Congressman Smith Capitol Report

Missouri’s Farmers Know Best

July 20, 2018

 

For Missourians, agriculture is the heart of our communities. The country roads of southeastern and south central Missouri weave together 19,000 farms, home to some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. This week I’m kicking off a thirty-county swing to hear firsthand from the farmers and ranchers – big and small – who drive Missouri’s economy and feed the world.

 

The thirty counties I am blessed to represent are rich with every farm imaginable. From the soybean fields in the Bootheel to the cattle pastures in the Ozark Foothills, southern Missouri is one of the most diverse agriculture regions in the country. Our farmers and ranchers raise pigs and cattle and grow corn and cotton. They supply the world with soybeans, timber, rice, wheat, and put milk on the table. Our corner of Missouri is home to sheep and goat fields, trout and catfish farms, honey producers, and wine vineyards. I could go on and on about the variety of farms in our district and the unique challenges they face, but the farmers I talk to have one complaint in common: they are frustrated by people in Washington who think they know better than they do how to manage their farm.

 

Agriculture is personal to me, as it is to many of the hardworking families in southern Missouri. At Salem High School I was blessed to join FFA, and after studying Agricultural Economics at Mizzou I took out a loan to keep our family farm in the family. As a fourth-generation family farm owner, I know the challenges that are unique to farming and the real harm that misguided Washington bureaucrats cause our farmers and ranchers. The career bureaucrats in Washington don’t know what’s best for Missouri’s farmers and ranchers, the men and women who roll up their sleeves and know the value in a hard day’s work on the farm know best.

 

I’ll be driving our country roads all across southern Missouri, bringing local county commissioners, state representatives, farm bureau members, and other agricultural leaders along for the ride. We’ll visit a wide variety of farms, listening to family farmers and large operations alike as they open their doors and barns for us and share what makes their farms special. I’m looking forward to driving thousands of miles across our beautiful district and hearing the challenges they face so I can bring their stories and ideas with me to the fight in Washington. I meet regularly with the White House to determine the ways President Trump and I can continue to protect rural America’s way of life and I am always encouraged by his sincere interest and concern for Missouri’s farmers.

 

Missouri’s farmers feed and clothe the world, and they deserve a level playing field with a government that makes it easier to work their land, not more difficult. As long as I am blessed to represent the hardworking men and women who supply the world with so much, I will do everything I can to keep Washington’s hands off of our rural way of life.

 

One of the most important decisions a president will ever make is who to nominate to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court of the United States. Our country places a tremendous amount of responsibility on the nine men and women of the Court, and these justices shape the direction of the country for decades after their confirmation. Retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, and he served on the bench for 29 years after President Reagan left the White House. This week President Trump announced his highly anticipated nomination to replace Justice Kennedy on the Court: Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

 

Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most qualified and solidly conservative judges who President Donald Trump could have chosen to be the next Supreme Court justice. When the president promised the country he would nominate “someone with impeccable credentials, great intellect, unbiased judgment, and deep reverence for the laws and Constitution of the United States,” he could have been describing Judge Kavanaugh directly. Judge Kavanaugh has a proven track record of interpreting the Constitution as written and upholding the rule of law. He currently sits on the most consequential appeals court in the country and has decided hundreds of cases on difficult issues. The Supreme Court has endorsed his opinions more than a dozen times, and his writings are regularly cited by judges across the country. He is “a true judge’s judge,” to borrow a phrase from our president.

 

In his introduction speech to the country, Judge Kavanaugh promised that “if confirmed by the Senate, I will keep an open mind in every case and I will always strive to preserve the Constitution of the United States and the American rule of law.” Judge Kavanaugh understands that the judicial branch’s job is to interpret the law as written, not to be activist judges who legislate from the bench. He has stressed that it isn’t the role of the judiciary to make up new rights in the Constitution and that the courts shouldn’t shy away from enforcing the rights clearly stated in the text of the Constitution.

