Newhouse hosts listening session in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — Things got testy during a congressional listening session Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Yakima, held in the Moses Lake Civic Center auditorium Tuesday night.

The congressmen has been on break from Washington D.C. for a couple of days now and is holding a series of listening sessions across the Fourth District during his break to get feedback from constituents and discuss priorities of the 115th Congress.

Attendees in the packed auditorium filled out cards with their questions for Newhouse and the questions were drawn at random by the event moderator, Othello City Administrator Wade Ferris. Some of the biggest ire from the crowd came from questions surrounding the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

House Republicans released the details of their plan, the American Health Care Act (AHCA) of 2017, on March 6. The bill was withdrawn for consideration on March 24 after public backlash and a lack of support of House Republicans. One of the questions posed to Newhouse was, “you voted for the American Health Care Act, that means you voted to take away insurance for 24 million Americans. How can you call yourself pro-life?”

Newhouse was quick to point he never voted for the ACHA, as it never came up for a vote in the House. Even though Republicans had worked on the measure for quite some time, Newhouse said he believes pulling the bill was a good thing, because he wants it to be done right.

With regard to 24 million Americans losing their health care under the ACHA, Newhouse said the number is slightly misleading. He said a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis has lowered the number from 24 million, down to about 12 million.

“Only half of that number were people who, when the requirement to purchase health care was eliminated (from the ACHA), would decide not to purchase healthcare,” Newhouse stated. “So it’s not like it would have been taken away, according to their (the CBO’s) predictions, but people would have made that decision not to purchase.”

The crowd also hit Newhouse hard on why the Republicans didn’t have a viable replacement for the ACA ready, as they had seven years to work on it.

“I guess the answer to that is, it had been worked on for all that time actually. And there were several alternatives that people had presented.”

Newhouse noted none of the alternatives gained enough support, on both sides of the aisle, to move forward for actual consideration.

“There are different points of view even in the Republican Party about what the right thing to do is. And that’s one of the reasons the bill (ACHA) didn’t pass originally. So we are fine-tuning. We are making sure that we hear people’s concerns.”

The volume in the auditorium was turned up a notch when Newhouse was asked about Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. The congressman was asked if he would pledge support for an independent investigation into Russian meddling in the election and co-sponsor H.R. 356, which would establish the National Commission on Foreign Interference in the 2016 election to examine attempts by the Russian government, or other governments, to influence election results.

“If there is a involvement by a foreign government in our national elections, that scares the daylights out of me,” Newhouse remarked.

Newhouse said he is in favor of letting congressional investigations continue their course and if there is evidence that warrants something further, he would “absolutely” support an independent investigation. He said he wasn’t aware of H.R. 356 and will be looking at it to determine if it is something he can throw his name behind.

Several of the people in attendance vocally voiced their frustration on the Republican response to the issue.

“This stuff is right in front of your faces and the blind eye is being turned the other way,” one attendee told Newhouse. “For me personally, treason has been committed by Trump.”

“I appreciate what you are saying,” Newhouse answered. “I do believe that this should be above partisanship. This should not be a Republican, Democrat issue.”

Newhouse also answered a variety of questions on topics ranging from his campaign contributions, to President Donald Trump’s budget, immigration and internet privacy.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.