Jobs and Economic Growth

At any given time this week, impeachment proceedings completely dominated national news headlines. Yet while networks focused on the partisan process, a huge win for poultry producers across America slipped quietly under the radar. On November 14, China lifted its ban on poultry imports from the United States, thereby reopening a huge market for poultry production.

After spending two weeks in Arkansas, I returned to D.C. ready to get to work and tackle legislation. Yet in a pattern that's become all too familiar, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued focusing on impeachment inquiries instead of bringing bipartisan bills to the floor that we can debate and pass to the Senate.

Impeachment is one of the most serious tools that Congress can use, but it's not the only thing we're elected to do. Our responsibility is to serve constituents by passing legislation that supports, protects, and provides for the needs of Americans around the country.

When the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced at the end of May that it would be closing nine Civilian Conservation Center (CCC) programs across the country, I was discouraged to learn that the Cass Center in Ozark was one of the nine. Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton and I immediately wrote to the USDA and Department of Labor (DOL), expressing concern about the proposed closures, the lack of congressional notification and what that would mean for rural parts of our state.