First of three installments:

West Hollywood’s annual CSW LA Gay Pride festival and parade enjoyed a singular first this year – the first time in history that its congress member from the United State House of Representative (presumptive) attended and rode in the parade.

WeHo News took the opportunity to interview Rep. Adam Schiff, currently serving the 29^th Congressional District and presumably representing West Hollywood/Hollywood after his re-election to his newly-drawn 28^th District in November.

If re-elected, he will begin actively serving the Creative City when Congress swears itself in in January, 2013. He will replace Rep. Henry Waxman, who has represented West Hollywood since 1975.

The interview was far ranging and focused on what he can do for West Hollywood and its interests from his seat on two powerful committees.

Congress member Schiff serves on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 

Rep. Adam Schiff, currently serving the 29th Congressional District and presumably representing West Hollywood/Hollywood after his re-election to his newly-drawn 28th District in November. Photo by WeHo News.

The committee oversees the nation’s intelligence activities, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and the National Security Agency (NSA). 

As a member of the committee, Rep. Schiff serves as Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence.

He also serves on the House Appropriations Committee. The powerful Appropriations Committee is charged with funding many of the core functions of the federal government.

As a Democrat in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Rep. Schiff can have little direct influence over legislation passed in the House these days, but actively agitates for Democrat Party principles of government from his committees and by using discretionary power through his office.

 WeHo News sat down with the Representative in the shaded VIP area of the CSW LA Gay Pride 2012 festival on a bright, breezy Saturday afternoon and conducted a 35 minute interview, which can be heard in its entirety below.

This is the first installment of a three-part interview. The subjects discussed herein are on issues of intense local interest, including gay rights, intellectual property and copyright protections and tourism.

Future installments of this interview will deal with the federal budget issues and the Congress member’s role on the Appropriations Committee and foreign policy and security issues and his role on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

WeHo News:  This is your first time at LA Gay Pride.

Rep. Adam Schiff:  This is my first time at this Pride Festival and I am delighted to be here and having a great time. This is a city that knows how to enjoy itself.

WeHo News: You’ll be in the parade tomorrow, accompanying the Mayor, right? I hope you’re able to get out of the car and witness some of the goings-on.

Rep. Adam Schiff: (jesting) I hear it’s quite a tame, sedate and tranquil event.

Rep. Adm Schiff riding in the West Hollywood CSW LA Gay Pride Parade - a first for him and the parade both. Seated with him in the car is, (center) Ray Vizcarra abd (right) Mayor Jeffrey Prang, Mr. Vizcarra's spouse. Photo by WeHo News.

WeHo News:  We’ve had a couple of decisions at the Federal Appeal Court level in the past ten days. The 1^st Circuit Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the 9^th Circuit decided not to re-hear Prop 8.

Where are you on (House Speaker) John Boehner’s legal defense fund and is there any way you can throw a wrench into those works?

Rep. Adam Schiff: I strongly disagree with what the Speaker is doing. The Speaker is using the resources of the House of Representatives to defend a law that I feel is unconstitutional, and that is DOMA.

Unfortunately we are still in the minority and the Speaker has already spent $750,000 on this litigation and is now seeking to spend another three-quarters of a million dollars.

At a time when we’re fighting to keep health care services funded and so many other urgent priorities, to be throwing money up to defend an unconstitutional law seems to me a terrible disservice to the country.

I was delighted to see the 1^st Circuit opinion striking down DOMA, am a strong supporter of Marriage Equality, am very proud of our President and was very gratified that the California 9^th Circuit will not revisit the Proposition 8 decision.

All will ultimately rest with the US Supreme Court and it’s my hope the Supreme Court will do the right thing, although I have to say, these days I’m not all that encouraged by the Supreme Court.

WeHo News: Turning to civic affairs, West Hollywood’s economic base is in tourism, and hoteliers and the Marketing and Visitors Bureau tells me that severe limitations on travel visas prevent overseas visitors from reaching our hotels.

Mayor Jeffrey Prang and Rep. Adam Schiff at Gay Pride in West Hollywood. Photo by WeHo News.

Rep. Adam Schiff:  There are an enormous number of visitors who want to come as tourists, particularly from Asia, who have a very hard time getting their visas to visit. It takes so long to get through the security clearance.

In our zeal to protect America after 9/11, we made it very hard for the wrong people to get here, unfortunately we made it very hard for the right people to get here, [people] who mean to do us well, not ill, who will add to America and grow jobs and create jobs here.

What I’ve been working on is trying to break down the time in which it takes to get a visa to come and spend money in our shops and spend money on our shows and make use of the wonderful talent we have here.

Congress member Schiff in the halls of Congress.

We’re making some progress there… in China they’ve reduced the time it takes to get a travel visa to America by four times…

Hiring people to do background checks pays for itself, rather like the IRS…

WeHo News: Our readers in West Hollywood and Hollywood have very close connections to the entertainment industry; where are you on strengthening copyright law and intellectual property rights?

Rep. Adam Schiff:  This is an issue I have worked on since my time in the State Senate, where I introduce a bill to lower permit costs for productions here in America.

In Congress I’ve been heavily involved in the intellectual property issues, in protecting the creative product that comes from so many people that live around us.

This is the one industry that we have a positive balance of trade with every nation on earth, but at the same time, we’re losing billions and billions of dollars of work product to IP theft, online and through pirated CDs and DVDs.

I co-founded and co-chaired the caucus on anti-piracy, we’re continually trying to improve protections… One of the initiatives that I helped launch last year was [an effort to prevent Mastercard and Visa from being used to pay for pirate material online]… this year I put my focus on the advertisers [on these pirate sites]…

Next, avoiding America’s “fiscal train wreck.”

Following, Iran’s nuclear program, the meltdown in Syria and other issues affecting the security of the State of Israel.

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW