By ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — U.S. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, 21st District, spoke with North Country This Week just prior to President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address Tuesday.

The Congresswoman, who represents St. Lawrence County, discussed several issues the president would later bring up in his address, including paid family leave, Medicaid, healthcare costs, gun rights, the impeachment, climate and women’s issues.Elise Stefanik

She was joined at the State of the Union address by David Fisher, New York State Farm Bureau President, and 7th generation Madrid dairy farmer.

Both talked about agricultural issues facing the region, some of which Trump would address later in the State of the Union.

Read more about Fisher’s and Stefanik’s take on those issues here.

Paid family leave

In anticipation of the President’s address, Stefanik told North Country This Week she expected Trump to speak about her “pro-family, pro-business” paid leave plan. The President and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, have both voiced support of Stefanik’s initiative.

“I anticipate the president is going to highlight my paid leave bill, which is not a tax increase. It actually is voluntary and allows an individual to take an advance of the child tax credit when they have a child or adopt a child," Stefanik said by phone from Washington, D.C. “It wouldn’t hurt what the state (New York) already offers, It would also, again, be voluntary and not include a tax increase.”

The Congresswoman also discussed several other issues which directly impact St. Lawrence County residents.

Medicaid changes

St. Lawrence County has more than 12,000 Medicaid recipients. President Trump announced a new proposal recently to convert the existing Medicaid system into a block grant program, giving states greater control. Opposition to the proposal cites potential drops in enrollment or poor insurance benefits. North Country This Week asked Stefanik if she supported the proposal.

“I think we have a lot of issues related to Medicaid in New York State. New York State has woefully mismanaged their Medicaid dollars. As we see the budget shortfall of billions of dollars, they’re having to face very tough challenges in New York State,” Stefanik said. “New York State pays more per Medicaid recipient than any other state in the nation.”

Stefanik said she doesn’t trust the state to be a good arbiter of those federal dollars. Stefanik said the state has pushed off its Medicaid expense onto the backs of county governments to help make up the shortfall.

“We live in the only state in the country where the state makes the decisions about Medicaid coverage, but the majority of the funds are through the counties. It's a huge part of every county budget,” she said.

Stefanik put the blame at the feet of supporters of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, including her opponent in the upcoming 21st district race, Democrat Tedra Cobb. Stefanik said Cobb, as a former St. Lawrence County legislator, had voted for tax increases multiple times. “It’s the reason why the county legislature flipped from Democrat to Republican, one of the reasons why,” Stefanik said.

Stefanik said while she isn’t prioritizing President Trump’s proposal to change Medicaid to a block grant system, she would definitely support reforming Medicaid in New York State “to make sure the dollars actually go to the people who need them, rather than how they have been mismanaged by the state.”

Rising healthcare costs

“We absolutely need to tackle the cost of healthcare,” Stefanik said. “(And) we just had a number of appeals of healthcare taxes that were originally part of the Affordable Care Act.”

The Congresswoman said the “medical device tax, health insurance tax and the Cadillac tax” were all appealed.

But Stefanik said rising prescription drug costs needs to be addressed.

“One way we can do that is to make sure we can get generics faster,” said Stefanik. “Right now pharmaceutical companies can pay generics to stay out of the market. I’m on bipartisan legislation where that would be illegal and they would automatically have to have generics on the market within a decade.”

Stefanik also advocates for price transparency for medical procedures between insurance companies, providers and patients.

She said combating the opioid epidemic and supporting community health centers by making sure they are well-funded are also top healthcare access priorities for her in the coming year.

2nd amendment, guns, and sanctuaries

With the recent large turnout at the St. Lawrence County Legislature meeting calling for the county to declare itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary, gun rights and gun control  are issues on the minds of many readers.

The newspaper asked the Congresswoman about her position on gun control.

“I support the voters of the county. They should make their decision as to what the rules are in St. Lawrence County,” Stefanik said. The Congresswoman said she has very solid record and an A rating from the NRA on gun rights issues. “I believe the (state) SAFE Act is unconstitutional, and I’ve been a very strong voice on gun bans.”

The Congresswoman said her stance was in “stark contrast” to Cobb’s, who was caught on a video during her run against Stefanik for the 21st seat in 2018 telling a group of teens that she was privately in favor of an “assault” weapons ban, but couldn’t take the position publicly.

“She’s out of touch with the vast majority of the district,” Stefanik said.

She said she does not support an “assault” weapons ban, but did say she did support strengthening the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s NICS background check system which allows multiple agencies to share background information on individuals. She also supported funding for school resource officers.

“I have a record on delivering those results, but I am strong believer in our Constitutional liberties, and I’m a proud supporter of our 2nd amendment rights,” she said.

