Democratic Congressional Candidate Anthony Brindisi was in our area Monday to take questions from voters.

Brindisi held a town hall style meeting at the American Legion Post 1645 on Robinson Street in Binghamton.

The Democrat, who is opposing Congresswoman Claudia Tenney in November, fielded questions from over 50 attendees.

Topics included affordable housing, preventing school shootings, election security, education, student loan debt, childcare, jobs and net neutrality.

Brindisi says he’s never taken NRA money and says improving safety infrastructure at schools is critical.

He says he supports the second amendment, but would like to see expanded background checks.

Regarding jobs, Brindisi says many employers cannot find skilled workers, so there needs to be more job training programs to develop needed skills in the local workforce.

Brindisi says it’s important to hear from the people in person.

“There’s no way you can be an effective representative and do your job correctly if you’re not listening to the folks back home.  I want people to know when I’m in Congress, I’m going to be around a lot.  I want to hold a lot of town hall meetings so I can hear firsthand from voters about the issues that are important to them,” said Brindisi.

Brindisi says the recently proposed federal Farm Bill did not pass because of extremes on both the left and right.

On food benefits such as SNAP, he says the most vulnerable people, such as single moms, seniors and veterans, should not be cut from the program.

However, Brindisi says he would be open to discussing the work-based requirements for benefit recipients.