IN THEIR OWN WORDS: WHAT IT’S LIKE IN A ‘CHAOS’ CONGRESS AND WHY THESE LAWMAKERS KEEP COMING BACK

WASHINGTON, D.C.  (AP) – Polarizing. Challenging. A lot of wasted time.

That’s how six lawmakers described what it is like being in the U.S. House — a particularly tumultuous period in American history that has brought governing to a standstill, placed their lives in danger and raised fundamental questions about what it means to be a representative in a divided democracy.

And yet, they keep at it, running for reelection.

The Associated Press sat down separately with lawmakers, three Republicans and three Democrats, to hear what it’s like on Capitol Hill and what they — and Americans — can do to make it better. All hail from safe districts and are expected to easily win another term.

Here’s who they are, why they first ran for office and why they keep coming back.

Republicans

Dusty Johnson is the rare lawmaker whose sprawling district makes up an entire state, South Dakota. He ran for office in 2018 because he thought there were “too many jerks” in Congress and he would be better.

Nicole Malliotakis said that as the daughter of a Cuban mother and Greek father, her background made her born for politics. She ran in 2020 to provide a “counter view” as a Republican from New York City, representing Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Mark Amodei from northern Nevada, or “original Nevada,” as he calls it, has been in office since 2011. He said it’s his responsibility to do public service and give back to the state where his family has lived for generations.

Democrats

Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, comes from the western Philadelphia region known as “the mushroom capital of the world.” The daughter of a Holocaust survivor and mother of a queer daughter, she decided to run for office in 2018 after seeing them in tears after Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

Veronica Escobar, from the border city of El Paso, Texas, ran for office to work for her community but also to tell the “El Paso story” and counter some of the “negative narratives” about immigrants. She won election in 2018.

Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, said his initial response to running for office was “Hell, no!” But he came to realize his work as the national organizer at March for Our Lives after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, could carry over into Congress. He first won office in 2022.

So how’s it going?

“Chaos is honestly the word I would use to describe the totality of the Congress,” Frost said. “A lot of wasted time.”

“You have your ups and downs,” said Malliotakis.

Almost all of them have been in office during two presidential impeachments, two historic House speaker fights, the COVID closures and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“All of the things that you could not expect have happened have, have happened,” Houlahan said. This year in particular has been frustrating “and in some cases super demoralizing because, you know, you’re not here to not do things.”

Amodei said, “I think it’s an asset if you know how to play well with others. And if you don’t play well with others, then this is a nasty place to be.”

Escobar, who was among the lawmakers trapped in the House gallery on Jan. 6, 2021, said: “I will tell you, I love my job. I’m grateful for my job. It’s a tough job.”

What can Congress do differently?

“I struggle with that a lot,” said Houlahan.

Houlahan said the House’s 435 members operate like “independent contractors,” with small staffs and each office’s own personality. After a career in the military, as a small business entrepreneur and as a high school chemistry teacher, she said, “I’ve never seen anything like the organizational structure that is here.”

“Some of those offices, their mission is chaos, you know, and some of those offices, their mission is constructive,” Houlahan said.

Johnson said it’s the wrong question to be asking.

“It’s garbage in, garbage out,” he said.

“And if the people of America are going to continue to elect people who use fear and anger to motivate, we’re going to continue to find it more difficult than it should be to get things done in Congress,” he said.

Frost thinks unless there are institutional reforms — campaign finance changes and ending the Senate’s filibuster — “we’re going to be caught in this generational cycle of taking a few steps forward and a few steps backwards.”

Malliotakis expects it’s going to be this way for a while.

“The far right does its thing, the far left does its thing, and then everyone else in the middle really comes together to actually govern,” she said.

And what can Americans do to fix Congress?

“Congress is a reflection of what’s happening in America,” Escobar said.

“We have families that can no longer talk to one another about politics or about government,” she said. “We are drifting so far away from what is so good about our country and our communities, and Congress has a role in fixing that. … But we in our country have to do more of that, as well.”

Malliotakis said it would help if Americans paid more attention to what their representatives were “actually doing when they’re in Washington.”

“So many people complain about issues and then they vote for the same members over and over,” she said.

Johnson suggests Americans list characteristics they would seek in a spouse, a boss, a pastor or child and use them when electing a representative.

