Ohio -- The New Year and new Congress has been consumed by the ongoing partial government shutdown, but Ohio’s representatives in the nation’s capital still have a list of things they’d like to accomplish in 2019.

Spectrum News Washington reporter Taylor Popielarz spent the last few weeks interviewing eight of Ohio’s 16 members of the U.S. House of Representatives about their priorities.

Representative Troy Balderson (Republican, 12th Congressional District)

Balderson spent almost all of 2018 campaigning in two elections — a special election in August to win the 12th Congressional seat and then the midterm election in November.

Now officially in office for a full term, he can focus on pushing his agenda.

“I’m going to focus on the economy — that to me is the most important thing,” Balderson said, “and jobs, workforce development, infrastructure — that will keep us very busy, just doing those things.”

He said he’s ok with shutting the government down over a border wall because he said it’s what his district wants.

Representative Marcy Kaptur (Democrat, 9th Congressional District)

Kaptur maintains her title as the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives, having been in office since 1983 and is now in the start of her 18th term.

She said she has a ‘burning desire’ to work on better understanding mental illness, relating to drug addiction, gun deaths, and more.

“Over half of the jails that I represent are full of people who are mentally ill — over 50-percent of the population,” Kaptur said. “America cannot continue to marginalize this population, and we need to heal.”

She also named infrastructure, making prescription medicines more affordable, and making health care more affordable as her other priorities in 2019.

Representative Bob Latta (Republican, 5th Congressional District)

Latta ended 2018 by having one of his bills, to prevent vehicular terrorism, signed into law by President Trump.

He’s still working on another piece of legislation, having to do with self-driving cars, that has passed in the House but has been stuck in the Senate for a year and a half.

“We had over 300 meetings, alone, on this legislation,” Latta said. “We also worked with the Democrats. So we produced a piece of legislation we passed out of our committee, of Energy and Commerce, 54 to 0.”

Latta serves on the Rural Broadband Caucus and had his Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act signed into law when the farm bill was recently signed by the president.

He’s now working on legislation having to do with over-the-counter monograph reform, which would help make prescription drugs in a more timely fashion, while keeping safety procedures in check.

Representative Steve Chabot (Republican, 1st Congressional District)

Chabot spent the latter half of 2018 campaigning to become the ranking member of the influential House Judiciary Committee, but he fell short.

But, “I’m going to continue to be the lead Republican on the House Small Business Committee,” he said. “About 70-percent of the new jobs in America are created by small business, so we want to continue to push for policies that will assist small businesses all across the country.”

He said he hopes to lower and simplify taxes and reduce regulations.

Chabot also said infrastructure is a priority in 2019, specifically getting more federal funding for two projects in his district: the Brent Spence Bridge and the Western Hills Viaduct.

Representative Tim Ryan (Democrat, 13th Congressional District)

Ryan starts 2019 by working to get some type of update on the future of the Lordstown General Motors plant in his district that is set to close.

“Basically you’re waiting for the contract negotiations between the local unions around the country, and that contract negotiation is going to determine who gets what product,” he said. “And unfortunately, we’re in a holding pattern until that happens.”

Ryan said he recently spoke with the head of GM’s government affairs office and is continuing to interact with the company.

He said he hopes to also work on infrastructure, lowering prescription drug costs, and the opioid epidemic.

Representative Brad Wenstrup (Republican, 2nd Congressional District)

Wenstrup, a combat surgeon who served in Iraq, represents a chunk of southern Ohio near Cincinnati.

He said he plans to work more on making the Department of Veterans Affairs less reactive and more proactive.

“And if we start at the very beginning of showing that we’re investing, as a nation, in a troop and want to see them succeed afterwards, I think we’re going to do a lot better in the long run,” Wenstrup said.

He said lowering the cost of health care matters a lot to his constituents. And he said monitoring tariffs’ impact on local farmers is also something he’s keeping an eye on.

Representative Bill Johnson (Republican, 6th Congressional District)

Johnson represents most of rural Eastern and Southeastern Ohio.

He said he wants the Senate to vote on a bill he got passed in the House, the MAPPING NOW Act, that would change how broadband coverage maps are made.

“There are major segments of my district where young people don’t have access to the internet to do their school work,” Johnson said. “Businesses will not come in because they can’t get access to manage their suppliers and their customers and train their employees.”

He said the biggest problem facing access to rural broadband is not funding, but regulation and creating an accurate map to know where the unserved and underserved areas are.

Johnson also named jobs, the economy, the opioid epidemic, national and border security, and exporting liquid natural gas as his top priorities in 2019.

Representative Steve Stivers (Republican, 15th Congressional District)

Stivers wants to focus on bringing a divided Washington together, as co-chair of the Civility and Respect Caucus, which he co-founded with his Ohio colleague Rep. Joyce Beatty.

“We can disagree without being disagreeable,” he said. “And while America still has people that have polar opposite views, it doesn’t mean they can’t work together to get things done.”

Stivers is the newly-named co-chair of the House Municipal Finance Caucus and wants to focus on using tax-free bonds to build roads, bridges and economic development.

He also named infrastructure, rural broadband, supporting higher education and fighting the opioid epidemic as priorities in 2019.

Stivers decided in 2018 not to run for a second term as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which works to get more Republicans elected to the House, because “it was kind of in conflict with the Civility and Respect Caucus.”