MOON TWP. — In his first town hall as a congressman, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb took questions on a wide range of topics and told the audience he looks forward to holding more public forums.
“I don’t know everything there is to know about public policy. I’m not going to be right 100 percent of the time. Nobody is,” said Lamb, D-18, Mount Lebanon. “But I do think there will be no problem getting together with my friends and neighbors on a regular basis to have town halls, to hear your ideas, to answer your questions as best I can. We haven’t had that around here for a long time.”
Casually dressed in a white button-down shirt and blue jeans, Lamb spent about 75 minutes answering questions in the Moon Area Middle School auditorium before about 150 people. Lamb was sworn-in on April 12, nearly a month after he beat Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone in the special election by just 755 votes in a district that President Donald Trump won by 20 percentage points in 2016.
Lamb is now preparing to challenge U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-12, Sewickley, in the new 17th Congressional District created under the congressional districts map implemented by the state Supreme Court.
The 17th District covers Beaver County, part of Cranberry Township in Butler County and the northern and western parts of Allegheny County, including Moon, Crescent, Findlay and North Fayette townships and Sewickley.
Lamb said he “fully” supports the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because it provided insurance to millions of Americans who would not otherwise have coverage. He said the individual mandate, which Republicans repealed under President Donald Trump, was “a very important ingredient” in the ACA.
Also, Lamb said the government should do more to market and recruit Americans into ACA plans, yet the Trump administration has done the opposite. Asked specifically about Medicare for all, Lamb said expansion could cost $3 trillion and he has not seen a plan to pay for it.
“I support ideas that we know we can pay for,” he said.
Linda Bishop, the Pine Township resident who asked Lamb about health care, said he is “very pragmatic” in his approach on the issue. “I do respect that,” she said.
A Marine Corps veteran, Lamb said “it’s time for us as a society to put our money where our mouth is” and do as much as possible to ensure that veterans and VA hospitals have the resources and leadership to provide top-notch health care.
Instead, he said, Republicans have pushed for privatization “so people can make money” delivering services. “I will not support anybody making money off of our veterans,” Lamb said.
Lamb said he supports natural gas drilling as a “bridge” to cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy when asked about his environmental platform.
“I do believe in science as an overall concept. I’d never thought I’d say that,” Lamb said with a laugh. He told the audience that he asked to sit on a House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s subcommittee on the environment.
Natural gas has helped lower carbon dioxide emissions since 2005, he said, and projects such as Shell Chemicals’ ethane cracker plant in Potter Township create jobs for the local economy.
Lamb decried the Republican tax plan for simply helping corporations and the wealthy and not doing nearly enough for the middle class. He said he wants a tax system and economy “to reward people for the hard work they are doing.”
Congress has done nothing to address guns and mass shootings, Lamb said, when they could, at least, pass a bill expanding background checks, an option widely supported by Americans.
“We need to pass a bill that achieves the things that everybody says they agree on,” he said.
As for specific types of firearms, such as the powerful AR-15s used in multiple mass shootings, Lamb said there is no bipartisan consensus and millions of Americans own those types of semi-automatic weapons for protection and sport shooting. He returned to arguing for background checks that could curtail sales to those with criminal or mental health histories.
“It’ll apply to all guns,” he said. “It’ll apply to those guns. It’ll apply to handguns.”