It’s been 200 days since Rep. Katie Hill, D-Agua Dulce, assumed office, and with a break in her Washington schedule, the congresswoman took time Tuesday to meet with Santa Clarita Valley constituents and business leaders.

Prior to the legislative update with the SCV Chamber of Commerce event and her appearance at longtime city lobbyist Mike Murphy’s retirement ceremony, Hill began the day by participating in a discussion with members of the SCV Economic Development Corp.

The Santa Clarita Valley is the premier growth center for Los Angeles County, SCVEDC President Holly Schroeder said during the beginning of the meeting, before Hill addressed questions from the crowd of business leaders and spoke on transportation, government oversight and the country’s future.

After speaking on the successes of the National Defense Authorization Act, Hill said, “Our economic priorities moving forward from here are around infrastructure. Not just transportation, though transportation is, of course, a huge part of it. But also broadband, housing, buildings…”

“As (Holly) talked about, Santa Clarita is sort of an example for what we want to see across the country. It’s certainly an example of what can be done in Los Angeles County, and this can be the model for success that people should be looking to,” Hill said, referring to the area’s public and private sector partnerships that allow the area to thrive.

Hill also spoke with the business leaders on the importance to invest in affordable education, job training and the youth because they are the future workforce who will be the lifeblood of the economy.

“We are in a capitalist society (as) we should be … and that means that we have to find ways of working with industry,” Hill said. “That doesn’t mean you have to be completely beholden to it in any way,” but it’s important to make sure consumers have the resources to be able to give back to the economy and participate in a thriving community.

The congresswoman added during the discussion that she is inspired by her fellow Democratic and Republican freshmen representatives.

“One of the times when I’m most inspired (and) optimistic about the future is when I meet as one of the leaders of the freshman class,” Hill said.

“There’s a feeling that we are at a moment where we have to make some massive progress on things,” Hill said, “there’s not necessarily an agreement on how.

“We’re not going to fix the issue of immigration this Congress,” Hill said. “We’re not going to have this massive sweeping immigration reform. We’re not going to have a total agreement on what border security should look like or whether we should get rid of ICE or anything like that.

“But where can we find a couple of things that we can actually make some kind of movement on,” she said. “And I know there’s a growing group of us who are just desperate because America is desperate to find a few of those things.”