In The News

Information comes at us today at a pace like never before. One effective way I have found to communicate with constituents (besides weekly newspaper columns) is hosting telephone town hall conversations.

On March 27^th, I held my first telephone town hall as the representative of Michigan’s 4^th Congressional District. I took questions from across the district on a host of topics including the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations.

First and foremost, defaulting is not an option and Social Security and Medicare cuts are off the table. Over the past couple years, rampant partisan spending from President Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi has ballooned our national debt to more than $31,000,000,000,000. We must take this opportunity, as has been done with many previous debt ceilings, to examine and reduce Washington’s out of control spending. We need to scrutinize the effectiveness and efficiency of our federal programs. While taking this necessary action won’t completely solve our long-term fiscal problem, it would be a powerful step in the right direction.

Another issue I discussed during the telephone town hall was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Although some of my colleagues will blame a lack of regulation, the truth is, SVB failed because bank leadership and supervisors failed to mitigate obvious risks, such as the impact of rising interest rates. Regulators in both Washington, D.C. and California missed obvious signs that SVB’s business model was flawed and failed to act in a timely manner. While I continue to have confidence in our banking system, Congress must provide oversight and hold those responsible, accountable.

Telephone town halls provide a unique opportunity for thousands of people across Southwest Michigan to share their opinion and make their voices heard. I hope you will consider joining our next conversation. To participate in the next call, please sign up at Huizenga.House.Gov/Live and don’t forget to subscribe to my Huizenga Huddle newsletter for even more information! If you need help navigating a federal agency, please visit Huizenga.House.Gov or call my office in Holland at (616) 251-6741 or in Washington at (202) 225-4401 so we can assist you.