As 2014 and the 113th Congress draw to a close, I would like to take some time this week to look back and reflect on the 18 months I have been able to serve you in Missouri’s Eighth Congressional District. This time last year I wrote a column outlining five goals I had for the year. They were: reining in the IRS and the EPA, returning to a better appropriations process, finding bipartisan solutions for problems, protecting rural America, and watching the Missouri Tigers have another successful f... READ MORE
The House and Senate will officially be sworn in for their next term in January and there is a lot of work to be done. In the next Congress, I will be working with a larger House majority and new Senate majority, and we will hit the ground running on day one to provide relief to Americans throughout the country, especially in rural America. With the House and Senate finally working together, I anticipate many more bills going to the president’s desk. He has been able to hide behind the Democrat-... READ MORE
Last week the House made important progress on an issue I have been fighting since I got to protecting our farmers and landowners from intrusive federal regulations. Since I have been in office, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers have been scheming to take away our property rights. We know this from their actions. First, they proposed the National Blueway designation for the White River Watershed that would have created “buffer zones” keeping farmers from using their land. Then they propose... READ MORE
This week I made one of the most difficult votes of my career. I voted for an omnibus funding bill that includes a continuing resolution. The bill makes major cuts that reflect our rural values and prepares the way for a fight with President Obama over his planned illegal amnesty order. I voted for this bill because it was the most conservative option in front of me. It puts Congress in the best position to fight President Obama on amnesty next session, with a new Republican majority in the Sena... READ MORE
In case you missed it, last week our national debt surpassed $18 trillion. When I am home in Missouri, I constantly hear from parents and grandparents who are worried that their children and grandchildren will not be able to live the American dream because our national debt will cripple our economy for generations. This new record debt should be a wakeup call – now is the time to reduce the size and scope of the federal government and end Washington’s spending addiction. After years of spending ... READ MORE
Open enrollment under Obamacare has begun again and even more folks are being forced to participate in the exchanges. We are hearing that more businesses are being forced to lay off employees, individuals are being dropped from their policies and we don’t even know what the true extent of this round’s damage under Obamacare will be. Some companies with 100 employees or more after January 1, 2015 will be determined “noncompliant” under the Obamacare mandate and forced to pay steep fines or lay of... READ MORE
Affordable energy options for Missourians may be a thing of the past if President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) place additional burdensome regulations on coal-fired power plants. Coal is an effective, affordable means of energy that keeps Missouri’s utility rates low. Right now, EPA officials are attempting to wage war on coal by eliminating or restricting its use in energy production. This is not only a war on coal; it is an attack on our way of life in rural America. For... READ MORE
Well, it has happened again. President Obama is threatening to use his self-imposed executive authority to take sweeping action the majority of Americans oppose. This time he is talking about granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Congress is back in Washington for the end of this session and hard at work, but instead of working with the House and Senate to find solutions on immigration, President Obama has been telling the media he is considering acting solo. In an exit poll from the N... READ MORE
For months I’ve been telling you about how detrimental the new Waters of the United States Environmental Protection Agency regulation would be to our way of life, and now there’s something we can do to stop it. The federal government is accepting comments on this new proposed rule through Friday, Nov. 14. As your congressman, I am submitting comments to explain just how damaging this federal overreach would be to our area, and I encourage you to submit comments as well. This new rule would expan... READ MORE
We have heard a lot about partisan gridlock lately, but the truth is that over the past two years the House of Representatives passed hundreds of bills that would improve the lives of Americans. We've passed bills to put Americans to work, get energy costs down, and ease burdens on businesses. But where are those bills now? They’re stuck in the Senate. The 387 bills stuck in the Senate are the solutions America needs to prosper and the solutions Americans have been demanding. Take the American E... READ MORE
