I believe every single person in this district deserves a representative who truly listens.

I pledge to hold in-person town halls during every Congressional recess. I pledge to attend every vote, and to explain each vote publicly to my constituents.

Too many of my neighbors are struggling to put food on their tables. Bananas, coffee, and other basic groceries are more expensive because of Trump’s tariffs.

Tariffs are taxes on the American people. Haphazard and poorly rolled-out tariffs hurt small business owners, farmers, and ranchers. Being unable to predict prices makes it difficult to do business.

We deserve an economic policy that works for all of us. And we deserve representation when deciding that economic policy. The power to decide tariffs must go back to Congress, as designated in the Constitution.

America is a nation of immigrants. As Ronald Reagan put it, “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

George Washington called America an “asylum for the poor & persecuted of the Earth.” This is America’s founding principle. Anyone who wants to become a U.S. Citizen and anyone who wants to work in the United States should have a clear legal pathway that is easy to follow, reducing the desperation driving illegal border crossings.

But our government today has turned its back on America’s founding principles. Our Vice President spreads rumors about immigrants eating cats and dogs. Congress allocated more than $170 billion for “immigration enforcement,” more money than most of the world’s militaries, and that money is being used to terrorize immigrants and American citizens alike. According to the Cato Institute, 93% of those taken by ICE have no violent convictions, and 65% of people taken by ICE have no convictions at all.

We’re not taking the worst of the worst. We’re kidnapping and deporting the people who sit next to us in church, the people who work hard for our communities, the people who came to America for a new life.

We must treat every person with dignity and respect. If ICE and Border Patrol cannot follow these basic directives, they must be abolished and replaced.

The men and women of our military regularly risk their lives for our country. We have a duty to supply them with wise leadership, lawful orders, and care during and after their service.

However, under Pete Hegseth, the lives of our service members have been put at risk due to incompetence and disregard for the law.

In March, Hegseth shared imminent strike details in an unauthorized Signal chat, instead of using the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) required for this kind of communication.

In September, Hegseth ordered the killing of all of the occupants of a boat in the Caribbean, alleging that they were drug traffickers. He provided no evidence to support his claims. And even if the claims were at all true, we cannot legally kill drug traffickers outright. That is murder, and a war crime.

Congress, not the Executive, has the power to declare war. When senior officials issue or carry out unlawful orders, accountability isn’t optional. It’s our duty.

The impeachment process begins in the House, and it should begin for Pete Hegseth.

We owe our service members, our laws, and the people of this district nothing less than the full measure of oversight the Constitution demands.

In addition, DOGE fired thousands of veterans, and dismantled VA programs. Now, according to the VA’s own inspector general, 82 percent of VAs are experiencing critical nursing shortages.

Our veterans deserve much, much better.

Healthcare is a human right. But in many areas of our district, access to healthcare is under threat. Rural hospitals across California are at risk of shutting down due to lack of funding, including in our own district.

• Southern Inyo was authorized in September to file for bankruptcy.

• John C. Fremont Hospital in Mariposa is at particular risk of closure and service reduction due to Trump's funding cuts.

• Mammoth Hospital closed its maternity ward, and now women have to travel 45+ minutes for their prenatal appointments and delivery.

• Adventist Health in Sonora says that the gutting of healthcare in Trump’s budget bill "will have a catastrophic impact on access to care not only for those covered by Medicaid, but all people, especially in rural communities like ours.”

Somehow we can spend $20 billion to bail out Argentina with a currency swap, but we don't have the money to save our local hospitals?

We deserve a fierce advocate in Congress who knows that our healthcare isn't a bargaining chip or budget line-item, it's our survival.

We must restore the Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) that were gutted in Trump’s budget bill.

There's a bill in Congress that would require the Forest Service to put out all wildfires in certain conditions in 24 hours. It would also severely limit the use of prescribed fires and backfires.

This bill requires that our firefighters stop saving our homes, stop working on the highest priority fires, and turn their attention instead to a different wildfire, whether or not that wildfire is dangerous to human life. This bill is an attempt to steal decision-making power from local firefighters -- the people we know and trust -- and put in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, who don't know a thing about fire.

This bill is HR178, and our missing-in-action representative, Tom McClintock, is the author.

Unlike McClintock, I'm not a career politician. Unlike McClintock, I actually live in this district. Unlike McClintock, I trust our local firefighters because I have personally seen them save my friends' homes.

Our expert firefighters deserve our whole-hearted support, not more rules from D.C.