Congress is in recess, but U.S. Rep Austin Scott was not at his home office. So people from around Scott’s 8th Congressional District put their questions about Scott's support for President Trump's agenda to an empty chair with a blue blazer instead. GPB's Grant Blankenship reports.
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Close to 200 people brought their concerns about President Trump's policies to the Warner Robins office of Republican U.S. Rep. Austin Scott on Monday.
Congress is in recess, but Scott was not at the office.
So people from around Scott’s 8th Congressional District, including Maggie Boxey, a disabled veteran from the South Georgia town of Fitzgerald, put their questions to an empty chair with a blue blazer parked at the back door of the office,
“I would ask the congressman to explain to us, in simple language, why billionaires need a $4.5 trillion tax cut?” Boxey asked. “And how will that benefit my husband and I, who have 34 years of military service between us?"
She continued.
“I have a disabling chronic illness and our health care is in jeopardy. If Medicaid is cut, Medicare is cut, our hospitals in Fitzgerald, Ga. … we're at risk of losing our providers. Why is it okay for billionaires to get such a huge tax cut when normal people like us are at risk of losing our social safety nets?”
Faye Banks-Anderson of Warner Robins asked why Scott wasn’t standing up for civilian employees at Robins Air Force Base about six miles away.
“I used to work at Robins Air Force Base, so I know how my federal employees feel,” Banks-Anderson said. “So I want to know, do you believe in the president's haphazard way of just drastically cutting federal workers fighting fraud, waste and abuse without documentation?
“All this fraud, waste and abuse that they're supposedly cutting? Where is it? Where is it? Where is the proof?”
Marion McMillan of Warner Robins asked about the future for Georgia farms in the expanding international trade war.
“Georgia's pecan farms are still recovering from Trump's prior 2017 tariffs,” she said. “They caused a dramatic drop in Chinese exports. The effect this time on Georgia's biggest agricultural export by Trump's tariffs will be worse. Why have you been silent on this issue?”
Tree nuts like pecans are Georgia's second largest agricultural export behind poultry.
Other people, from places like Moultrie and Valdosta, asked what would happen to poor or rural Georgia school districts without the federal Department of Education.
Those who could not ask their questions out loud by the time the permitted activity was scheduled to end left them in writing to be passed to people in Scott’s office, none of whom came outside to the gathering.
In an email to GPB, Scott said he wishes federal agencies had been consulted before cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency, but that he supports agencies now working with DOGE.
The email also said Scott will meet with constituents during the current recess, but not when or where.