“Congress can’t fix Congress,” he said. “The American people can fix Congress.”

Do you worry for your safety?

“We’ve all gotten death threats,” Malliotakis said. “Obviously, it is a polarizing time right now.”

Escobar said she has stopped holding large town hall gatherings over concerns of gun violence.

“I worry that any time I’m gathered with my constituents that one of my constituents could get hurt,” she said. “And I worry that my presence at a large gathering could put somebody else’s safety at risk.”

Houlahan said the risks of violence come with the job.

“This is a job where we are in danger,” she said. “It’s awful that we’re in that place, and we as leaders should be decrying that and not encouraging that.”

She said, “But it is absolutely my expectation that this is not a safe job.”

Frost said the threats he receives as a member of Congress are not new to him. “And I think it just shows, of course, the tone and this kind of violent culture that exists within American politics.”

What are the best parts of your job?

All said getting stuff done — even small wins. Especially the small wins, in fact, because that’s about all Congress can accomplish these days.

“There’s no other feeling like it,” said Frost.

He described standing at the White House for the launch of the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention. And the “joy” he felt when receiving word that the administration would approve a second passport office in Florida, something constituents had been demanding since before he came to Congress.

Amodei mentioned work he’s done toward a monument for Vietnam War helicopter pilots at Arlington National Cemetery. “That’s neat.”

“The best days are days when you actually feel like you took a vote of consequence,” Johnson said, whether it’s certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election or “making sure that we don’t have any of these silly, stupid dumpster fires.”

“My role as a legislator is to find a solution,” Escobar said. “It may not be the perfect solution…. I have constituents who get mad at me for saying that, but progress is incremental.”

And the worst?

“I commute about 5,000 miles a week,” Amodei said.

But what’s “worse is when you feel like you’re here and your time is being taken for granted,” he said.

Why do you keep coming back?

“I keep coming back because it’s work that matters,” Johnson said.

“I do love what I do,” Malliotakis said, adding she wants to do “great work for our constituents.”

Houlahan said she envisions a future where Congress turns a corner.

“I stay because I’m hoping that we will find ourselves again,” she said. “And I hope that I can be part of it.”

Frost said, “If we step away from our civic power, our opposition is more than happy to step into it for us.”

“The way this institution works should reflect the wants and needs of the people. And so … that’s why we’ve got to keep coming back.”

Does Congress matter?

“Anybody who would act like Congress doesn’t matter, I think, is naive to the point of being a bad citizen,” Johnson said. “The reality is that every single one, we cast votes that bend the trajectory of this country.”

Amodei said, “Well, fair question, but it’s like, well, do you think Social Security is important if you’re over 65? Do you think Medicare is important?… Do you think that our borders are important?”

He said he gets the “uber-cynics” who say, “You people are such dysfunctional jerks that we should just get rid of all of you. It’s like, okay, so tell me what your plan is.”

“Everything we do here in Washington, D.C., in Congress, impacts every single citizen in this great country,” Escobar said.

 

 

GROUPS MAKING FINAL PUSH FOR NEBRASKA TO SUPPORT MEDICAL CANNABIS

OMAHA, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) – For more than a decade, parents and patients have advocated for access to legal medical cannabis for suffering Nebraskans, including Shelley and Dominic Gillen, who want the option for their son, Will.

The Gillens say that regulated cannabis doesn’t kill but that what does kill is seizures. They said their son suffers from multiple types of seizures daily because of a rare disorder that makes treatments extremely difficult. Dominic Gillen said his son’s most recent change in medications resulted in a two-week hospital stay and the “very real fear that he was going to die.”

“Seizures have forced us to call 911, have landed him in the ER and have had him admitted for hospital stays countless times,” Shelley Gillen said at a public hearing related to two medical cannabis measures that appear on the Nebraska ballot this fall. “Seizures have traumatized our entire family.”

It has been more than 10 years of advocacy, including a stalled legislative bill in the early 2010s nicknamed “Will’s Law” from former State Sen. Sue Crawford of Bellevue. In that time, the Gillens said, Will Gillen has had many black eyes, head staples, stitches, concussions, knocked out teeth, a broken nose, a broken jaw and an almost fatal liver laceration.

