U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (right) fields a question from Mike Hill of Holland-based Total Control Health Plans during Monday’s “Breakfast With Bill” event hosted by the West Coast Chamber of Commerce. Huizenga announced Monday he will run for an eighth term in the U.S. House.
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Rep. Bill Huizenga is seeking to retain his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Republican congressman and Zeeland native announced his plans to run for an eighth two-year term in Congress Monday morning at the conclusion of his “Breakfast With Bill” event hosted by the West Coast Chamber of Commerce at the Haworth Hotel in downtown Holland.
Huizenga, who currently resides in Holland Township, has served in Congress since January 2011. He previously served six years in the state House and also served as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra.
Speaking to about 300 business leaders at the Chamber breakfast, Huizenga shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics, including the economy, health care, energy, foreign affairs and the role of artificial intelligence in our nation’s future. Those attending the breakfast could rank the topics they wanted Huizenga to address, with inflation, taxes and debt being the most popular selection, followed by an outlook for next year and global issues.
Huizenga co-chairs the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum, a group of lawmakers who are seeking to address the national debt crisis by establishing a fiscal commission that would consist of lawmakers from both parties and from both the House and Senate. He and fellow co-chair Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., introduced legislation earlier this year to create that commission.
“I think we need to be honest and open about where we’re sitting with our debt as a nation,” Huizenga said. “We’re at $38 trillion in debt right now, and interest on the debt now exceeds all of our defense spending, it exceeds all of our domestic spending. That is not healthy, folks, and we’ve got to have the courage to be able to do something about that, and to have an honest conversation about that.”
That debt could have implications for Social Security if it is not addressed soon, Huizenga said.
“There is a cut to those programs coming … because once this (Social Security) trust fund runs out of money, there is going to be a reduction in those benefits. If we do nothing within eight years, there’s going to be nearly a 25 percent cut to Social Security payments,” he said.
“Think about that – you’re going from $2,000 a month to 1,500 bucks a month. How is that morally okay?”
Another hotly-debated issue is whether Congress should extend COVID-era tax credits to help make purchasing health insurance under the Affordable Care Act more affordable. A dispute along party lines over extending the credits has been blamed for the recent 43-day government shutdown, a claim Huizenga rejects.
“Health care has to be addressed, writ large. There will need to be some sort of transition, in my opinion, because frankly, people were not prepared for this temporary additional subsidy to be expiring,” Huizenga said. “That does nothing, by the way, that touches the original subsidies that were a part of the ACA. Those will stay in place.”
Huizenga also addressed the situation at Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell plant in Port Sheldon Township, which has remained open under an order from the Trump administration. He questioned the necessity of Consumers moving up the decommissioning of the plant to this year, saying the state does not have enough baseload energy to accommodate the closure, even with greater emphasis at the state level toward renewable energy sources.
“We’re never going to get back to where we had been with coal-fired production,” Huizenga said. “But I think this has to be viewed as ‘what is the bridge’ … We’ve got a responsibility here to make sure that people are able to turn their lights on and have you be able to expand your businesses.”
Huizenga also spoke about the recent efforts to bring the Palisades nuclear plant near South Haven back online after it had been decommissioned in 2022. The plant was just declared operational a month ago.
“Here we had a site that doesn’t need permitting, because it’s already there. It’s a site that doesn’t need infrastructure, because everything from security to the transmission is already there, and we have this equation where we need to have, specifically in Michigan as a peninsula state, we’ve got limited ways that electricity can come into our state,” Huizenga said.
Huizenga had been mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by current Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. However, he announced earlier this summer he would not for the Senate.
The Fourth Congressional District that Huizenga represents includes the southern half of Ottawa County, all of Allegan and Van Buren counties, as well as the cities of Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Battle Creek.
Huizenga defeated Democratic candidate Jessica Swartz, an attorney from Kalamazoo, in the 2024 election, capturing 55 percent of the vote. Swartz is one of four Democrats seeking to oust Huizenga from his seat. The other candidates are state Sen. Sean McCann of Kalamazoo,
information technology professional Richard Aaron of Coloma, and former congressional staffer Diop Harris of Battle Creek.
McCann’s office released a statement Monday afternoon blasting the congressman for “serving special interests while leaving Southwest Michigan behind.”
“At every opportunity, Huizenga has been a rubberstamp for his party bosses as he attacks our health care, supports Trump’s disastrous tariffs, raises Michigan families’ costs, and looks out for himself and his rich friends at our expense,” McCann said.
