U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, says getting the things worth having in life for this country’s residents is among her top priorities as she enters her second term.
She also …
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U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, says getting the things worth having in life for this country’s residents is among her top priorities as she enters her second term.
She also expressed her gratitude about being selected to lead Washington’s Third Congressional District again.
“I’m just very honored to get to keep doing this work and excited about the opportunities in this Congress here and building my relationships all over the district and figuring out how I can be useful, too,” Gluesenkamp Perez told The Chronicle.
Along with laying out some of her legislation goals and priorities, Gluesenkamp Perez said she will remain the same person and find common ground with the incoming administration.
“I am going to work to find every area of agreement and shared interest with my colleagues and with the upcoming administration,” she said.
Gluesenkamp Perez hopes 2025 will lead toward more agreement being found between political interests.
“We agree on a lot of stuff, being loud about that and not picking fights with each other that aren’t going to solve homelessness, that aren’t going to stop fentanyl, that aren’t going to build up a strong middle class community in the economy,” she said, adding politicians need to focus on not getting drawn into ideological fights and on the important matters, like how people take care of their families. “How do we steward our land? How do we perpetuate the gifts that we’ve been given here in this incredible country?”
Entering her second term, Gluesenkamp Perez was appointed to a position on the Appropriations Committee. She said that will be a big shift for her.
“It’s a real opportunity,” she said. “My dad always said that people can talk about what they believe all day long, but if you look at their tax returns … you know what their values really are.”
She added that being on the committee will help her continue advocating for spending money on things that matter to ordinary families. As well, she hopes to point the budget in a direction that is “rooted in utility to ordinary Americans and the long view of building strength as a country.”
2025 priorities
Gluesenkamp Perez outlined her goals for 2025 and if serving under a new president will change how she approaches her efforts. Among her top goals is creating bipartisan legislation that will create a better America.
“There’s still a lot to do on how people can get the things that are worth having in life, you know, being able to own your own home, like, buy things that last, raise a family and see them, like not having to work three jobs, being able to buy food grown in America.”
A part of her efforts for creating better lives for American families is ending the fentanyl crisis, she said.
“Part of the other side of the equation is stopping fentanyl,” she said. “People are feeling hopeless, and [it] feels like a lot of foreign adversaries are kind of playing chess here with fentanyl across the border and stopping that, making sure law enforcement has the resources they need to do that work and be safe doing it.”
As well, Gluesenkamp Perez said she will continue to take care of veterans, especially those navigating the Veterans Administration by making sure they get what they’ve earned and are not getting shortchanged.
To do that, she plans to hold more town halls, but her congressional schedule has made that an early challenge.
“It is kind of frustrating,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “Like, they’ve just published the congressional schedule, and it’s so much time in DC. It’s really hard to get out and talk to people at home about what they’re seeing and what their experiences are and so that’s a little bit difficult.”
Already, Gluesenkamp Perez has seen success with bipartisan bills being passed or signed into law. Her PORT Act and the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 was signed into law, including providing assistance for flooding in Wahkiakum County and sediment control on the Columbia and Cowlitz rivers, by former President Biden earlier this month.
The PORT Act approves a land conveyance to the Port of Skamania for local economic development. The legislation will approve the Port of Skamania’s request for a 1.6-acre plot of unused U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, which the port filed for over 40 years ago and requires congressional authorization, a release by her office stated.
With the recent wildfires in California, Gluesenkamp Perez said another effort this year will be making sure the district’s forests and timber economy are better protected and utilized.
“I think we’re all thinking a lot about the wildfires and how easily that could have been us,” she said, adding that thinning and harvesting will lead to the growth of the timber economy while allowing people to be stewards of the resources in the district and country.
Will a new presidency change her approach?
As for if the Trump presidency will change how she approaches her efforts, she said it will not.
“I’m still the same person. My job is not to advance a political agenda. It is to get work for our community,” she said. “So I think trying to figure out where the interests of my community overlap with the interests of the incoming administration and what the best ways are to seize the opportunity to deliver substantive reform, that’s really exciting.
She sees a different set of opportunities with the new presidency, including the fact that both she and Trump care about domestic manufacturing.
“We want to be able to build and maintain our own stuff,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “We want to have economic agency and independence and start our own businesses, you know, build our own houses, and so I think there’s a lot of opportunity.”
With regulatory reform, Gluesenkamp Perez said she hopes the focus is to make sure what is delivered will actually be useful to people and not just attractive to people who already have political power, including donors in Washington, D.C.
The Interstate Bridge Replacement Project
With a new administration comes a new secretary of transportation and their own priorities, Gluesenkamp Perez said.
Some have speculated across social media recently that the Trump administration may change aspects of the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project, including the present light rail priority.
“We want a bridge that is reliable and reduces congestion that meets the needs of our community, not an agenda from someone else, but what we need now,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “It’s making sure that we’re investing federal resources prudently and for our benefit and for the long-term view of what’s worth having.”
Recently, Gluesenkamp Perez assisted in securing $30 million in federal funding for a “lid” over Interstate 5 in Vancouver as part of the bridge project. The Vancouver Community Connector Lid Project is a joint project of the Washington state Department of Transportation and the City of Vancouver to construct a lid over Interstate 5 through downtown Vancouver to create public space and add active transportation just south of Evergreen Boulevard, a release by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s office stated. The project, as part of the current outlined Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, also includes extending light rail service from Portland to Vancouver. In current plans laid out in the release from Murray’s office, the connector will be located adjacent to a new light rail station and will feature pathways for active transportation modes, as well as public spaces and amenities that complement the transit station and nearby uses. The facility will reconnect downtown Vancouver, the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and surrounding neighborhoods.
“It’s important that people are able to walk to places and have strong regional economies and that we can get as much usefulness out of our land as possible, and people have to get goods to market and people have to be able to buy those goods, and it’s a great thing when people are able to not have to wait in congestion for a big interstate,” Gluesenkamp Perez said.