Hageman answers community questions

On Saturday, April 27, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) answered a number of questions from Washakie County residents during a town hall meeting April 27.

BORDER

One concerned citizen said, “When they [undocumented immigrants] first started coming across the border, I said they’re going to give them the vote. We’ve got to stop that.”

Hageman responded, “We’ve got to change the law so that illegals are not counted in every district. That would disincentivize cities allowing them to come. Right now, we are giving seats back to California and New York that were taken away because they lost population. They’re getting these seats back with numbers inflated by illegal immigrants.”

She added, “We must have a federal law that if you are going to vote in a federal election you must provide identification.

Hageman stated that she was currently working on two bills that will protect the integrity of elections.

GENTLE

REPUBLICANS

Another person asked, “Why are so many conservative Republicans in Washington, D.C. so gentle?”

Hageman said, “I don’t know … but we must stop being gentle, stop being nonconfrontational. We are letting too much slide. People are ready to tear things down right now and I understand why.”

She proceeded to mention a foreign aid package that was recently approved to aid Ukraine amid their war with Russia, Israel and Taiwan which comes in at $95 billion. Of the $95 billion, the majority at nearly $61 billion was allocated to Ukraine She said, “I was so angry when they approved that last Saturday … I see that, and then I look at the reservation where I just spent the last three days. Look at the issues we’re seeing in education and housing … Look at the challenges we have there, and then do some math. If we had just 1 billion of that, how much of a difference could we make in our own country?”

“I think that it’s going to come back to education, and getting people to truly understand the impacts that we’re having,” she added.

Hageman did note that more Republicans did vote against the aid package than voted for it, saying, “I think that is extremely telling to where we are, and where the American people are.”

CORPORATE

TRANSPARENCY ACT

One person asked about the status of the Corporate Transparency Act, to which Hageman said, “We are trying to block that.”

She explained that the act’s purpose is to require businesses to disclose certain information, including ownership. “It costs $2,000 to $3,000 to process all the paperwork that they want,” she said.

Hageman said, “A lot of people have talked to us about it because the punishments for noncompliance are severe. It can be a $10,000 fine for a single violation of the act, or up to two years of incarceration. It’s just this administration that has gone off the rails, and so that is on our radar.”