Congressman Brad Schneider Holds Deerfield Town Hall

DEERFIELD, IL — Congressman Brad Schneider conceded that House Democrats like him face an uphill battle to enact their policies.

“The slope on everything we’re working on has gotten steeper, but we just have to keep trudging along, and know that we’re in it for the long run,” Schneider said.

He spoke in the cafeteria of Deerfield High School Saturday afternoon to about 100 constituents in his third town hall-style event since he was sworn in for his second, non-consecutive term in January.

“The election didn’t change what I stand for and what I’m fighting for, it just made the slope a little bit higher,” Schneider told the crowd.

Just as at his past two “Congress on Your Corner” events, Schneider was asked what concrete steps people can take to resist the policies of the Trump administration. While it is impossible to sustain large rallies every weekend, he said people should get involved with local groups that work in areas of that are particularly meaningful to them.

“Focus on your one issue, because if you all try to do everything, nothing will get done,” he said.

Several attendees asked about health care and education policies, with specific concern over cuts to mental health services and the effect of the state budget crisis on education funding in Illinois. Environmental concerns were also raised by attendees, with multiple people noting the Trump administration's proposal to cut 97 percent of funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

“The future, literally, of the entire Midwest, is dependent on restoring the Great Lakes and making sure we can pass it on generation to generation to our children,” Schneider said, noting that he previously had helped to restore Bush-era cuts to the program. While he said he always had strong support from constituents on environmental issues, he stressed that not every member of congress was in such a position. “We have to give them the information to stand up and fight and to join us.”

As the representative for Illinois’ 10th district, which he described as one of the most competitive in the nation, Schneider emphasized his willingness to work together with the Republican majority in Congress. He mentioned he’s joined The Problem Solvers Caucus a new bipartisan group in congress made up of representatives in competitive districts and focused on reaching across the aisle for solutions.

Much of the meeting focused on the progress of the American Health Care Act, the Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act. Schneider contrasted the rapidity with which the AHCA was ushered through the House with the more extended process that led to the passage of the ACA.

“I don’t care what news you’re watching, what article you’re reading, whether you are following Heritage Foundation, the far right groups, AARP, groups on the left, I think universally, everyone feels that this is a plan that is going to move us backward not forward,” Schneider said.

He said his philosophy was to improve on the ACA by fixing what can be fixed with the current system, rather than the current proposal which he described as “an attack on seniors” for its cuts to Medicaid. The most likely scenario that would preserve the ACA is likely to be Republican in-fighting rather than Democratic resistance, the congressman admitted.

Despite the limited legislative options for Democrat in Congress, Schneider said the best tool his party has is to “bring light” by participating in politics, whether it be by at town halls, with local groups or by calling or emailing your representatives (He recommended against traditional mail, which can take more than a month to arrive after being sorted and irradiated for safety.)

Several attendees expressed concern about the President Trump’s flamboyant and disruptive media antics and its effect on society and political culture. Republicans, Schneider suggested, wake up every morning and don’t know what their agenda will be until they see what the President has been tweeting.

Schneider said he has a hypothesis about a possible bright side to what he described as the “three-ring circus” of media focus on Trump, which knocks other stories out of the news completely. That leaves a window for lawmakers to “work on less glamorous initiatives in a bipartisan way...without creating unnecessary ruckus,” he said, giving the example of a bill he recently co-sponsored with a Virginia Republican to ban housing discrimination on the basis of sexual identity.

Photos: Rep. Brad Schneider's "Congress on Your Corner," Deerfield High School, March 11 (Jonah Meadows)