Harriet Hageman holds town hall meeting

The Hot Springs County Republican Party hosted a town hall event with Wyoming's US Representative Harriet Hageman speaking at the County Museum on Monday, April 10. 

The first subject Hageman spoke about was the election of Kevin McCarthy to the House Speaker position and how there were changes to the rules of the House. Hageman contrasted McCarthy to previous House Speakers, particularly Republican Speaker John Boehner, and Democrat Nancy Pelosi, and how they ruled. The new rule changes include a minimum of 72 hours to review a bill instead of passing the bill before anyone has time to read it. 

Also, now bills are a single subject and can be only a couple of pages and are enforceable. Hageman said, "We've made clear to the Senate no more omnibus spending bills. That $1.7 trillion monstrosity that was passed in December is going to be so terribly destructive to this country. And we've made it clear we're not doing that again. We're not doing any of that again. So they're put on notice." Hageman added that the new rules to the House make the process more democratic and "give us much more of a voice."

Hageman said that Speaker McCarthy created two committees. One of them is the Committee on the Relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. Hageman said, "That committee is looking at everything from the balloon that floated over our country to the theft of intellectual property, to the origins of COVID, to all of those things."

She added, "And one of the things that has come out of that is that we have a bipartisan bill passed by the House, Republicans and Democrats alike, to declassify everything associated with the origins of COVID-19. Huge deal. President [Biden] is going to sign that. So that is something that he has agreed that we will be declassifying those documents. So it's interesting when it comes to China, there's quite a bit of bipartisan support with the Republicans and Democrats pushing back against the Chinese Communist Party."

Hageman then discussed the second committee that Speaker McCarthy created about the weaponization of the federal government. She said, "That is to go after all of these First Amendment violations. We've been seeing the surveillance issues that we know about the FBI, the DOJ, the NIH, the CDC, all these various agencies who have been surveilling and outing citizens and attempting to suppress their vote or their voices."

Hageman has been appointed to the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government and also to the Judiciary Committee. She described a situation about the FBI targeting conservative Catholics where "recently the FBI sent a letter and they were attempting to recruit people within the Catholic Church to be reporting on conservatives in the Catholic Church as being potential domestic terrorists, because they believe because they have a conservative viewpoint, meaning they're pro-life, they're pro-family and that sort of thing."

Hageman is on the subcommittee for Constitutional and Limited Government. She said, "Right now, if I work for the federal government, let's say I work for the FBI and I surveil you and I start gathering your data without a warrant pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, You can't sue me. You can't hold me accountable for that. If we had accountability, I could get fired. If anybody cared about firing me. But there is no accountability. And I want to find a way to hold individuals accountable if they are violating our First Amendment rights. Our Second Amendment rights are Fourth Amendment rights or fifth or sixth or eighth or 14th, whatever it is. I want to start holding individuals accountable for the decisions that they make. And simply because they are federal employees does not mean that they should be immune from liability or accountability." As part of a solution to these problems, Hageman said, "Let's put term limits on federal employees."

Hageman also discussed education and said, "I don't believe that we should have a federal Department of Education." Hageman wants education decisions to be at a local or state level and avoid indoctrination. 

Also, Hageman is on the subcommittees of Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries and Indian and Insular Affairs. Regarding tribal issues, Hageman said they introduced a bill to extend 25-year leases to 99 years, which would allow more development. Hageman added, "I want autonomy. These people are entitled to make their own decisions. They're better at it than anybody else. We shouldn't be dictating what they can do."

Hageman addressed Indian health care and said, "A couple of weeks ago, we had a hearing with the Indian Health Service and what kind of services are being provided to our tribal members for medical care. And you know what isn't good? Their life expectancy is substantially less than anyone else's. That's not right. And sadly, the Indian Health Services did not show up in our hearing. They were invited. We were very disappointed they didn't show up. But we did have four women from different tribes around the country who came and talked about the challenges of providing prenatal care, being able to deliver babies on reservations, and the facilities that they're dealing with. So that's a priority for me is to try to find a way to provide better health care to our tribal members. I just don't think that it's right that the poorest county in the United States of America is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. I just don't think that's right. But I think it demonstrates to you the problems with collectivism."

