John Brian Driscoll for United States Representative - District 2
Democrat
By Denise Rivette
Montana Independent News posed the same four questions to all candidates in the United States Representative race in District 2. Democrat John Driscoll’s views are presented in their entirety below.
What are the Montana values that will guide your decision-making?
I’ve filed for this office, because I love this country and what it’s done for my families over six generations. I care for present and future generations of Montanas whether they agree with me or not. So my primary Montana value is Love.
What skills, knowledge and experience do you possess that make you the better candidate?
I have substantially broader, greater and deeper military and public policy preparation and experience than any of the other candidates.
What are your top priorities to address during your term if you are elected?
Four issues of equal importance face Montana’s House District 2:
The Roe vs Wade standards for abortion need to be established as a national statute, because in this constitutionally based country no one should be imposing personal religious standards on others.The massive budget-busting appropriation for the Malmstrom Air Force Base nuclear missile modernization project should be denied because that Sentinel missile is intended to attract and absorb incoming warheads that will kill, by blast, radiation and fallout, most persons living in the congressional district.
All new base load electricity generating plants, totaling not more than 20% of our distributed renewable energy resources, must be small modular reactors instead of coal or natural gas fired. Climate change is a threat that’s been credible since the National Academies of Sciences raised the alarm to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) years ago, when I served as a member of EPRI’s Advisory Council.
We need to make housing in which equity can be accrued available to Montanans living on Montana’s local economies. I think the best way to do this is by encouraging multifamily Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives in which each member gains equity in a membership associated with a proprietary lease of one dwelling owned by that cooperative. The cooperative long-term leases the land for the multifamily structure from a local, state or federal entity for 99 years renewable at favorable lease rates in return for limiting the gain in members’ equity to no more than the increase in local median income. Our government entities enjoy blocks of housing affordable to subsequent generations of workers essential to local economies.
What legislative language would you propose or support to address those priorities?
I’ll vote to make the standards of Roe v Wade federal law.
I’ve asked that Secretary of Defense Austin exercise his responsibilities under the Nunn-NcNary Act and divert funds meant for the critically over-budget Sentinel Program to other military budget requirements. In Congress I’ll work as part of the most effective bipartisan effort for new Nuclear Weapons Limitation Agreements.
I’m monitoring modeling and deployment of new high level electricity transmission nationally and have advised voters in Montana’s eastern congressional district that I will be supporting proper siting in Montana of a high level nuclear waste repository, similar to the world’s first and only at Onkalo, Finland.