Thumbnail photo and videos by Heather Polen “This is not a normal time,” Del Norte County’s representative in Congress told his constituents on Sunday. On the fourth day of a federal government shutdown, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman began a town hall meeting in Crescent City by addressing who he felt was responsible for 10 months of chaos. Yet it wasn’t only President Donald Trump’s tariffs, executive orders and military deployment to Los Angeles, Portland and other American cities Huffman was referring to. “We’ve never seen so many of these executive orders from any president in history, and my colleagues in this Congress are comfortable with that,” he said. “They’re pretty comfortable with just yielding their Article 1 independent branch of government authority over to the president.” Ultimately, Huffman said, his job is to try to keep the lights on in his district. He addressed Last Chance Grade as well as the Community Funded projects he’s supported over the years, including the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office and Crescent City’s Front Street Reconstruction Project. He also introduced constituents to his field representative John Driscoll, saying that despite the government shutdown, his Eureka office is still open. “If any of you are affected by the loss of services or things that are shut down or furloughs or anything else, we are here to try to help you as best we can,” Huffman said. “They’re not going to call Congress back to session next week and I’m disappointed. I want to get back to the table. The reason I’m holding out is because we are on the verge of losing healthcare for a lot of people in this country and in my district.” According to Huffman, one of the primary things he and his fellow Democrats are fighting for is the enhanced premium tax credits, a refundable credit that helps families pay for their health insurance premiums. About 37,000 families in Congressional District 2 will see their premiums double and, in some cases, triple, Huffman said. Huffman said he’s also fighting against cuts to Medicaid as well as other actions that will negatively impact rural healthcare clinics and hospitals. A local attorney named Holly brought up a myriad of issues to Huffman, including the opening up of public and tribal lands for timber and mining, how the government shutdown is affecting essential workers as well as U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement. “I would love to do a FOIA request and find out the number of ICE agents hired by month in 2025 and by region and I would like to know their training schedule,” she said. While he didn’t have the answer to her question, Huffman said Congress gave ICE a budget that surpasses the entire defense budget for most European countries. He called the actions of some ICE agents disturbing and unAmerican. Huffman also called recent advertisements for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security chilling. “It’s like they’re trying to find people that want to hurt people,” he said. “They’re trying to build up this culture and then we give them this enormous budget. When you do that, it’s kind of hard to unwind that.” Huffman urged his constituents to engage in peaceful protest and, if there is an ICE presence in their communities, to reach out to his office. Moving away from ICE into more local concerns, Del Norte Unified School District Michael Greer criticized the congressman on the time it’s taken to reroute U.S. 101 around Last Chance Grade south of Crescent City. “Foreign countries could come in and take care of Last Chance Grade and have it done in five years,” Greer said. “We’re looking at (2035). To me, good intentions are not what counts, what counts are good results and I don’t see that.” Greer also brought up the quillback rockfish and the closure of the groundfish fishery in 2023 and parts of 2024 due to their status as being overfished. In response, Huffman said if a private entity or foreign country could fix Last Chance Grade, “bring it to me. I’m genuinely curious.” As for the quillback, Huffman said that he had been just as frustrated as Greer at the insufficient data that led to the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine that it was overfished. In November 2023, Huffman urged the NMFS to partner with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to seek better data. At a Nov. 21, 2023 Board of Supervisors meeting, Driscoll, speaking for Huffman, said that most locals know how abundant the quillback are, though they’re not a desirable species in terms of catching them. On Sunday, Huffman said that he led the fight for better data that shows there are more quillback than fisheries regulators thought. According to him, that situation is a cautionary tale on what happens when you defund and under-appreciate science, research and monitoring. “When you do not have well-managed, well-regulated fisheries supported by science and surveys and stock assessments, when you don’t do that, you’re going to overfish them and crash them,” he said. “History played that out with the cod in New England. I don’t want that on the North Coast. I’m not thrilled by how long it got to get the quillback thing solved, but I’m happy we finally have a stock assessment.” Huffman also took a comment from a constituent who raised concerns about the local agricultural industry particularly family farms. “There are a lot of female farmers like myself that are really struggling to hang onto generational farms and I don’t know you, but you have a reputation for being anti-agricultural,” she said. “I would like to work with you in helping family farms stay in business. Huffman said that while he’s found himself on the opposite sides of farm bureaus supporting large industrial agriculture based in the Central Valley, he values local food systems and works with the farmers and ranchers in my district. He also addressed the speaker’s other concern, which had to do with Proposition 50 — California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to redistricting efforts in the State of Texas. The speaker said she was worried that the proposition drowns out local voices. Huffman said it’s difficult to make Congressional districts, which house about 750,000 residents each, all rural. While he's closer to the urban side of his district in Marin County, Huffman said he strives to show up and listen to his constituents at the northern end. “I love it up here,” he said. “I love the communities. I love the natural resources economy and I love the challenges of the tribes and everything else that makes this district so unique and special.” Before he signed off, Huffman urged his constituents to reach out to Driscoll and the other field representatives from his office.