By Eric Welch | Bonner County Daily Bee
SANDPOINT — During a hiatus from his work in Washington, U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher visited Sandpoint on Wednesday and offered an update on happenings in the nation’s capital.
Chief among the sentiments Fulcher voiced in an April 23 interview with the Daily Bee was enthusiastic support for President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and the ongoing effort to audit federal programs.
“There is a very significant bureaucratic intervention going on,” said the Republican, who has represented Idaho’s 1st congressional district since 2019. “I can’t underscore it enough — it desperately needs to happen.”
“The bureaucracies in D.C. have become so huge, and in my opinion, so unaccountable,” he added. “Now, they're having to answer for things.”
Fulcher listed limiting U.S. spending and developing a federal budget that doesn’t expand the national debt as his current top priorities, and spoke in support of initiatives to eliminate subsidies for electric vehicles and green energy.
“The market is going to dictate — and I think rightfully so — what energy sources we develop as a nation,” Fulcher said. “A lot of us feel like that's what needs to happen.”
FILM Act and federal land management
Fulcher currently sits on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce as well as the Committee on Natural Resources. In the Wednesday interview, Fulcher said he hopes to transfer some authority for federal land management from federal agencies to states and local entities.
“Nobody by themself has the resources to manage the mass amounts of public land in Idaho — nobody,” Fulcher added. “Collectively, we have to leverage everybody's help if we're going to do a decent job of land management.”
[...]
Fulcher also voiced concern about potential changes to the Secure Rural Schools program and Payments in Lieu of Taxes, which are designed to help local governments offset losses in property taxes due to the existence of nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries.
“This issue is a massive one,” he added. “There needs to be a much more communication with state, local and federal entities and the private sector.”
[..]
Shortly after the current Congress convened in January, Fulcher’s Federal Interior Land Media Act bill was signed into law as part of a larger package stipulating policies related to recreation on public land.
Fulcher said he was inspired to introduce the bill — which provides exceptions from permitting and fee requirements for photography or video recording on federal land — after public television broadcasters and other entities expressed discontent with the existing rules.
“I just think, overall, that access and transparency are really important,” Fulcher said.
[...]
Getting in touch
In the interview, Fulcher said he welcomes feedback from Panhandle residents, and that he often considers input brought forth by constituents when developing and evaluating policies.
As an example, Fulcher pointed to H.R. 405: the Keep Every Extra Penny Act. The bill, which aims to eliminate federal income tax on overtime pay, was introduced in the House by Fulcher in January; the congressman said the initiative was originally inspired by a comment he heard during a town hall at former Sandpoint business Kokanee Coffee several years ago.
“We have no monopoly on wisdom,” Fulcher said. "We want not just the questions, but also the counsel.”
Read the full story here.