Mansfield Students Get Q&A With Congressman Joe Kennedy III

MANSFIELD, MA — Mansfield High School students had a chance to meet with their congressman and ask a few questions during a special meeting Monday afternoon.

Congressman Joseph Kennedy III stopped by the high school for a 45-minute question and answer session. The event was organized by Mansfield High School senior Paige Oliveira, who is an intern for Kennedy and one of the co-founders of the Mansfield High School Democrats.

The auditorium of students impressed Kennedy at the start of the session when he asked what issues were important to them. Hearing everything from immigration to gun violence, social issues, and foreign policy, the congressman told the students that it’s clear that they are paying attention to community and national issues.

“These are the debates to a lesser extent Congress is having and to a larger extent should be having,” he said.

When asked what he’s working on, Kennedy said health care and mental health reform are his biggest issues at the moment. While no one is fighting about the provision of care, the disagreement on how and who should pay remains. On the mental health front, he said his time as an assistant district attorney made him realized that the de facto safety net of jail for addicts and those fighting mental health is not working.

“What you got is someone who needs addiction treatment not jail because they don’t have a malicious intent to harm someone,” he said. “People were committing bad crimes because they are sick and the consequence was that we were locking up people who were sick. It opened my eye to the fact that we need to treat drug addiction differently.”

The three-term congressman was also asked what has surprised him during his time in Washington. He answered that the challenge to get things done is greater than he expected.

“The system is not only supposed to allow descent but celebrate it. The problem is that some structural incentives make it harder than it should. It was never supposed to be easy,” he said.

Kennedy said that campaign finance laws and district gerrymandering have incentivized partisanship.

He also encouraged students who want a career in government service to have experiences that will ignite a passion

“I think government service at any level...there are parts of any one of those jobs that are going to be rewarding and there are parts which are going to be extremely frustrating,” he said.

Kennedy touted his attempts at bipartisanship, telling students that his bill to create an app version of the paperwork which gives a congressional office the ability to act on behalf of a constituent was from an idea from a Republican colleague. When asked identify his friends were in Congress, the list included Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Jason Smith of Missouri and one of America’s most conservative district.

Finally, he said that the one piece of legislation he hopes can pass by the end of the year relates to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Kennedy said they may be able to get something to the floor of the house, but isn’t sure what will happen when the bill goes to the Senate and the president’s desk.

The event was one of two area high school appearances for Kennedy, who also met with students at Oliver Ames High School in Easton.

Image: File Photo