Dear Editor:
The Congress is on recess this week to give House members a chance to come home and have Town Hall Meetings with their constituents. Not this time. Anxious lawmakers have cancelled hundreds of Town Hall Meetings all over the country. Not Rep. Evan Jenkins, though, he didn’t even have a town hall scheduled for this area, despite repeated requests for one. Instead, Rep. Jenkins and others in Congress have scheduled “Phone in Town Hall Meetings,” a cunning strategy to dodge meeting face to face with constituents.
I declined the offer to participate in this phone in meeting. Instead, I reiterated my request for a Town Hall Meeting with Rep. Jenkins in person, which… is a routine request.
One question I would like to ask Rep. Jenkins is exactly how many coal jobs were saved or added after he voted to abolish the regulation that sought to protect our streams from poisonous coal mining debris? Will this action cause more harm to West Virginians, especially coal mining families? Will federal funding be available for cleanup?
I would also like to ask him what happens when the Affordable Care Act is demolished and West Virginians get sick, how will we afford health care? What’s the plan to take care of us?
I have a lot of other questions for Rep. Jenkins. Hopefully he can find the time to schedule and attend a Town Hall Meeting in Lewisburg. We are factually, one of the “coolest” towns. I urge others, who would like to ask the Congressman some questions in person, to call his DC office at 202-225-3452 and ask for a Town Hall Meeting in Lewisburg.
Remember, we the people pay his salary and I think he has an obligation to meet with us and hear what we have to say.
Pam Barry
Maxwelton