(Robert Hurt, a Republican, was first elected to Congress in 2010 as a representative of Virginia's Fifth District. An attorney, Hurt won a seat on the Chatham Town Council in 2000, later served six years as a Delegate to Virginia's General Assembly and was elected to serve as State Senator for the 19th District prior to his election to Congress. He is seeking a second term.)

The Herald: If you could submit only one piece of legislation as a member of the next Congress, what would it be and why?

Robert Hurt:Well…it's kind of a hard question to answer because I think it's gonna take a tremendous amount of work to get us where we need to be-where we have full employment in this country and…get to a balanced budget. And I think that's what we all want and I think we want that regardless of our political persuasion, but…the real challenge is how do you get there? And I would suggest to you that the policies of the last Congress and of this President, you know, have not worked and that we need to try something different. And, so, I think that (if) you look at the legislation that I have introduced, a lot of it deals with trying to make it easier for businesses and farmers to succeed…if…my legislation is not passed this Congress, I intend to pursue it again in the next Congress.

I think if you had to pick…the most important and one piece of the puzzle that I think would do the most good, I think adopting a sensible and…reasonable and responsible energy policy in this country is probably one of the primary things that we have got to do. You know, we have to take advantage of these vast resources we have in oil and natural gas and…coal. We simply have to take advantage of those in a responsible way and I think that…there are very, very few things that could do more for the economy than having low stable, affordable energy prices for individuals, for families, for businesses and farmers.

The Herald: How would you view yourself in light of your party's Presidential nominee-how are you alike and different.

Hurt: …I think that if you look at the failed polices of the last four years, I think that…it is absolutely time for someone who has got the experience and the competence to lead this nation to a place where we have full employment and we have everyone able to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that exist in this country and has the experience to get us to a balanced budget. And, so…I think that on the big issues-the ones that are most important to people, on jobs and the economy and on cutting spending in Washington and getting us to a balanced budget and reducing our debt in this country, you know I think that we are all singing off the same sheet of music. And, so…I think that's what really matters to the American people…I mean, I'm proud to stand with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on those issues.

The Herald: How are you different?

Hurt: You know…there probably are differences. You know, you could probably look at Paul Ryan's voting record and look at mine and…we voted on the same thing over the last year and a half, that's something that you can do if you'd like. I'm sure they're some differences, but the bottom line is, is that this election is about jobs and the economy and it's about making sure we don't pass off 16 trillion dollars in debt to the next generation. And so I'm committed to working with a new team to achieve those goals.

I will say this…that I think that anybody who thinks that Congress should be a rubber stamp for any President…fails to understand our Constitution and the important responsibilities that each branch of government has to live up to its responsibilities. So I can tell you this, we will see what…the next President-whether it's Romney or Obama-but we will see what they stand for. And, if it's Mitt Romney, we will see what he proposes. But, at the end of the day, we have our responsibilities in the Congress and…so…I will always guard the prerogatives of the legislature, that that is the voice of the people, I will always guard that jealously and will be a rubber stamp for no one.

The Herald: Jobs and the state of the economy are often listed among the chief issues of concern among voters. What would you do as a member of Congress to improve job opportunities and the economy as a whole in the Fifth District?

Hurt: Well, let's put it in perspective here … When the President was sworn in … unemployment was less than eight percent. And he promised a prescription that was going to get us-make sure that we never went above eight percent unemployment, and that in fact he would restore our economy. Not only has he failed to restore it, but he has made it worse and it will take years to unwind the damage that he and the previous Congress have done to (our economy). Chief examples of that I would suggest to you are the President's healthcare law, which I think we need to repeal immediately and replace it with a sensible healthcare reform. Another example of it is blowing a trillion dollars on quote investing in government programs that were designed to create jobs. Again, a miserable failure. And…that money…by the way, which was borrowed from places like China, a trillion dollars in spending, that money was extracted on the promise that our unemployment wouldn't go above eight percent … Our unemployment went above eight percent, it went above ten percent, and there are places in Virginia's Fifth District that have 16 percent unemployment.

So what we've tried with the last Congress and what this President's failed-which you will find if you'd looked at what we've done in the House of Representatives for the last year and a half is we've offered dozens of bills that would make it easier for small businesses to succeed, easier for our farming families to succeed by reducing…red tape, reducing cost, reducing mandates that are unnecessary and only add burdens to the small business, the job creators and ultimately to the customers and the consumers. And so we've offered dozens of bills on that score as well as…in the name of a reasonable and responsible domestic energy program, a policy in this country. And we have sent these bills down to Harry Reid and they have piled up on Harry Reid's desk.

