This year, voters will decide who will take the seat in California's 49th Congressional District, which includes parts of both San Diego and Orange counties. Republican Brian Maryott, a certified financial planner, is challenging Democratic incumbent Rep. Mike Levin.

Levin is only in his first term in Congress but tells Inside the Issues he is proud that he is a part of many House committees.

"By background, I'm an environmental attorney, and I sit on the Natural Resources Committee and on the Select Committee for the Climate Crisis. I'm also the grandson of a World War II veteran, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to serve as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity and to get a gavel as a subcommittee as a freshman has been amazing."

While there are agreements in the House, Levin said many of the committees come together to pass bipartisan legislation on many issues.

"We try to do the very best work we can for our veterans, bipartisan work, and I'm proud to tell you that we have introduced 20 bipartisan veterans bills, about a dozen of them now have been passed through the House of Representatives and five of them have been signed into law by President Trump. So despite the fact that things are very difficult sometimes in Washington, D.C., there are divisions around issues. When it comes to serving our veterans, I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish."

One of those bills that aims to help veterans is the DELIVER Act, which stands for Dependable Employment in Living Improvements for Veterans Economic Recovery, which passed in the House and has been sent to the Senate. 

"They will pass it in the Senate. It will go to the president in time for passage and signature by the end of the year. That's my great hope," Levin said. "What the bill would do would be huge for our veterans who are facing financial hardship, who are at risk of homelessness, or looking for that next career opportunity during COVID-19."

Levin was an environmental lawyer before entering politics and said he was involved in the clean energy industry for about 15 years, including the business, law, and nonprofit spaces.

"I think we have made tremendous strides in California, demonstrating that you can both grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time. In fact, I would argue that if you take those steps to accelerate our transition to renewable energy, that will be a great economic opportunity for the United States, just as it has been for California," he said.

The congressman has worked on a task force to move spent nuclear fuel that is no longer usable out of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which he said if not moved safely, could pose a threat to nearby communities. 

"They stopped producing electricity there in 2012, and now we've got 1,600 tons of radioactive spent nuclear fuel that we need to move because as it stands, it's right off the Pacific Ocean. You've got active earthquake faults off the coast, and you've got over 8 million people that are within 50 miles of the plant, and we need to do all we can to get that waste moved quickly and safely," he explained. "We've already introduced legislation called the Spent Fuel Prioritization Act, which says for all of the nation's nuclear waste, there are roughly 120 nuclear waste sites across the U.S., to move the waste first from those sites that have the highest seismic risk or the higher population density, as is the case in our area in Southern California."

Levin authored an amendment to receive $500 million in research and development funding to find solutions on what to do with the spent nuclear fuel. The funding was included in the recent energy innovation package that passed through the House.

"The key here is we lack a permanent geologic repository," he said. "We lack an interim storage site. So while we are doing all of that, in addition to figuring that out, we also have to prioritize moving the waste from a site like ours, that has unique risks, and we've got to continue to innovate. So, we're going to do all of the above, and I'm absolutely committed to getting that waste off our coast as quickly and as safely as we can."

When it comes to government mandates for energy innovation, Levin said it's a necessary part of the puzzle, as they have had a hand in every other major industrial revolution, saying it is a "massive economic opportunity" for the country.

"The question that we have to ask ourselves is whether we want that innovation to happen here in the United States, whether we want to be using technologies in 20, 30 years time, that are not only being purchased here in the United States, but that are developed, that are manufactured, that are innovated here in the United States," he said. 

"And make no mistake, when you think of the success of companies like Tesla, and others in the electric vehicle space, the Recovery Act in 2009, helped pave the way," he continued. "We can do the same today on an even bigger scale and at a time where we've got 26 million Americans on unemployment insurance, where there are over 10 million that are still unemployed as a result of this pandemic, there are millions of long-term unemployed where we have to create the great jobs of the future, I think clean energy and infrastructure is a great way to do it."

The United States cannot afford to invest time and money into implementing this infrastructure, he said. 

"Now, too often, people criticize the cost of taking action, but they omit the cost of doing nothing. The cost of doing nothing, the opportunity cost, here, of failing to lead on clean energy and allowing China and other countries to lead the way, is catastrophic," he said.

The congressman wants voters to know, he is passionate about his job in the House and being there for those in his district, saying it's important to listen to all perspectives. 

"I think representative is not only my job title; it's also my job description. So I've tried very hard to be accessible and transparent," he said. "Once we're past this election, I hope that we can return to a politics not only of condition but also of civility. I think we're far better as a country than we've seen from this divisiveness, this type of rhetoric than we've seen from this president of the United States, frankly, that has not been productive, where we belittle and attack people who disagree with us. I think we need to get the collective temperature of the country turned down after this election. I hope that's the case, and we can continue to advance common-sense solutions on a bipartisan basis, which is what the American people expect and what we ought to be delivering."

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