In what they called the first ever joint Congressional Assembly town hall, 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman and Assemblymenber Jim Wood addressed a packed house of approximately 450 constituents Friday to discuss a wide range of concerns from the environment to immigration, to recent actions by a Republican-controlled Congress. The pair of legislators vowed to continue to fight for the needs and interests of all Californians through bipartisan action, despite what many see as a challenging political climate.

With regional leaders in attendance at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center, including county Supervisor John McCowen, Ukiah Vice Mayor Kevin Doble, and Willits Mayor Gerry Gonzalez, Huffman (D-San Rafael) started the question and answer session defending his decision not to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“I will not sugar-coat this at all,” he said. “I think history will bear this out, I think we will look back at this man, this presidency as an absolute anomally and a very dark chapter in our country’s history.”

Huffman said he decided instead to focus on a series of positive actions to counter the negativity coming out of the White House. He said he spent three days of action including keynoting a naturalization ceremony for 1,200 new citizens, working at a Habitat for Humanity project, and cleaning debris along the Russian River following recent floodings, all leading up to his participation in women’s rallies around the region.

Answering questions from audience members on the topic of education, Huffman blasted Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education Betsy Devos for having little experience with the public education system, of being involved entirely with private and religious charter schools, and not being aware of federal mandates to provide education for disabled Americans.

“In California, this is a bipartisan issue, we don’t question that,” Wood (D-Healdsburg) said. “Many of my colleagues across the aisle don’t even question the need to provide the best possible education for people regardless of any status that they have. It is one of the things that really makes California unique, it’s one of those issues there really isn’t a lot of disagreement among both sides of the house.”

Shifting to the issue of healthcare, Wood, recently reappointed as chair of the Assembly Health Committee, said it is unclear where the country will stand if the Trump administration makes good on its promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“The impact of repealing the ACA would be absolutely devastating to our health care facilities,” he said, adding the fiscal repercussions on a state level could lead to a $21 billion deficit. “We’re not really sure how they are going to repeal it. The ACA is not a thing, it’s an infrastructure, it’s a system. It is so critical to our community.”

He said although he supports universal healthcare, the most recent bill that looked at creating a universal care plan estimated it would cost between $184 billion and $205 billion to start and approximately $167 billion to keep going. Both legislators concurred that the massive undertaking would need to be supported on a federal level.

“We would have to completely deconstruct our health care system which is employer based for the most part,” he said. “We can’t do it overnight. “

Asked about the recent rash of executive orders signed by the president in the past few days, Huffman said there are a few that are going to have some legal effect, but that primarily they represent a lot of theater and have cosmetic value. “When you talk about building a wall, for example, along the Southern border,” he said, “That’s going to need to be funded by Congress, that’s not something he can just go and find the money and do by fiat, and that’s the case with a bunch of these that he is putting in place.”

Wood criticized the federal government’s plan under Trump to cut off funding to sanctuary cities, especially given the positive way California treats its immigrants.

“To threaten to cut off funding to any of these cities who want to be sanctuaries is really petty,” he said. “It’s picking on the most vulnerable in our community and it’s just plain wrong.”

On the question of the environment, specifically what will happen with the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines in the wake of the president’s actions, Huffman said executive orders aren’t necessarily going to make them happen, at least not right away.

Huffman said under the Obama administration, a determination was made that a full environmental review needed to happen prior to construction of these projects and a deviation from that would open the door for legal action.

“They are going to have to come up with some alternative facts I guess,” he said, “That changes the analysis.”

For close to an hour and a half, the duo gave feedback on topics such as the lack of affordable housing, not just in Mendocino County but throughout the state, climate policies, their support of Social Security, and the need for bipartisan collaboration leading to opportunities for the Democratic party in the 2018 mid-term election.

“History suggests we may have a good opportunity here,” Huffman said. “When the president and both houses of Congress have both been of the same party, there’s very often been a backlash in the midterm, and its not hard to imagine some real objectionable things happening under this presidency that could create a national backlash.”

Willits resident Mike Adams said he thought it was important to attend the town hall and hear what the two legislators had to say in person.

“Democracy is not a spectator sport,” he said. “I am proud to be represented by these two. I didn’t hear anything I didn’t agree with. I guess I thought it was important to participate as to not be disenfranchised at the federal level.”

Raul Gardea, on staff with SEIU 2015, a union representing home care and nursing home caregivers across the state, said a lot of the issues discussed will impact not just the union members but the community at large, since a lot of support services are funded by state and federal dollars. He praised the current climate of political action and awareness in the county.

“I think a fire has been lit under peoples’ butts all across the board.”