Weekly Columns
The weather is finally getting colder, just in time to kick off hunting season in Arkansas. If you’ve ever been to my office in D.C., you’ll immediately see how much I love hunting. I have pictures from some of my favorite duck hunts hanging on the wall, and just this week I was comparing notes with a visitor on the best places to duck hunt in Arkansas.
If you’ve driven in Southwest Arkansas for any length of time, you’ve probably gotten stuck behind a log truck for a few miles. These trucks, stacked high with freshly cut trees, represent just one link in a long chain of timber 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.
Food is a necessity for life, and agriculture is Arkansas’s largest economic sector. The American economy and our basic existence depend on farmers. Almost everything that we use in our daily lives can be traced in some way to farm production or natural resource extraction. From crops to cattle, farmers support an economic chain that affects every single one of our lives.
I’ve lived in Arkansas my whole life and have spent years fishing and hunting in the best lakes and forests, but I am constantly taken aback by the beauty of our state when I visit new places. As members of Congress headed back to their districts for the beginning of October, I was able to see some of these new places through a tourism tour across the region.
While news stations focused on impeachment this week, a huge win for American farmers and ranchers slipped quietly under the radar. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed phase one of a U.S.-Japan trade deal, and the agreement is set to go into effect this coming January.
Seasonal change always brings a new round of cleaning and organizing in my house, and the federal government would do well to follow this example. I often talk about bureaucracy and red tape slowing down good governance, and there is perhaps no better example of this than in the way the federal government catalogues its assets.
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played a critical role in our country for decades. These higher education institutions have long been dedicated to serving the African-American community, even before President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As Congress’s August recess concludes, I’ve had the opportunity to wrap up some much-needed time in the district with a week of forestry meetings. Both Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Vicki Christiansen visited Arkansas this week, and their time in the Natural State highlighted the importance of forest management.
The federal appropriations process has been broken for decades, and this year was no different. Spending bills should be bipartisan, yet House Democrats sent partisan appropriations bills to the Senate, where they have no hope of passage.