Beth Farnham, Candidate for U.S. Congress - 13th PA District

What are your positions on economic policies (ex: inflation, taxes, regulations, etc.)?

The keys to stimulating an enduring economic recovery is fighting high prices from greedy corporations and granting tax cuts to the middle class, not the ultra-wealthy.

Despite inflation’s decline since its high in 2022, many corporations have substantially increased their prices for the goods and services they offer. This unethical practice is known as “greedflation” and it impacts most negatively working families and retirees on fixed incomes. Our government must encourage corporations to correct their pricing through legislation like the Price Gouging Prevention Act. I would support this bill https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3803/text that would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to enforce a ban against excessive price increases from major corporations, yet defend small businesses that raise prices in good faith to earn a profit.

While small businesses in Huntingdon, Blair, and Mifflin Counties as well as other parts of Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional district that earn less than $100 million would be protected from litigation for raising prices legitimately, large corporations earning over $100 million that have exploited the pandemic to increase profits would be targeted and thus correct their pricing.

I would also extend tax cuts for the middle class like the Child Tax Credit from the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (Representative John Joyce voted against this act) that allowed filers to claim $3,000 per child and I would extend the 2017 tax cuts for individual Americans making less than $400,000 a year.

 

What is your position on addressing the cost of housing?

Because affordable housing is a complex subject and affects many people in a wide variety of circumstances, it must be addressed in a multi-pronged approach. Therefore, I support Vice President Harris’s proposals to:

-Expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and the tax incentive for home builders who build starter homes to first-time homebuyers.

-Create a $40B fund that would support local innovations in housing supply solutions, innovate methods of construction finance, and catalyze home builders to build affordable homes.

-Streamline permit processes.

-Repurpose existing federal lands for affordable housing development.

-Expand rental assistance to veteran and lowest-income renters.

-Increase housing supply for those Americans experiencing homelessness.

-Enforce federal housing laws.

-Hold corporate landlords accountable.

-Provide up to $25,000 in downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers who have paid their rent on time for two years with more assistance to first generation first-time homebuyers.

Furthermore, I would support legislation such as the “Stop Predatory Investing Act,” which would remove key tax benefits for major investors who acquire large numbers of single-family rental homes and the “Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act,” which would crack down on algorithmic rent-setting software that enables price-fixing among corporate landlords.

By supporting these proposals, Americans in all walks of life who need affordable housing would more likely find assistance that supports their needs as growing families, retirees on fixed incomes, working adults, etc. in areas across the United States of America so that they too could live “The American Dream.”

 

What is your position on healthcare access?

Every American deserves excellent, affordable, and accessible healthcare.

For the newborn to the elderly, for those suffering pre-existing conditions to the newly-diagnosed, for those simply needing annual physicals to those requiring hospital stays, healthcare is a must that advances survival and increases quality of life. In every other developed country, citizens have such universal healthcare, but in America we do not. Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act have attempted to fill gaps of iniquity, but those safety nets are frequently targeted by Republicans who falsely claim to offer alternatives, but offer nothing of substance.

While the Biden administration has done a phenomenal job of signing up new members to the Affordable Care Act, it is not enough. Hard-working Americans whose wages put them above the Federal Poverty Line, but whose employers don’t offer healthcare benefits are still strapped by significant medical expenses whenever they suffer a health crisis or seek preventative routine care. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “medical debt has become a leading cause of personal bankruptcy, with an estimated $88 billion of that debt in collections nationwide.” If Republicans hadn’t hobbled the Affordable Care Act early on, more Americans would have had access to preventable care, staving off crises, and those personal bankruptcies might have been avoided.

Additionally, Americans are unduly burdened by trying to understand what care they can receive and/or afford in a confusing patchwork of healthcare services from urban state-of-the-art hospitals to rural healthcare centers that by turns unpredictably reward or punish those who dare to move across state or even county lines. For example, in PA-13, Juniata County is one of six counties considered a “maternal health desert” which are counties “…where maternity care services—like prenatal doctor visits, screenings for preeclampsia and other pregnancy complications, and hospitals or clinics with birth centers—are limited or nonexistent.” In Franklin County, Wellspan Chambersburg Hospital stopped admitting pediatric patients this month and transferred their pediatric staff elsewhere, while Wellspan Waynesboro Hospital already didn’t admit pediatric patients. In other words, children in Franklin county who need ongoing care must seek it at least an hour away at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey, UPMC Harrisburg, WellSpan York Hospital or the state of Maryland. Our current US Representative, John Joyce, frequently announces his support for Community Healthcare Centers which provide basic services for rural residents, but many PA-13 mothers and children need far more healthcare than a few stitches or flu testing.

