U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan promised to fight President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian approach” as he spoke Thursday of how drastic budget cuts could affect people in Indiana’s 1st congressional district.
“I, as a member of Congress, will continue to fight for things that unify us,” Mrvan told a largely friendly crowd of about 150 at the Memorial Opera House in downtown Valparaiso at a town hall meeting that had been postponed due to illness.
The “community conversation,” as Mrvan’s office called it, was one of several held throughout the region Thursday.
“The authoritarian approach will be stopped by the courts, and I believe as time goes by, no one wants to be patient,” he said. The House Oversight Committee will hold people accountable, he predicted.
Mrvan spoke at length about what he sees as the ugly side of what Trump refers to as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a reconciliation act passed by the House on partisan lines that now faces the Senate.
Mrvan got loud applause when he told the audience he voted against the bill.
“It’s cruel and it doesn’t pare down the deficit,” he said.
“They are cutting $880 billion out of Medicaid,” Mrvan said. That affects about 227,000 people in his district, about 19,000 children, about 18,000 disabled individuals and 23,000 veterans, he said.
Mrvan had spoken to an East Chicago High School senior, Jake, who asked Mrvan to use him as an example.
Jake, who uses a wheelchair, is being raised by a single mom after his dad died. “There is a perfect storm affecting Jake,” Mrvan said. He’s at risk of losing healthcare access. “He is absolutely positively a candidate to lose his Medicaid waiver through the state of Indiana,” along with his Social Security disability funding.
The objective of the reconciliation bill is tax breaks for the top 1% of the nation’s wealthy and for corporations.
“I am a straightforward legislator. I will tell you exactly what I think,” Mrvan said.
This bill was advocated by people who talked about the deficit and how it’s crushing people and the economy. Even as it kicks 14.9 million people out of Medicaid coverage, however, it adds $5 trillion to the deficit, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“I want to make sure we can have a balanced budget,” Mrvan said, “without being cruel to individuals.”
As details of the bill emerge, Mrvan said, people are learning it gives tax breaks to owners of professional sports teams and people who own tanning beds. It also wouldn’t allow federal courts to hold contempt of court hearings to hold Trump administration officials accountable for defying the courts, and injunctions would be lifted.
Mrvan said he is working to restore the balance of power in Washington, with three coequal branches of government – legislative, judicial and executive – and put checks and balances back in place.
“I’m in the minority, but I’m on bills to stop his authority,” Mrvan said of Trump.
Mrvan fielded many questions from the audience. Among them was his stance on the Trump administration’s actions regarding higher education.
The Department of Government Efficiency cut funding for Indiana University’s research on Alzheimer’s disease research. IU is a leading institution globally for that research.
“There’s a return on investment that leads to about $1 billion. It also creates innovation,” he said. “Pharmaceutical companies from this research are able to create medications that slow the progress of Alzheimer’s, which is going on right here in Indiana.”
“If you’re not investing in that research, if you’re freezing funding for that, if you’re not creating medications that slow down the progress, not only do you have more individuals that have to be taken care of – Medicaid – but you have less individuals in the workforce as other individuals are taking care of them, all because of this uncertainty that’s going on,” he said.
Free speech is also an issue with the funding cuts for higher education, he said. “Punishing institutions, organizations, groups because you don’t think or say the way I think or say is very dangerous ground to be on,” he said.
Cancer research impacts all of us, he said. One of his proposed amendments to the reconciliation bill was to study the impact on people who were no longer on Medicaid but have cancer. Americans appreciate longevity, “and cancer is something that robs lives,” he said.
“We lead the world in research,” he said, and bring top researchers from around the world to do this research. “We want to continue to lead the world and do this research in the United States.”
Mrvan was asked about the hydrogen hub for Northwest Indiana, an environmental issue. “This creates cleaner air, cleaner water for our area. It allows the steel industry to produce more globally competitive clean steel, and it also adds jobs and wealth to our community,” he said.
The GOP reconciliation bill would make tax credits for the companies that work on this project expire at the end of this year.
“We have to keep fighting for that. It’s going before the Senate. We’ll have to see what happens,” Mrvan said.
He spoke of bringing federal funding to local communities, including license plate readers for the Porter County sheriff’s office. “Sewers aren’t sexy, but it adds to capacity. It adds to the quality of life here locally,” he said.
Protecting Northwest Indiana’s economic engines is also important, he said.
“We produce more steel than any other region in the nation,” he noted, so he wants tariffs in place against countries that subsidize steel and illegally dump steel in the United States. China pays energy costs for steel production, which is one form of subsidizing the industry there, he said.
However, he doesn’t favor Trump’s approach to widespread tariffs. “I have a nuanced approach,” Mrvan said.
This week, the International Trade Court gave authority back to Congress over tariffs, he said. “Again, a checks and balances system.”
“We must protect our industries, our vital national security industries,” he said. American-made steel is needed for tanks, planes and other weapons of war.
“You can’t go to a tariff war with our enemies and our allies,” he said.
“As I go back to Congress, I will be a stronger voice” because of hearing these questions and comments, Mrvan said. He urged audience members to continue to reach out to him but also to Sens. Todd Young and Jim Banks.
They need to hear what their constituents are concerned about and how their lives are being affected by what’s going on nationally, Mrvan said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
