LOCH SHELDRAKE — In his 28th Town Hall, Congressman Antonio Delgado (NY-19) fielded questions on a wide variety of topics, ranging from health care deductibles to climate change, and from veterans benefits to the foreign ownership of utilities.

Held at the SUNY Sullivan Kaplan Student Union on Saturday, Delgado began the event by enlightening the 40-plus audience members about the 26 bills he has introduced. More than half of those bills, Delgado said, are bipartisan, addressing topics that assist veterans with disability benefits, fund veterans' cemeteries, lower out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, broadband mapping, and financial aid support for working and non-traditional students.

Before the Q & A session, Delgado briefly mentioned the impeachment investigation, but said it's also important to discuss what's going on alongside of it. To assist with those other topics, he has four locally based advisory committees including health care, small business and agriculture and veterans.

Michael Newman of Parksville questioned the Congressman about how we can get bills passed in the Senate, since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blocked hundreds of bills passed by the House. “Are all these bills just going to die at the end of the Congress next year?” asked Newman.

In response, Delgado expressed his frustration with the bureaucracy and replied, “I could camp outside Mitch McConnell's office every day,” but then continued that if he did that, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on other things like the Family Farm Relief Act, a bill that was introduced by Delgado back in April, and signed into law this August.

When one constituent brought up the subject of broadband access, Delgado said, “One issue that stretches across the whole district - all 8,000 square miles - is rural broadband access. This speaks to the issue of population density … they don't want to put the dollars up because they're not sure they're going to get a return on their investment.”

The Congressman said that one solution would be to require companies who look for federal funds to expand their broadband service to the most remote parts of the state. “Here are subsidies, [now] go into these areas.”

Delgado also brought up internet access speeds and said he's working on bills to change the way broadband companies do business.

In conjunction with HR1, which passed the House in March of 2019, and which expands voter registration and voting access, makes Election Day a federal holiday, and limits removing voters from voter rolls, Delgado has introduced the Clear Act. This bill would make it clear, says the Congressman, where money in politics is coming from whether it's an individual, a lobbyist or a corporation.

“That's the kind of oversight and accountability we need to maintain the integrity of our system. Because part of the problem is that we don't have enough people who feel that their allegiance is to the people they serve. Instead their allegiance is to the folks who put money in their pockets and the only way to change that is to shed sunlight on how things happen.”

Town of Fallsburg Supervisor and Chair of the Sullivan County Democratic Committee Steven Vegliante said it's extremely important to attend these town halls.

“We have a Congressman that actually listens to us and comes to our community,” Vegliante said. “We haven't had that since Congressman Gibson and Hinchey. I'm glad that we're seeing a lot of this Congressman. He's working every day for us, so it's important that we come out and support him.”

For his part, Congressman Delgado said he enjoys the town halls. “They give me a chance to talk to folks here. That's why I do it, to learn what I can do from the ground and take some good ideas back to Washington.”