 

In a landmark case determining Second Amendment rights, Judge Kavanaugh was the dissenting voice of reason arguing the Second Amendment clearly guarantees law-abiding citizens the right to arm and defend themselves. Even though he was in the minority, his clear reasoning helped pave the way for the biggest Supreme Court win for firearm owners since the Second Amendment was written. And in the hundreds of cases he has decided, he has developed a track record of taking away power from unelected government bureaucrats and returning it to the people.

 

Despite Judge Kavanaugh’s outstanding qualifications and firm commitment to our nation’s founding document, the resistance to his nomination mobilized instantly. A flood of liberal Senators publicly committed to obstructing Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination within the hour of President Trump’s announcement. Mainstream media outlets blasted his pick as controversial before the announcement was even made. Protestors at the Supreme Court were seen filling in the blanks on their pre-made signs with Kavanaugh’s name. And fewer than twelve hours after Judge Kavanaugh was introduced as President Trump’s nominee, Senator Chuck Schumer announced he will oppose Kavanaugh with “everything he’s got.”

 

Judge Kavanaugh strikes me as a good and decent family man, and it’s a shame so many obstructionists have committed to opposing him without even sitting down with him. I will be praying for him and his family as they go through the Senate confirmation process, which history tells us will be the absolute ugliest of politics. President Trump has made an outstanding selection with Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a man who will uphold the rule of law and interpret the Constitution as written. He deserves a swift confirmation to be the next associate justice on the United States Supreme Court.

 

Liberal extremists are taking their open borders strategies to new lengths with their latest rally cry to completely eliminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Extremist calls to “abolish ICE” – sometimes without even understanding what the brave men and women who enforce U.S. immigration laws do – should send shivers down the spines of Americans everywhere.

The men and women of ICE work within the Department of Homeland Security and are responsible for removing public safety threats from the country. These include criminal aliens, violent gang members like MS-13, and people who have violated our nation’s immigration laws. ICE stops criminals from moving weapons, drugs, and sex trafficking victims across the United States border.

They pursue criminals and terrorists involved in cybercrime, identity fraud, and financial crimes. In 2017 alone ICE was able to identify and remove 226,119 of these criminals from our country.

To everyday Americans this is a proper, responsible function of government to protect its citizens and provide safety and security. But to the increasingly liberal left, ICE has become the latest target for resistance to any sort of border security or enforcement of immigration laws.

In February, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tweeted a warning to criminals in her community illegally to be on the lookout for ICE officers on patrol. ICE Chief Thomas Homan said her actions as a public official were “no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘police’ when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood.” Taking it a step further, obstructionists have introduced a bill in Congress to completely eliminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement altogether. The radicals have declared they “don’t believe in borders.” Borders aren’t just something you believe in or dream up, they are absolutely necessary for maintaining a sovereign nation and vital to controlling what is coming in and out of the country.

While the opioid epidemic is ravaging communities across the heartland, it’s ridiculous to “not believe” in controlling what people and substances flow into the country. Every public official or candidate who calls to “abolish ICE” is pushing a reckless, radical policy that would endanger Americans for no other reason than to play identity politics and score cheap political points. When added together, their platform of “catch-and-release” policies, sanctuary cities, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement would mean effectively open borders, and that is unacceptable.

First and foremost, we have to build a wall and secure the southern border. Without a wall, we will never stop the illegal immigration and smuggling taking place every day. Congress should pass my bill to defund sanctuary cities that openly flaunt their violations of federal law. And ICE? We have to put the extremists’ plans on freeze.

Ensuring the safety and security of the people is the single greatest responsibility for elected officials. President Trump and I know this, and that’s why we want a secure border and an immigration system based on the rule of law. In their latest call to abolish ICE, out-of-touch liberals seem to have forgotten about this responsibility entirely.

