Written by Amanda Coers – Last Thursday, Congressman Mike Conaway was chosen to head the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Conaway now faces the difficult task of restoring credibility to the investigation after Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes agreed to step aside amid an Ethics Committee investigation into whether he divulged classified information to President Trump.
On the heels of this new appointment, Congressman Conaway still chose to honor several Town Hall meetings within Texas’ 11th District, which Conaway has represented since 2005. The congressman met with constituents in Brownwood at the Depot Civic & Cultural Center at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 12th, trailed by reporters from The New York Times, The Young Turks, and a documentary team. The inclusion of camera crews and sound mics added to an already tense group gathered, hoping for answers from their representative.
“Let’s be respectful of each other, don’t talk over each other,” the congressman asked the town hall attendees as he began his opening remarks. Before accepting questions, Conaway gave a quick run-down of current affairs in Washington DC, including healthcare.
“We’ve got a bill that’s a work in progress. We didn’t have enough votes for the version we had available last week, and we’ve been working on it since,” said Conaway.
“The Affordable Health Care Act is failing, insurance companies are fleeing, premiums have skyrocketed, and so what we have is not working, and we need to do something” Conaway said. The congressman was interrupted from an Abilene attendee who interjected, “funding.”
Conaway then replied, “This is going to work a whole lot better if you let me talk, then I’ll let you talk.”
The congressman continued to explain the House will use a reconciliation tactic listed in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which would require only 51 Senate Votes for a bill to come out of the House.
Congressman Conaway then touched on tax reform, noting, “If we get the healthcare reform done, then the taxes in that go away as well. That will then make the tax-reform bill less difficult, still hard, but less difficult.”
President Trump has publicly stated he plans to finish health care reform before tackling tax reform and formulating an infrastructure plan.
“Tax reform is a lot like heaven,” Congressman Conaway said during the Brownwood town hall meeting, “Everyone wants to get there, just no one wants to die to get there.”
Funding for border security was another topic Conaway briefly discussed in his opening remarks, before moving on to talk about the Farm Bill saying, “We need to respect the beneficiaries, but also respect the tax payer as well.”
Conaway spoke of the ‘welfare cliff,’ and the struggle many find when they see a small bump in earnings which removes them from the bracket that allowed them to receive benefits. The increase in earnings is rarely enough to compensate for the loss of benefits and the poor often find themselves trapped in a system that can be all-or-nothing.
“How do we feather that off?” the congressman asked. “It shouldn’t be how much we spend on the program, it should be how many people get off the program and back on their own two feet. Most of the folks who have a hunger issue or a homelessness issue have something else that is the core problem. It may be drugs, or lack of education, there is something else going on in those folks’ lives that does not allow them to get to where they’re standing on their own two feet. That’s outside the parameters of our bill, but it really ought to be part of the overall solution.”
Congressman Conaway then took questions from the town hall attendees, a variety of individuals representing different political parties, both locally and some from out of town.
The question asked was regarding health care for illegal immigrants, and how much money from ObamaCare was spent providing benefits for them. The question then winded around to voting fraud.
“The State of Texas is responsible for voter integrity,” answered Conaway, “But all of us want our programs to work for the folks it’s supposed to work for, none of us want fraud in our programs or abuse. So working to make that happen is always at the front of our minds, strengthening the requirement for what needs to be provided for the different programs, we certainly agree with that.”
A quiet woman, holding a yellow legal pad with written questions was next to address the congressman, explaining, “I’m a little nervous.” She was reassured and continued with her question.
“While media attention has been diverted recently by Syrian chemical warfare and resulting US attacks, I’m still concerned about congressional investigations into Trump’s ties with Russia, and Russian interference with US elections. You now lead the House investigation into these issues, I am always looking for transparency and accountability in government actions and in individuals’ actions within the government. In this case, specifically with regard to ties to Russia by Trump personally or by members of his campaign. As your constituent, I’m looking for an investigation that is independent or at least non-partisan. A difficult decision for you, as a Trump adherent. Although the missteps of your predecessor have given you some warning of the errors of partisanship, your leadership in investigating possible Russian interference, or even meddling, in our US elections, has been undermined by your comments on January 12th. Will your investigation be serious and non-partisan? How will you ensure that we see resulting transparency and accountability?”
In January, Congressman Conaway compared the use of Mexican entertainers to sway Democratic voters to the alleged Russian email hacking that may be tied to the 2016 Election.
“Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth,” Conaway told The Dallas Morning News. “Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada.”
“First off, I’m flattered my colleagues would trust me with the investigation,” Conaway began as he addressed the woman’s questions. “We’re going to do this the old fashioned way. We’re going to follow every lead, every clue, to get to the answers all of us want.”
In regards to his remarks about the Mexican entertainers influencing Democrat voters, Conaway later admitted he did a “poor job of nuancing” his point, but maintained his stance that the Mexican entertainers were invited to Nevada to persuade voters to lean towards the Democratic ticket. His comments were met with rounds of both agreement and rebuke from a divided group of attendees.
The congressman next fielded a question regarding President Trump’s tax returns. When asked whether or not he felt the release of the President’s tax returns would help with the investigation into Russian involvement with the 2016 Election, Conaway answered, “I will follow every lead that makes sense.”
When asked if he would de-classify the investigation for the benefit of the general public, Congressman Conaway stated his desire was to get as much of the investigation “declassified and into the public arena that I possibly can.”
Another attendee to question the visiting congressman was an elderly woman, identifying as a Democrat, regarding health care.
“There’s problems with ObamaCare,” she conceded, “But to put another system in place, there will be problems with it. The best approach would be to examine ObamaCare and see what needs to be changed rather than start all over with something that may have more problems. Why not get together?”
Congressman Conaway addressed her concerns, but stood firm in his belief that a new system would need to be implemented. “We’re past the point of no return on tinkering with ObamaCare,” he said. “Because I don’t believe that would work, and none of my colleagues believe that either. But none of us want insurance premiums to go up, none of us want to break the system.”
The congressman was asked if he would support a bill to free tuition to community colleges. His response was no.
“Texas is responsible for educating her children,” Conaway explained, stating he would like to get the federal government completely out of education. “I will support a bill limiting the federal government’s involvement with the education of children in Texas, because I trust Texans more than I trust Washington educators to educate Texas’ kids.”
Congressman Mike Conaway concluded the town hall meeting by encouraging attendees to stand up for “what’s right in this country, and stand up to what’s evil in this country.”
