By Yucheng Tang
CHICO, Calif. — At his first in-person town hall in eight years, District 1 Congressman Doug LaMalfa defended his support for the One Big Beautiful Act — as some members of his audience jeered and heckled him.
In fact, interruptions were relentless during the 90-minute town hall that began at 7:30 a.m. at Chico’s Elks Lodge. Despite the early hour, the meeting room filled quickly with 600 people with no seats left.
LaMalfa responded to a question about possible cuts to Medicaid. “When we’re talking about the people that really do need it and are eligible under the program, they’re not being cut,” the congressman said.
The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law by President Trump on July 4, was promoted by the White House as a benefit to the working class. But some analysts say that the bill will slash federal funding for health care and food aid, largely by imposing work verification requirements on recipients and shifting cost burdens onto states.
Cecilia, a young town hall speaker who didn’t give her full name, asked LaMalfa to explain his vote in favor of the bill.
“How do you justify voting on ‘the big ugly bill’ knowing that 43% of your constituents — the highest of any California congressional district — receive Medicaid and other government assistance?” Cecilia asked.
A few audience members cheered her question.
“This bill is not going to be the be-all end-all on the whole Medicaid question,” LaMalfa responded. “It’s not the end of the discussion, it’s not the end of the legislation we will be doing. On this particular aspect, it was to try to find the savings on the proportion of Medicaid that should not be [going to] illegal immigrants…”
“That’s not true,” shouted an audience member. “Those are working people,” shouted another, their protests sometimes drowning out LaMalfa’s voice.
Most participants held a green card and a red card that had been distributed earlier to them by local citizens. The green was used to signal support or agreement, while the red disagreement.
Two lines formed on each side of the meeting room — the left for people who wanted to ask questions, and the right for those who wanted to make comments. Attendees were given 30 seconds to ask questions, and LaMalfa had one and a half minutes to answer each question. Commenters were given one minute each.
The town hall opened with a prayer, prompting the first wave of chanting from the audience. “Separation of church and state!” some shouted.
After a brief opening speech by LaMalfa, attendees began asking questions and making comments. The discussion ranged from domestic to international — including the impact of the “Big Beautiful Bill” on the state’s Medi-Cal program (California’s version of Medicaid), cuts to public media funding, tariffs, the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks, and many other matters.
A man who identified himself as a veteran spoke. He said he was referred to community care for mental health support because there was no opening for a therapist at the Chico VA. “My community care takes me to San Rafael once a week to see a serious therapist,” he said, a 160 mile trip one way.
“This is regarding privatization of the VA. My question is, how are you going to ensure there are professionals here equipped to treat us … How are you going to support me when the support isn’t out there?” asked the distressed veteran.
“Chico VA has had some direct issues recently on how it’s operated,” LaMalfa said. “There’s a lot of great people there, but there’s also a couple of bad apples.
“VA funding is not being cut. It continues to increase. We want the dollars to get where they’re going to be helpful … We’ve got a lot of work trying to make the VA centers much more accountable and nice to the veterans,” the congressman continued.
Audience members booed in response, and the veteran responded by defending the VA Center staff. “My VA Center is just fine,” he said, then left the meeting room.
An attendee indicated his disagreement with the anger people showed at the town hall. He asked the crowd a question: “If you think that loud interrupting is counterproductive, can you hold up your green signs?”
Some people put up their green signs to show their agreement with him.
Chico City Councilmember Katie Hawley shared her opinion on the seemingly broad town hall opposition to the congressman: “If Chico City Council was a public event only once every eight years, I think we would have had a room exactly like this.”
“The less frequently you show up and have town halls like this, I believe that the harder it will be to facilitate productive conversations,” Hawley added, followed by cheers of support.
Amid the majority who challenged the congressman, there were also several supporters who spoke.
Gina Bax, who moved to the United States 30 years ago, gave her support to LaMalfa.
“Like many Hispanics, I believe in strong family values, freedom of speech, and the right of our children to a quality education,” Bax said. “That means focusing on academics, reading, writing, math, history, not teaching sex in schools. Those conversations belong at home with parents … I want to thank you for continuing to defend parental rights.”
Chico’s Nichole Nava was disappointed in the interruptions during the meeting.
“I couldn’t hear Doug,” Nava said. “I couldn’t hear the questions many of the times, because we’re toward the back. They scream, they yell, they take up time, and it’s problematic.”
Nava said LaMalfa’s office helped a family member with Social Security.
“These are the types of things that the office does, but people don’t like to see that,” Nava said. “They prefer to just rail at the situation instead of actively applying the energy where it needs to go.
“Where it needs to go is, let’s get more staff at Social Security, at the VA,” she said. “It’s an understaffing situation there in Social Security. They actually are able to do what they need to do if they have the staff to do it.”
Bill Bynum is one of the organizers for the Friday protests in front of LaMalfa’s Chico office where demonstrators have called repeatedly for a town hall. Bynum said he was glad that a town hall finally happened.
“It was long overdue, and he needs to do more of them,” Bynum said. “We’ve been going to his office every Friday since February and never once has his office been open. Never once. So he has no inclination to speak with his constituents.”
District 3 County Supervisor Tami Ritter said audience members raised legitimate concerns.
“I feel like the concerns that were raised were valid and he dismissed them,” Ritter said, referring to the discussion over Medicaid. “Essentially he told people that they got it wrong. And we’ve read the legislation and we know what the impacts are going to be.”
A ChicoSol reporter was initially not allowed to enter the auditorium with other journalists, and was told, “You are not real media. You are a website.”
(ChicoSol has been operating as a digital newspaper for 18 years.)
Shortly afterward, however, this reporter was permitted to enter and sit in the media section because, he was told, a TV reporter who was expected hadn’t arrived.
Yucheng Tang is a California Local News fellow reporting for ChicoSol.
