8th Congressional District, Missouri - In Missouri, we take our barbecue very seriously. So, when I heard about a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-funded study scrutinizing backyard grill emissions, I was floored. First the EPA put our family farms in its crosshairs, and then it took aim at wood-burning stoves. Now, the EPA is going after backyard barbecues. This is yet another example of how diligently we must work to prevent government encroachment on our freedoms; some are referring to this fight as the “Pork Steak Rebellion.” It is just one more reason why I am working to rein in the EPA and limit their funding.

We need to keep inspectors working on major environmental issues instead of making surprise visits to law-abiding citizens and creating flawed regulations.  Last year, I voted to cut funding from the EPA by $60 million and eliminate more than 2,000 positions so that we can keep inspectors from meddling in our lives and developing more outrageous rules. Additionally, I sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee earlier this week and urged them to block funding for one of the EPA’s most devastating proposed regulations that would impose intrusive and ineffective rules on every body of water in America. This regulation, called the Waters of the U.S., would be particularly harmful for rural communities.

I will also be pushing the Appropriations Committee to bar any money for implementation or enforcement of the EPA’s extreme new regulations on wood-burning stoves. In our district, about 30,000 households use wood heat to warm their homes. The EPA’s new regulation on emissions would make future wood-burning stoves more expensive to manufacture and purchase. I commend my colleagues in the state House for introducing legislation to block the wood stove rule in Missouri, as I work to block funding for the rule in Washington, D.C.

Thomas Jefferson said, “When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny.” The EPA’s overregulation is nothing short of a war on rural America, and I’m fighting every day to ensure our rural way of life is protected.