Jamie Hill
DemocraticQ1 Scientific and technical expertise can inform decisions related to healthcare, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and emerging technologies. What role, if any, should scientific evidence and expert input play in your policymaking process, and how would you communicate scientific uncertainty or evolving evidence to the public?
“We’ve all seen the harm that emotional based legislation can cause. I’m a firm believer in evidence based research and listening to subject matter experts. As a healthcare provider I can’t possibly know the answer to every question but I am trained to find the person who knows the answer and verify their answer. That is the same method I plan to legislate with. I communicate this everyday with my patients. It involves a little bit of story telling and a lot of metaphors. The average person doesn’t speak scientist so we need people that can translate to living room language.”
KEYWORDS: Evidence-Based, Subject Matter Expert, Communication
Q2 Government research funding supports universities, medical centers, and technology development across Michigan and the nation. What role, if any, should the federal government play in supporting scientific research and innovation, and what outcomes would you prioritize when evaluating those investments?
“The government serves to fund the research that might be world changing but lacks a clear path to profitability. I view university and government funded research as the foundation builders of our scientific advancement. No single block in your foundation is remarkable but it might be the bearing point for the entire structure above it. The basis of success is that someone somewhere uses a piece of government funded research to make the world a better place.”
KEYWORDS: Foundational
Q3 Michigan farmers face challenges including shifting weather patterns, localized droughts, fluctuating input costs, and global market pressures. What policies or investments, if any, would you support to help farmers remain productive and economically competitive, and what role could scientific research and innovation play in those efforts?
“From a scientific standpoint I fully support research and investment into reducing human impact on the climate, alternative fuel sources for farm equipment, more efficient farm equipment, better soil science to reduce the fertilizer input needed, more efficient and less energy intensive fertilizers, combining renewable energy sources with agriculture, crops that are lest reliant on pesticides/herbicides, and the development of healthier end products for the consumer.”
KEYWORDS: Research, Renewable Energy, Climate Change
Q4 Michigan communities continue to face challenges related to aging water infrastructure, contamination concerns such as PFAS, and long-term protection of the Great Lakes. What policies or investments, if any, would you support to improve drinking water safety and water infrastructure in Michigan?
“Without clean drinking water we die so water protection needs to be a number one priority. The first step is to increase enforcement against polluters because it’s easier to prevent pollution than it is to clean it up. Funding research into reducing the amount of water needed in any number of industrial or agriculture processes will protect the resources we have. Significant funding and research needs to go into developing water purification and reclamation systems that give us access to previously contaminated water sources. All of America’s infrastructure needs a significant overhaul to improve reliability and safety which will also provide good high paying jobs for communities.”
KEYWORDS: Prevention, Infrastructure Funding, Resource Protection
Q5 Many communities face shortages in healthcare providers and limited access to specialty care. What policies, if any, do you support to address this daily challenge and do you envision emerging technologies playing a role?
“Single payer healthcare is the biggest improvement we could make. Reducing the multiple layers of bureaucracy and profit taking in the system would free money up for providers and reducing the administrative burden will increase the likelihood that providers stay in the field. Providing more innovation in the telehealth field will allow more access to specialist care but it will have to come with an overhaul of the payment system to allow providers to be reimbursed for their time when utilizing telehealth.”
KEYWORDS: Single Payer Healthcare, Telehealth, Reimbursement
Q7 As electricity demand increases due to manufacturing, electrification, and data infrastructure, what role, if any, do you believe alternative energy sources, such as nuclear energy, wind, or solar, should play in America’s future energy mix? What policies, if any, would you support related to alternative energy development, regulation, and/or research, and why?
“We should be looking at every available power generation method and be looking at how to make them more efficient. There isn’t a magical single solution to our problem, different environments and applications will have specialized needs. Again the governments role is to create the foundational research that allows private industry a boost to create a commercially viable product. We shouldn’t be protecting legacy industry when there is a better alternative but on the other hand we shouldn’t blindly push a new technology just because it’s new. Fund the research and follow the science to the best solution for the problem.”
KEYWORDS: Diversification, Evidence Based
Q9 Rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and large-scale data centers are increasing demand for energy and water infrastructure. What policies, if any, would you support to balance technological growth with infrastructure reliability and environmental sustainability?
“Data centers should be placed in industrial areas where the infrastructure is already in place to support them. They should be required to use recycled water for cooling or some other methods that doesn’t draw from ground water, build a green energy source that supplies their power, not pass on any infrastructure cost to the public via utility price hikes or cost to government services, limit noise and heat pollution from reaching neighbors, and provide the community it’s located in a reclamation bond to restore the site when the AI data bubble bursts and the site is abandoned.”
KEYWORDS: Green Energy, Resource Sparing, Pollution Limiting