Congressman Tim Huelskamp conducted a Town Hall meeting Thursday afternoon, December 18, 2014 at the Stevens County Senior Center.

He began the meeting by stating he thought this past week had been a very good week for Congress.  Tim commented he had served with the VA committee for the past four years. He said he has learned that the VA has been  failing in providing for  a lot of Veterans’ needs. In July his committee helped to pass a major reform that if a Veteran lives more than 40 miles from a VA facility or has been waiting more than 30 days for care, the Veteran can pick a local doctor or hospital.  Veterans will receive a Veteran’s Choice card in order to do this.  This reform will only be good for two years.

Congressman Huelskamp stated that news, not so good, was about the EPA regulating clean water, even in farm ponds, not just in rivers and lakes. The endangered species law concerning the Lesser Prairie Chicken will affect windfarms as well as drilling for oil and gas.  Huelskamp stated he also thought the Presidential order concerning the illegal immigrants was illegal and unconstitutional.

Congressman Huelskamp then opened the floor for questions.

Dana Swan stated she heard China was going to put a dairy farm in southwest Kansas.  She hoped that they were not going to be allowed to do this.  The congressman replied that it was still a law that ownership of agriculture land by a foreign country must be recorded in the Secretary of State’s office.  He stated the United States owes China $1.3 trillion.

Congressman Huelskamp informed the crowd that Obamacare will take $716 billion out of Medicare.  This will heighten the end of Medicare.  He stated if we lose Medicare, we will lose most of our hospitals in rural Kansas.  Judy Clark commented that some doctors and hospitals will not take Medicare now.  Tim responded by saying that he thought they all will take Medicare, just not Medicaid.  The reimbursements of Medicaid is significantly lower than the cost of treatment.

David Eckert asked how the elections will change anything.  Huelskamp replied he hoped that Obamacare will be replaced with a better plan.  He said not much has changed in the last week.  Maybe when the new people come in, things may change.

Judy Clark asked about the effect of President Obama’s order concerning  ending the embargo of Cuba.  Tim replied that Kansas farmers will be able to find a market for their wheat in Cuba.  The congressman stated that the president had the authority to lift the embargo.

Congressman Huelskamp remarked that one change is in the food stamps program that requires almost no work requirement for the recipients. Drug tests can be requested for applicants of the food stamp program.

Berneice Dewitt asked about the cost of expenses for Air Force I.  Huelskamp replied congress is required to reimburse for these expenses. The cost of Air Force I is not much compared to other expenses.  In the bill passed last week, one of the items in it was to allow contributions of $300,000.  The current cap was $50,000.  There was no debate on this item from either party.

Neal Gillespie asked if there was any prospect of regulating term limits.  Tim stated that no one wants to vote for regulation of their own term limits.

School Superintendent Mark Crawford asked, “Have you heard anything about ‘No Child left behind?’ In 2001, President George W. Bush passed a bill making annual high stakes testing a very big part of accountability. ‘No Child left behind’ was going to require every school district to be 100% proficient by this spring.  This was an impossible goal. Have you heard of another bill before the congress like another ‘No child left behind’ possibly by February that will limit testing of the students?” Huelskamp replied that numerous bills are under discussion.  Tim stated he would like to do away from ‘No child left behind’ and leave the responsibility of the students to the local school officials.

Superintendent Crawford asked the congressman about his view on undocumented immigrants.  Huelskamp replied he thought the system was broken because it takes so many years to earn new citizenship.  He stated that border security is first needed.  Over 100,000 children crossed the Mexican border in the past year.  Ninety of these children are enrolled in the Liberal school district.  Most of the illegal immigrants that Congressman Huelskamp talk to want legal status to work here, without requiring citizenship.

Huelskamp suggested that border states be asked their opinion on how to secure the border.  He thought the states  have  many good ideas to secure the border.

Sherri Goering asked the congressman what the fallout was from the recent election.  Huelskamp replied that we will have to see what happens when the new congressmen get installed into office at the beginning of this coming year.

Congressman Huelskamp closed the town meeting by asking everyone to pray for our nation.