Will’s siblings are first responders, and his parents “vigilantly check on his breathing throughout the night and in the morning to be sure he hasn’t died from an undetected fatal seizure.”

The Gillens were among more than a dozen Nebraskans who testified at a public hearing Friday at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, urging Nebraskans to support Initiative Measures 437 and 438 on the general election ballot that will be voted on, while legal challenges continue.

The measures would legalize medical cannabis for patients, caregivers and medical providers and regulate the plant under a newly created “Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission.”

The past decade has featured seven legislative bills, three straight election cycles, five petitions and more than 700,000 signatures from voters asking for the chance to weigh in.

“These initiatives are for them, and November 5 will be about them,” said Crista Eggers, the effort’s statewide campaign manager, whose elementary-school-age son suffers from severe epilepsy and seizures.

Not yet federally approved

Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson was the only opponent at Friday’s hearing. Hanson said the ballot measures would contradict federal law and bypass the “proven, critical patient safeguard” that is official approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“The entire patient-focused system is bypassed in favor of a consumer-driven commercial industry that has no safeguards to prevent diversion of THC on approved users, including youth, and much less protect patient health and safety,” Hanson testified.

Hanson, holding up a 12-ounce red solo cup, said if someone had five ounces of concentrated THC, as would be legal under Measure 437, it would be considered a major felony and a distribution amount if he or his deputies come across someone with that amount.

Hanson said he’s in favor of reclassifying marijuana, currently on the same level as heroin, LSD and ecstasy, because it needs federal regulation, testing and dosage.

He also noted the American Medical Association and other leading organizations are against citizen-led legalization of medical cannabis.

The U.S. Department of Justice has formally moved to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, which could aid possible FDA approval. Thirty-eight states have legalized medical marijuana, while 24 of them, plus Washington, D.C., have also legalized recreational use. The other states, including Nebraska, allow limited access to cannabis products with little to no THC, according to the Pew Research Center.

Possible clinical uses

Angie Cornett, a nurse from Norfolk, said she distinctly remembers the first time a patient felt comfortable enough — more than 10 years ago — to disclose in a clinical setting that they were illegally using cannabis to control their seizures.

“It certainly wouldn’t be the last time,” Cornett said.

Opioids or other prescribed medications can lead to life-threatening conditions, including addiction, Cornett and others testified, highlighting stories of cannabis being used for a variety of conditions, including seizures, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel disease, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, arthritis or burn pit injuries for veterans.

Heidi Smith testified that she watched her dad suffer from multiple sclerosis while growing up and described the side effects from medications he was on, including intense nausea. But because Smith’s dad, a farmer, couldn’t take a day off work, he ultimately went off the meds.

“Farming was our family’s main income source, and he did what he needed to do to provide for our family,” Smith testified.

A ‘choice’ for patients and families

Smith said her dad, a “conservative, rule-following Republican” asked state officials in the 1990s to consider the plant-based drug but didn’t tell anyone in the family. In 1996, he planted his crops, but he couldn’t walk when it was time to harvest, relying on neighbors to help.

He died in 2003, at age 52, and Smith said she signed the 2020 petition as soon as possible.

“These are hard-working Nebraskans who want a good quality of life and to provide for their families,” Smith said. “‘Nebraska, the Good Life,’ unless you have a medical condition.”

Genevieve Zwicky, who has a multi-systemic genetic disorder with symptoms that will increase in severity until death, said “all of my life experiences have been touched by pain.”

Zwicky, a single parent to a child with the same illness and a licensed mental and behavioral health professional, uses cannabis to manage symptoms but said they wake up each day in agony, needing help with various daily activities, weekly medical appointments and so many medications that their planner is “overflowing.”

“Do you not understand that pursuing this specific group of people will demonize you?” Zwicky said. “Do you not see that you are poking a bear with more strength and stamina than you have ever known or could ever hope to come across again?”

The “choice” for suffering Nebraskans, Cornett and others said, is to leave Nebraska for a neighboring state, continue to suffer or risk being charged as criminals to get the medication they believe they need.

“When patients told us their stories, we treated them as patients, not as criminals,” Cornett said. “Research validates these patients’ anecdotes.”

