Third congressional district constituents express concerns at town hall meetings

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - A group called ‘Opportunity Wisconsin’ organizing a town hall in Eau Claire on Thursday, inviting Congressman Derrick Van Orden to speak directly with his constituents about ongoing federal changes.

Van Orden electing not to attend that particular event, instead holding his own virtual town hall to hear from the people he represents.

Congressman Van Orden said “The reason we’re doing this in this format is because George Soros is funding groups of people to go around the country to disrupt republican town halls, and that is just disrespectful to you, and I’m not going to allow those folks to do that.”

Both meetings covered a series of topics, starting with proposed funding cuts to WIC. Sharing the budget is now $7.6 billion, which is more than $500,000 budget increase for the WIC program.

“Specifically to make sure that we don’t have hungry kids in this country. We’re a nation of wealth and there’s no reason any kid should go to bed hungry like I did growing up.” Van Orden said.

However in terms of children, a common topic during both meetings was the possibility of eliminating the Department of Education.

One attendee at the Eau Claire town hall, said “Of course special education needs are really really important and I think, to be clear he needs to share the direct impact on people and on communities of public school districts.”

Congressman Van Orden saying American taxpayers have spent over $2 trillion on the DOE.

“If you look at the performance of our students, it’s actually gone like this. So if you’re paying 2 trillion dollars to the department of education, and you have less educated children, there’s a problem with the department of education. And here’s where a bunch of that money’s going to go, to the states.” Van Orden said.

He says states will be funded to take care of their own education system. And while on the conversation of taking care of things, many want to know the future of farming given that there hasn’t been a farm bill yet.

Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski responded to a constituent at the Eau Claire town hall.

“Because we know right here farmers in the Chippewa Valley are being affected. I mean they rely on USDA buying that food and at the same time, there’s families in Wisconsin, that’s the fresh food that they get.” Godlewski said.

Van Orden says Wisconsinites can expect a farm bill “as soon as humanly possible”, and since the Senate is now majority Republican...

“It is the number one priority of the agriculture committee right now to get this bill through.” he said.

Congressman Van Orden says he plans to hold another virtual town hall next week in D.C. to answer direct questions. He wasn’t clear on if he may attend a town hall event in person in the future.

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