Newhouse defends federal cuts, pledges to meet with public as calls pour into his office

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., says he plans to schedule public meetings soon to hear concerns of the people he represents in his Central Washington district, which includes the Tri-Cities.

In the past he has held telephone town halls, but his last one was in September.

Now he plans to do some in-person meetings as well, he said at a news media briefing in Pasco on Thursday after touring Western States Cat, a heavy equipment company.

“I certainly understand there is a lot of consternation, a lot of concern, among people and I want to make sure people have an opportunity to express why they are feeling that way,” he said. “That is something I need to hear.”

Typically, his Washington, D.C., office gets about 100 calls a week, with additional calls to his home state offices, including his Tri-Cities office in Richland.

Now his D.C. office alone is received 500 to 600 calls a day, he said.

People are concerned about reductions in federal spending and how it will impact them, he said. Most prevalent are concerns about potential reductions to federal medical programs, including Medicaid and Medicare, he said.

On Wednesday, about 200 people rallying against Medicaid cuts marched to Newhouse’s office in Yakima.

Federal job and program cuts driven by DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency led by Trump adviser Elon Musk, also is a frequent topic of calls, he said.

Newhouse gave no date for the first public meeting, saying just that he is looking at it “in the near future as soon as time allows.”

Republican town halls

Residents of his district also can talk to staff at his district offices, who have office hours and have been meeting with the public, he said.

When Newhouse’s staff held mobile office hours in Twisp in Okanogan County on Tuesday more than 200 people showed up, according to the Methow Valley News. Office hours are typically used to help constituents with specific issues with federal agencies.

Newhouse has been the target of ads and memes, needling him to hold a town hall.

In one distributed by the Washington state Democratic Party, his face appears on a mock “Missing” poster, saying he was last seen “sneaking around D.C., avoiding town halls, and pretending his constituents don’t exist.”

If you see him, “Demand he appears at town hall events.”

Other Republican representatives across the nation who have held town halls have been met with angry and sometimes rowdy crowds.

When Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., who now holds the seat of retired 5th District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, held a town hall Monday in Spokane, the shouting was nearly constant, the Spokesman-Review said.

At a town hall earlier in the day in Ritzville, between the Tri-Cities and Spokane, outbursts were frequent, the newspaper reported.

Baumgartner told reporters after the Spokane town hall that he may have to hold town halls by telephone in the future rather than live events, according to the Spokesman-Review.

Newhouse on need for cuts

Newhouse said that amid the disruption in federal government 4th District residents need to remember that now the United States debt is approaching $37 trillion, with nearly $3 trillion in spending above money taken in annually.

“It is an unsustainable thing for us to do,” he said. “We are finally looking at ways we can bend that spending curve so we can be more fiscally responsible and turn this ship around before it is too late.”

But his preference would be to be more strategic and less arbitrary about cuts, he said.

“I use the analogy we should use a scalpel and not a chainsaw,” he said.

Some cuts could end up costing money, Newhouse said.

He used agriculture research as an example, saying some research positions have been arbitrarily cut, “leaving the agricultural industry in the very vulnerable position of not being able to conduct important work that keeps us on the cutting edge in the long run of being able to compete on the world market.”

Although he did not specifically call it out, there have been cuts to research staff at the Washington State University Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser.

Although some laid off staff have been recalled after a federal judge’s order, some reportedly have been placed on administrative leave rather than allowed to work.

Democrats have questioned whether cuts being made now would trim the federal debt, as Newhouse says must be done.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has said that the Trump administration is trying to illegally cut the federal workforce while giving $4 trillion in tax breaks to corporations and the wealthiest individuals in the nation.

But Newhouse says Republicans are trying to preserve automatically expiring tax cuts that benefit the middle class.

Concern for agriculture

He said it is up to Congress to turn into law the efficiencies identified by DOGE.

In the case of the United States Agency for International Development, which has been largely dismantled by DOGE, Newhouse is proposing that one of its programs, Food for Peace, be moved from USAID to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Food grown by farmers in the 4th District and elsewhere are sent overseas in the program.

It benefits the agricultural industry and builds relationships abroad while helping those who truly need help, said Newhouse, a third-generation farmer from Sunnyside.

He also discussed tariffs at the news media event, saying that he has been working to make sure that the Trump administration understands the impacts that tariffs have on industry, including farmers, particularly after seeing the negative impacts the 2018 tariffs had on agricultural products for export.