Top priorities for congressmen Huffman, Thompson energy and gun bills

Curbing fossil fuel production and expanding background checks on gun sales are top priorities for North Bay congressmen Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, who were sworn in Thursday as members of a remarkably diverse Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Huffman of San Rafael, elected to his fourth term in November, said his first piece of legislation - to be introduced in a few days - will be a revision of the Keep it in the Ground Act he first drafted in 2016.

It would freeze and phase out all fossil fuel extraction on public land and in federal waters.

Thompson, a 20-year House veteran from St. Helena, said he will introduce next week a measure requiring universal background checks for all firearms purchases, an issue he’s been backing since the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.

Watching Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco take the oath as House speaker, the third-highest office in American politics, was a special moment for him, Thompson said.

“I’ve known her forever,” he said, going back to the 1980s when she was the California Democratic Party chairwoman and before Thompson was elected to the state Senate.

“It’s just incredible to watch her,” he said. “How strategic she is; how smart she is.”

Huffman said he was struck by the diversity of the new Congress, with more women and minorities, people of many faiths and ethnic backgrounds - among Democrats.

The Republican side of the aisle, he said, was largely a “dusty, crusty collection of old white men.”

Huffman’s energy measure hasn’t come to a debate or vote under Republican control of Congress, which ended Thursday.

The bill is so “ambitious and aggressive” that Huffman, who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee, said he isn’t certain of approval by the 235-member Democratic majority.

The measure would halt new leases and terminate nonproductive leases for coal, oil, gas, oil shale and tar sands.

“We have to find a way to do this,” he said Thursday, as the House continued voting into the night. “If we continue to burn these fossil fuels we’re going to overheat the planet and it’s not going to be livable.”

Thompson predicted his firearms background checks bill would gain bipartisan approval within the first 100 days of the new Congress.

Republicans have so far refused to allow a hearing or a vote on any gun safety measure, said Thompson, who chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

A member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Thompson said he expects to be named chairman of the tax policy subcommittee, giving him an opportunity to establish tax incentives for renewable energy.

Thompson, first elected to Congress in 1998, has served only two previous terms under Democratic control with Pelosi as speaker from 2007 to 2011.

“I feel motivated,” he said. “I ran for Congress so I could solve problems and provide opportunities and move the country forward.”

As the minority party, Democrats couldn’t touch issues like climate change, affordable housing and student loan debt: “all the things the Republicans ran away from,” he said.

Huffman, a minority member since his election in 2012, said it has been “a humbling experience and a frustrating one a lot of the time.”

Moving to the majority is “a huge sea change,” he said, giving Democrats a “chance to set the agenda, set the tone and have some control over what one branch of Congress is doing.”

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter?@guykovner.