Huffman talks disaster readiness and fisheries

Congressman Jared Huffman suggested that the federal government may take a strong hand in helping California address environmental and disaster preparedness, possibly using FEMA and other disaster and national security authorities to get the attention of corporations like PG&E, AT&T and Comcast that are seeming to have a hard time understanding their public responsibilities in times of emergency.

Huffman also described revamping fisheries disaster relief to make it more like crop insurance, to address years-long delays in getting compensation for closed seasons to fishermen, and the difficulties of getting healthcare to veterans in rural areas.

Huffman is in his seventh year representing the Second District – California’s coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, and inland almost to Mount Shasta in the northern part. He is chair of the House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, and a member of House subcommittees on Energy and Mineral Resources and Oversight and Investigations. He was appointed to the Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change in 2015. Last week, he traveled the district in a series of meetings and public events.

During an interview Friday and a public question and answer session Saturday morning attended by well over 200 people in Dana Gray Elementary School auditorium, Huffman was positive about a number of initiatives affecting the district, but returned frequently to the point that those and other useful ideas that have been approved in a Democratic House of Representative are piling up un-voted-on in the Republican Senate.

Disasters and readiness

The recent Public Safety Power Shutoff and related issues with fire preparedness and the state’s energy grid were at the top of people’s minds on his week-long swing through the district, Huffman said. Though utilities regulation is mainly a state endeavor, Huffman said there is a role for the federal government too.

“I see a federal role in all of it,” he said. “You could pick any one of those things and find a federal piece of it. Telecommunications is mostly regulated and funded at the state level but we have the FCC at the federal level. The emergency response aspect of our telecommunications system is obviously a federal interest. I think when you look West-wide at the energy grid and the commerce implications, I think there’s a federal interest in trying to modernize and fortify this energy grid. We just shouldn’t have to worry about our transmission and distribution system sparking fires every time the wind blows.”

Huffman said there is some creative thought being applied to the problem, part of which involved the failure of Comcast- and AT&T-based communications during the outage.

“Maybe more than just the FCC,” would be involved, he said. “Maybe FEMA, in pre-disaster investments that can avoid payouts after things go wrong. Maybe as part of a federal infrastructure package. There’s been a lot of talk about improving grid modernization. If you’re going to be doing that, you really should be looking at the Western U.S. and the fire issue while you’re at it.”

“That is exactly the scenario that cyber experts worry about: somebody hacking into our electricity grid and shutting it down as part of some kind of an attack,” he said. “This gives us a very real sense of the vulnerability that presents. We should absolutely bring this experience into the conversation.”

Fisheries

Regulating fisheries is a key federal role and Huffman is involved in updating the Magnusen-Stevenson Act, the main piece of federal fisheries regulation. He said he is pushing for strengthening aspects that would direct infrastructure funds to local harbors suffering economic distress and threats from rising seas, and revamp the way disaster relief is paid out after seasons are canceled, as happened with crab in 2016 and urchin in 2016 and 2017. Payouts for fisheries disasters are typically years in coming.

“It takes four or five years [for relief funds] to get back to the communities where it’s needed. By that time, folks who don’t have piles of money lying around have often had to sell their boats and move on with their lives … If we were able to get that disaster money out a lot faster, we might have a more vibrant and resilient fishing community in places like California,” he said.

Huffman likes the idea of setting up something like farmers’ crop insurance, which is “subsidized, but it is at least a quasi-self-insurance system, that doesn’t depend on all these machinations in Congress before you get the money.”

Huffman said trade agreements between the United States and other nations were the way to address issues such as truth in labeling and environmentally conscious fishing.

He pointed to the renegotiation of NAFTA with Mexico. He said, “We looked at it and saw that there were no protections in it so far.”

He believes that the ongoing work for the agreement is an opportunity to make corrections to protect our fishing industry. For example, Mexico’s fisheries do not have the same restrictions as U.S. fisheries in regards to the traceability of seafood, conservation measures to protect from overfishing and proper labeling of the fish sold in U.S. markets.

Healthcare

Medical care for veterans is a perennial concern in the remote locales of the Second District, and Huffman said he sees plenty of evidence of struggle.

The Veterans Choice program was introduced four years ago, to allow vets to go to a private healthcare provider if they lived farther than 40 miles from a VA clinic. First, Huffman said, it had to be straightened out that 40 miles was driving miles, not as the crow flies.

But even then, he said, “It still hasn’t gone that well.”

A private company hired to carry out contracts with doctors, TriWest, had problems. “TriWest made it hard to sign up to be a provider, and then the slow payment from the VA made them not want to be a provider,” he said.

The heart of the problem, he said, is a lack of providers in rural areas, which is a nationwide issue.

“I think it’s a good time to take stock in why we have these problems,” Huffman said.

“I think we have to remember that, despite problems with the VA – and rural veterans have a transportation problem and an access problem with the remoteness. But once they get there, the care is very good. So, I don’t want to reinvent and privatize the VA, I want to hang on to what works well, and see if we can’t improve the access and the transportation.”

What needs fixing is the system for finding providers who are willing to work in rural areas.

“The folks at Fort Miley … don’t understand how to find the doctors and nurses who want to live in rural communities … We need recruiters who are specialized in finding them and placing them.”

Huffman said he will introduce legislation next week that will create a new Specialized Office of Rural Recruitment within the VA and require a strategic plan for recruiting doctors and nurses for VA clinics in rural communities and an annual report to track progress.

The Executive

Huffman called current impeachment efforts an “existential” question for the country, and said he considers President Donald Trump “dangerous.”

Only one question Saturday touched on Trump directly; a woman asked if it was possible for presidential candidates in the future to be vetted for security clearances before the election, to general laughter and applause.

Huffman said there might be some issues with requiring that, but he said some in Washington are exploring the idea of making it an option for candidates to apply for security clearances. Then, he said, at least voters would be able to see who is willing to do s

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