Dear Editor:

In my two previous op-eds, I voiced my support for Suhas Subramanyam to represent our District 10 in Congress. I watched the two candidates debate at the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce on September 22 and studied each of their websites.

We have a track record with Suhas, which I think is an important indicator of how he represents our district, and in that regard he has a strong record of good policy.

He sponsored several bills with direct impact on our communities. Two examples: 1) The Data Center Fair Share Act to establish regulatory standards for public utilities to recover the full incremental costs of supplying energy to large load customers; i.e. data centers, so that the rest of us don’t foot the bill. 2) The Data Center Siting Act to establish best practices for siting these monster facilities. His prior record in the Virginia Assembly was similarly focused on our community. This focus should be key for all of us.

Moreover, he’s been a hard-working Congressman in his short time there with 49 bills sponsored, several of which were inspired by constituent requests (he listens), and 405 bills that he co-sponsored.

In all honesty, I didn’t find much to disagree with on Dave Beckwith’s website, because it’s also focused on our community, but here we have no track record on whether he can be an effective legislator, and as a Republican, I am concerned that he would fall in line with the party in supporting Donald Trump’s agenda, wherever that may lead, and that is where my concern lies.

Representative Subramanyan has taken clear positions against Trump’s policy errors, such as the Iran war; excesses such as ICE overreach; and the willy-nilly tariff policies which resulted in higher inflation for all of us consumers.

In the debate, I thought Suhas took an objective look at Trump’s One Big Beautiful / Ugly Bill (as you prefer) praising no tax on tips and lowering taxes on small business and families, while criticizing huge cuts to food assistance and Medicaid.

Dave Beckwith spoke about putting more money back in people’s pockets and his website speaks of the spiraling national debt, but I heard no pushback on the costs of the Iran War’s $45B in military spending and an additional $220B impact to US households (per Moody’s Analytics)—a combined almost $2,000 per US household.

As a career Air Force Colonel, Beckwith should also be concerned about the depletion of our weapons stockpile—silence on that issue as well.

I continue in my support for Suhas Subramanyam.
 
Oscar N. (Mac) McNeil, Jr.
Waterford