Middle of It All

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I am humbled to deliver my first speech on the House floor today and discuss the future of our great Nation.

I grew up on a farm south of Quinter, Kansas, that my parents and brother still operate. The house my parents live in, and the house I grew up in, is the same house my great-great-grandfather ordered from a Montgomery Ward catalog in the early 1900s.

Growing up there meant I spent thousands of hours on a tractor working in the fields and on horseback doctoring cattle in the family feed yard. Those hours turned into love of country and lessons about the value of hard work.

My Kansas roots run deep, and my desire to serve our country is wider than a country mile. I ran for Congress to advocate for agriculture and our conservative Kansas values. Kansans are good people who carry a pioneering spirit with them, in the same way those who settled my State did over 160 years ago.

The people of Kansas 1, the Big First, know each other, look out for each other, and sacrifice for each other. The district is home to more than 60,000 farms and is made up of farmers, ranchers, feedlot managers, nutritionists, ethanol producers, ag lenders, and agribusiness owners who feed, fuel, and clothe the world.

As Congress becomes increasingly more urban, the distance from farm to fork has never been greater, and the Big First depends on strong voices for agriculture in Congress. That is why I am honored to serve on the House Agriculture Committee.

At the very top center of the Big First sits Lebanon, Kansas, a seemingly ordinary small town. About 2\1/2\ miles northwest of Lebanon is the exact middle of the contiguous 48 States. A few months ago, a group of us met in Lebanon and prayed for our Nation and that God's will would be done and that our future would be bright.

There is something about being in the middle of the country where farmers pray for rain, parents drive 30 miles one way to take their kids to school, and communities shrink and grow with oil and gas prices that gives you a great perspective. To really be in the middle of it all, though, we must demand results.

I have received many calls from family farmers in the Big First gravely concerned with President Biden's executive order restricting travel from countries like South Africa, where many of our legal farmworkers come from during harvest. I will tell you, if an issue matters to a Kansan, it matters to me.

I worked with a number of my colleagues here to issue a letter to President Biden, asking that he exempt essential workers, like those in agriculture, from his travel ban. Soon after, we were told the President would grant the exemption. But to me, an exemption to an overreaching executive order is not enough.

After watching President Biden issue 25 executive orders in his first 10 days as President, more than the last seven Presidents combined during their first 10 days, I decided I could no longer sit idle and watch executive orders dictate the direction of this country with no input from Congress. The executive branch was not created to legislate--Congress was.

We are now up to 42 executive orders from the Biden White House. That is why, earlier this week, I introduced the More Accountability is Necessary Now acts, six pieces of legislation promoting accountability and transparency to the administration's future executive orders.

The MANN acts require that the executive branch notify the American public and Congress of its intent to issue any new executive orders pertaining to agriculture, energy, the environment, pro-life provisions, the Second Amendment, and immigration.

The short-term impact of legislation like this would be to hold our elected leaders more accountable. But for the long term, we must never forget that America is the greatest and most noble experiment that has ever been endeavored.

When our Founding Fathers used the three words ``by their Creator'' 245 years ago, they unleashed freedom on humanity, because for the first time in history, people stood up and declared that freedoms do not flow from a king or government; they flow from God.

The power of that truth can never be stomped out because it rings loudly in the hearts and minds of Americans from coast to coast and certainly in the Big First, which in many ways is the pilot light of America. In my district, the basic values of faith, family, and freedom are alive and well. It is our responsibility to never let that light go out.

I believe that when we get into the middle of issues, roll up our sleeves, get to work, and do the heavy lifting, we gain better perspectives and better results. Being in the middle of it all instead of being stapled to our desks in Washington, D.C., makes us all better and is good for America.

Get in the middle of it. Stand face to face and engage. Spend time to think, pray, and reflect, like I did that day in the exact center of the country. I promise you will gain a better understanding of where we need to go as a nation.

I did not run for Congress to be a caretaker in the slow demise of America. I ran so I could fight and work to make it stronger. That is what I intend to do while believing that our brightest days are yet to come.

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