Congressman Bill Huizenga is is looking to keep his seat as Michigan's Fourth Congressional District Representative. I sat down with Bill to hear his stances on issues ahead of the August Primary. This interview was conducted on July 12th and has been edited for clarity. This interview was conducted before President Biden dropped out of the race.
YOU BROUGHT US TO HOLLAND. BEAUTIFUL PARK CENTENNIAL PARK. WHAT DOES THIS PLACE MEAN TO YOU? I KNOW YOU HAVE A WIDE DISTRICT. BUT TALK ABOUT HOLLAND AND WHY WE'RE HERE.
Yeah. Well, I grew up in Zealand, ended up going to Holland Christian High School. And this, this is a special place all of West Michigan. Frankly. The entrepreneurial-ism, the vision the future looking but rooted in tradition. And and I think that that is see a lot of that right here in Holland and Centennial parks. Just a beautiful spot. And as I'm watching families walk through, tourists come through tulip time, It's a little nutty, everybody avoids this place when, when that's going on. But I think this is quintessential about what makes West Michigan special.
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW YOU HAVE BROUGHT THAT TRADITION TO DC. I MEAN, YOU'VE HELD THIS SEAT FOR A WHILE NOW. YOU'VE BEEN REELECTED A NUMBER OF TIMES, BUT HOW HAVE YOU BROUGHT YOUR ROOTS TO DC.
Yeah, you know, I think the the specialness, like I was saying of this place is it's it's entrepreneurial. And it is outward looking, but not insulated, but yet it doesn't walk away from its its roots and who it is, you know, in its soul. And I tried to do that, you know, and whether it's whether it's thinking innovatively in my committee work, thinking innovatively with issues back here in the district. I think we need to just face the realities of where the world is going with AI and crypto and things that you know, things like that. So you can't just cut yourself off and be isolated that way. But what do you root that in? Right? And, and for me, I think between my my faith and my background, and being a small business person, and those kinds of things, that it's given me this really amazing opportunity to have one foot firmly planted in the public policy world, another foot firmly planted in the business world and understanding how those two things, mesh and integrate. And I think that's what a lot of West Michigan is about if you look at it. And as I talk to entrepreneurs, and and business folks, you have small, medium, large businesses, here's what they usually say, just don't get in my way. Right? Don't, don't hurt what I'm trying to do we'll be good. We can take care of this. But way too often, government is working against them and not for them. And and I think that's that's a voice that I bring to Washington DC.
SO YOU HAVE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL BACKGROUND, YOU ARE A BUSINESSMAN. TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HOW YOU HAVE HELPED SMALL BUSINESSES, ESPECIALLY HERE IN WEST MICHIGAN. AND YEAH, SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST WINS THAT YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'VE ACCOMPLISHED IN YOUR TIME IN OFFICE.
Well, certainly, you know, how I split this up, is you've got these big overarching issues, that it doesn't matter what state you're from, what your district is comprises of rural, urban, suburban, you know, these are things that are going to affect all of the country. And some of that is defense, for example. But I would also put in our debt and our debt situation and our spending in that category. And I've been working on a bipartisan basis, to try to tackle that we've got a group called the BFF, the bipartisan fiscal forum, that that I helped start and then and now chair it, and it's searching for bipartisan solutions to try to figure out okay, what do we do with 36 or nearly $36 trillion in debt? And what is that going to do to our choices and the other areas because we know, interest on the debt is outstripping the Defense Department budget this year for the first time ever. It's going to quickly outpace all of our domestic spending. And the problem is is we are now having to make decisions that pull programs back out of whether it's defense or domestic spending to then pay for that interest, or we have to borrow more to pay the interest on what we've already borrowed, which makes no sense at all. So, you know, some of these big overarching issues, you have to tack on. I've been very involved in those. The second category is, what's your committee work? What what are you asked to do on behalf of your colleagues, and this is sort of the Schoolhouse Rock as part of of this right, you know, you, you can't deal with every issue at a micro level, when and that, which is why they divide this up into the various committees, I happen to be on a very powerful committee called the Financial Services Committee. And people say, Oh, well, what does that have to do with our lives? Well, if you have a mortgage or a car payment, or credit card insurance, you know, you're affected by this. Certainly, if you're a small business owner and are looking for, for small business loan, you're affected by this. So I've gone in and advocated