8th Congressional District Representative Kim Schrier held a town hall to update constituents at Green River College April 17th. Vicki Bates was present and provides us a recap of the town hall.
Representative Kim Schrier’s Auburn Town Hall
Congresswoman Kim Schrier of the 8th Congressional District opened her Wednesday, April 17, Auburn Town Hall with breaking news – she has made the Congressional women’s softball team! While the crowd of several hundred gathered at Green River Community College applauded her latest achievement, the audience was anxious to hear more about her legislative accomplishments. Schrier provided a brief report on her top priorities, then fielded questions from the audience as moderated by Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus.
Schrier ran her campaign committed to getting special interest money out of politics. She was proud to share the House’s passage of HR1, “Giving control of the country to the people,” – exposing major donors, making it easier to vote, and ending gerrymandering.
Schrier’s Work On Committees
Given her interest in environmental protections, Schrier serves on the Sustainable Energy & Environment Coalition and the Climate Change Task Force of the New Democrat Coalition. Through these avenues, she explained, she is working to address climate change as a top priority, employ evidence-based decision-making practices, and create clean energy jobs as part of infrastructure planning. She also pledged to vote on HR9 to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.
As a member of the Education and Labor Committee, Schrier described her commitment to livable wages and the paycheck fairness act. Schrier elaborated the importance of these issues, explaining that establishing equal pay for women would cut poverty rates in single mom households in half! She was also proud to recap her challenge to Secretary of Education DeVos on reductions to Special Education funding.
As the only women physician in Congress and a diabetic, Schrier conveyed her deep commitment to shoring up the Affordable Care Act and capping family’s healthcare costs at 8.5% of their income. Co-chair of the New Democrat’s Healthcare Taskforce, she is also investigating prescription drug costs, with a personal connection to the rising cost of insulin in our country.
With a special eye toward the eastern side of her district, Schrier spoke to her service on the Agriculture Committee through which she is growing her understanding of farmer to farmer problem solving to both increase bounty and address climate change. She related she’d also been leveraging her experience as a physician to help Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue understand that food should not be conditional for SNAP recipients.
Audience Questions
An appreciative audience asked questions on a range of issues. In addition to probing topics already introduced, constituents asked Schrier how she balances her Jewish faith with concern for Israel’s human rights violations, her position on late pregnancy abortion rights, and why the United States should contribute to the Global Education Fund. Labor unions, NAFTA, taxation and debt, and impeachment formed other lines of questioning from the audience. Prompted for examples of how she is working across the aisle, Schrier was proud of the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project Phase III Act – a bipartisan bill with Representative Dan Newhouse that passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Trump. Enthusiastic responses from the crowd came after Schrier’s comments about keeping the government out of abortion law and her commitment to enthusiastically supporting whoever the Democratic Presidential candidate is in 2020.
Schrier demonstrated she’s been a quick learner and energetic worker on our behalf in the other Washington! Learn more at https://schrier.house.gov
Be First to Comment