WPSU spoke with both candidates running for the U.S. House, 15th Congressional district. In this interview, you'll hear from the incumbent, Republican Glenn "G.T." Thompson, who has served in the House since 2009. The 15th district covers a large part of central and northern Pennsylvania, including Centre, Clearfield, Cameron, Elk, Forest, Warren, McKean and Potter counties. WPSU will also have an interview with Thompson's Democratic opponent, Ray Bilger.
Here is Thompson's conversation with WPSU.
Anne Danahy
Congressman Thompson, thank you so much for coming in to talk with us.
Glenn "GT" Thompson
Anne, thanks for the opportunity.
Anne Danahy
Pennsylvanians are getting hit with higher costs for food, fuel, health care. When it comes to the economy and policies impacting rising prices, do you think President Trump is doing a good job or do you think he needs to change course?
Glenn "GT" Thompson
Well, I think a leading cause — and things are unaffordable right now. There's no doubt about it. A big part of that, I think, was the Strait of Hormuz. I do think that part was missed when they decided, really the first administration in 47 years, to really make sure that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon. And I guess the Strait of Hormuz is international water. So maybe that's why they didn't anticipate that. I think they're working hard to open that up.
A lot of this is driven by energy costs. It's the petroleum that's shipped through those straits. There is an east-west pipeline that Saudi Arabia has. It was damaged by Iran's bombing. And it's now open and they're exporting out of, I believe it's the Red Sea. You know, we put policies in place really to try to address this previously, long before the president decided to take action against Iran and that within the Working Families Tax Cuts bill in terms of providing people more money in their paychecks. And that actually has been very successful. Now, (with) the inflation costs is, it's hard to see. I'm sure glad we did that, though. I mean, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on the first $6,000 of Social Security, making permanent the business expensing, the 20% small business credit. You know, all those things have really helped to put more money in people's pockets.
Anne Danahy
As you know, prices keep going up. So does more or something else need to be done? Or do we have to just kind of wait it out?
Glenn "GT" Thompson
Well, there is action to be taken, and I have led action, actually, with Farm Bill 1.0. As the first Pennsylvanian in 170 years to chair the House Ag Committee, I've had the privilege of passing 3 Farm Bills out of committee, two out of the full House, and one that made it to the president's desk. And one that the Senate, I think, will pass before the end of the calendar year. That Farm Bill has provisions, especially when it comes to affordability of food. We have already reduced the cost of crop insurance for our farmers. We've increased the support for risk management. There are many things that we put into that Farm Bill to help bring down the cost of operation for our farmers, those hardworking families that produce our food, and that will help the consumers in the end.
Anne Danahy
Farmers in particular have been hit with higher prices for diesel and fertilizer this year. The sharp increase is largely driven by the war in Iran. You had voted against a resolution directing the president to remove the troops. So do you support the war in Iran or are you concerned about the economic impacts?
Glenn "GT" Thompson
Iran has been killing Americans for 47 years. My own son, who was wounded in Iraq with an improvised explosive device, all the intelligence showed that IED was manufactured in Iran. So it was time. We knew that the radical leadership of Iran, if they had their hands on a nuclear weapon, they would use it. So I do support that, and I think we've actually have accomplished that. I think that has been wrapped up. Again, the Straits of Hormuz, I think, was kind of missed. They just missed that. And thankfully today it's largely open because of the brave men and women of the U.S. Navy.
Anne Danahy
You've been a critic of Russia and Putin and voted in favor of a recent Russia sanctions bill. Do you support President Trump's plan to buy Russian oil?
Glenn "GT" Thompson
I don't.
Anne Danahy
You don't.
Glenn "GT" Thompson
I don't. Vladimir Putin is evil. What he has done to the people of Ukraine is just so wrong. And I appreciate that President Trump recognizes that diesel prices are a significant issue for our farmers. I think the solution, long-term solution when it comes to diesel prices, is we need to find 60 votes in the Senate to do more permitting to construct more refineries.
Anne Danahy
Data centers are drawing a lot of pushback across the political spectrum. Do you think they should be more regulated at the federal level or how do you think they should be addressed?
Glenn "GT" Thompson
I think there's a real need at the local level, quite honestly. If you're going to let these investors come in, and they've got a significant amount of money, we can't allow them to come in and manhandle our local communities. I'm very protective, obviously, of prime agriculture land. But I think there's a need for data centers and artificial intelligence. I think there are, obviously, most people have a number of devices that are powered by that. And there are a lot of solutions that will come from that. I think because of data centers, which helps to support artificial intelligence, we're going to find a cure for cancer. We're going to find a cure for diabetes, for Alzheimer's. And that's just in health care. It'll impact all other segments of our society.
But it has to be done the right way. And that means bringing everybody to the table — counties, local municipalities. And it needs to be of benefit. So some of the controversial things has been, well, No. 1 about water, in terms of cooling. I think the more we've learned about that, it's a closed-loop system. It's probably not going to use much more water than golf courses do. But the power issue is a significant issue. We have passed legislation, the SPEED Act, the GRID Act, in terms of making our electricity grid more resilient. But at the same time, there's no reason if everybody comes to the table in negotiating on this, that you can negotiate that, quite frankly, the consumers, the residents of an area, their electrical costs would go down.
I also think there's some opportunities, especially in Pennsylvania, to be able to power these things off the grid. I mean, just look at how many Utica and Marcellus natural gas wells that we have that have been drilled and capped, not on a pipeline, you know, kind of orphaned out there. You know, there would be property that would be out of the way, that it wouldn't be an eyesore, it wouldn't be a noise issue, and perhaps they could, well, they could, they could build their own power plant using that natural gas. As Ag chairman, I sort of jest, but not necessarily, that we need to treat them like hog farms. We put them where you can't see them and you can't smell them. In this case, you can't hear them.
Anne Danahy
Congressman Thompson, thank you for coming in to talk with us.
Glenn "GT" Thompson
My pleasure. Thank you so much.
