Cantwell: Invest in Americans and they will return the favor

PULLMAN — U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., wants constituents on the eastern side of the state to know how important their voices are in this election.

The U.S. senator paid a visit to Pullman on Thursday afternoon, stopping by Pups & Cups Cafe to meet with constituents and members of the Whitman County Democrats.

Cantwell was appointed in 2001 and is pursuing a fifth term in the Nov. 5 general election. She will face Republican Raul Garcia for the four-year term.

In the past few years, Cantwell has pushed for major investments to help grow the economy, and she said it’s working.

“We’ve unleashed a record amount of investment in the United State of America,” she said. “You invest in Americans and they’ll do the rest.”

A recent contribution was to improve the state’s rail system. She said the Washington State Department of Transportation received more than $37 million to construct and rehabilitate the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad, infrastructure crucial to transporting produce and supporting the agriculture economy.

She mentioned work on the Inflation Reduction Act that capped insulin, out-of-pocket and annual expenses for seniors. The legislation helped negotiate rates for populations most affected by medical costs.

Cantwell has also pushed for the Farm Bill, a package of legislation that supports agriculture research, crop insurance and open markets.

For example, the CHIPS and Science Act continues important research Washington State University does for wheat, as well as the Market Assistance Program that promotes products being sold in foreign markets.

She said her role in removing tariffs on apples and lentils helped reopen the legume market in India to stimulate crop sales.

“We want to make the investment that’s going to help us increase opportunities,” she said. “I keep saying, this is a huge opportunity for us to grow the middle class.”

In an interview, Cantwell brought up rising costs, particularly in the housing market. Her solution is to build more affordable housing.

“We’re finding that if you build more units, it drives down the cost of annual rent,” she said. “We need to build more supply to address the demand.”

She noted work on getting an increase in affordable housing tax credit passed in the U.S. Senate, which would build about 7,000 units across Washington over the next two years and a bigger bill that would create 64,000 units in the course of a decade.

Cantwell also touched on an issue unique to Whitman County — the Harvest Hills Wind Project that aims to build 45 turbines on private land west of Kamiak Butte and south of Washington State Route 272.

She supports renewable and wind energy, because the region needs more power. Cantwell believes control over the project should be kept local and follow county processes rather than being regulated by the state.

“There has to be a local discussion,” she said. “You have to keep the project local.”

Cantwell encourages Washington constituents to vote and use their voice in the coming election.

“This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime,” she said. “It’s really important that people get out and vote and express that very important duty that we have, all of us in our country.”

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.