NORWICH – Last week, Congressman Anthony Brindisi (D–22nd District) visited the Evening Sun and discussed his reelection campaign, his positions on national topics and what he has done for the residents of Chenango County.

He is in a close race against Republican Claudia Tenney for New York’s 22nd Congressional District.

This article the second part to that interview, the first was published on Friday, Aug. 21 and discussed the COVID-19 lockdown, New York’s response, race relations, unemployment relief, funding for police, reopening schools, this year’s election, and providing better rural internet.

In this piece Congressman Brindisi talks about the Russia investigation, impeachment, New York State bail reform, the assigning of driver’s license to illegal immigrants, supporting local agriculture, the threat of China and American manufacturing.

You voted to impeach President Trump. Do you still stand by that, and looking back now, what are your thoughts on the process?

“It was a very sad time for our country. I struggled with that issue a lot. I really wanted to see all of the evidence before I made a judgment on that, and I felt that my role was much like someone who sits on the grand jury. You have to look at the evidence and decide whether or not there’s enough evidence, not to convict, but to move forward with a trial. I felt that given the evidence that was in front of me, there was enough to move forward with a trial, which then happened in the Senate. The Senate decided not to convict the President, and I respect that. I respect the process.”

During the 2016 presidential election, certain intelligence agencies, along with the FISA Court, were used to investigate the Republican presidential campaign. Recently one of those FBI investigators pleaded guilty to interfering with the investigation. Do you think it’s right that we should use a secret intelligence court to investigate a politician running for president?

“The purpose of the court, from my understanding, is really to investigate any foreign interference in our government. I don’t sit on the intelligence committee, so I wasn’t privy to a lot of that information, but I certainly think that if there are foreign actors that are interfering on behalf of any campaign, Democratic or Republican, I believe that it deserves to be investigated by the FBI. If there were folks that were not following the law on our side, those folks should be prosecuted. If there’s evidence that Russia, China, Iran or anyone is interfering, then we want to do everything we can to stop that interference.”

What would you like the people of Chenango County to know about the job that you’re doing?

“When I travel around Chenango County or anywhere throughout the district, the one thing I hear the most from people is that they want to have a representative that is effective and gets the job done. I would make the argument that I’ve done that,” said Brindidsi. “I’ve had four bills signed into law by this president. Which is not easy to do when you have a divided government. And the reason that I’ve been successful is because everything that I do is bipartisan. If I’m going to introduce legislation, I won’t introduce it unless I have a Republican co-sponsor. I won’t sign on to a bill unless there’s a Republican co-sponsor.”

“The problem with politics nowadays is the extremes versus the middle. The extreme Right and the extreme Left versus the people who are in the middle, whether they are Democrat or Republican, who are just interested in getting things done. I consider myself as someone who is in the middle. I look at an idea, I don’t care whether it’s a Democratic or Republican idea - if it’s a good idea, I just do it.”

Can you tell us about the four bills that were passed that you introduced?

“I serve on the Veteran’s Committee, and one bill that got signed into law helps fight the suicide crisis that is facing veterans right now. Every day in our country we lose twenty veterans to suicide. That’s a tragedy to me. We should not lose one veteran to suicide. Our bill would help provide more resources into the VA to let them bring in more mental health councilors.”

“Another one is a program that would extend transportation reimbursement to veterans that live in rural areas.”

“Another bill that we signed into law would require the military to purchase American-made flatware – forks, spoons and knives. It so happens that the only American-made flatware company is in Sherrill, NY. Before that bill, the military was buying their flatware from places in China. China’s an adversary. We need to support American manufacturing.”

What are your thoughts on China?

“China’s our number one adversary. One of the bills that I just introduced is called the Made in America National Preparedness Act. Which would require agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the CDC to purchase PPE and medical supplies from US manufacturers, manufactured here in this country. I think the reason we saw the shortages that we did during the pandemic for PPE was because most of that stuff is made over in China. There’s no way we should be relying on an adversary to supply us with items that are essential during a national emergency – we should be making that stuff here.”

During the turn of the ‘90s, many of the manufacturing businesses left our local area. We felt the direct effects of those changes, what are your thoughts on that?

“Chenango County has a proud manufacturing past. We can do that stuff again here. There are still a lot of great manufacturers throughout the 22nd district. There are so many companies that actually shifted gears during the pandemic to start making that stuff here and we need to do more of that, but we need to make sure that when our federal government spends our taxpayer dollars, that should be going towards American manufacturers, not some company over in China. So that’s a bill I’ve introduced – it hasn’t been signed into law yet. I’m still working on that one.”

What are your thoughts on the New York State bail reform?

“So I typically don’t weight in on New York State issues, however I did weigh in on bail reform. I signed on to a bipartisan letter by many of the members of the Congressional delegation in New York State to Governor Cuomo and the legislative leaders in Albany, expressing our concerns with bail reform. I certainly think that, for dangerous crimes, there should be bail. That was an issue I felt strongly enough about that I thought I should weigh in, even though it was not a federal issue.”

How do you feel about giving undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses in New York State?

“What I would like to see is comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level. I think that would prevent states from moving in the direction of giving driver’s licenses to people who are undocumented. There has been a failure at the federal level to really do that. So I think that we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, and for people who want to become citizens, make them go through the process.”

Can you tell me what you have done for agriculture in the district?

“One of the things that I was really pushing for during the pandemic was direct payments to farmers to help make up for things like milk dumping, and that’s something that we were able to get through the CARES Act, which was the bill that passed back in March. So we were able to give direct payments to farmers.”

“I do a lot of work around dairy - trying to make sure we’re getting things like whole milk back in the schools and trying to make sure we have good trade policies. I was a big supporter of USMCA, the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, which could help our farmers be able to export more of their product to those two countries.”

This is your first term as Congressman. Out of all of the Congressional districts, this will be one of the more contested elections. What is your take on being a congressman of a district that’s down such a contested line in such a politically contested country?

“It’s an interesting time to be in politics, to say the least. I tell people all the time when we do town hall meetings that this is not my congressional seat – it doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to you. You are the residents, I’m just your representative, and I’m going to do the best job that I can, whether you voted for me or not, for everyone in this district.”

You have people over two different political divides - how do you do reach across that divide to help support everyone?

“I think we need more centrists, more moderates out there, because those are the folks who seem to want to be able to compromise and get things done. I try to make myself as accessible to the public as possible. We do town hall meetings. I’m very big on constituent services, so I tell my staff if someone calls our office, I want them to get a call back within 24 hours and I want us to work on their issue. And be up front with people – if we can help them we should, if we can’t then we have to explain to them why we can’t and then point them in the right direction. That’s what we do at our office.”