President Donald Trump’s tax returns. Fracking and the environment. Health care. Those were some of the topics U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, touched on during a meeting Wednesday with the Observer-Dispatch’s Editorial Board.

President Donald Trump’s tax returns. Fracking and the environment. Health care.

Those were some of the topics U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, touched on during a meeting Wednesday with the Observer-Dispatch’s Editorial Board. The O-D reached out to readers for questions for the freshman representative. Somewhere between 100 and 200 questions were received from 50 readers.

Here’s a look at some of what was discussed:

Trump's tax returns

Trump has long faced questions about secrecy and transparency given his refusal to release his federal tax returns, a decision that broke decades of tradition for presidents and presidential candidates, according to the Associated Press. Thousands of protesters recently marched across the country demanding anew that Trump release his tax returns. But the protests did little to change Trump's thinking. White House press secretary Sean Spicer maintained that Trump was unable to make the information public because he is under audit, despite the fact that tax experts say an audit would not prevent him from releasing his taxes.

“It’s not required,” Tenney said. “It’s not something I have a big interest in. I mean, what is it going to tell me? He’s got a lot of money or he had bankruptcies when he was in Atlantic City over his casinos?”

Tenney said she doesn't think any conflicts of interest or foreign investments would be revealed if the tax returns were released. She also said the media is getting worked up over the issue and in turn getting the public worked up.

“I just don’t see why it’s that important of an issue,” she said. “He claims he’s in an audit. I just think that we're sitting here talking about this while the world is crumbling around us and it just seems to me like a side issue.”

Health care

Tenney was one of at least five Republican representatives supporting an amendment added to the American Health Care Act last month. The amendment, which only targets New York, would relieve New York counties, outside New York City, by 2020 from having to help fund the state’s Medicaid program. If the state continues to bill the counties, it would lose an equivalent amount of federal funding.

But the health care bill put forward by Republicans was pulled from the House floor last month. The Republican measure now in legislative limbo would have largely repealed former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, including its tax penalties on people who didn't purchase coverage and expansion of Medicaid, which provides coverage for the poor.

“As you know, I’ve been saying for years that the best thing is to let Obamacare explode and then go make a deal with the Democrats and have one unified deal,” Trump told the Washington Post in March. “And they will come to us, we won’t have to come to them.”

Tenney, who said she constantly is meeting with New York's congressional delegation, said she didn't know what the future would hold for health care reform.

"The president sort of just stuck it out," she said. "He walked away from it and said, 'I'm going to cut my losses and move on to another issue.' So we don’t know where it would go."

Environment

Tenney said she supports fracking, which is a method to extract gas or oil from underground shale rock.

"I think we can do it in a safe and responsible way as the technology advances," Tenney said. "I've been to every seminar on it — I've gone to Cornell’s, Duke’s, a number of them — (and) listened to all sides. Initially it was the water, we're going to lose all this water. And then Cornell came out with a study that said … when you burn the natural gas the water comes back into the atmosphere."

A search of Cornell University's website for the phrase "hydrofracking AND study" brought up roughly 100 results — some critical of fracking and others citing benefits — so it was not immediately clear to which study Tenney was referring.

Supporters of fracking contend it could have created jobs in the western part of the state that sits atop the Marcellus Shale, which runs underground from New York to Tennessee. A 2014 Towson University study found fracking could create 3,600 jobs over 10 years in economically distressed Garrett and Allegany counties in far western Maryland.

But fracking opponents cited economic concerns in banning the drilling practice, noting costs in cleaning up potential spills and setbacks to tourism.

"With the technology we have now, solar alone with hydropower is not going to make up for our fossil fuel usage or nuclear," Tenney said. "So I think we have to weigh these interests at some point in a reasonable way."

Trump in Florida

Trump's travel to his private club in Florida has cost more than an estimated $21.6 million in his first 80 days as president, according to a CNN report from April 11. That puts the president on pace in his first year of office to surpass former President Barack Obama's spending on travel for his entire eight years.

"Obama, by contrast, spent just under $97 million on travel in his eight years as president, according to documents reviewed by Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog," according to a CNN report . "These trips included personal trips — including ski trips to Aspen and the Obama's annual family vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts — and work trips, like a visit to Everglades National Park on Earth Day in 2015." Tenney said that whether you agree with Trump or not, the president is into relationship building and "that's what he's trying to do." "You know we live in a society where it's all about relationships and communication," Tenney said, "and that’s what Trump’s strength is and he’s meeting people in Florida versus the White House." Online privacy vote

Tenney was one of 265 members of Congress to vote in favor of removing a regulation that would keep internet service providers from selling search history without consumer knowledge.

"That was probably one of the best votes that I've taken in the House," Tenney said. "We protected the internet and we protected the ability of these companies to have privacy. It was a completely misnamed, distorted bill."

The repealed rules, according to the Associated Press, would have required companies to get customers' permission before offering marketers a wealth of information about them, including health and financial details, geographic location and lists of websites visited and apps used. Republicans and industry officials complained that the restrictions would have unfairly burdened internet providers, as advertising rivals such as Google and Facebook don't have to abide by them.

The rules had been scheduled to take effect later this year. Congress used an obscure 20-year-old law to scrap this and numerous other regulations that Republicans consider costly, burdensome or excessive. Trump signed the privacy repeal into law early this month.

Tenney said earlier this month that the bill didn't improve privacy and that it took privacy protections away that the Federal Trade Commission already had and "that's something the FTC has done since the beginning of the internet."

"So, this really was just an over-intrusion," Tenney said at that time, "and what it is is a head toward government control of the internet and of content.”

According to a list compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, all 265 of those voting in favor of removing the regulation took donations from the telecom industry. Tenney received $8,500 from the telecom industry in the last election cycle, according to the list.

“I did not know that there were telecom companies giving me money until it was brought to my attention,” Tenney said earlier this month. “I looked at the rule and thought about the freedom and the rights and what the actual policy is, and made a decision based on that. So I don’t even know which telecom companies gave me money. ... I looked at the policy.”

Tenney said Wednesday that the public would see no change.

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