What’s it like being Nevada’s only Republican in Congress?

For Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who conducted an end-of-year Q&A with The Nevada Independent’s editorial team on Dec. 16, the answer is complicated.

Though his position as a House budget cardinal gives him more sway over congressional matters than his five Democratic colleagues in the state’s delegation, Amodei still isn’t exactly happy on the state of immigration enforcement, housing costs, public land sales and especially health care.  

Look out for his answers on the gaming industry, immigration enforcement, and the bill on which he was the only Republican “no” vote in future stories.

Here are the other highlights, edited for length and clarity.  

D.C. Correspondent Mini Racker: Let’s start with the rising cost of health insurance. I’d love to know your position on the debate happening in Congress right now, and what your ideal plan would include.

Amodei: … I can’t fault anybody for going, ‘Hey, healthcare sucks in terms of affordability.’ Absolutely. So you start looking into that, I think people whose combined income is $600,000 a year, they don’t need any help. Sorry. Wish I was one of them, then I wouldn’t care. But they don’t need any help. You look at the cost in order to keep it moving and you’re like, well, just to keep throwing money in that, without reforms, that doesn’t solve the problem of affordability.

Affordability — Congress should be focused on it. It’s too bad it took a shutdown and watching the folks on the other side of the shutdown message it, but it’s front and center now. Do I think we’re going to solve it by the end of this year? No. Do I think anybody in either house is going to carry a bill that says, ‘Well, we’re going to subsidize it at existing rates for even another year?’ I don’t think so. There’s people who want to do that on both sides of the aisle, but I think the facts are, right now, your health care costs are going up, even if you subsidize it.

… One of the areas that I think we’re getting excellent value for our dollars is federally qualified health centers everywhere in Nevada, rurals, multiple in Clark, multiple in Washoe, that sort of stuff. Take that model. … I think you want to start somewhere, start with what we passed in 2017, you know the one where [late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)] walked in and went ‘thumbs down’? Now that’s a good start.

Racker: Do you think the Republicans can unite around something like that early next year?

Amodei: Republicans don’t unite. … I just came from a lunch meeting with some members from New York, Pennsylvania. Whatever Governance Group. Used to be known as the Tuesday Group. … The Speaker came in to talk. … I’m listening to some of this, it’s like, ‘We’re the guys who make up your majority.’ Well, I’m sorry, every one of us counts as a total towards that 218. 

They said, ‘Well, you don’t have any hard races.’ It’s like really? Hasn’t felt like that to me. Never been unopposed in a primary, much less. So don’t tell me that you have made the political calculations for my district. … Tell me what the issues are that are driving prices. … The president’s taking some steps towards Pharma, but it’s like, that’s one of them, that’s not all of it.

Racker: What did the Speaker say in that meeting?

Amodei: That’s a great question. I wish I could tell you, actually, what the message was. The meeting was an absolute scrum. And I mean, people were nice to each other, it wasn’t fists-shaking. But what you’re trying to do at this point in time is, can we put something on the floor to at least say we did something other than nothing before the end of the year?

As of two hours ago, I’m just sitting there going, ‘Man, I’m glad I don’t have any feelings or they’d be hurt.’

Capital Bureau Chief Tabitha Mueller: We’ve seen a lot of concerns about housing prices. A lot of the decision-making comes from the state Legislature. But what kinds of solutions should lawmakers be thinking about, both for the Congress level and maybe at the state level, too?

Amodei: Everybody’s talking about it, but I have yet to see the analysis. … I’m talking about the decision-makers at the local planners, zoners, building departments, state and federal. When you talk to folks that go get permits and actually build things, like apartments or shopping centers or houses or any of that stuff … I get it. It’s like, ‘The feds need to give us some more land.’ And they do, because they own most of it anyhow, and we’re making progress on that. Although I didn’t think it was going to be as steep a hike as it’s been. 

… Why does it cost 600,000 bucks to build a 1,500-square-foot home in Sparks? I don’t even know if anybody’s building them, to be honest with you, anymore.

I’ll tell you what a lot of the home builders are telling me is that there’s a significant chunk of that that is in permitting and compliance. … I haven’t heard anybody at the local level say, ‘Here’s our plan to streamline our permitting process,’ or the state level either.

Mueller: I think [Energy and Environment Reporter Amy Alonzo’s] question was targeted at ‘Have you been involved in additional conversations about public land sales since the summer?’

Amodei: … [Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT)] and I have talked since, and we’re going to talk again, but it was like, ‘I’m not going to vote for it.’ 

We’ve got a bill, and it’s been in for a while. It’s the same one that we passed out of the committee last time that deals with some Washoe, some Pershing. It’s a traditional lands bill. It creates some wilderness, it creates some property that’s eligible for disposal. And we have confidence in that. I’m meeting with the Speaker about it … to talk about [how] we need to move this forward, because we need time to get this marinated in the Senate. 

It’s not going to be the same bill, but [Rep. Celeste Malloy (R-UT)] is going to bring her Utah bill that was part of that one, going to bring that at the same time. So no longer is it good enough to say, ‘Hey, I got it out of the House. [Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)], have fun, let me know how that goes.’ 

[In a brief follow-up call with The Indy on Dec. 19, Amodei said this about his meeting with the speaker on the Northern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act “Went very well. ... I expect things to be moving first half of January. ... He will be personally involved in helping us get moving."]