 

Jobs are open, wages are up, unemployment is down, and Americans are optimistic about the future. The country has come a long way in the six months since President Trump signed historic tax cuts, which I was proud to send to his desk. The best is yet to come, but the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is doing wonders for the pocketbooks and paychecks in Southern Missouri. That’s because the new tax code prioritizes farmers, families, and workers first – removing the Washington roadblocks that have held them back from success for too long.

 

The status-quo tax code was punishing for the working families of Missouri and led to grim economic conditions. Stagnant wages, minimal growth, and a lack of jobs made it increasingly harder to make it in America. Hard working Southern Missouri farmers and families had to spend hundreds of hours a year just trying to figure out how much money to send to Washington. They weren’t alone, 90 percent of taxpayers nationwide had to pay someone or use computer software to figure out their taxes for them under the old, unnecessarily complicated tax code.

 

The new tax code has completely flipped the priority from Washington-first to families and workers first. A family of four making up to $55k doesn’t owe any federal income taxes and can keep their hard-earned money instead of sending it to Washington. The expanded child tax credit Ivanka Trump and I helped write into the law makes it easier to support a family. And the Trump Administration will soon be rolling out new postcard-style 1040 forms so you can spend more time on the farm, with your family, or doing anything else other than figuring out your taxes.

 

Now that American businesses and workers can compete on the world stage, the results are going to keep coming in. Workers everywhere received pay raises in February when the IRS began withholding less money out of their paychecks because of the new tax law, and some businesses are taking it a step further. In Missouri we’ve seen businesses like Tyson Foods in Dexter reward employees with $1,000 bonuses, or U.S. Bancorp with operations in Willow Springs announcing that 60,000 employees will receive bonuses and wage hikes. Across the country four million Americans have now received bonuses or wage hikes.

 

The long-term economic security and stability will allow businesses everywhere to invest in their employees and in our communities. Even President Obama publicly acknowledged the tax rates had to come down so America could compete, and with Donald Trump in the White House we finally have a President who is willing to do something about it. Two out of three jobs in this country come directly from a small business. Now that they have room to breathe, a million jobs have been created and there’s now more jobs open than people looking for them.

 

As a result of all this, the economy is moving again and people everywhere are optimistic about their futures. I don’t come from a wealthy family, so it means a great deal to me that the lowest-income households are increasingly more confident about their future and their chance to make it in America. This week it was reported food stamp enrollment fell to an eight-year low because people are finding quality jobs and a booming economy is lifting people out of poverty.

 

The new tax code is a historic win for Missouri and the country, but the work isn’t over. The Senate’s arcane filibuster rules narrowed the tax bill last year, so there’s work to be done to fine tune the law to benefit Missouri’s middle-class. When Ivanka and I worked on the tax bill we successfully included an expanded child tax credit for families, but it couldn’t be permanent because of Senate procedure and obstruction. I’ve authored the Permanent Tax Relief for Working Families Act to make this credit permanent. While the House of Representatives voted to fully repeal the awful death tax, liberal Senators have stopped the Senate from doing the same. I’m working with President Trump to repeal the estate tax that hits family farmers hard, because death should not be a taxable event. I want to know how the new tax code is working for you. Drop me a note at JasonSmith.House.Gov and let me know your take on the tax cuts, six months after President Trump signed them into law.

Missouri GOP Statement on the Appointment of Mike Kehoe to Serve as Lieutenant Governor

 

Jefferson City, Missouri -  The Missouri Republican Party released the following statement on Governor Parson's appointment of Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Kehoe to serve as Lieutenant Governor: 

"Having a qualified Lieutenant Governor is crucial for effective governance, and Governor Parson made the correct choice for Missouri in appointing Mike Kehoe to that position," said Chris Nuelle, a spokesperson for the Missouri Republican Party. 

Nuelle continued, "Mike Kehoe's valuable experience as a small business owner, his push for meaningful reforms in the Missouri legislature, and his dedication to improving the lives of Missourians make him a great choice to aid Governor Parson in his mission to move Missouri forward. We look forward to working with him to enact quality legislation and bring conservative measures to Missouri."