has really been the base of most of what I have done. But then what comes along in 2010 \u2013 I\u2019m watching the very same thing that happened in the state of Tennessee happen at the national level. The passage of the Affordable Care Act \u2013 which I always say is neither affordable nor caring \u2013 and I\u2019m watching once again this healthcare plan that is not offering people quality nor the cost of things they can afford.\u201d\nIn addition to her passion to improve healthcare policy, she is also driven by fiscal conservatism. On becoming a member of the Budget Committee, Black states:\n\u201cThe second reason why I came here beside the healthcare piece was that I was watching what was happening in my country about this awful debt and deficits we have. And being a mother, and now a grandmother of six grandchildren, I just couldn\u2019t fathom leaving our country in such terrible conditions.\u201d\nThis year, Black was named the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, and also serves as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. She attributes the experience of serving on both as achievements to unlocking mandatory spending reforms:\n\u201cIt was such an honor to be asked this year, to do something that I really wanted us to do for the last several years and that is actually get in to some of that mandatory spending\u2026we so many times forget about the mandatory [spending] and that being the true driver of our debt.\u201d\nTo watch the full show of Congressman Cole\u2019s conversation with Chairman Black, please click here.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://cole.house.gov/media-center/cole-congress/cole-congress-guest-chairman-diane-black"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.1185910552740097, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}