Cory Gardner on the biggest issues facing Congress

Nearly two weeks after Republican Cory Gardner unseated Democrat Betsy Markey to return the traditionally conservative 4th Congressional District — and the U.S. House of Representatives — to GOP control, he's busy with the details of the transition.

As he works to hire his congressional staff in Colorado and in Washington, D.C., before taking office in January, the congressman-elect took time to answer a few questions:

QUESTION — You were one of four freshmen Republicans selected to be part of the transition committee to help prepare the GOP for resuming the majority role in the House. What does that mean to you?

ANSWER —“It's an honor to represent the freshmen in the Western United States on the transition committee, but more important is the work that the transition committee itself is going to do, and that is to find ways to make Congress more transparent and accountable to the American public,” he said. “We need to focus on making sure that legislation is available for three days prior to a vote on it. We need to make sure that the constitutionality of a bill is determined before it can be introduced or voted on. We've got to make sure that term limits remain in place for committee chairmen, and there are numerous other important ideas that need to be enacted by the transition committee.”

Q —Which House committees do you hope to serve on?

A — “We won't know committee assignments until probably sometime in December. During the orientation week we will be submitting our committee requests and obviously, the Agriculture Committee will be an important committee for me to pursue based on the makeup of the 4th Congressional District,” he said. “The Energy and Commerce (Committee) is another I believe would be important for the people of the district. Now, I say that knowing full well that Energy and Commerce is an ‘A' committee and in the past freshmen have not been allowed to serve on ‘A' committees, so that's maybe a little bit pie in the sky.”

Q — What are the biggest issues facing Congress right now?

A — “It's the economy, it's jobs and it's spending,” he said. “How do we make sure we're putting this country on a path of economic growth and creating jobs while at the same time making sure we're reducing spending and the liability this country is passing on to future generations?”     - More -