Security was the big talking point for Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, at his town hall Tuesday evening at the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center.
He kicked things off by thanking those in attendance for allowing him to serve the 27th Congressional District for the last four-plus years.
“I want to thank you because I get to represent you guys as Americans, regardless of the party affiliation, and do what’s right for the for the country,” Garcia said.
Garcia spoke for about an hour before answering questions. Those ranged from rebuilding military infrastructure to speeding up local projects to concerns over schools having more control over children than parents, among a wide variety of other topics.
Before delving into his thoughts on why California’s policies must not be allowed to permutate across the country and telling constituents what he actually does in Washington, D.C., Garcia spent a few minutes honoring a couple of members from the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station.
Sgt. Collin Reddy and Deputy Jeremiah Nurse were recognized for an incident that occurred on Aug. 15, 2023, in which they rescued a man from a burning vehicle near the intersection of 15th Street West and Avenue J-10. A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department news release called their actions “remarkable acts of valor.”
“This is Medal of Honor-type stuff where I come from,” Garcia said, adding, “I want to thank you and commend you for your heroism. I appreciate everything you do on a daily basis.”
Spending a few minutes discussing the state’s high-speed rail project — which he dubbed “Frankenrail” and recently passed its final environmental check last month and has cost taxpayers $120 billion, with no tracks laid in his district, to date — he used that as an example of something happening in California that should not be copied at the national level. Construction is currently underway on a 119-mile segment that traverses northern and central California.
As a response, Garcia said a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives this week that would stop the federal government from providing funding for the high-speed rail project.
“We’re going to help hopefully prevent the waste of federal taxpayer funds,” Garcia said.
Economic security was one of the big talking points for Garcia on Tuesday, along with six other categories: “neighborhood,” “border,” “national,” “school,” “social” and “election.”
Rather than adding new taxes to try to generate more revenue, Garcia said the easiest way to combat inflation is to cut spending. He showed a chart that had inflation being relatively stagnant at anywhere from 1% to 3% from 2008 to 2019 before it jumped up to nearly 8% in 2020 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Garcia added that cutting costs does not include anything to do with Medicare or Social Security, programs he said cannot be changed just through an act of Congress.
His answer to that rise in inflation and spending was the Inflation Prevention Act that was introduced in the Senate in 2022 but was shot down. Instead, the Inflation Reduction Act was passed and signed into law by President Joe Biden that same year, but Garcia said it wasn’t actually meant to reduce inflation.
“The president, at the time, actually conceded it was never meant to actually combat inflation,” Garcia said. “Those are his words.”
Another way that Garcia said he is looking to curb spending is by voting for single-subject spending bills rather than the large-scale bills that encompass a large portion of the government’s budget and programs.
That doesn’t mean he’s against spending money on things he thinks are worthwhile, such as neighborhood security.
He said he cosponsored legislation to permanently raise salaries for federal firefighters and introduced the Defending our Defenders Act, which makes it a federal felony with a punishment of no less than life in prison if you are convicted of killing a law enforcement officer.
Other areas where Garcia said he encouraged spending were for hardening power grids to ensure power shutoffs would not occur on a regular or widespread basis, and
The Chiquita Canyon Landfill was brought up, with Garcia saying he is encouraging the federal government — which, through the Environmental Protection Agency, is now leading the investigation into what is causing reported cancer-causing chemicals to potentially be released to the surrounding communities in Castaic and Val Verde — to stay involved until the situation has been dealt with.
He also reiterated that he is for a temporary closure of the landfill, other than for local trash service, to allow for a root cause to be found.
“I don’t believe just doing the stuff that they have been doing is going to solve this problem,” Garcia said. “We’ve got to figure out the physics behind this chemical reaction, and then people need to be held accountable for it if there was malfeasance.”
A loud cheer rang out after that, with another one coming after Garcia pledged his support for the repealing of Proposition 47. Voters will be deciding in November if that measure, passed in 2014, will be repealed.
Prop 47 made some nonviolent property crimes, so long as the value did not exceed $950, into misdemeanors, and turned simple drug possession offenses into misdemeanors as well, according to the L.A. County Public Defender’s office.
“This is why we have the crime sprees that we have,” Garcia said. “We need to end Prop 47.”
Related to neighborhood security is school security. Garcia said he is working to get local school districts, as well as those across the country, the money they are entitled to through the Cash to Classrooms Act that would federally mandate states to disburse funding based on enrollment rather than attendance.
California is one of six states to fund school districts based on attendance.
He also displayed his displeasure with Assembly Bill 1955, which recently made it a state law prohibiting public school employees from disclosing a student’s sexual identity or gender identity without that student’s permission.
“I want schools to teach my kids academics, and I’ll teach them principles, values and everything else,” Garcia said to a loud ovation.
Garcia finished with election security, which he said should be important to both Republicans and Democrats. He acknowledged that California is one of the 45 states that does not require some form of ID to cast a vote and said the Voter Integrity and Defense Act currently being discussed in Congress would help to ensure that elections are free and fair.
“It’s reasonable. Everyone should have the right to vote,” Garcia said. “And if you’re a legal citizen, your vote should be counted with 100% confidence and your vote should only be counted once.”
