We have another eventful week ahead as my staff and I meet with Kansans across the district. So far, I’ve toured Dodge City Community College and met with several small business owners. Later this week, I will have a roundtable with members of the Kansas Hospital Association. On Friday, I’ll wrap the week up by honoring the 2022 Art Competition winner for the Big First, Tyra Schultz, at my first official Congressional Art Winner Ceremony, after which I will attend the inauguration of the new Kansas State University President, Richard Linton.  



It's a privilege to offer ways to help Kansas students excel through my congressional office with internships, military academy nominations, the Congressional Art Competition, and the Congressional App Challenge. My office is now accepting applications for military academy nominations and submissions for the Congressional App Challenge. Both of these programs are open to high school students who live in or attend school in the Big First District. For more information about military academy nominations or the Congressional App Challenge, click below:

If you'd like to keep up to date with my district visits this week, and in the future, please follow my social media for daily updates:

In case You Missed It

My response to President Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

Since President Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan last week, Kansans have been reaching out to my office expressing their concerns and frustration, and I share their sentiments. The Biden Administration's plan to cancel student loans amounts to campaigning with taxpayer dollars.

It is ill-timed and irresponsible. In the midst of the already record high inflation rates in our country, this plan will cost taxpayers more than $300 billion, transferring the debt burden of borrowers to low and middle-class taxpayers. Of 255 million adult Americans, only 45 million have student loan debt. President Biden's plan unfairly punishes Americans who have already paid their student loans or never attended college.

It is short-sighted. The Biden plan fails to address the root cause of student debt: the increasingly high cost of education.

Americans deserve a well-developed, long-term solution, not a short-term band-aid designed to buy new votes leading up to a midterm election, which will ultimately just make inflation even worse.

Pushing back against overreaching regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency

This month, I led 90 of my colleagues on a letter to the Biden Administration pushing back on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s new proposed revisions for the interim decision for Atrazine. The decisions, which were based on invalid studies and questionable conclusions, will impose new federal red tape on farmers and hinder their ability to produce their crops.

In the District

Dodge City Community College Visit

Pictured (left to right): Christina Haselhorst, Director of Foundation and Community Relations; Kathy Ramsour, Board of Trustees Vice Chair; Rep. Tracey Mann; Jeff Cermin, Vice President of Administration and Finance; Jay Kinzer, Vice President of Student Services and Risk Management; and Lance Ziesch, Assistant Director of Marketing and Community Relations.

It was great visiting Dodge City Community College yesterday! DC3 currently has 1,700 students enrolled and has grown 26% in the last five years. They offer a variety of programs of study, ranging from technical and vocational, nursing, social sciences, cosmetology, and more. DC3 strives to meet students where they are in life, which is why they offer online courses, college credit courses for high school students, and course transferability.

Thank you to all the administrators and faculty who took time out of their busy schedules to talk with me about the work DC3 is doing to help students further their education.

Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership (KARL) Genesis Seminar

It was a pleasure attending the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership (KARL) Genesis Seminar with special guest speakers Dr. Richard Linton, President of Kansas State University, and Ron Wilson with the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development. It was especially meaningful to attend with one of my district staff members who is a part of this year's KARL leadership class. 

KARL is an innovative leadership program that helps prepare Kansas agricultural and rural leaders to positively impact our communities. The program brings together individuals from all different types of backgrounds and challenges them to think differently and learn from each other to gain skills and perspectives that will serve their own communities.

Kansas Association of Farm Service Agency County Office Employees State Convention

I was honored to speak at the Kansas Association of Farm Service Agency County Office Employees (KASCOE) state convention in Salina. The hardworking individuals of KASCOE are staunch defenders of agriculture, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to recognize them for their outstanding work and to discuss my recent work in Washington, D.C. on behalf of Kansas farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers.

I shared my priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill with them. The Farm Bill helps protect our food security and freedom as a country, which is why Congress must consider its reauthorization intentionally and strategically.

My top priority for the 2023 Farm Bill is crop insurance, which we must approach with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. My conversations with producers, farm economists, and crop insurance agents have shaped my understanding of how critical it is to reauthorize the crop insurance title in 2023. I also discussed the importance of programs like Livestock Indemnity, conservation programs that put farmers in the driver's seat - not the government, and supporting innovative research initiatives like the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan.

Thank you to KASCOE for hosting me and for the great work they do for our agricultural producers and for the future of Kansas agriculture.