Residents voice concerns about Trump's voting bill during Attleboro congressman's telephone town hall
Area residents had a chance to share concerns about local and national issues with their congressman Tuesday night but a major topic for many was fear for the future of democracy.
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, speaking from his Washington office, fielded questions for nearly an hour from a dozen constituents from around the 4th Congressional District — which includes all the communities in the Attleboro area — during a telephone town hall.
Questions for the Newton Democrat ranged from concerns about SNAP benefits to pending legislation regulating insurance coverage for acupuncture treatments. But an overriding concern seemed to be worries about election integrity and whether the Trump administration would attempt to suppress voting in the upcoming mid-term elections.
“One, we’ve got to reject the SAVE America Act,” Auchincloss said of a bill President Donald Trump has been pushing to impose federal regulations requiring voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time of voting.
The president, Auchincloss said in response to one caller’s question, “is casting it as a voter ID bil. It’s not. It’s a voter suppression bill.”
While it passed the House in February, “there is zero chance it’s going to get any Democratic support” in the Senate, the congressman said.
“Elections in this country are conducted at the state, local level, which is good. That’s a decentralized nature of elections,” he said. “It’s a feature, not a bug.”
Auchincloss said he’ll be hosting more town halls focusing on election integrity as the November midterm balloting draws closer.
Auchincloss led off Tuesday’s session with his own criticism of the war in Iran, which, he said, “has been a strategic failure” that he’s opposed from the start.
“I believe that this president is the first president in American history to single-handedly start and lose a war,” Auchincloss said.
He said the conflict is directly affecting Massachusetts, not “just those of you who have friends and family in Israel, in Lebanon, in Iran,” but also on the cost of energy and the spillover effects of that high cost of energy on the rest of the economy.
Auchincloss said he’ll be voting in favor of an upcoming war powers resolution “to take back the steering wheel of foreign policy decisions over war and peace away from this president and back to Congress where it constitutionally belongs.”
The congressman added that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will need to face scrutiny for his conduct and “failure” in the war.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will also be quizzed when he comes before the subcommittee on health next week. “He is helping to induce outbreaks of measles and whooping cough around this country which is going to lead to mortality and morbidity of newborns and young children.”
In addition, Auchincloss claimed, Kennedy is “overseeing cuts and impairments to the National Institutes of Health,” which provides funds for the education and medical institutions, important sectors of the state’s economy.
Auchincloss added that he’s introduced legislation to address energy shortfalls and support the federal heating assistance program, as well as alternative energy.
In answer to a question on immigration, Auchincloss said he’s cosponsoring a bill that would invest in border security but also provide a pathway to legal status for undocumented people who are not threats to public safety. “This is a middle road that could start to heal this country after a decade now of just corrosive debate about immigration,” he said.
He also cited his co-sponsorship of a universal school meals bill.
“I think that’s just the basic that we need to be guaranteeing kids in this country,” Auchincloss said.
By: Tom Reilly
Source: The Sun Chronicle