Regarding some of the bills in the House, Hageman discussed H.R. 1, which is about energy. Hageman said, "Our priority is energy independence. So this is a bill to lower energy costs by increasing American energy production, exports, infrastructure, and critical minerals processing, by promoting transparency, accountability, permitting and production of American resources, and by improving water quality certification and energy projects and for other purposes. In this bill is my bill that I introduced called the Coal Act."

Hageman continued and said, "The purpose of the Coal Act is to require the Secretary of the Interior to start issuing permits for coal production in all coal-producing states. But obviously, it would affect the state of Wyoming pretty dramatically. Cynthia Lummis is running this on the other side, on the Senate side. But this is a very important piece of legislation for Wyoming. The big thing about this is that all of the current environmental statutes stay in place, but it streamlines the process and it also limits the amount of time that environmental groups can sue over these projects. I believe there's a statute of limitations here. It is six months. It also starts limiting what they can do in terms of the need for process.  I always say that the process is the punishment anymore. That is how these things play out. This is to make sure that the intent of the environmental statutes is carried forward. We can protect our environment, but it stops the big business of suing and stopping these projects. And the ultimate goal is energy independence and to reduce the inflation we're seeing in this country. H.R.1 we just passed last week was a big, big deal."

Hageman also discussed the bill H.R. 5, which is called the Parents Bill of Rights. She said, "That is where I don't want the federal government involved in education. If they're going to be involved in education, we all want to make sure that parents are actively involved in their kid's education. But it doesn't dictate anything. It puts parents, not bureaucrats, back in charge of their children's education, transparency, and accountability for school districts. So parents see what is being taught and taught and have ample opportunities to interact with teachers. The right to know what's being taught in schools, reading material, the right to see school budgets and spending reports, the right to protect their child's privacy, and the right to be updated on any violent activity at their children's school. So a parent's Bill of Rights, which are all common sense, you have to wonder why in the world do we have to do legislation?  And I'll tell you why. Because of some of the nonsense that's coming out of our schools right now. Keep in mind, I come from a long line of educators: my mom, my grandma, my sisters, my sister-in-law. I love educators, I love teachers. But people who've been in this business for the last 30 to 40 years will tell you that education has changed so dramatically that they probably never would have gone into it if they knew what it was going to be like today."

Hageman moved on to discuss how President Joe Biden has tapped into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and that it is now down over 40%. Hageman added that Biden has been selling oil to China. Therefore, the House passed a bill telling the government that they cannot sell oil from the SPR to China and that the president is required to declare what the emergency is if they do tap into the SPR and that it isn't about failed energy policy. 

Regarding grizzly bears, Hageman said created a bill with bipartisan support to delist the grizzly bears from the endangered species list. Hageman added, "We have over double the numbers of grizzly bears. The recovery goal was between five and 600 and we have over 1,000 grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area. So there's also a risk to the grizzly bear itself if we don't start managing it, it will be managed pursuant to Wyoming's grizzly management plan. We will be able to protect a recovering grizzly population even if they are delisted."

Hageman then took questions from the public. The first question was, "Do you believe that we have the capability to overcome our budget woes at the same time that we're devaluing the dollar?" Hageman replied, "No. It scares me to death. And one of the things that I want to do when we get back to Washington, D.C., is we're going to have to sit down as a conference and figure out what we're going to do to try to address this. So one of the things that happened very early in January was there was a gentleman from the Office of Management and Budget and he spent a good half an hour, 40 minutes, telling us about how financially dire the situation is. And so I raised my hand, and I said, at any time in history, are there other countries who have been in this kind of a fiscal crisis?... He had been a professor of world economic history. So he had some of that information at his fingertips. And he said yes. And he said, for those countries who actually fundamentally changed what they were doing, they were able to survive it. And for those countries who did not, they're failed states." Hageman added that Canada, Israel, and New Zealand pulled out of their "death spirals" cutting a lot of spending, but the failed states are Greece, Argentina, and many in Africa. Hageman continued and said the professor said, "We have to fundamentally change what we're doing in this country." Regarding why the United States has survived this long, according to Hageman, "But the reason that we have been able to do and sustain the debt that we have for as long is we're the world currency." Hagemen expressed concern that China could potentially displace the US as the world currency. She also said she is scared that the president of France has "basically thrown the United States and Taiwan under the bus by saying that he's essentially aligning with China. That's an incredibly dangerous development."

