Fong, new to Congress, is eager for his next term

Vince Fong has only been in Congress for just over five months, but he's already got two committee assignments he asked for and, without any serious opposition in his bid for re-election, he's all but certain to hold onto his seat in Washington.

Fong, a Republican from Bakersfield, had been serving as a state lawmaker in the California Assembly since 2016. He won a special election in May to take over the remainder of his mentor's term after Rep. Kevin McCarthy resigned from Congress following his ouster as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

California's 20th Congressional District covers large swaths of the southeastern San Joaquin Valley, including parts of four counties — Kern, Tulare, Kings, and Fresno. It contains large portions of the cities of Bakersfield and Fresno.

He was facing off against Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, a fellow Republican, for the full two-year term. But in July, Boudreaux suspended his campaign and endorsed Fong.

Fong's name will appear twice on local ballots, as Fong had previously filed for re-election to the Assembly. The California Secretary of State, a Democrat, said it was too late for Fong to remove his name.

Meeting with the Californian in his office in Bakersfield Thursday, Fong said he was proud to have helped bring money to eastern Kern County.

"We worked with the (U.S.) Navy and we secured funding to bring back labor and delivery for the Ridgecrest hospital," Fong said in reference to an arrangement announced in September to have the Department of Defense provide funding to Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, the closest hospital to nearby Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.

"It was important for the community, but also important for our military personnel," Fong said, adding that he was trying to secure additional resources for families of service members at China Lake and Edwards Air Force Base in eastern Kern.

Fong will almost certainly be returning to Congress in January, but what the House of Representatives will look like remains deeply uncertain. With a presidential election and both parties making a major push to control both houses of Congress, the landscape in Washington is expected to change significantly after November.

Regardless of who controls the government, Fong said his priorities would be border security, inflation and trying to rein in the federal budget.

"We've got to secure the border. That's going to be our priority, not only just for myself, but as a Congress and for the country," Fong said. "We've got to have a lot of conversations about how we move legislation, with hopefully President Trump, to secure the border, end catch and release, finish the wall."

Fong has seats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, both of which he requested, and said he wants to use those seats to bolster Kern's transportation and technology sectors.

"We need to invest in our roads. We've got to invest in our ports. We have to invest in our rail and entire supply chain systems," Fong said.

In the next Congress, the transportation committee will be moving a surface transportation bill that he hopes will direct infrastructure funding to California and the Central Valley.

"And then, of course, space, science and technology," Fong said. "You know, if you talk to a lot of folks, (they) are now concerned about America's role in the world. We have to be dominant in new technological advancements. So, commercial space — we have an amazing legacy here in Kern County in terms of our support for commercial space and hypersonics."

Earlier this year, Fong was able to add an amendment to the NASA reauthorization bill that would add $15 million in funding for hypersonic flight research at Edwards. The House passed that bill in September and now it awaits action by the Senate.

He's introduced a bill that would support scholarship for education in artificial intelligence and direct the government to set up eight "Centers of AI Excellence" throughout the nation to facilitate artificial intelligence education.

"People normally think of the Central Valley as the traditional industries, but we have probably the most innovative industries when you talk about energy development, when you talk about agriculture and precision farming," Fong said. "If you look at aerospace, when it comes to east Kern County, we have a lot of potential and I want to make sure that the Central Valley has (a seat at) the table when it comes to AI development."

At the same time as it makes substantial investments in local infrastructure and technology research, Fong said Congress needs to cut back on spending and "get our fiscal house in order."

"First and foremost, we need to go back to pre-2020 spending levels. I think what we've seen since the pandemic is that we've had an artificial infusion of money into the system, and that's not sustainable," Fong said. "Being able to go to pare back to pre-2020 levels, that has to be done. I would say that we probably need to look even further. I think there's massive efficiencies that need to be done."

Asked what programs should be cut back, Fong cited the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Shelter and Services Program, which provides services to migrants seeking asylum in the United States.

"The most recent one right now that we're looking at is that you have FEMA spending millions of dollars to house illegal migrants," Fong said. "We should zero that program out. Why are we spending money on that?"

According to FEMA, Congress appropriated $650 million to the SSP in fiscal 2024. Fong also said federal money should stop going to California's high speed rail project.

"I think that once we get into January and we have the opportunity with a new administration, which I expect to be President Trump, with a Republican Senate and a Republican House majority, we're going to begin to really, in a serious way, bend the cost curve, get spending back to pre-2020 levels, get our fiscal house in order and begin to tame the inflation that now is gripping our country," Fong said.

Politicians often talk about cutting the budget, but actually doing it can be a difficult task, according to Christian Grose, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California.

"It's always easy to say it's important to cut spending, but when you get into the details and the weeds of what's being cut, some of those programs can be pretty popular," Grose said.

Politicians can also be cagey about naming specific programs to cut before negotiations so as to avoid pinning themselves down, Grose said.

Freshman lawmakers need to start building relationships in Congress and proving themselves to fellow lawmakers. But Grose said how much influence Fong may have in the upcoming House will depend on who controls the chamber.

"I think he's doing the right things for a freshman, trying to deliver projects for the district. He needs to start establishing himself," Grose said. "In terms of being influential, I think it depends on who (controls) Congress. If it's the Republicans he could do well, but if Democrats control the House, he's probably going to be pretty un-influential."

Grose said Fong's district — unlike the neighboring 22nd district, where U.S. Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, is facing a close election against Democrat Rudy Salas — is strongly Republican, and Fong likely has to worry more about being challenged in future elections from his own party than from Democrats.

Fong has strong support from the Republican party, recently appearing alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both Republicans of Louisiana who were in Bakersfield to support Valadao.

He's also earned an endorsement from former President Trump, now 78 years old, and said he has no concerns about Trump's mental capacity to run the country.

"I have no concern, because President Trump is right now barnstorming the country. We see him every single day doing town halls, doing media interviews, meeting voters, going across the country," Fong said. "He's a critical piece in getting our country back on the right track."

The former president has proposed raising tariffs on foreign nations — China in particular, which is a large market for many Central Valley growers. Fong said he supported Trump's proposal to bring manufacturing and other industries back to U.S. soil.

"His perspective on tariffs is to ensure that it's a negotiating tool to bring countries to the table, to increase market access, and it's to find a way to protect American workers and bring manufacturing back to the United States," Fong said. "We have to find a way to incentivize manufacturing to come to the United States and to onshore that manufacturing and harden our supply chain. Tariffs are going to be a negotiating tool for that."

Fong also said he was not concerned that Trump has yet to fully acknowledge his loss in the 2020 election, his request to former Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the elections results or his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to "find" 11,780 votes.

"All of those things had to be adjudicated, but at the end of the day, we're looking forward to what's going to happen in November," Fong said. "People can try to re-litigate 2020, but 2020 isn't going to solve their problems in 2024 because of what they've had to endure over the past 3 1/2 years."