Trump support

The Republican Congresswoman garnered flack from some of the Democratic and Liberal enclaves of the county over her support of the President during the House impeachment proceedings, as well as serving as Trump’s surrogate in Iowa at the caucuses Monday night. North Country This Week asked Stefanik to explain to those to the left of the aisle how her support of the president helps the region.

Stefanik said that Trump overwhelmingly won St. Lawrence County in the last election and anticipates he will win the county again. She said when she talks to local voters they are concerned with issues that affect their daily lives, like “that their taxes are too high, they feel that the government is over-regulating their daily lives, they want respect for the Constitution, they want good paying jobs for their kids and their grandkids, they want to make sure we get debt under control, and they want accountability and transparency in their government.”

Stefanik said there is a statistical shift of fewer voters registering as Democrat in the county. “People are seeing that the far left wing of the Democrats coming out of New York City is not representative of Upstate New York,” she said. “So I’m going to continue working for everybody, whether they are Republican or Democrat, Independent or unaffiliated. And, I think, if you look at my (2018) election results, that’s a testament to be able to deliver that.”

Stefanik said in terms of impeachment that she would continue to support the President.

“I stood up for the Constitution and the facts, and there was bipartisan opposition,” Stefanik said.

She called Cobb “the number one impeachment candidate in the country” with supporters and financial backers from the left-leaning Hollywood and entertainment industries.

“And while (Cobb) is very excited about her support from Hollywood, I don’t represent Hollywood, I represent St. Lawrence County and the rest of the district, and I’m going to work hard to be their voice in Congress.”

Notably, after Stefanik’s well-televised involvement in the House impeachment proceedings, Cobb received a campaign donation from Mark Hamill who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga.

“You know what, I’m a big Star Wars fan too,” Stefanik said. But Stefanik said she is excited that she has support in her district. “She can have the Hollywood Tinsel Town.”

Climate, environment, acid rain

Stefanik is not in favor of some of the Trump administration’s cutting of environmental regulations and funding, particularly as it pertains to acid rain in the Adirondacks.

“No, in fact on the acid rain federal funding, I am the only member who delivered funding for the acid rain monitoring program at Ray Brook,” Stefanik said. “I did it in the appropriations package, and it was after visiting the acid rain monitoring site that I know the impact acid rain had. It was devastating the Adirondack Park and the broader Upstate New York ecosystem.”

“I have been an independent voice. When the president proposed drastic cuts in the EPA budget, I didn’t support that budget,” said Stefanik. “I said those cuts would be detrimental to our district.”

Stefanik said that she also supports other environmental issues, like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

Women’s issues

North Country This Week asked Stefanik to address the importance of women’s issues like abortion and funding for Planned Parenthood in the coming election for the 21st Congressional District, a race which will again feature two female candidates.

“As the only woman on this call, I believe that all issues are women’s issues,” Stefanik said. “And what I’ve found as I talk to women in this district is that they care about jobs, they care about education, they care about national security, they care about the environment, they care about all of these issues,” Stefanik said.

“When it comes to . . . healthcare, I believe that women make the majority of decisions when it comes to healthcare decisions for their families and are often the ones balancing the budget, so lowering the cost of healthcare is incredibly important. Lowering the cost of prescription drug costs is incredibly important,” said the Congresswoman.

Stefanik said she is pro-life, with exceptions for cases of conception by rape, or if the life of the mother is at risk. “I don’t think taxpayer dollars should go to fund abortion,” said Stefanik. The Congresswoman added that she is “absolutely” opposed New York State’s Reproductive Health Act, signed into law by Gov. Cuomo in 2019. The law allows late term abortions, after 24 weeks in certain cases if the fetus is not viable or if the woman’s doctor determines their life to be at risk from the pregnancy. Opponents of the law argue that, with pregnancies lasting 38-42 weeks, the law could theoretically allow a full term abortion.

“It is a tremendous overreach, and there is overwhelming opposition even from people who maybe consider themselves pro-choice. They think it's a bridge too far,’” Stefanik said.

Media matters and ‘fake news’

With a lot of talk about “fake news” at the national political level, North Country This Week asked Stefanik for her perspective on the roll of local media in supporting democracy, and also the closing of more than 2,000 newspapers in the last decade.

“In my district some of the local media outlets are thriving and some are struggling,” she said. “As I look at the local media outlets that are thriving, the focus is on community issues, they focus on hard hitting news and less on editorializing. They focus on locality.”

“They really focus on telling the stories of how policies or how discussions impact local people.”

Stefanik said she feels that there is responsibility on local media outlets to emphasize fact checking as well. “And what I mean by fact checking is not the partisan approach to fact checking you sometimes see on social media, but just putting out the facts and reporting the news. We hope that’s what happens, and North Country Now has done that.”