Rep. Richard Hudson talks policy, parenthood

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson filed for re-election on Dec. 1 in hopes of winning a third term in Congress.

Hudson said that while he feels he has accomplished a a lot so far, he has several other issues he plans to tackle if the voters return him to Capitol Hill for another two years.

SUCCESS

Hudson said forging bipartisan partnerships have been a large factor in the second-term congressman’s early success.

“In my first term, I was the chairman of the Transportation Security Subcommittee on Homeland Security,” Hudson said. “I was working across the aisle and able to get six bills from the subcommittee signed into law. I was able to do that because I picked issues I felt were common-sense. I went to the Democrats on the committee first, and was then able to get strong bipartisan votes on all six pieces of legislation.”

Of those six, Hudson sponsored two. Democrats sponsored two and other committee members sponsored the others.

“In this environment, I think that’s a strong accomplishment,” Hudson said.

More recently, Hudson has focused on an energy bill and his American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act.

“I’ve worked on a comprehensive energy bill that actually passed the House this week,” Hudson said. “I’ve been working on that all year, trying to focus on issues that will have a real impact on liability and cost of energy for families and staying away from controversial issues like the XL pipeline and drilling in Alaska. By doing that, we have a bipartisan bill now that I hope the president will sign.”

Hudson said that while the SAFE Act comes soon after the fatal terrorist attacks in Paris, it has been worked on since long before the attacks.

“We were working on this before the Paris attacks because we were concerned that President Barack Obama will let Syrian refugees in when the FBI director said that we’re not able to do adequate background checks,” Hudson said. “Some Republican colleagues wanted to do a broader bill that supported one religion or banned refugees outright, and I took a more commonsense approach.”

Government transparency website GovTrack.com gave the bill a 5 percent chance of becoming law, but Hudson is not discouraged.

“No, because some polls said that 75 percent of the American people support the bill, and we got a two-thirds bipartisan support in the House,” Hudson said. “Those are, to me, strong indicators that we have a good chance of getting this done. The American people want this done, and the issue won’t go away. If we can’t get this in the omnibus bill, I think there will be a lot of pressure on the Senate to do something.”

Hudson also wasn’t interested in hearing GovTrack’s prediction.

“GovTrack wouldn’t have given me much chance as a freshman to get six bills passed into law,” he said. “One of my favorite movies is Star Wars. In it, there’s a scene where C3PO says, ‘You have a point-whatever chance of success,’ and Han Solo says, ‘Never tell me the odds.’”

WHAT’S NEXT?

If re-elected, Hudson said he will continue working on the same key issues that he has focused on in his first two terms, but will also focus on tax reform and removing Common Core requirements.

“I want to continue to try to be a conservative voice and a voice for common sense for the people I represent,” Hudson said. “I think, like most, I’m frustrated with the direction our federal government is going. I think I’ve shown in my first two terms that I have the ability to reach across the aisle and work with Republicans and Democrats to try to get things done and change direction.”

Tax reform is necessary for places like Anson County to truly succeed, he said.

“Tax reform would be really important,” Hudson said. “If we could do tax reform, it would help places like Anson County. If we encouraged people to start a business and businesses to expand, you’d see a lot of opportunities open. And on the manufacturing side, it would put a lot of people to work right here at home.”

Hudson also said local schools should be controlled by their local leaders rather than federal mandates.

“We need more local control,” he said. “I trust local school boards and parents and teachers to best know how to spend federal dollars and to know what programs our students need. If Anson County wants to use Common Core, then Anson County can decide that, but the federal government shouldn’t force Anson County to use Common Core.”

On Dec. 2, Hudson voted to support the Every Student Succeeds Act, which he said would give local school systems more control. The bill was passed by the House and a compromise was worked on between the House and Senate, which had not voted on the bill by press deadline.

A comprehensive energy bill is also at the top of Hudson’s list.

“It’s about jobs and having a reliable energy sector in North Carolina,” Hudson said. “The more we can promote that, the more it means jobs for us here at home.”

On Dec. 3, Hudson voted for the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act, which he believes will promote jobs and help the economy.

“Agriculture remains a big focus of mine,” Hudson said.

Although he had to give up his committee seat to focus on other areas, Hudson said he is still concerned with it and helped start a rural America task force for congressmen who aren’t on the agriculture committee.

“We are trying to educate people on issues facing people in rural America,” he said. “We are tackling country-of-origin labeling, and just had a hearing a couple weeks ago on the avian flu issue. It’s been a real problem in parts of this country, and we were worried that with migration, it could be an issue here. People need to be educated, and there may need to be a federal response to that. I will continue to be a leader on agricultural issues. The other issue I’m concerned about is having to deal with cotton seed. I’m looking at implementation of a farm bill and how the new crop insurance is working, so the other issues we’ll address as we go along, but those are the two we focused on so far.”

Another issue that Hudson is also looking is welfare reform.

“Poverty is an issue,” he said. “We really need to work on the 92 welfare programs in the federal government and take a fresh look at what we’re doing to combat poverty. I talked to the speaker about this issue, because he’s talked about it in the past. He says he’ll put together a task force next year and let me be on it to take a look at ‘How do we lift people out of poverty and what can we do to encourage people to get out of poverty?’ We could measure the success of anti-poverty programs not based on how much money we spend, but based on how many people we lift out of poverty.”

The current system makes it difficult for people to increase their wealth, Hudson said.

“For too long, Republicans have not engaged on this issue, and it’s time to engage and work with Democrats on some reforms,” he said. “For example, if you have a single mother with two children at home and she starts to make more money, but you take away her child care because she’s making too much income and take away the safety nets, we trap her back in poverty. Instead of punishing people, we need to retool them to help lift people, so we’re rewarding people like this individual who is trying to lift her family out of poverty.”

The congressman also said he plans to focus on access to treatment for pediatric head trauma.

“It’s the No. 1 killer of kids in America,” Hudson said. “The way it works today is if you have a head injury as a child and live close to a Level 3 trauma center, you will live and may avoid long-term issues. And if you don’t, you may not live and recover fully from your injuries. In this day and age, that’s not acceptable to me.”

Hudson said he has put in a request to the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee asking that the chairman look into having a study done. The study will take about a year to complete.

“My hope is that through that study and briefings and hearings we’ll hold next year, we can raise awareness and have some recommendations so we can close this gap and deal with this problem,” Hudson said.

FAMILY

The birth of Hudson’s young son Lane makes his job harder but more rewarding, Hudson said.

“My son is two months old now,” Hudson said. “Being a dad is the greatest thing in the world. It’s wonderful, but it makes it a lot harder to get on a plane and go to D.C. every week.”

But having a child makes the congressman take his decisions even more seriously than before.

“It’s a challenge because, like I said, it makes it harder to leave to go to Washington,” Hudson said. “But it has broadened my perspective a little more when I think of his future and the future of the country with the decisions that I make. They impact the next generation.”