for what I believe is reasonable regulation, we have to protect consumers. But we also have to make sure that what has made our economic system, the envy of the world, that we keep that uniqueness, because what vast amounts of dollars flow into the United States from around the world. And there's a reason because we are the preemanent place to invest. And I want to maintain that. And I think this, this administration, frankly, has put a lot of that under assault, they've tried to make us more like Europe. Well, and meanwhile, Europe, European investors are trying to move their money over to the US. And so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. So we're, you know, we're gonna keep trying to advocate for those types of things. And whether it's sanctions work, that that I've been heavily involved in, whether it's the Securities and Exchange Commission, those are all things that have had a lot of attention. The third category, and frankly, this is, this is equally, if not more important than any of those others, is what are those local issues. For us here along on the west side of the state, Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes system has been a huge part of what I've worked on, I've been the co chair of the Great Lakes Task Force for a number of Congresses now, working with PFAS, I was on PFAS work group. But whether it's PFAS, or invasive species, making sure that we've got clean air clean water, and those things, by the way, can coincide with a successful economy. Some people want to do just the ecological part. Some people only want to do the economic part. And it's like, no, we can protect both the economy and the ecology of the Great Lakes. And frankly, not many of my colleagues from around the country really understand what the Great Lakes means, and and how important it is. Whether it's the shipping that comes along and helps helps manufacturers, you know, we've got a lot of the heavy manufacturing material that gets moved around the Great Lakes, agricultural products that get moved along on the Great Lakes. You know, this is this is a unique area, not many places, can be both a tourist destination, a manufacturing center, and an agricultural producing district. So yeah, I do a lot of focus with with that, and trying to make sure that those regulations are reasonable and affordable for our farmers and our manufacturers.
WHERE ELSE DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'VE REACHED ACROSS THE AISLE AND BEEN ABLE TO MEET, YOU KNOW, AND [FIND] COMMON GROUND WITH YOUR DEMOCRATIC COLLEAGUES?
That's fair. And I would say first and foremost point to that Great Lakes Taskforce. It's been phenomenal. It's Debbie Dingell and myself from Michigan. Marcy Kaptur, Democrat from Ohio and David Joyce from Ohio. Were the were the four co chairs. And I think that has been, frankly, a model of how it should be done. That's, that's gone into the PFAS and some of the more specific things as well. You know, the BFF. This bipartisan fiscal Forum has been, I think, a significant voice showing that people can come together and work on those bigger macro issues here in Michigan. We work pretty well together on agricultural issues and labor issues. That that has been a sticking point for not just for manufacturers here in Michigan and agricultural needs that we have. It's also been for the service industry. And so earlier this year, we let a joint letter on some proposed fees that the Biden administration had, we had literally had everyone in the delegation except for Shri Thanedar. I don't know why he didn't sign on. But he literally was the only one who did not sign this bipartisan letter, asking the Biden administration to reconsider some of their fee hikes that they were imposing because it was going to it was going to negatively impact our labor force here in Michigan, and so put us at a disadvantage. Certainly, autos. You know, now we have some pretty big disagreements about EV, and the emphasis and the mandates that are coming down from the federal government. But we all are, have a very particular eye towards the automotive industry. You can't help that. Because you know, this area where we're at now, we don't have cars roll off the finish line, or off the assembly line. But all those components that are in the cars that roll off the assembly line all come from here, and that that's a that's an extremely important thing. So all of us in the Michigan delegation, no matter which of the districts, and whether you've got a particular plant in it or not, I mean, Jack Bergman has got mining up in the up that goes into the the products that go into those cars in Detroit, we've got those suppliers, whether it's, you know, Gentex and a Donley here with mirrors and interiors. And, you know, it's it's all integrated, and very, very important. So I think you see much more bipartisan work on those kinds of things than probably frankly, most people would assume. And what I think gets out into sort of the general public,
LOOKING FORWARD, WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE SOME OF THE BIGGEST NEEDS IN THE BIGGEST ISSUES THAT IF YOU WERE REELECTED, YOU WOULD BE NEEDING TO TACKLE?