Political Reporter Isabella Aldrete: I’m curious how in-the-loop you feel about ICE decisions and changes within DHS. I’ve heard that there’s been changes to Border Patrol, and Border Patrol leadership is now managing the ICE region. I’m curious what you think of Border Patrol coming in and handling ICE.

Amodei: The answer to your first question is I do not feel in the loop with respect to that. Now, it’s not like they should come to me for permission to do what they’re doing in the executive branch, but since they expect us to fund it, the communications culture needs to be a lot stronger than it has been.

Actually, your topic came up in terms of ‘So we replaced some ICE field office folks with Border Patrol folks.’ So one of the things we did [at an Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee meeting] today was, ‘Hey, we want a briefing on that.’ … The fact that we’re asking for a briefing on that … I don’t feel too chipper.

We’re tired of finding out about this in the newspaper, and to the extent that you want to keep surprising us, you might be surprised when we decide to retract some appropriations and reappropriate it with more specific instructions. … I don’t want to manage that way, but if somebody doesn’t … start talking to us, then guess what? You got first pick. Now I’m going to pick.

[In the Dec. 19 follow-up,  Amodei, who heads the House Appropriations Committee for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that a new immigration detention center in Nevada is not on his “radar.” DHS has hinted at ICE expansion in the state. ]

Intern Kate Reynolds: I’d love to hear more about your Mining Regulatory Clarity Act. I’m specifically curious how you feel the Rosemont decision has affected or hindered the mining industry since 2022 and how the bill will get around that decision. Also curious if you anticipate that it will pass since it has bipartisan support, but is also kind of a touchy subject among environmental advocates.

Amodei: The Regulatory Clarity Act was specifically introduced to overrule the court in Rosemont. … If the objective is to basically throw a major hindrance in the way we do mining on federal lands, that’s a big deal in Nevada. … As long as you’re operating in a transparent, methodical manner in accordance with your regs, then great. But Rosemont, I think, caught everybody by surprise and, implemented literally, basically kills mining in the West, in my opinion. Now that may be a tiny bit dramatic, but it’s not a lot dramatic.

Nobody wants dirty air, dirty water, torn-up landscapes, kill all the animals and the trees can’t live. … So I get a little frustrated when it’s like, ‘Well, this is going to be the end of nature as we know it.’ If it is, then I’m sure missing it. 

Reynolds: Because of recent events, I was thinking about political violence, and I was wondering how that has affected you and your family, and what a longer-term solution to that issue might be?

Amodei: It wasn’t that long ago where it’s like, ‘That kind of comes with the territory.’ … I’ve had people come to my house at night and plant a bunch of stuff in the flower beds. ‘We’re watching you,’ and all that stuff. To be honest with you, I don’t care if you pick at me, but stay the hell out of my yard. 

Now you fast forward to what we’re doing now. And I gotta tell you, I didn’t know who Charlie Kirk was. That’s my bad, in some people’s eyes. But when … some young guy shoots him dead because he doesn’t like his politics, it’s like, Jesus, I gotta tell you, it kind of spooked me. This guy isn’t elected. He doesn’t have a vote. 

Then it comes to ‘Okay, so what are you going to do?’ And so we basically put some stuff in with the Sergeant at Arms’ office in our district office in Reno. Listen, I don’t want to have to buzz in to come see my member of Congress. Well, you do now, and it’s not because of me. I don’t want somebody working for me being exposed to violence because they’re working for me.

… So I’ve done what I think I need to do, with respect to giving my people protection in their jobs, and as far as myself, I haven’t done much. … I think about [former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ)] and it’s not that it doesn’t go through your mind, but I also don’t want to give the impression that I have some sort of siege mentality. 

I think one of the things that’s given us our record of success is, I do my own grocery shopping, I go to Lowe’s, I go to Home Depot, I go to wherever the heck, just as a normal person. And so I guess I’m just not at the point where I want to be seen as more than a normal person.

Reynolds: Do you think that Donald Trump has done a good job of setting the appropriate tone on questions of political violence? 

Amodei: A lot of what he says is direct and straight. That offends some people. … For the vast majority of stuff, really like his work. Sometimes when that stuff comes out, I kind of chuckle a little bit, depending on what it is. I don’t think his comments on the [Rob] Reiner stuff — I wish he’d have slept on those before he sent that out. And I’ll just leave it at that.

Racker: What was the biggest win for Nevada in D.C. this year?

Amodei: If it’s a win, then we can put it away and move on to stuff that needs to be a win. So I’m thrilled about the Christmas tree. … A lot of our wins are in the oversight stuff, where if it’s a Nevada entity that needs help with an agency, whether it’s resource-related or not, then we’ve been there to change the trajectory of that, not by calling up and saying, ‘Hey, I want you to pick my guy or do something different,’ but doing the thing that’s like, ‘So why did you cancel this or that?’ … I think we provide excellent return on what you’re paying us to do in that department. 

Obviously, constituent services. … That’s all relationships. So I guess my answer would be, we have worked to create relationships.

Racker: Anything we didn’t get to?

Amodei: We might have to do one of these after this week is over where I can disguise my voice and you can’t prove it was me saying what I’m saying.