Our Brightest Days Are Yet to Come

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss my plans for representing the Big First District in the 118th Congress.

As I have said on this House floor before, the Big First is the geographic center and the pilot light of America because there, the values that make America great are still alive and well: faith, family, freedom, and personal responsibility. We are farmers, ranchers, feed lot managers, businessowners, lenders, bankers, teachers, doctors, nurses, and parents.

My job is to serve and advocate for the people of the Big First, which is why I am excited and grateful to have been appointed to the House Agriculture, House Transportation and Infrastructure, and House Small Business Committees.

As a farm kid and a fifth-generation Kansan, I am honored to serve on the House Agriculture Committee again in the 118th Congress. Agriculture is the largest economic driver of the Big First. We rank number one in beef, wheat, and sorghum production. When I meet with farmers, ranchers, and agriculture producers, I hear about skyrocketing inflation and record-high input costs, labor shortages, government overreach, and the importance of reauthorizing the farm bill.

We need well-crafted farm and food policy in America to remain secure as a Nation, and the reauthorization of the farm bill is an enormous responsibility. My priorities for that legislation remain the same: to protect and strengthen crop insurance, promote trade, and stop regulatory overreach. I am committed to rolling up my sleeves and working for the men and women who feed, fuel, and clothe the world.

I am also honored to serve on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Big First has 83,000 miles of road, seven commercial airports, and more than 4,000 miles of railroad tracks. We rely on this system to get to work, take our kids to school, and deliver food, fuel, and fiber to the rest of the world.

The people of the Big First deserve a voice on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and I am proud to be their spokesperson. A well-maintained, fiscally responsible infrastructure network supports economic activity, strengthens the supply chain, and helps America to remain a global power.

During this Congress, I will also serve on the House Small Business Committee. The Big First is home to more than 200,000 small businesses which employ 80 percent of all employees in the district.

Small businesses help drive the American economy and define the American dream. They add brick and mortar to the values that make our country unique, like freedom, self-determination, and the pursuit of happiness.

As a child, I learned about the responsibility, drive, and decisionmaking skills required to run a small business from watching my parents operate our preconditioning feedlot and family farm. I will continue to defend and support small businesses, their owners, employees, and the American values that small businesses embody.

I am honored to serve on these committees, and we have a lot of work to do. Over the next 2 years, we need to reauthorize the farm bill, develop new trade agreements with countries that will benefit American ag producers, and review the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act. We need to reauthorize FAA and the Water Resources Development Act, protect producers from a burdensome and overreaching definition of waters of the United States, and ensure that our small and regional airports have the support they need. We also need to maintain the stepped-up basis, return money to small businesses from IRS watchdogs, and ensure that small businesses have a fair shot at government contracts.

I will be working on a wide variety of issues, but I am bringing the same approach to all of them. A Russell native, Senator Bob Dole once told me about the Kansas approach: honesty; hard work; respect for your roots; service; simplicity; genuine, thoughtful care for people; and just plain common sense.

I learned these Kansan conservative values as a kid in the Big First, they inspire my work today on all my committees, and they will always guide my steps here in Congress.

Ultimately, I believe that with prayer and hard work, our brightest days are yet to come.

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