first of all, redistricting completely changed the focus of all of our districts in many ways. So that's, that's, that's definitely a big, big shift. Now, the interesting thing is, the people are different. But a lot of the issues are the same. You know, I still deal with a tremendous number of specialty crop agricultural issues, I've had to learn a lot more about grapes down in Berrien County, and VanBuren Counties and those kinds of areas. But we still have blueberries, we still have asparagus, we still have apples and cherries and those kinds of things. So, you know, it feels like in manufacturing principles are the same. I've had to learn more about things like with companies like Stryker, and that kind of thing, you know, more precise manufacturing versus automotive manufacturing. So again, I think the the broad themes are very similar. It's still a mix of, of urban, rural and suburbanized counties, and we've got, we've got a real mix that not ever again, not everybody, not everybody has. So for me, I think it's been more of a how do we get to know the people and and people do think a little differently in Kalamazoo versus Ludington. Right? They do think a little differently in Battle Creek, then in Grand Rapids, or in Grandville. So you know, having to sort of adjust and make sure that we're talking to people not that I'm giving up any of my principles or my beliefs at all. But if you are having a conversation with someone who may disagree with you, you can do that and be productive and be respectful. So it doesn't mean it has to be blow torches at going at each other all the time, which I think we see a lot of certainly on on talk radio and cable television and all that. But you know, that's not where I think we're most people are they they want to know what you stand for why you stand for it. And whether you're open to their opinion, speaking.
TALK TO ME ABOUT THE STATE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, BECAUSE THERE'S ALSO SOME ISSUES GOING ON. AND THERE'S SOME WIDE RANGE OF IDEAS, IDEOLOGIES AND FEELINGS ON WHERE THINGS SHOULD GO. JUST TALK ABOUT THAT.
Quite honestly, I didn't think that that anyone could make the Michigan Republican Party over the last two years look more dysfunctional until the Democrats showed up with Joe Biden and what's been going on post the,t he debate and here's what I mean by that. We unfortunately had a bad leader of the state party, she she's not a bad person, she just was not a focused leader with the party. And she allowed a lot of that division to sort of build up. And I think we're in much better footing right now with my my former boss and predecessor predecessor, Peter Hoekstra, at the helm. But, you know, the focus has got to be how do we come together, and there's been so much focus on the circular firing squad mentality that, you know, I, we've got 100 issues, and I agree with you on 98 of them. But you know, I'm mad about those two. So now I'm going to, you know, oppose you or try to take you out or try to take your people out. And that doesn't make sense, we have to sometimes remind people within my own party, that we're wearing the same color jersey, at the end of the day, our political opponents are who we ought to be fighting. But not everybody is willing to go along with that. And they, they they've got that right to do that. I think it's incumbent on all of us, but especially those who don't win and who lose in the primaries, to come together and make sure that we're going to have a successful November, I think it's too critical for the for the country. And frankly, you look at where Michigan standing is, obviously the Presidential layout. And by the way, I love the fact that the Biden administration and Biden campaign is talking about the blue wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. That was the same blue wall by the way that Hillary Clinton choked over and fell short on in 2016. So bring it on love to have that debate. But the other thing is, is we have got a very competitive Senate race, right, the Senate hangs in the balance. We've got two open seats here in Michigan because of that Senate seat, and a retirement. And so we're Michigan and then a very contested one right here in West Michigan, where we're seeing our my democratic colleague flip flopping on whether she supports Biden or not, and it's now called for him to get out of the race. It's like, well, let's pick one, by the way, I you know, I'm glad we can finally agree on something Joe Biden shouldn't be president. But you know, there's there's a lot of there's a lot at stake here. And if Michigan is, is going to maintain its preeminence in manufacturing and in agriculture and those kinds of things, we've got to have a strong, I think, a strong showing here in in November. And now that's that's going to take everybody coming together, both sides, both both sides of the aisle are going to have some challenges, working through that. But I think whoever can do that best, rally their supporters, the best probably ends up winning Michigan.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP IN TERMS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS UNITED THE PARTY OR CREATED MORE DIVISIVENESS?
