Breakfast With A Congressman

Congressman Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) stopped by California State University, Sacramento to have a little chat about challenges he and fellow members of Congress face in Washington today. Of those topics, Lungren spoke at times very candidly about issues affecting the greater Sacramento community, including Fair Oaks redistricting.

Lungren spoke about the what he described as a an “anti-business attitude in California.”

“You wonder can we take a place that has the best natural resources in the country; the best human resources in the country; the best weather in the country and drive it into the ground,” Lungren said. “The question is, ‘how do you come back?’”

To that question, Lungren could only hypothesize that one has to come back. How that will happen, however, the Congressman says, remains to be seen.

Two obstacles Congress must address include Republicans’ Continuing Resolution and, of course, California’s ailing budget, Lungren said, emphasizing fiscal responsibility and global impact.

The initiatives have left both sides of the aisle feuding over how to tighten federal spending – spending Lungren says has contributed to an additional $228 billion each month in the national deficit.

“Things are out of control,” Lungren said. “We’re going to run a $1.6 trillion dollar deficit this year out of a $3.6 trillion expenditure.”

Like many in Congress, Lungren believes one of the most glaring problems in government right now is the polarization between House Republicans and Democrats.

“We have to put the facts on the table,” Lungren said. “At least, let’s agree what the facts are and then we can argue about the solutions.”

Asked about the growing concern over California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission planning heading in the wrong direction, Lungren was as uncertain on the plans let alone the vision as anyone else.

“No one knows … that is the honest answer,” Lungren said. “If you look at the numbers coming from the U.S. Census Bureau, it’s obvious we’re going to have to start redistricting.”

Lungren emphasized that no initiatives should take place before, “they take care of the Voting Rights Act.”

Progress for the Redistricting Commission is still ongoing, though, and ideas for district lines are far from definitive, Lungren said.

At a meeting that took place last Friday, the Redistricting Commission unanimously voted to retain what its website called “the highly respected international law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to advise the Commission on the Voting Rights Act.” The act passed in 1965, Lungren helped amend in 1984 and again in 2006, basically outlawing discriminatory voting practices that have been said to be responsible for disenfranchisement by a variety of United States minority groups.

“You can create districts with the intention to have enough members of the minority community there that the chances are very good that it will help them elect someone from their community to the Commission [sic].” Lungren said.

The fear of such implemented methods being it could potentially create clouded district lines, leading to misrepresentative voting when communities aren’t properly defined, Lungren said.

“In my current district I am something like 80,000 (residents) over the number I am supposed to have,” Lungren said.

He compared that statistic to district representative numbers in Southern California, where he noted the numbers exceed 220,000 over the limit.

“I expect they (the Redistricting Commission) will start drawing lines from the south up,” Lungren said. “Which means we’ll probably be one of the last districts decided up here."

The Commission is required to have their proposal submitted for Congressional approval no later than Aug. 12.

“At which point, you’ll see the lawsuits begin,” Lungren joked. “But seriously, no one knows yet what the new districts will look like.”