On Tuesday, Congressman Mike Garcia, R- Santa Clarita, interviewed live on-air with KHTS to discuss some of his successes in 2021, and what he is working on in 2022.
Congressman Garcia spoke with KHTS on saving service members in Afghanistan, the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act, and other topics live on-air with KHTS.
“California is probably one of the tougher states to get requalified in several professions,” Garcia said. “While they’re struggling with that, these military families who’ve sacrificed so much already…now are going to a single income and that’s a huge financial detriment, obviously, to them.”
See Related: Garcia Discusses National Defense, Santa Clarita Valley’s Economy
The Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act makes the move from state to state that military members and their families often experience easier, allowing spouses of military members to retain their professional licenses with each move.
According to the bill, military spouses faced a 22 percent unemployment rate and a 26 percent wage gap compared to their civilian counterparts before COVID-19.
“This is something that I experienced first hand,” Garcia said. “What it does is it allows the spouses of active duty military members to cross-deck their licensing from one state to the next.”
The conversation shifted to evacuating Americans from Afghanistan beginning last year, during which international attention shifted to the effectiveness of the U.S. government in the operation.
“This was a botched withdrawal that, frankly, was avoidable,” Garcia said. “This was a man-made problem and this administration screwed it up and now we have Americans effectively being held hostage in conditions in Afghanistan under the Taliban…that are truly life-threatening.”
Garcia described the actions of his office and associates during the evacuation efforts from Afghanistan, including efforts aided by those in his own office.
“I was just so proud of my team on this one, especially my district director Charles Navarro,” Garcia said. “He himself started leading, effectively, an operations center out of our offices…for directly liaising between Special Operations folks on the ground in Afghanistan, and their family members who were trying to get folks out. With his efforts…we were able to successfully get out about 115 American as well as Afghan partners.”
The conversation with Garcia shifted to the California drought and its connection to recent news of illegal marijuana grows pursued by law enforcement in the Congressman’s district back in June.
“These are bad guys doing bad things to our environment, to our water tables,” Garcia said. “They were literally lowering the water tables out there in the midst of the drought, with how much water they were stealing.”
The Congressman said that the marijuana grows were able to expand due to lack of enforcement, and that he credits policies hindering law enforcement as responsible.
“It went too long, it got too far and we were able to stamp it out, and we’ve got to keep making sure that it doesn’t come back, and you simply have to enforce the law,” Garcia said. “Now we’ve got to figure out how to actually charge these people once we arrest them, and our District Attorney Gascón is the problem we’ve got right now in that regard.”
To watch the full interview with Congressman Garcia, click here.
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