MOSES LAKE — Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said he’s running for reelection because he feels like he still has work to do and because his time in office has connected him with the resources he needs in Washington D.C. to take action. 

“This is my fifth term, which has really put me in a position to have greater influence and greater access,” Newhouse said during a Monday interview. 

Newhouse said he wants to find solutions to problems being faced in Washington state as well as elsewhere around the U.S. Newhouse said his position on various committees will help him achieve those goals, but also said his roots as a farmer in Washington state would help him foster state and federal relationships to solve issues. 

One of Newhouse’s opponents, Republican Tiffany Smiley, said she was concerned about Newhouse’s ability to work with a Donald Trump administration, should Trump once again be elected into the Oval Office due to Newhouse voting to impeach Trump after Capitol riots Jan. 6.

Newhouse said his priorities included ensuring that Lower Snake River dams remain in place, irrigation is available for agriculture and that the government is transparent about challenges being faced.

Newhouse is facing challengers Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Sessler on the Republican ticket and is looking to retain his seat in the U.S. House, representing Washington’s Fourth Congressional District.

Agriculture

Newhouse, like Sessler, is a farmer, he said. As a result, supporting agriculture is a key issue for him. That’s part of why he’s in favor of keeping dams in place throughout Washington. He feels that the good they do for farmers both in creating irrigation infrastructure and affordable energy is vital for successful agriculture. 

Economies of scale are difficult right now for farmers, he said. With costs of supplies like seed, fertilizer and equipment increasing due to a variety of economic factors, it has become difficult for farmers and ranchers to make a profit. 

“We’re seeing high input costs,” Newhouse said. “Costs on everything, and … labor supply is always a challenge.” 

Congress is working to address those challenges in the current Farm Bill, he said. The ultimate goal is to ensure “policies from the federal government aren’t part of the problem but are part of the solution.”

Newhouse hopes portions of the Farm Bill he helped with or sponsored will help market Washington ag products nationally and globally to help improve markets for Washington farmers and ranchers. 

Newhouse added that it is vital to ensure the Chinese Communist Party is unable to buy agricultural land in the U.S. Allowing that to happen would not only hamper food security for Americans but represent a national security issue.

Dams

Newhouse said maintaining the dams in Washington is vital as a whole because their benefit, he feels, outweighs any concerns out there. To balance the needs of the communities those dams serve with the needs of the salmon that migrate up and down rivers like the Lower Snake and Columbia, Newhouse said. While the Lower Snake River dams are the ones being looked at most closely now, he said he’s concerned about dams throughout the state.

“The four Lower Snake River dams are kind of in the crosshairs right now,” he said. “But don’t be lulled into any kind of confidence that that’s always going to be the case. If the opposition is successful in breaching those dams, other dams will be targeted as well, because the same theoreticals exist.” 

Newhouse said the dams are important for a variety of reasons, including preserving the ability to move cargo up and down the rivers, making Lewiston, Idaho an effective seaport, and ensuring crops and other goods from the Pacific Northwest can get to Portland, Oregon and beyond. 

Rather than removing the dams, Newhouse said he’d like to see other issues addressed. While the dams seem like the largest and seemingly the most obvious threat to salmon, he said other things are of concern. 

“We’ve got to look at those things that are most detrimental,” he said. “Spawning areas for salmon have to be expanded and improved. We have to look at predation problems on the Columbia and Snake rivers.” 

Predators have serious impacts on the salmon population, whether that’s sea lions or various birds, so controlling their overhunting of salmon is important. Additional solutions include looking to ensure Puget Sound is clean and that ocean conditions are favorable to salmon.

Housing

Newhouse said regulatory and economic concerns have stunted the housing market in Washington and created some particularly harsh conditions in terms of affordable housing. 

“It’s a huge problem, not just in Grant County, but in communities around the state,” Newhouse said. “I think we have the embarrassing rank of having the least about of affordable housing than any other state in the country.” 

According to “U.S. News and World Report,” Washington is ranked as the fourth worst in terms of affordable housing, with California, Hawaii and New Jersey having less affordable housing. Neighboring states Idaho and Oregon rank 19th and 43rd, respectively, in terms of being affordable.

The cost of housing stunts economic growth, Newhouse said. To fix that, regulations on housing need to be revamped to keep construction affordable and more skilled workers need to be trained to shore up the homebuilding industry. 

One example of government-caused problems in housing is the Washington Legislature’s ban on natural gas in new construction. 

“We need to take a step back and look at the impacts of some of the rules and regulations and requirements in the housing construction business to really understand what that’s doing to the affordability and availability of houses,” he said. 

SSI and Health Care

Newhouse said he feels transparency and being straightforward with the American people needs to happen when it comes to Social Security and health care. He felt that Social Security is one of the key drivers of the national debt with outgoing payments exceeding Social Security revenues for about a decade now. 

Data from the Social Security Administration shows that fund balance growth for SSI slowed in 2008 and began an actual decline during and after 2020.

Newhouse said that, while it was an unpleasant truth, leadership in the nation’s capital needed to admit that Social Security was in crisis and that hard decisions must be made. That may include things like reduced benefits for retirees and other solutions to ensure the program is viable. 

He added that Social Security benefits are declining in value as inflation raises the cost of living while benefit payments don’t increase on the same scale. 

“Ignoring the problem that we have in Social Security is not going to make it go away,” he said.

Transparency like that is also necessary to keep health care costs in check, Newhouse said. 

“Transparency is absolutely necessary to help lower the costs (of health care),” he said. 

Newhouse said he was in favor of more legislation like The Lower Costs, More Transparency Act which required medical providers to publish the cost of the services and goods they provide. That bill, he said, has helped push costs down because it allows consumers to see the cost prior to receiving care.

Newhouse said it was also important to implement telehealth options for rural areas and increase residency slots in hospitals such as Samaritan in Moses Lake. By having those slots available, it would make it more likely that those physicians would settle in the area and open a practice once their residencies were completed. 

R. Hans "Rob" Miller may be reached at editor@columbiabasinherald.com. 

Candidate info: 

Congressman Dan Newhouse (www.dannewhouse.com) is one of several candidates in the race for U.S. Representative for Congressional District 4. He is the incumbent for the position and previously served in the Washington Legislature.

Mary Baechler
www.maryforcongress.org.

Benny “B3” Garcia
Vote4bennyWA04@zohomail.com

Barry Knowles
4thdistrictelectbarryk@gmail.com

John Malan
www.restore-america.info

“Birdie” Jane Muchlinski
birdie4uscongress@gmail.com

Jerrod Sessler
www.jerrodforcongress.com

Tiffany Smiley
www.tiffanysmileyforcongress.com