Amid recent calls to host a town hall meeting with constituents, U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood says he frequently makes himself available to the public.
“I come back every single weekend to my district. I meet with any constituent that wants to meet with me. I’ve had numerous telephone town halls. In the past, I’ve had lots of town halls throughout my district,” said LaHood.
The Dunlap Republican did not commit one way or another to holding a town hall. Earlier this month, the National Republican Congressional Committee discouraged House Republicans from holding in-person town halls to avoid confrontations.
“Anybody that wants to meet with me, I will meet with them, ”said LaHood, whose 16th District includes parts of Peoria, McLean, Tazewell and Woodford counties. He visited the Peoria area on Wednesday.
He joined U.S. Small Business Administration head Kelly Loeffler in participating in a roundtable with Illinois manufacturing leaders, then later attended a groundbreaking for the new police annex in Washington.
Between events, LaHood participated in a one-on-one interview after a tour of a Peoria manufacturing plant to discuss the actions of the Trump Administration over the past two months.
He cited a $36 trillion national debt in expressing support for the Department of Government Efficiency, commonly called DOGE, making significant layoffs at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Education Department.
“This would be a much different conversation if we were $36 trillion in surplus,” LaHood said when asked specifically about recent cuts at the Peoria Ag Lab that were later reversed, at least temporarily. “I think having a different set of eyes to look at the federal government to figure out how we can reduce waste, fraud and abuse, is a positive thing.
“All of the proposed cuts and audits will have to be voted on by Congress, so I’ll have to make a determination at that time how much we cut and what we go after. Anytime you’re cutting federal employees, you want to make sure that you’re using a scalpel approach and not a sledgehammer approach.”
LaHood’s responses came before President Trump’s expected executive order to shut down the Department of Education, a move that is expected to require congressional approval since the agency was established by an act of Congress.
“I’m always concerned about cuts, so again, figuring out where we can make government more efficient, more effective, more accountable, is what we ought to be looking at. But 90% of education is at the local and the state level, only 10% is federal. I don’t think people understand that,” LaHood said.
“I’m anxious to hear what they want to do in terms of cutbacks, but they haven’t proposed that yet.”
LaHood expressed a somewhat divided opinion on how tariffs imposed by Trump would benefit the U.S. economy.
“I think tariffs could disproportionately hurt our farmers, and I have concerns about that,” he said. “However, when you have a country like China that cheats and steals and plays by a different set of rules and standards than every other industrialized country in the world, tariffs ought to be used in a strategic and tactical way to change that behavior.”
While singling out China, LaHood didn’t touch on tariffs potentially triggering a trade war with neighboring Canada and Mexico.
“I think President Trump ran on tariffs, and I think if they’re used in a strategic and tactical way, they can be effective,” he said.
LaHood said the GOP-led Congress will pursue a tax bill this year aimed at easing the strain on household finances driven by higher prices for consumer goods and a volatile stock market. He said the push will be toward energy independence, deregulation, and business tax credits for research and development.
“Those created the best economy in my lifetime, back under the first Trump administration. That will bring relief to many of my constituents and the American people,” he said.
LaHood said he’s “not supportive” of potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare, calling concerns over the possibility a “political issue.”
“No one has talked about cutting Social Security. The president said just the opposite, that he’s not going to cut Social Security or Medicare,” LaHood asserted.
The congressman stressed the importance of checks and balances in the federal government, with many Trump initiatives encountering judicial roadblocks over the past few months.
“We have an independent judiciary,” he said. “I don’t think we should be talking about going after judges. Now, we should fight them in court; we should use the legal system to advocate what we believe is right. But you have to respect the judicial system.”
LaHood added that he expected there would be “a lot of resistance” to attempts at impeaching judges who deliver rulings the White House considers unfavorable.
As conflicts continue between Israel and Hamas and between Ukraine and Russia, LaHood said the U.S. “ought to be doing everything we can” to foster peace. He pointed to recent ceasefires as progress, but acknowledged Isreal breaking its ceasefire earlier this week.
“Why was that escalated? Because Hamas refused to turn over prisoners by the terms of the ceasefire,” he said. “When you violate the terms of the ceasefire, there’ll be collateral — there’ll be consequential damage done and we saw that. We need to get them back at the table. We need to have all the hostages released, and we need to have the ceasefire put in place.”
LaHood also said he believes Trump has done a good job in pushing Russia and Ukraine toward an agreement.
“We’re three years into the war there. I’m somebody that has supported Ukraine funding in the past, but it is not in perpetuity,” he said. “Taxpayers are becoming tired of continuing to spend money in Ukraine, where it’s a war of attrition, it’s a meat-grinder war. But I think we have to get the best deal possible for the Ukrainians and push the Russians back across the border.”
