McSally visit
Senate hopeful outlines her priorities at stop here
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Tucson, told the Yuma Sun Tuesday her top priorities are border security, military readiness and keeping the government running as she launched her campaign for Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat.
Her stop in Yuma coincided with the federal government’s first day back after a three-day shutdown caused by a congressional standoff over DACA (Deferred Action for Child Ar- rivals), which is set to expire in March.
“This past week was an unnecessary political game of shutting down our government and putting our military at risk of not being paid,” she said. “You have hundreds of people here at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station that were starting the process of not being furloughed.”
Other effects of the shutdown, which affected just one business day, included delaying the reauthorization of a health insurance program insuring millions of children and the shutdown of all “nonessential” federal services and no employee pay, even for those required to work.
Congressional Democrats were attempting to force a resolution to DACA’s status. If it expires, about 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children would lose protection from deportation, in place since a 2012 executive order from former President Obama.
“(U.S. Rep.) Kyrsten Sinema voted to shut down the government, I hope people realize that,” referring to the expected Democratic nominee for the Senate seat. “We call it the Schumer shutdown, but it’s also the Sinema shutdown. She had to make a choice, was she going to placate her base and placate her donors, or do the right thing for kids on CHIP and for our military, and she chose really poorly.”
McSally introduced a bill just before the shutdown that would require all military and border security employees to be paid throughout any future shutdowns, while members of Congress would not.
Former state Sen. Kelli Ward and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio are also seeking the GOP nomination, as Flake is not running for a second term.
McSally, a retired Air Force pilot, is in the middle of her second congressional term and is one of the four original sponsors of a Republican-supported immigration bill that attempts to address the currently outstanding immigration issues.
“We end chain migration, which is extended family migration. We still allow your spouse and your minor children, that’s a nuclear family,” she said. “(Adult) brothers and sisters and parents are (currently) allowed in without any real determination as to whether they’re going to be contributing fully and meeting what jobs are out there in a way that’s going to help grow our economy.”
The goal is to move toward “merit-based” immigration, admitting applicants based on their potential contribution to the nation, which McSally said is comparable to the policies of other developed nations.
The “Securing America’s Future Act” would also authorize border wall construction, provide a renewable three-year legal status for DACA recipients, reduces legal immigration by 25 percent, makes E-Verify mandatory for all employers, and allow the Justice Department to withhold funds from “sanctuary cities,” among other measures.
While in Yuma, McSally met with local agricultural industry figures at a breakfast and discussed the element of the bill dealing with agricultural worker visas.
“We have mandatory E-Verify at the federal level for the first time, but it gives a period of time so the ag industry will be the last ones who have to implement that, and it’s married up with an agricultural guest worker program,” which improves on the current H-2A visa program, she said.
The “H-2C” program, as proposed last year by Sen. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., would authorize foreign, seasonal farm or forestry workers for up to 18 months, allow holders to change jobs after contract employment ends, and drop the housing and transportation mandates in the H-2A program, according to a House Judiciary Committee analysis.
McSally has faced criticism for what opponents say is her about-face on President Trump, not endorsing him in 2016 when they were both running for office, but supporting his policies during his first year in office.
She said she has never endorsed anyone for any office and voted for the tax reform, business deregulation and increased military spending pushed by the Trump administration.
“I am working with the president. I am not embarrassed or afraid to say I’m working with the president. He is the duly elected president of the United States.” She noted her 97 percent “Trump score” on the FiveThirtyEight website, which is the highest of anyone in Arizona’s congressional delegation.
“You’ll find I am someone who wants to be constructive in order to solve problems and get things done,” she said. “Lots of politicians just like to bloviate and give speeches, or be ideologues. I’m actually trying to solve problems. I’m action-oriented.”
During her day in Yuma McSally also attended a Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation roundtable and was the guest speaker at the local Republican Party’s Trunk ‘N Tusk series.