Idaho Press | By Royce McCandless
Days after the nation was left stunned by the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Idaho’s U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher made himself available for a telephone town hall to glean what matters most from Idahoans at a time he noted was characterized by historic levels of political divisiveness.
Carrying over the subject of his prior telephone town hall in July, Fulcher responded to several questions pertaining to the Big Beautiful Bill, with multiple callers expressing concerns related to an increasing federal deficit. For this concern, Fulcher said that the key change brought by the bill is the reduction in the rate of growth in spending.
“By reducing the rate of growth of spending, that gives us a chance to pay deficit down with two sources of revenue,” Fulcher said. “One is our economic growth, which is very good right now, and two is revenue streams that come through things like tariff channels.”
Though separate from the bill, Fulcher said President Donald Trump's broad tariff policy is expected to bring in trillions in domestic investment dollars, and ultimately provide employment opportunities today and in the decades to follow, but acknowledged the stress that has been placed on businesses as a result of these import taxes shifting repeatedly throughout the year.
“Tariff policies, I know, have been a controversial issue with various businesses,” Fulcher said, “but overall, one of the things I think that’s been very, very strong has been the resulting foreign investment, and that’s a big objective for this president.”
[...]
Nuclear power and future energy needs
Fulcher agreed that nuclear energy is one of the answers to the current and future energy demands and said Idaho stands as a key player in making that happen, pointing to the Idaho National Laboratory as a key researcher in the area.
Fulcher said further work needs to be done to reduce burdens for permitting and streamline companies to get the resources necessary for enrichment and mineral access.
[...]
Fire suppression and public lands
As for more Idaho-specific topics, one caller asked what action Congress was taking in encouraging the U.S. Forest Service to more actively engage in early fire suppression operations during the dry months, as opposed to fire management that considers a fire fight a “natural process.” The concern, the caller said, is that this approach may have contributed to last year’s Lava Fire in Idaho that burned about 98,000 acres.
Fulcher concurred in the preference for proactive management and noted that Trump’s executive order “Empowering Wildfire Prevention and Response” advanced the aim of modernizing federal wildfire response to lessen bureaucratic hurdles and promote year-round management.
[...]
“Our public lands are a treasure, and they need to stay that way,” Fulcher said. “But also we need to be able to improve the access to it so that we're actually resourcing (proactive efforts), as opposed to just watching it go up in smoke and then spending money to try to suppress it.”
Epstein files
Fulcher acknowledged the bipartisan interest in the release of files pertaining to the sex trafficking investigation of the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein but underscored that he is not a member of the House Oversight Committee or the Senate Judiciary Committee that is directly overseeing the matter.
[...]
One caller asked why the documents had not been released outright, and Fulcher responded he would be in favor of a “flat-out,” unredacted approach as opposed to no document release at all.
His preferred process, however, would be having an investigation undertaken by the Oversight Committee as it could help provide a clearer picture of the circumstances outlined in the documents when presented to the public after subpoenas and supplemental investigations. A more measured release would also allow for certain information — such as the names of individuals who were victimized by Epstein — to be redacted in order to protect their privacy.
“If we can do it and do it in a way where we can protect some of the innocent victims in this,” Fulcher said, “I’d prefer to take that path.”
To read the full story, click here.