Ongoing legal challenges

John Kuehn, a former state senator and former member of the State Board of Health, is challenging the medical marijuana petitions in Lancaster County District Court. Kuehn alleges the petitions didn’t get enough valid signatures.

The three ballot sponsors — Eggers, State Sen. Anna Wishart and former State Sen. Adam Morfeld — were named in Kuehn’s lawsuit, alongside Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who validated signatures placing the measures on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Kuehn is challenging his own set of signatures, and Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who has opposed medical cannabis, filed counter allegations in the Kuehn-led lawsuit. Evnen and Hilgers are targeting about a dozen petition circulators and notaries, alleging “fraud” or “malfeasance.”

The trial begins Tuesday before District Court Judge Susan Strong. The measures remain on the ballot.

‘Who’s going to take care of him?’

Marcie Reed of Blair, a volunteer for the medical marijuana ballot campaign, asked Friday if opponents had ever seen a child have a seizure. Her 11-year-old son, Kyler, has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and epilepsy and takes numerous daily mediations.

“Who’s going to take care of him or care if he develops kidney problems or something else from the medicine he’s on now?” Reed asked. “It’s me, I’m the one that cares. I’m the one that has to deal with it, not you. I will continue to fight for what I believe is best for my kid.”

Reed told the Nebraska Examiner that it makes her “really angry” that officials have targeted the campaign.

In 2020, the campaign gathered enough signatures, but the Nebraska Supreme Court sided with a legal challenge that a single constitutional amendment at the time was too broad. The campaign then divided its efforts into two petitions but fell short in 2022, in part because of a lack of funds to pay volunteers after a major donor’s death.

This is the farthest the campaign has gotten.

“It’s been this group of us — moms with kids with seizures, people with health problems — and to know that they can go after the most vulnerable campaign, knowing that we did not have a lot of money, it makes me think that anything that’s going on in politics is not fair,” Reed said.

‘A David versus Goliath story’

Dominic Gillen and Reed questioned why only the cannabis petitions, which had no requests to remove Nebraskans’ names from the measures, were being investigated.

At the end of Friday’s hearing, Eggers led a two-minute moment for parents, patients, volunteers and others in attendance to share who they are fighting for, with more than two dozen names being shouted out.

Eggers said it represented a sliver of the stories for which Initiative Measures 437 and 438 would provide hope.

“Nebraskans have a choice. They can vote with compassion and empathy, or they can turn away,” Eggers testified. “And those that turn away, I want you to know that the blood of the patients in this state is on their hands.”

Dominic Gillen said the attempts to defeat the effort will be a “black mark” on the state in what is “truly a David versus Goliath story that needs to be told.”

“In a moment of despair, I was reminded by one of my children to remember how that story ended,” Dominic Gillen said. “I will continue to pray for hearts to be unhardened, and I implore all of our supporters to remember: Don’t quit five minutes before the miracle happens.”

Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and X.

 

 

UPDATE ON THE FALLOUT OF IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE DEPOPULATING CHICKENS IN AFTERMATH OF PURE PRAIRIE POULTRY CLOSURE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday we told you about Iowa’s Department of Agriculture depopulating 1.3 million chickens in the aftermath of Pure Prairie Poultry, a chicken processor in Charles City, shutting down in early October leaving producers with nowhere to go with their birds and the state looking to limit expenditures when a new processor could not be found.

Today we learn that 4th District Congressman Randy Feenstra and Senator Chuck Grassley, along with two other members of Congress from Wisconsin and Minnesota have sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack demanding answers about the USDA’s approval of nearly $46 million in taxpayer dollars in 2022 to Pure Prairie Poultry and the subsequent bankruptcy of that company in late September.

That bankruptcy is what led to the failure to purchase feed for the chickens at 13 Iowa farms that were ultimately killed by the state.

Feenstra says taxpayers deserve to know the full story behind what happened, alleging that the lack of oversight is concerning and has also caused uncertainty for growers who are already facing a tough circumstances.

Quoting Senator Grassley, “USDA clearly dropped the ball with Pure Prairie, Iowans and others across America’s heartland have lost their jobs and their poultry market as a result of Pure Prairie’s closure…USDA must explain to Congress and the public what went wrong to help prevent a repeat scenario.”