We don't plan to have all the answers in the House of Representatives but we do know that the people that elected us expect us to do our work, and we've done our work. The United States Senate has done nothing. They've done no work over the last year and a half and it's a disgrace. The level of arrogance, it seems to me unparalleled in the history of Congress. You know, think about this for a moment. We have adopted two budgets since I've been there. The Senate has not proposed a budget in three years. Unbelievable arrogance and that's what people can't stand about Washington and it s why we need to send good people who are willing to go to Washington to do their jobs. And that's what this election is about.

The Herald: What steps would you take to avoid sequestration?

Hurt: You know clearly we need to cut spending in Washington and I think…we need to obviously live up to the agreement that we reached a year ago to cut a trillion dollars in spending in Washington, but we shouldn't do it in a thoughtless, across-the-board way. The super committee that was part of that agreement obviously failed and, so now that responsibility comes back to Congress…

The truth of it is, is that those of us in the House of Representatives-again not claiming to have all of the answers, but knowing that it is our responsibility to put our proposal on the table for the American people and for the United States Senate and for this President to consider-in May of…this year we put down our proposal for avoiding the devastating cuts to the military while maintaining our commitment to reducing spending in this country. Everybody agrees that that's where we want to be. There's only one party in Washington D.C. that has acted-and that's been the House of Representatives-and we acted on that in May and we sent it down to the United States Senate and Harry Reid and the Senators haven't done anything. The President has not led on this issue. It has been May. It's June, July, August, September, we're almost through October-that's five months of crickets. That's what we've gotten in terms of offering a resolution to sequestration. The cuts need to be made. They need to be made in a thoughtful way. We have offered up how to make those cuts to discretionary spending without gutting our military. And we've gotten no leadership, no response out of the United States Senate or this President and the American People deserve better.

The Herald: This is a two-part question: What, if any, provisions of the Affordable Care Act do you believe should be repealed and why? And what, if any, provisions of the Affordable Care Act would you work to keep and why?

Hurt: Well, you know, I believe completely that the Affordable Care Act, the President's healthcare law…it is a bad piece of legislation because it does a number of things. Number one, it is terrible for the doctor and the patient in that important relationship. It puts the government between doctors and their patients and it ultimately will result in having the government run healthcare in this country. And there's some people who want that, but I would suggest to you that most of the people in the Fifth District do not want that and I think that that was a major message that came out of the 2010 election-loud and clear.

It is bad for business. When I hear the struggles of businesses who are trying to understand and plan for implementation of this job-crushing bill, it…worries me greatly. Again, it puts the government between employers and employees in a way that we've never seen before-a way that…will be devastating to our economy.

When I have a person (who) owns five convenience stores tell me that he has got the capital to be able to build two more stores and…hire 15 more employees for his business…but tells me he refuses to do that because he doesn't want his number of employees to go (from) 48 over 50 and then be ensnared by this law. You know, I've been taken to task calling the President's healthcare law a job-killing bill. Maybe that hurts people's feelings, I don't know how else to describe it. It is a job-killing bill and it needs to be repealed.

Now there are things that we need to do to address access to healthcare in this country. There are things that we need to do to lower the cost of healthcare in this country. What the President has imposed on the American People and the last Congress and Nancy Pelosi imposed on the American people is not the right way to go about it. Now…as I said, we needed to deal with issues of access, we needed to-you know and there are issues in particular that people talk about a lot-about the issues of having young people being able to stay on parent's policies longer, the issue of pre-existing conditions. Well how do you deal with making sure that those persons have access to healthcare…Those are things that we can deal with in a targeted, market-based way … but not like using a sledgehammer destroying a system that has provided for the American people over the years the highest quality of healthcare. Understand what I'm saying, I'm not saying that it's the best health care system necessarily and it shouldn't be improved, but in terms of quality of healthcare that we get as a nation, it is the highest in the world. There's a reason that people come from all over the globe to the United States of America for their healthcare, it's because we have the highest quality, it's because we have innovation. And those are things that we can't risk destroying by having this job-killing bill shoved down our throats.

The Herald: Given the deep divide between the political parties in Washington, what would you do to reach across the aisle in a spirit of bipartisanship?

Hurt: I reach across the aisle every day. …If you look at the number of bills that I've introduced, you will see that most of the bills I've introduced have Democratic co-patrons. There's a reason for that, because I believe that I represent all of the people in Virginia's Fifth District, regardless of their political persuasion, regardless of whether they supported me in an election or not. I represent all the people: Republicans, Democrats, and Independents in Washington. And I've taken that same spirit of representation that I had in Richmond to Washington D.C. And, unfortunately, Washington is…a very partisan place, but I am committed to working across the aisle to solve these problems and I have a demonstrated record of doing.