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Audio Feature: WGXC Congressional Report 201900826

Sep 02, 2019 12:01 am
This is WGXC's Congressional Report, tracking the votes, words, and actions of Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat from Rhinebeck representing the 19th Congressional District, and Paul Tonko, a Democrat from Amsterdam from the 20th Congressional District. The Fivethirtyeight.com website reports that, so far, the first-term Congressperson Delgado votes with Donald Trump's positions 4.7 percent of the time. Since Democrats took over the House of Representatives Tonko also votes with Trump's positions 2.3 percent of the time. In the previous Congressional session, Tonko voted with Trump 22.6 percent of the time. Congress is currently on its August recess. Click here to download or play an audio version of this report (6:51).

Jim Kevlin is reporting at AllOtsego [dot] com U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado’s bill to help family farmers during downturns in the agriculture economy was signed into law August 23, by President Donald Trump. H.R. 2336, The Family Farmer Relief Act, helps farmers by making it easier for them to reorganize debt through the Chapter 12 bankruptcy rules, created specifically to help family farmers during tough economic times. Delgado introduced the legislation in April; the measure was passed the House on July 26, and the Senate on August 2. “Today is a victory for our small and mid-size farmers who now have the flexibility to reorganize their debt and continue operations in what continues to be a challenging time for agriculture,” the Rhinebeck Democrat said in a statement. The act was endorsed by the American Farm Bureau, National Farmers Union, National Corn Growers Association, National Milk Producers Federation, the National Pork Producers Council, and the American Bankruptcy Institute. Read the full story at AllOtsego [dot] com.

Paul Kirby reports in the Daily Freeman that Rep. Antonio Delgado called it "profoundly troubling" that President Donald Trump did not attend a meeting about climate change and the Amazon rain forest wildfires at the G-7 summit in France. Delgado, on a conference call with reporters Aug. 27, said, “We should be leading when it comes to ... a severe threat to the environment, to humanity for that matter,” not “pulling ourselves out of the conversation.” French President Emmanuel Macron did say that Trump aides were at the meeting. Delgado, at a town hall meeting in Rensselaer County on Aug. 26, again said he was not in favor of impeaching the president, saying, (PLAY BRIEF EXCERPT OF DELGADO'S TOWN HALL MEETING)"Where we are right now is, I think, where we need to be." Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.

According to a report by Quorum, a public affairs software platform, Antonio Delgado is one of the busiest new representatives in Congress this year, both in legislation introduced and bills passed, and also much his staff posts on social media. Delgado was the second "Most Active House Freshmen on Instagram," the "Most Active House Freshmen on Facebook," and the fourth "Most Active House freshmen on Twitter." Delgado was also cited as one of six House freshmen in the 116th Congress that have bills that have passed the Senate, and Delgado also introduced the fifth most bills among U.S. House freshman representatives so far this year.

• Paul Tonko does list any public events this week on his website. Antonio Delgado does not have any public events listed on his website this week.