In The News

Rep. Bill Huizenga talks Iran during tele-townhall
The Holland Sentinel, Andrea.Goodell, July 26. 2015
 
A tele-townhall with Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland, drew 7,300 listeners Thursday evening, July 23.
 
Many of the questions centered around a recently signed nuclear deal with Iran during the third in a series of similar calls to voters in the 2nd Congressional District. Huizenga’s office calls constituents from a purchased list of voters in the 2014 general election, although it doesn’t detail party affiliation.
 
One woman asked, “Can Congress do anything at all to stall this crappy deal the president has made with Iran?”
 
In fact, the House and Senate can pass resolutions of disagreement, which would go to the president’s desk. Although President Barack Obama has promised to veto any such resolutions, they would head back to Congress for an override vote, which has to be two-thirds or more.
Huizenga characterized a meeting with Deputy Secretary of Labor Jack Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and others where the topic was the Iran deal as “thoroughly unconvincing.”
 
“I left with as many questions as when I arrived,” Huizenga said.
 
Huizenga polled those on the call, asking “Is the Iranian nuke agreement a good deal?” Of the 400 answering, 13 percent said ‘yes,’ 12 percent said they needed more information and 75 percent said ‘no.’
 
A second running theme through the talk of national health care, security and illegal immigration was government accountability. Huizenga pointed to two bills moving through the House. The VA Accountability Act would give Veterans Administration leaders further power to remove or demote employees for poor performance or misconduct.
 
“We have no greater debt to those who have served their country and have sacrificed, whether it’s physically or emotionally,” Huizenga said.
 
Another, which passed the House this week, would pull government law enforcement grants from communities such as Ann Arbor or Detroit, so-called “sanctuary cities,” that choose not to collect immigration data or alert federal authorities to illegal immigrants.
 
Later, a second poll asked, “What’s the issue that’s most important to you?” and listed four possible answers: Keeping gov from interfering daily life (which received 39 percent), preserving Social Security and Medicare (which received 31 percent), cutting government spending (27 percent) or improving public education (3 percent).