Becerra Speaks With Local Residents

On a cloudy Saturday afternoon, local residents gathered in the Mayberry Elementary School assembly room to meet with Congressional Representative Xavier Becerra. Becerra has represented California’s 31^st district since 1992.

About 90 constituents enjoyed refreshments and picked up fliers and handouts before settling into folding chairs to listen to Becerra speak. He opened by thanking the principal and custodian of the school for hosting. He also acknowledged the increased security for the meeting since the shooting of Representative Gabriele Giffords in Tucson by thanking the four Los Angeles police officers in attendance. Becerra also introduced his local staff, who helped participants sign in and submit questions as the event began. Simultaneous translation of the event in Spanish was also available for those who requested it.

Becerra first called on local student Jonathan Kim, who had been nominated by Becerra for admission into the Naval Academy. Kim will begin his education at Annapolis in the fall, followed by service as an officer in the Navy. Becerra noted the privilege of being able to nominate students for the service academies and called upon other young people to show an interest in pursuing this goal of education and military service.

Becerra then began speaking, noting that “the biggest thing going on right now is trying to resolve this budget.” He cited the continuing high rate of unemployment due to the economic recession but said that job creation was up. He also sent out “thoughts and prayers to the folks in Japan,” expressing concerns about the ongoing crisis at the nuclear power pant there. He mentioned that there is “lots going on in the Middle East,” including recent air strikes in Libya. He said that the launching of 112 Tomahawk missiles, at the cost of $63 million, “may have been for a good cause – I don’t know yet.” He touched on all these issues to demonstrate the many decisions that he grapples with making in Washington, and then opened up the discussion to questions from the audience.

Participants filled out a slip of paper with their name before the event and questioners were randomly selected from this pool. Questions touched on the coming merger between T-Mobile and AT&T, nuclear energy and balancing the budget. Even when the issues raised were more pertinent to local government, Becerra seized the opportunity to respond and speak about related national issues. “I have a tendency not to be brief,” Becerra said at the start, and there was only time for six questions. There was applause as Becerra expressed a need for alternative energy policies and his support for National Public Radio.

Local residents Karen Foster and Jerry Clark were late to the event and stood in the back. Foster, a self-described “true blue liberal,” liked what she heard from Becerra. She “felt represented” by his comments on balancing the budget by paying for war efforts now and reforming corporate tax earmarks. Resident Gueorgui Gueorguiev attended his first meeting with a congressional representative because he was “curious to see” what went on. He found the proceedings “interesting and instructive” despite the brevity of the event.