Recently, the expansion of Medicaid that provided children and families with healthcare throughout the pandemic ended and over 121k children were dropped in Pennsylvania alone. Sadly, only 53k have enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP by most parents. Who or what is covering then the healthcare costs for the nearly 70k Pennsylvania children left behind? And what about the 2 million children across the other states who haven’t successfully enrolled in CHIP?

Congress must strengthen the Affordable Care Act and reinstate its original parameters so that Americans across the country can access a consistent network of the excellent and affordable care it sought to provide before Republicans sabotaged it.

 

What is your position on immigration policy?

Since the passing of the Immigration Act of 1965, immigrant workers have had fewer paths of entry, including green card status, into the United States. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a pattern of either unlawful entry, or more commonly, unlawful overstay of temporary visa status, for large numbers of immigrants referred to as "undocumented immigrants." However, it is important to note the following:

Undocumented immigrants pay federal taxes.

Undocumented immigrants pay state taxes.

Undocumented immigrants pay local taxes.

Undocumented immigrants pay sales taxes.

To know the above information is to accept boring truths - that people who live among us in the 13th Congressional District and pick our fruit, staff our tourism industry, build our homes, prepare our food, maintain our yards, and whose labor we rely on in so many ways, contribute to our society. And like generations of huddled masses before them, these taxpayers work hard and nurture families, supporting and sustaining America, all while denied a path to legal residency and its benefits.

According to The American Immigration Council, “Undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania paid an estimated $418.1 million in federal taxes and $238.3 million in state and local taxes in 2018. Pennsylvania DACA recipients and DACA-eligible individuals paid an estimated $17.4 million in state and local taxes in 2018.” That older data from the second sentence of the quote about DACA recipients aligns with the 2022 assertion from the Migration Policy Institute that, "DACA holders contribute nearly $42 billion to U.S. gross domestic product each year and add $3.4 billion to the federal balance sheet."

In other words, undocumented immigrants and DACA recipients in Pennsylvania paid hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state taxes in 2018 alone, helping our economy and boosting our Social Security and Medicare programs. Since then, estimates of taxes paid by undocumented immigrants and DACA recipients have only grown larger, but to swallow the dehumanizing and Republican lie of “Illegals don’t pay taxes” is to be ignorant of this truth.

Researchers at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that if undocumented immigrants had been granted legal status, they might have paid $51 million more in Pennsylvania state and local taxes in 2017 alone. Instead of using taxpayer money to find ways to keep undocumented immigrants out of our country, Congress should legislate realistic routes to legal status. This may be accomplished by Congress amending our Immigration Act of 1965 by expanding DACA and Temporary Protection Status work authorization and protection from deportation through programs emulating those of Maryland and Utah, for example. If I am elected, I will work on strengthening ways for undocumented immigrants, those hard workers on whose labor we in Pennsylvania rely for basic services, and DACA recipients, who were brought here as minors, to pursue legal status and add even more to our economy and our Social Security and Medicare programs.

 

What is your position on abortion policy?

We own our bodies.

Because we have agency over our bodies, we make healthcare decisions like: abortion, birth control, disease prevention, nutrition, exercise, and gender-affirming surgery, with trusted medical professionals.

No one has the right to stand between us and these fundamental decisions that do not negatively impact public health, nor does anyone have the right to such private medical information, much less weaponize it against us like Republican attorneys general have decided to do in 19 states.

Agency of our bodies is paramount because, as demonstrated in Texas through Kate Cox's heartbreaking story, when legislators, who have no medical expertise, force draconian abortion laws that prioritize an unviable fetus over the life of a mother threatened by miscarriage, she must leave the State to survive.