I think in 2016, there was far more divisiveness. I think people watching what his four years of being President looked like and what happened with the economy and how he was really frankly reestablishing ourselves on the on the international front. Nobody thought nobody thought he was going to be able to renegotiate NAFTA. What happened? He renegotiated NAFTA. I mean, so there was some real amazing policy wins out, you know, the tax cuts and Jobs Act that went in place. So I think for a lot of Republicans now that that I talked to who may have been hesitant in 2016, or even in 2020, they now have the counterfactual, which is Joe Biden's last four years and, and they're looking around going, you know, what, I'm gonna put up with a mean tweet here or there, I'm willing to put up with the scrutiny. Because we see the long term benefit. The other thing that I hear from from people, and I'm talking about union households, I'm talking people who are maybe non traditional Republicans, they're looking around and they really do feel like some curtains have been peeled back, you know, the Russia hoax for the first impeachment, and what that meant, what the FBI has been doing, what the IRS was doing, and they kind of looked around and, and said, I never imagined that this would be happening in our country and with our with our political process, but it did. And so they're I think they're much more open to Donald Trump now, and and frankly, we have, we have evidence, we have four years of Trump and four years of Biden, and interestingly enough for the first time maybe ever, we are going to be electing a president. If Joe Biden remains as the candidate, which I think he probably does. We've got a situation where we could have a second term lame duck president going into the White House that's highly unusual in and of itself.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE WITH HIS CONVICTIONS AND WHATNOT OBVIOUSLY RIGHT NOW PEOPLE ARE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ARE WONDERING IF BIDEN SHOULD HE BE STILL RUNNING? DID YOU FEEL LIKE TRUMP WAS THE BEST REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE TO RUN THIS YEAR?
I think he was, quite honestly, he deserved that opportunity to go back and, and try to win. As far as the convictions. I think the Wall Street Journal put it best, they called it a turducken. You know, you had you had to take a violation and put it inside another law to then try to cut find this path towards a conviction. And most people just look at that and go, Yeah, I'm not buying it. You know, this is this, this would not be a crime that anyone else other than Donald Trump would have been brought up under, in my opinion.
SPEAK TO HIM [REPUBLICAN OPPONENT, BRENDAN MUIR] AND WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT HIM AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON YOUR OPPONENT
Actually I know very little about him. I've met him a couple of times, he's new to the area. Not that that's a bad thing. But here's what happened when he and others took over, not just the state party, but the the local county party, they literally had a hit list of anybody that was tied to or associated and affiliated with me. They dismissed them out of the party, the Executive Committee, including my own brother, and which was kind of interesting. They then came back a couple of months later asking me to buy tables at their event. It's like, well, that's not how this works, actually, you know, I've had my allies involved in the local party, to make sure that my dollars and my resources and my time and energy as well as everybody else's is focused on beating Democrats. And I think it's, it's to call it unusual, as generous to have a county organization, much less a county chair, go after a sitting, elected official Republican official, that that's not typically what should be done. It's not what should be done. I think it's divisive in and of itself, and frankly, Ottawa County, is is half represented by me, and half represented by Hillary Scholten. And I find it interesting that the county party organization is deciding that they want to focus on me rather than on our Democrat opponent who represents the other half of the county. That's just short sighted.
HE DID SAY ONE OF THE THINGS HE TOLD US IS HE SAYS, YOU KNOW, COMPARATIVE TO YOU, AND THIS WAS HIS WORDS. YOU KNOW, HE'S WILLING TO SAY NO,
Well, he's got to get a couple of facts, right? It was, FISA was at least in the material that I've seen, is what he was referring to not the Patriot Act, reauthorization. But I have plenty of opportunities where I've said no, plenty, if you look at my record, you can you can use any of the various groups outside groups that measure that it's me and Tim Walberg as the number one number two most conservative members in the in the Michigan delegation. My district, this district is an R plus five, which means that it is other than John James district, the one that he represents over in Southeast Michigan. It's it's the most tight politically of any of the districts of the Republican districts, yet, I'm the most conservative member of the delegation. And it's because, again, I I know what I believe, why I believe it. I believe I articulate that and have the conversation with people who still even disagree with me, and that's okay. But I think some people are looking for someone who's going to scream on the on the street corner, I've literally been told that you know, you just got to get more angry, you can just gotta get louder. And I've tried to point out to them, it's like I My experience has been that if you're trying to change somebody's mind, you're better to take the journey with them and law walk alongside of them, and then show them and demonstrate a better path rather than just screaming at them because that guess what, that that doesn't work.
ABORTION IS TAKING A STRONGHOLD ON THIS ELECTION. WHAT ARE YOUR OFFICIAL STANCES? A LOT OF PEOPLE WANT THE DETAILS AND THEY WANT TO KNOW, OKAY, IF I'M VOTING FOR YOU, WHERE WOULD YOU STAND?
