U.S. Senators Katie Britt, John Fetterman Join Common Ground on NBC with Kristen Welker

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) joined NBC News' Common Ground in a discussion moderated by Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. Senators Britt and Fetterman spoke about their friendship and partnership across the aisle, specifically highlighting their social media legislation, the Stop the Scroll Act.

Excerpts from the Senators' discussion can be viewed below, and the full segment can be viewed here.

On her friendship with Senator Fetterman:

"I think that we use the trust and the respect that we have for each other and our friendship to be able to talk about hard things and talk about pathways forward. … We've taken the time to not just understand our politics or position on something, but to really get to know each other as people. And I think that that's missing so much right now. And I think when you do do that, when you ask about each other's kids and you know what's going on, and we've also commiserated over some of our votes and having to miss our children's activities and like, how do we how do we do this whole thing? And also our frustration with some of the gridlock and the lack of communication and conversation. And so our conversations, we have utilized to kind of try to spur something different in the Senate."

On what led the Senators to lead social media legislation that helps address our nation's youth mental health crisis:

"John and I approached this along with a number of our colleagues, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as concerned parents. I mean, we see what's happening across our country when it comes to mental health, and we know the impact it's having on our youth. And the more that we learn, the more we feel obligated to make sure that we're protecting the next generation … We know that the rate of depression amongst young people more than doubled during 2011 and 2019, where there was also a coinciding of a rise in social media … So John and I thought, what are some simple things that we can do to help warn people, warn parents about those negative effects?

On her landmark pieces of social media legislation, the Stop the Scroll Act and the Kids Off Social Media Act:

"And so the Stop the Scroll Act … will do a pop up screen on … young people's phones just to say that there are challenging mental health effects … [W]e wanted to make sure that there was a link to help so that if someone found themselves in an unthinkable situation, that they would be able to click there and hopefully receive the kind of help that would prevent them from doing damage or harm to themselves. And then the Kids Off Social Media Act that we have together along with Ted Cruz and … Chris Murphy and … a very wide spectrum of individuals … says you can't be on social media before 13. And then it says that we won't be able to use algorithms against our children. … But the point is it's time to do something. Kristen. Doing nothing to me is feckless and the next generation is paying the price."

On the recent Artemis II mission to deep space:

"[T]hat was the most incredible thing to watch. And I love to watch America be unified around Artemis, around this mission. And we were proud in Alabama. So much of that work is done at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. And so as we were cheering them on, were also cheering on the men and women that made that possible … I appreciate Administrator Isaacman for rolling in the time and saying, no, we're going to do this now. And we're going to do it more often because there's a lot of work to be done, and we're going to continue to lead when it comes to space, and Alabama's proud to be a part of it."

You can watch the full panel interview here.

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