Spent 1.5 hours answering questions
In his first ‘Town Hall’ meeting since being re-elected to his fourth term, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney spoke with about 50 of his constituents at the Highland Falls Intermediate School on Saturday morning.
About half of those in the audience were local residents, including Board of Education President Anne Lawless and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy, Highland Falls Mayor Joe D’Onofrio and Village Trustees Brian Aylward and Charlie Murphy.
Maloney said that he has done 81 of the ‘Town Hall’ meetings in his six years in Congress, and another 30 telephone Town Halls.
“I’m pretty proud of that,” he said.
He gave a few opening remarks, noting that he’s proud to now be serving on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. He also was recently elected by his fellow Democrats on the House Transportation & Infra-structure Committee to serve as the chairman of the Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation subcommittee. He said that now that he’s in the majority in the House he hopes “to be able to get more accomplished”.
Maloney then moved on to questions from the audience. They were varied:
Border Security-Government Shutdown
Maloney said he is “glad to have that in our rearview mirror” and that he thinks “we can now have a good conversation about border security” in the weeks ahead. He said several times that it “never should have happened”, and added that he did not take a paycheck during the time. He received applause for that.
“I don’t feel particularly proud now that it is over,” the congressman said, “the bottom line is that we didn’t need to shut it down just because we couldn’t agree.”
One of the questions pertaining to border security was from Highland Falls’ Mike Beckstrom, who asked if Maloney supports using seized assets from Mexican drug cartels and criminal gangs to pay for border improvements (“the El Chapo Act,” Beckstrom said.)
Maloney said he wasn’t familiar with that bill, but he has “no problem” seizing the assets of criminals.
He also said he “does not dispute” that physical barriers make sense in some places along the Mexican border.
“This is a solvable problem,” he said. “What has been so frustrating to me is that we’re not having rational discussion. We owe you a national debate about how to spend your tax dollars. What does a secure border look like?”
He said he believes there needs to be more funding put toward legal entries: more equipment, more border agents, drones, x-ray machines. “That would make a big difference,” he said.
About the partial government shutdown due to border barrier funding he added that the federal government is “spinning our wheels on what is basically a political issue”.
“It’s taking up so much of our time and energy that we can’t get anything else done,” Maloney said.
Local issues
There were several questions and comments about things specific to Highlands. Both D’Onofrio and Murphy, asked why private companies operating hotels on West Point (particularly the Five Star Inn) don’t pay property tax. Murphy also expressed concern about housing contractor Balfour-Beatty being able to rent empty West Point homes to private citizens: “they advertise themselves as a gated community,” she said.
Highland Falls’ John Dodson looked for support in working with West Point to possibly jointly build a new sewer plant with Highland Falls; and D’Onofrio thanked Maloney for the help his office has provided in several matters.
Maloney noted that he sits on West Point’s Board of Visitors and said he is willing to help the community outside the gate with any issues they have, saying he has made good connections there.
“I want to be useful to you,” Maloney said. “We will get attention paid to your issues.”
D’Onofrio said he’ll soon be asking for more help in the area of the return of federal land to the village.
Sheboy took a moment to thank Maloney for his work to secure Impact Aid funding for the school district.
West Point Firefighters
With a specific question about getting help to increase manpower at the West Point Fire Department, Maloney had one of his staff members immediately work with the fireman who asked the question.
Stewart Airport
A West Point employee asked why Stewart is not a “government approved” airport for official travel. Maloney said he would check into that, adding that he “is working every way I know how to get Stewart working better, and cheaper”. He said he, too, would use it more if there were convenient flights to and from Washington DC.
Climate Change
Maloney was asked how he feels about the ‘Green New Deal’, a package of policy proposals that aims to address global warming and resulting financial impacts.
“I like a lot of stuff in it,” he said, but he also wasn’t sure how much effort should be putting into climate change issues when President Trump is “hostile” to them.
“It’s hard to work on something knowing we’re not going to get anywhere,” he added.
But, he said the US has made “tremendous advances” in solar and wind energy and must continue to work on areas involving those “true renewables”.
“I think we can do it, but it’s going to take awhile,” he said.
Health Care
One of the last questions asked was about the American health care system. Maloney called the Affordable Care Act one that allows for “pretty good health care at an affordable cost”, but noted that government “should be working to bring down the costs of health care”.