Congress MUST enshrine reproductive freedom into law to protect these basic rights for all Americans.

 

What is your position on gun ownership policy?

Gun violence is the number one killer of American children.

Gun violence is the number one killer of Pennsylvania children.

Not cancer.

Not car accidents.

Unique to the United States of America, gun violence is the number one killer of children because laws to:

safely store firearms (Ethan's Law)

report lost or stolen firearms,

require universal background checks,

restrict ownership of firearms to those individuals at an elevated risk of harming themselves or others,

don't exist at the federal level.

Yet these types of legislation are absolutely aligned with responsible gun ownership.

Since the National Rifle Association (NRA) has raised millions of dollars to lobby legislators who would vote against such common sense regulations, thousands of children die brutal, blood spattered deaths every year.

As a member of Congress, I will help craft such sensible legislation as listed above in order to prevent the senseless killing of US children, and other Americans, by firearms.

 

What is your position on environmental policy? (ex: addressing climate change, clean water, clean air, etc.)

One of the most critical national issues confronting PA agriculture is Climate Change. Just this summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a “natural disaster” for Bedford and Somerset counties because they were so drought-stricken. Farmers from these and other counties in Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District who qualified were approved for short term loans and other relief. As warmer temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, more frequent and intense storms, extended heat waves and longer droughts occur in South Central Pennsylvania, crops risk increased decimation and decreased grain and forage quality negatively impact the ability of rangeland and pasture to support grazing livestock. If farmers cannot overcome these disastrous times, they risk closing their farms, putting the basic sustenance and nutrition of most Americans at risk. A country that cannot feed its people is vulnerable to foreign influence and control.

Until Climate Change is under some kind of stasis, it is imperative that farmers in Pennsylvania’s 13th Congressional District and around the country be able to draw upon relief for crop insurance premiums when faced with this higher frequency of disasters.

In order to abate Climate Change, Americans must pursue a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, integrating clean energy solutions, promoting the adoption of electric vehicles, curbing fossil fuel emissions on public lands and ensuring a fair and equitable transition to a clean energy future.

To those ends, I support bills like The Inflation Reduction Act from 2022 which my opponent, Representative John Joyce, voted against.

 

What is your position on the Israel-Hamas war?

While our ally, the Nation of Israel, was attacked by the violent terrorist group Hamas, Israel's response has been egregious, slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians in retaliation.

It is clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu is leveraging the response to last year's attack as a way to remain in power.

This must not continue.

I support an immediate cease-fire, barring no further complications from surrounding hostility and an immediate removal of Netanyahu from power.

 

What is your position on LGBTQ rights? (ex: marriage, adoption, gender-affirming care, sports participation, etc.)

I thoroughly support LGBTQ rights including marriage, adoption, gender-affirming care, sports participation, bathroom usage, etc.

As an activist, I worked hard to remove the religiously-based, unvetted, and purity-culture derived sexuality instruction delivered by a crisis pregnancy center from two local school districts. In arguing against their curriculum of falsehoods, I also pointed out that the crisis pregnancy center employee only cited the American College of Pediatricians, a hate-group against gay adoption, as a supporter of her type of program. It is this very miseducation that continues erroneous and dangerous tropes of heteronormative culture in our communities. I promote comprehensive and LGBTQ-inclusive sexuality instruction.

As a former school board member, I was endorsed by Educate US that seeks national standards of sexuality instruction which is LGBTQ-inclusive, of evidence-based science, and comprehensive.

 

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

 I believe Congress should pass the Farm Bill. Since many Americans rely on nutrition assistance, the devastation to producers, processors, and consumers would be incalculable should it not pass. The 2023 extension that averted major disruptions from pandemic-related pricing and political unrest since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill is simply not enough to avoid a reversion to Depression Era policy. Increasing the baseline for farm bill program spending, implementing risk management tools, ensuring adequate USDA staffing capacity and technical assistance, and funding for both federal crop insurance and commodity programs keeps Americans fed and our nation less vulnerable to foreign influences.

Additionally, I would support Section 120007 to H.R.8467 which prohibits states and local governments from imposing their standards of production on livestock produced outside of their borders as it is in keeping with the Commerce Clause of our U.S. Constitution.