Zeeland Record
Rep. Bill Huizenga is seeking to retain his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Republican congressman and Zeeland native announced his plans to run for an eighth two-year term in Congress Monday morning at the conclusion of his “Breakfast With Bill” event hosted by the West Coast Chamber of Commerce at the Haworth Hotel in downtown Holland.
Huizenga, who currently resides in Holland Township, has served in Congress since January 2011. He previously served six years in the state House and also served as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra.
Speaking to about 300 business leaders at the Chamber breakfast, Huizenga shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics, including the economy, health care, energy, foreign affairs and the role of artificial intelligence in our nation’s future. Those attending the breakfast could rank the topics they wanted Huizenga to address, with inflation, taxes and debt being the most popular selection, followed by an outlook for next year and global issues.
Huizenga co-chairs the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum, a group of lawmakers who are seeking to address the national debt crisis by establishing a fiscal commission that would consist of lawmakers from both parties and from both the House and Senate. He and fellow co-chair Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., introduced legislation earlier this year to create that commission.
“I think we need to be honest and open about where we’re sitting with our debt as a nation,” Huizenga said. “We’re at $38 trillion in debt right now, and interest on the debt now exceeds all of our defense spending, it exceeds all of our domestic spending. That is not healthy, folks, and we’ve got to have the courage to be able to do something about that, and to have an honest conversation about that.”
That debt could have implications for Social Security if it is not addressed soon, Huizenga said.
“There is a cut to those programs coming … because once this (Social Security) trust fund runs out of money, there is going to be a reduction in those benefits. If we do nothing within eight years, there’s going to be nearly a 25 percent cut to Social Security payments,” he said.
“Think about that – you’re going from $2,000 a month to 1,500 bucks a month. How is that morally okay?”
Another hotly-debated issue is whether Congress should extend COVID-era tax credits to help make purchasing health insurance under the Affordable Care Act more affordable. A dispute along party lines over extending the credits has been blamed for the recent 43-day government shutdown, a claim Huizenga rejects.
“Health care has to be addressed, writ large. There will need to be some sort of transition, in my opinion, because frankly, people were not prepared for this temporary additional subsidy to be expiring,” Huizenga said. “That does nothing, by the way, that touches the original subsidies that were a part of the ACA. Those will stay in place.”
Huizenga also addressed the situation at Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell plant in Port Sheldon Township, which has remained open under an order from the Trump administration. He questioned the necessity of Consumers moving up the decommissioning of the plant to this year, saying the state does not have enough baseload energy to accommodate the closure, even with greater emphasis at the state level toward renewable energy sources.
“We’re never going to get back to where we had been with coal-fired production,” Huizenga said. “But I think this has to be viewed as ‘what is the bridge’ … We’ve got a responsibility here to make sure that people are able to turn their lights on and have you be able to expand your businesses.”
Huizenga also spoke about the recent efforts to bring the Palisades nuclear plant near South Haven back online after it had been decommissioned in 2022. The plant was just declared operational a month ago.
“Here we had a site that doesn’t need permitting, because it’s already there. It’s a site that doesn’t need infrastructure, because everything from security to the transmission is already there, and we have this equation where we need to have, specifically in Michigan as a peninsula state, we’ve got limited ways that electricity can come into our state,” Huizenga said.
Huizenga had been mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by current Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. However, he announced earlier this summer he would not for the Senate.
The Fourth Congressional District that Huizenga represents includes the southern half of Ottawa County, all of Allegan and Van Buren counties, as well as the cities of Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Battle Creek.
Huizenga defeated Democratic candidate Jessica Swartz, an attorney from Kalamazoo, in the 2024 election, capturing 55 percent of the vote. Swartz is one of four Democrats seeking to oust Huizenga from his seat. The other candidates are state Sen. Sean McCann of Kalamazoo,
information technology professional Richard Aaron of Coloma, and former congressional staffer Diop Harris of Battle Creek.
McCann’s office released a statement Monday afternoon blasting the congressman for “serving special interests while leaving Southwest Michigan behind.”
“At every opportunity, Huizenga has been a rubberstamp for his party bosses as he attacks our health care, supports Trump’s disastrous tariffs, raises Michigan families’ costs, and looks out for himself and his rich friends at our expense,” McCann said.
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