U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood does not believe actions by the Trump Administration to restrict mail-in voting will cause major disruptions ahead of the midterm election.
LaHood, who represents parts of Peoria and Bloomington-Normal, was in Peoria on Friday to announce $600,000 in federal appropriations for the Galena Road Industrial Park project.
The Republican congressman said it is common sense to require an ID to vote, which is why he has repeatedly voted to pass the SAVE America Act.
“One, [the bill] requires an ID to vote … two, requires you to prove you’re a U.S. citizen to vote. Again, common sense,” he said. “Thirdly, it has a review of our mail-in ballot system to make sure that there’s no improprieties there. I think those are all good things.”
The president’s bill aims to increase security in the mail-in election system he has repeatedly criticized, though Trump himself has voted by mail for Florida elections as recent as this primary election season. He has sought new routes of restriction to the voting system since the act failed to pass the U.S. Senate.
“As we sit here today, I have faith in our system, but I think we've got to be conscious of this. We've got to watch and we've got to have a lot of eyes on it,” LaHood said.
With two months remaining until the midterm election, some election officials say it is too close to make substantive changes. LaHood confirmed the election in Illinois will proceed as usual.
“We’re going to be voting by mail-in ballots [being sent out Sept. 24]. I think you've got to be aware and conscious of that,” he said. “I’m not of the opinion that there’s anything to be concerned about in Illinois at this point, but it’s something you got to watch and monitor.”
Washington, D.C. finances
LaHood was among the swath of members in both parties to vote for a continuing resolution providing the federal government with funding until Dec. 11. NPR said many lawmakers did so to avoid a budget fight close to the election, but LaHood said otherwise for his own vote.
“Part of my job as a member of the legislative branch, as a co-equal branch of government, we have a responsibility and obligation to make sure government is funded appropriately. That’s my job,” he said.
“We saw last year shutting the government down as a mistake. Of course, the Democrats were the ones that shut down the government. I voted six different times to keep the government open.”
A 2025 stalemate left the government unfunded for 43 days. A partial shutdown in February, in which Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of immigration raids throughout the U.S., lasted 76 days. It was the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
LaHood said the government cannot afford another shutdown.
Ahead of the midterms, President Trump has pursued priorities that include a proposed arch, construction of a White House ballroom, renaming the Kennedy Center and Lake Ontario, among other actions.
LaHood called these “distractions.”
“I think the president and the administration should be focused on getting gas prices down, working on affordability, bringing down the tariff regime,” LaHood said. “I mean, I’ve been very vocal that I don’t believe the current tariff regime of blanket tariffs is the right approach to take.”
He said tariffs are more useful as a targeted strategy rather than applying them to all trade.
“…some of those blanket tariffs are hurting and causing inflation.”
Of course, one of the biggest driving forces behind rising gas prices is the U.S. war with Iran, but is it a war? In a news briefing, Vice President J.D. Vance said it is not — and LaHood agrees with the premise.
“Is it a serious conflict? Of course it is. And has Iran been a threat? Yes, it has been a threat. And do I think the Middle East and the world will be a safer place because of what we did? I do,” he said. “However, there are consequences to that.”
Energy, fuel and fertilizer are what he recognizes as just some of the things that have seen raised prices since the war began. LaHood, who repeatedly called for an "off-ramp" to the conflict, said Friday he would like to see a negotiated resolution with Iran but now holds skepticism.
“This is a regime that killed 50,000 of their own people over the last six months, 50,000 of their own people were murdered,” said LaHood. “So, this is a regime that doesn’t abide by rules, doesn’t abide by contracts, doesn’t abide by agreements…you got to take them for what they are.”
Data centers
In a Truth Social post, the president voiced his strong support for data centers and even going as far as to say, “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards of poor.”
LaHood said the issue is local and should be decided at that level.
“If a local community wants to entertain doing that, they need to make the decision. That’s number one. Number two, there has to be full transparency. We need to know what is the water use, what is the electricity use, what is the information that’s going to go in there or not go in there,” he said. “But the federal government shouldn’t be dictating that.”
LaHood said in the large, primarily rural 16th District, he has seen data centers work and other times where the opposite has occurred.
With data centers comes talk of their consequence of raising utility bills. LaHood said the cost of energy associated with centers needs to come down but so do other costs at the same time.
“We need to work on healthcare; we need to work on affordability. We’re not at the level that we need to be,” he said. “We’ve created a lot of new jobs and economic opportunity, but we need to couple that with bringing down inflation.”
Among Iran and tariffs, LaHood said the economy has seen progress, but more can be done.
“We need to see more of that moving forward and we need to focus, I think, domestically on the U.S. and how do we continue to make progress,” he said.
Federal deficit
Last month the debt of the U.S. topped $40 trillion, its highest level ever. LaHood called the number “absolutely ridiculous.”
“Republicans and Democrats are to blame over the last 40 years for this happening, and so there has to be a bipartisan solution on how you do that,” he said. “One thing that I have advocated for and proposed is having a federal debt commission….that would be made up by members of the executive branch and the congress.”
LaHood said that proposed commission would meet over a year to craft proposals to addressing the debt and which congress could vote on accordingly.
“That’s somewhat controversial, but we have not had the ability to make these decisions to bring down our debt and there is collateral damage that’s going to be done because of that, and so I believe a bipartisan solution, the federal debt commission, is what I’m focused on.”
At the dawn of the second Trump administration, DOGE cuts were the president’s primary solution to reducing government spending and bring down the budget. LaHood said that was looking out for federal taxpayer money.
“Particularly in USAID [humanitarian aid programs], that were a lot of wasteful spending. Those needed to go away,” he said. “Are there programs that, you know, we got to continue to look at? Yes, we do. But the core context of making government more effective, more efficient, more accountable and making sure that we’re not wasting taxpayer money, I think we achieved some of those goals.”