A concerned citizen asked, "What can we do to stop China from buying all of our industry?" Hageman replied, "Right now, China owns one of our four packers and two are owned by Brazil, one American, and one by China. Two of the bills that I have co-sponsored are to prevent China from purchasing any more farmland in the United States. And another one is to prevent certain countries from buying sensitive areas. And those countries include China, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Russia... I can't go to China and buy land, but I also want people to know we're not just talking about the Chinese Communist Party. We're talking about anybody affiliated with it. So they can't use a surrogate to purchase it if they can't purchase it directly. What that will entail and how to enforce that make it a bit complicated. But it's a step in the right direction to make sure that we can continue to protect our means to grow food. We don't want to be food dependent. I know our government is pushing us in that direction. We have to fight that with everything we have."

Another concerned citizen asked about pro-life or pro-family bills Hageman supported. Hageman replied about the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and said it is "a resolution expressing the sense of Congress condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches. What I was surprised about was both of these is we did not get any Democrat support. And I'm being very sincere when I say that when a baby's born, I don't know why you wouldn't give it care. But we did not get support for that one."

Hageman also discussed the Defense of Marriage Act and said she is "terribly worried about what the outcome of that bill is going to be because that was signed, the president that went through the House. My predecessor voted the same way that our senator did. So they both voted for that. I think that it is I think that one of my staffers put it best, which was that that bill did not legalize gay marriage that had been legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court. It made anyone who disagrees with gay marriage, it outlawed their beliefs. And I think that's probably the most succinct way of putting it. It didn't legalize gay marriage. It made opposition to it illegal. And I worry about that." Hageman added about the degradation of society and how quickly it's been happening. She said, "We have gone so far beyond some of the statements of 'love is love' to 'If you don't agree with us, you're going to be prohibited from engaging in the public square.' And that's why these bills are so incredibly dangerous."

Hagemen explained this bill and the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill was passed prior to the conservatives taking leadership in the House of Representatives.

One concerned citizen brought up the events on January 6, 2020, regarding the judges who are denying rights to the prisoners and asked if they could be removed. Hagemen said "They could be impeached. I have been horrified. One of the things that I have said repeatedly is that anybody who broke the law should be prosecuted for breaking the law and they should be treated like anybody else for breaking the law in the same way. It's clear that this is political persecution that we are witnessing. It is a violation of Fourth Amendment rights. It's a violation of the Sixth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, and the law against cruel and unusual punishment. I am horrified to say that I'm part of the legal profession when looking at what has happened with the January 6 prisoners. And every day it just seems to get worse. We're limited. There is a separation of powers.  That is judiciary. Every one of those cases should have been removed to a different venue."

Hageman explained that at this time, the conservatives only have one-half of the legislative branch of government. She said, "We've got to retake the Senate. We have got to retake the White House."

Hageman also described her work in the judiciary committee to look at the ways the FBI, DOJ, and other agencies have been weaponized against American citizens. She said there is a long process for subpoenas and gathering information. Part of that research Hageman brought up was how Comer from the Oversight Committee announced "they had found substantial documentary evidence that the Biden family had received millions of dollars from the Chinese Communist Party. That was ten days ago. What leaked that same day? The indictment of Donald Trump, That's the only thing that they will talk about....Probably the biggest revelation of corruption was to find out that the Bidens have received millions of dollars directly from the Chinese Communist Party. And ten days later, we're not even talking about it."

Hagemen said regarding this challenge in communicating the facts and issues is the reason she is doing town halls like this event. She hopes that all her other counterparts are doing the same.