I don't know how much tape you have left. I mean, look, it's a very complicated issue. I'm plain and simple. I'm pro life. I've been endorsed by Michigan right to life, the Susan B. Anthony organization, other pro life organizations, because it's something that my wife and I, it's in our hearts, we, we had a challenge, getting pregnant. We are now blessed with five children. But we had a challenge, like a lot of families. And we explored everything, including IVF, and adoption and other opportunities that that so many of us have to have to look at. And we were blessed by having our own kids. But you know, I had a college roommate who was adopted, I've got cousins who adopted children. And to me, as I look at the opportunities that are out there in so many families that are looking for those, for those for those families and homes to come together with these children that need opportunity, and in a loving home, why aren't we pushing that out? Now, having said all that, Michigan has settled with Prop 3, sort of where Michigan is, I disagreed with it. I was vocal about it. But Prop 3 is now in the state constitution. It's interesting to me that Democrats are trying to continue to revive this issue. And again and again and again, because it's worked. It's worked in past elections, it worked in 2022, I would argue for sure. And, you know, they had their win here in Michigan, but they're still sort of grasping at the issue, I think trying to score more political points, rather than policy points.
A QUICK PITCH TO PEOPLE THAT AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU STAND FOR, AND WHY THEY SHOULD COME OUT TO THE POLLS AND SHOW UP NOT ONLY FOR THE PRIMARY, BUT ALSO VOTE FOR YOU.
It's certainly fair to say with redistricting, we picked up a lot of new area to two new media markets, Kalamazoo Battle Creek, and South Bend, Indiana. I actually had a friend of mine, she's a pastor down in in Indiana, and she called me up one day and she goes, Why am I hearing a radio ad for you in Indiana? Well, that's because so much of that Southwest Michigan corner corner of Michigan, is really tied in so we know that there's people who are still getting to know me, and we've been working very, very hard to to get out there and let people know who I am. So, you know, I'm a small business owner, third generation of a sand and gravel operation. I own it with my cousin. I've owned it for about 25 years, at this point and family is in readymix concrete and construction, still do a little real estate developing as well. Just finished up a 24 unit condominium project as a family a couple of years ago, and that's that's helping cashflow college for kids, my kids. But, you know, having again, that foot firmly planted in the business world where I have to look at my own, my own p&l Every month, and figure out where are we going? Where's the economy going? How do we make sure that this is healthy for everybody? That that I think gives me an advantage as I'm going in then in dealing with the policy side of things. And I had this when I was in the state legislature as well. I did serve six years as a state representative for the southern Ottawa County area, chaired the Commerce Committee, I spent six years on the energy and technology committee there. The time in Washington has been primarily on the Financial Services Committee, but I also serve on the foreign affairs committee. And it's interesting when my kids were much younger, where we struggled, you know, like, if you asked him, Well, what is your dad do? It's like, well, he talks on the phone and goes to something called meetings, whatever that would be, right. And so my wife came up with this descriptor. She said, You know, it's daddy's job to learn everything he can about everything. And and it really is kind of true, right? You have to know how power plants work, how asparagus grows, what's happening with nuclear proliferation in the Korean Peninsula, what's happening in the European bond market, what's happening in Africa? You know, all of those things, China, Taiwan, right, you know, and again, those are some of those things that remember, regardless of what state or district you're from, you have to have a working knowledge of all of those issues. And I think my time as a congressional staffer, my time in the state legislature, and now my time in in the US House has really prepared me for that for a very challenging time. I mean, the world is a dangerous changing place. And you know, you and I talked about AI a little bit earlier, what does that look like not just in business, but in defense? What does that look like for us in our daily daily lives? Do you look at an even growing aggressive China? You look at you look at what Iran has been up to what Hamas and the Middle East and what's been going on there you look at Russia. We've we're in a dangerous neighborhood right now. And I would argue that we have have weakened ourselves on the world stage with the Biden administration. And, and I truly, honestly believe that with Donald Trump back in the White House, we're going to see maybe not respect so much as fear. A want fear and respect to happen from your, from your adversaries. And and we need that balance. And I think he does provide that balance.
FULL INTERVIEW:
