Missouri Farm Bureau Archives

Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska governors plan bipartisan Thursday meeting on river and Corps-related issues

April 8, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s governor will join the governors of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska Thursday afternoon in Council Bluffs, to follow-up on Missouri River issues and about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Governor Mike Parson talks to Missouri National Guard members in northern Missouri on June 3, 2019, after an aerial tour of massive flooding (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

This will be at least the fourth bipartisan meeting between Governor Mike Parson (R) and Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts (R), Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D). While their 3 p.m. meeting will be closed, the governors will brief reporters after the event at the Council Bluffs Police Department.

The governors have signed a four-state agreement to cooperate on issues relating to flood control and the Corps.

Governor Parson is still frustrated over the 2019 flooding, which hit northern Missouri especially hard. The Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest general farm organization, says more than 1.4 million acres of farmland in the state went unplanted in 2019, due to flooding.

The flooding also caused the October 2019 collapse of the heavily-traveled railroad bridge over the Grand River in northern Missouri’s Brunswick, causing Norfolk Southern to suspend freight train service between Moberly and Kansas City for a time.

Brunswick is a small farming community, between Carrollton and Moberly. The National Weather Service (NWS) Missouri Basin River forecast center said in 2019 that backwater from flood debris helped cause that bridge to collapse. The logjam collapsed the train tracks.

Governor Parson will also be heading to northwest Missouri’s rural Rock Port on Thursday morning, to tour a major levee known as L-536. He’ll tour the levee and will meet with farmers who were impacted by the 2019 flooding.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Tarkio), who’s the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee on Capitol Hill, has told Missourinet that flood control and navigation must be the top priority for the Corps, regarding the Missouri River.

Look for several late nights in Missouri Senate this week; House to begin discussion on congressional redistricting

March 8, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

The Missouri Senate will likely be in session for some late nights this week in Jefferson City, as lawmakers wrap up the first half of the 2021 legislative session.

Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz speaks to Missourinet in 2020 (January 2020 file photo from Missourinet’s Ashley Byrd)

Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, tells Missourinet Sullivan affiliate KTUI that senators will debate several key issues on the floor this week.

“I think education (school choice legislation), tax policy, motor fuel tax, and again I would anticipate that we will spend several long nights and when we break, people (state senators and staff) will probably be exhausted and ready for a break,” Schatz tells KTUI.

The Pro Tem reiterated that on Saturday to Missourinet. While education reform is a top priority for several GOP state senators, Democrats worry about the impact on public schools.

Increasing transportation funding has been a top priority for Schatz, who notes Missouri’s 17-cent per gallon gasoline tax has remained the same since 1996.

Schatz’s Senate Bill 262 would increase Missouri’s gasoline tax by 15 cents per gallon, by 2027. It also includes a provision for an exemption and refund.

The Missouri House will also be busy this week, both on the floor and in numerous committees.

The House is expected to debate a proposed constitutional amendment this week that involves initiative petitions.

HJR 22 is sponsored by State Rep. J. Eggleston, R-Maysville. If approved by lawmakers this year and if voters approve it, it would require sponsors of initiative petitions proposing constitutional amendments to collect signatures of 12 percent of registered voters in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts and to submit those petitions to the Legislature for consideration, similar to a bill. The governor’s signature would not be required.

Supporters say the Missouri Constitution is about ten times larger than its federal counterpart, and that many states don’t allow use of initiatives to amend their constitutions. Supporters of Eggleston’s bill include Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

Opponents of the Eggleston bill say it would prevent the will of the people from becoming law. They also say the initiative process is difficult as it is. Opponents include the Missouri AFL-CIO and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

State Rep. Dan Shaul (R-Imperial), who chairs the Missouri House Special Committee on Redistricting, speaks on the House floor in Jefferson City on May 15, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Congressional redistricting will also be discussed this week in Jefferson City.

The Missouri House Special Committee on Redistricting will hold its organizational meeting Tuesday morning at 9. Congressional redistricting is done every ten years, after the U.S. Census is completed. State Rep. Dan Shaul, R-Imperial, chairs the committee, and State Rep. Jerome Barnes, D-Raytown, is the ranking Democrat.

Chairman Shaul tells Missourinet that Tuesday’s meeting is to let committee members know what expectations are for themselves and for the committee, to help them understand the process. The committee won’t meet again until after the legislative spring break.

Legislation involving the Missouri Lottery will also be heard this week, in committee.

The House General Laws Committee meets Monday evening to hear a bill from State Rep. Jay Mosley, D-Florissant, which would give Missouri Lottery winners the option of not having their names published by the Lottery.

Representative Mosley has filed this bill several times, telling Missourinet last year it’s a safety issue.

“I want people to feel safe when they win. I want them to experience their winnings in the best possible fashion,” Mosley said last February.

Mosley worries Missouri Lottery winners could be targeted by people who read about their win, or approached by family members who want money.

Congressman Cleaver says USDA Offices are staying put in KC, rumors were not true

February 4, 2021 By Ashley Byrd

Kansas City area Congressman Emanuel Cleaver says the Biden Administration will not move the newly-relocated USDA offices from Kansas City back to the nation’s capital.

Cleaver carries political clout with President Biden, who came to Kansas City at the congressman’s request during the campaign.

Missouri Farm Bureau leaders mentioned this as a concern immediately after the 2020 presidential election.

“I represent that area, I am the senior Democrat in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas. And I can tell you that there is no way that those agricultural offices will be moved against my political will. That’s just not going to happen,” Cleaver told Missourinet.’

“I heard the rumors over and over again and have not spoken about it publicly. I can tell you those offices are not going anywhere.

USDA’s Economic Research Service and National Institutes of Food & Agriculture moved to Kansas City last year. Though Cleaver supported the move, he predicted the USDA may lose some top employees — and they did —as 2/3 of the research and funding agencies’ staff in Washington DC quit.

Cleaver says any move back to Washington D.C. would be too expensive.

Northern Missouri congressman focusing on navigation and flood control (AUDIO)

September 9, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A congressman who represents northern Missouri describes the Port of St. Joseph as a major economic engine, saying farmers up and down the Missouri River depend on it to get grain to market.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, (right) speaks to TransPort 360 CEO Bill Becker at the Port of St. Joseph on September 1, 2020 (photo courtesy of Congressman Graves’ Facebook page)

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, met separately last week with both Missouri Farm Bureau and the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River in St. Joseph, and says both groups understand the importance of navigation and flood control along the Missouri.

“Navigation is vitally important to folks that want to protect the river and to be able to use the river for commerce, and we’re seeing a lot of opportunities in St. Joseph and all along the river for that matter,” Graves says.

He also says farmers up and down the river depend on the Port of St. Joseph to get fertilizer products to their fields.

Graves, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, also traveled to northeast Missouri last week. He says levee districts along the Mississippi River are facing many challenges as they work to rebuild after the flood of 2019.

He says residents in that area are vulnerable.

“It makes it very hard to go back in and try to rebuild your house or redo your house when you’ve got the opportunity that it could flood again,” says Graves.

Northeast Missouri saw major flooding in 2019, and the Missouri National Guard’s 35th Brigade was brought in to assist along the Mississippi River in Clarksville.

Missouri Farm Bureau says more than 1.4 million acres of farmland in the state went unplanted in 2019, due to flooding.

During an interview with Missourinet, Congressman Graves also says the U.S. Post Office is critical for his rural district, which has a large elderly population. Graves was one of 26 House Republicans on Capitol Hill who voted for the recent $25 billion Post Office bill.

“I’m a big believer in six-day (mail) delivery and making sure that folks are able to get their prescriptions or whatever it is that is coming in the mail,” Graves says.

President Donald Trump (R) has blasted the post office bill, describing it as a waste of money.

Graves represents 36 counties across northern Missouri, from river to river. The district has more square miles than nine U.S. states. It includes St. Joseph, Bethany, Chillicothe, Hannibal and Clarksville.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, which was recorded on September 4, 2020:

USDA currently in “big hiring phase” in Kansas City (AUDIO)

August 28, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A top official at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says the agency is making progress in relocating two major facilities to Kansas City: the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agricultural Policy.

USDA Under Secretary Greg Ibach, U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, and USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Richard Fordyce spoke to reporters on August 21, 2020 at the food bank in Columbia (photo courtesy of Brownfield’s Julie Harker)

USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach tells Missourinet the agency continues to transfer employees from Washington to Kansas City, those who chose to move.

“We’re also in a big hiring phase trying to get people on board and establish that in Kansas City,” Ibach says.

USDA’s relocation is expected to bring about 550 jobs to Kansas City, with average wages between $80,000 and $100,000. Mr. Ibach says the agency has established a “beautiful office” in Kansas City.

Ibach says it’s beneficial to have USDA employees who have roots in agriculture, adding that the move to Kansas City will benefit farmers and ranchers.

“It’s really exciting to be able to have the people that are analyzing the economics of agriculture be right here in the heartland of America, where agriculture is,” says Ibach.

Under Secretary Ibach spoke to Missourinet at a recent USDA event in mid-Missouri’s Columbia, to promote a federal program that’s addressing hunger needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event took place at the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, where Ibach was joined by USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Richard Fordyce and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville.

The USDA relocation to Kansas City has been praised by members of Missouri’s congressional delegation in both parties, and well as by Governor Mike Parson (R) and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas (D).

U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, and Hartzler praise the move, saying it gets USDA closer to the farmers they serve.

Missouri’s largest general farm organization is also pleased with the relocation. Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurt says it will improve USDA’s customer service.

“You know within a day’s drive of their new headquarters (in Kansas City) will be most of the corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, I mean you think about the crops, pork, beef,” Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst said, in a 2019 interview with Missourinet.

The Kansas City area is also home to what is called the animal science corridor. The Kansas City Area Development Council says the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor is home to more than 300 animal health companies.

Click here to listen to USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Greg Ibach, who spoke to Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth on August 21, 2020 outside of the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri in Columbia:

Brattin clinches Republican nomination for Missouri Senate District 31 race

August 4, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Former Representative Rick Brattin (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel; Missouri House Communications)

Former State Representative Rick Brattin of Harrisonville has taken 49% of the vote compared to State Representative Jack Bondon’s 44% in the race for the Missouri Senate District 31 seat. Brattin and Bondon, both Republicans, have been campaigning to replace outgoing GOP Senator Ed Emery of Lamar.

Term limits prevent Emery from running for re-election for the overwhelmingly Republican district. The district extends from western Missouri down to southwest Missouri.

Bondon was backed by two powerful state organizations – the Missouri Farm Bureau and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Brattin, the current Cass County Auditor, faces Democrat Raymond Kinney of Raymore in November. He served eight years in the Missouri House, from 2011 to 2018.

Four Republicans hope to replace term-limited Libla in southeast Missouri Senate district

July 28, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Four southeast Missouri Republicans are running in the August GOP primary to replace veteran State Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, who’s leaving the Legislature at the end of the year because of term limits.

State Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, presides over the Missouri Senate in Jefferson City on May 14, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Jonathan Lorenz at Senate Communications)

Three of the four candidates are from Poplar Bluff, while the fourth lives in the Bootheel. The four candidates are State Rep. Jeff Shawan, R-Poplar Bluff, farmer Jason Bean of Holcomb, longtime State Farm Insurance agent Eddy Justice and former State Rep. Stephen Cookson, R-Poplar Bluff.

The rural district includes eight counties: Butler, Carter, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Shannon and Stoddard. Towns in the district include Poplar Bluff, Kennett, Charleston, Portageville, Dexter and Puxico.

Agriculture is huge in the district.

No Democrats filed for Libla’s seat, which means the winner of the August 4th primary will be the next senator from the district.

Representative Shawan is finishing his first term in the Missouri House. He’s a former Butler County emergency management director. One of his main priorities as a legislator and during the campaign is supporting law enforcement and first responders.

Shawan filed legislation this year to increase penalties for those who flee from police, in high-speed pursuits. Shawan’s cousin, Bob Adams, testified for the bill. Adams testified that his daughter was killed in 1998 after a 14-year-old suspect fleeing police slammed a stolen vehicle into his daughter’s car.

Bean is the son of former State Rep. Otto Bean, R-Holcomb. Jason Bean is a farmer and is currently the chairman of the Fisher Delta Research Center’s advisory board. Missouri Farm Bureau has endorsed Bean, and says the 25th district “is the number-one agriculture district in the state of Missouri.”

Eddy Justice has been a State Farm agent in Poplar Bluff for more than 20 years. He’s also a former chairman of the Butler County GOP Committee, and served briefly on the Missouri Board of Education. Justice is campaigning against government overreach, and for the Second Amendment and jobs.

Former State Rep. Stephen Cookson, R-Poplar Bluff, served four terms in the Missouri House, from 2011-2018. Cookson was one of the first GOP lawmakers in the Legislature to call for then-Governor Eric Greitens (R) to resign in January 2018.

Cookson focused on organ donation, while he served in the Legislature. Governor Greitens appointed him to Missouri’s Organ Donor Task Force. Cookson is campaigning on conservative, rural values. He’s a former teacher and served as school superintendent in Naylor.

The August primary winner will replace Libla, who chairs the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee. Libla was elected to the Missouri Senate in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016.

Libla’s top priority has been transportation. During an interview with Missourinet in July, Libla said that Missouri is not funding roads and bridges adequately. He says Missouri’s gasoline tax needs to be increased, noting the state’s 17-cent per gallon tax has remained the same since 1996.

Missouri’s state treasurer is warning against Medicaid expansion; both sides cite different numbers

July 26, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s state treasurer and the House Budget Committee chairman will travel across the state on Monday, urging Missourians to vote against Medicaid expansion on the August ballot.

Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick speaks at a CARES Act funding working group on May 21, 2020 in Jefferson City (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Medicaid, which is formally known as MO HealthNet, is a federal and state program that assists with medical costs for residents with limited incomes.

House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith, R-Carthage, tells Missourinet that Medicaid’s current budget is almost $12 billion for fiscal year 2021. The state’s current operating budget is about $35.2 billion.

Smith and State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick (R) will visit Joplin, Springfield, Kansas City, Creve Coeur, Cape Girardeau and Jefferson City on Monday. They’ll brief Capitol reporters immediately following the governor’s 3 pm press conference at the Statehouse.

Missourians will cast ballots on Amendment Two, the Medicaid expansion proposal, on August 4. If approved by voters, Medicaid would be expanded for residents between the ages of 19 and 64 with an income level at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, as set forth in the Affordable Care Act.

Medicaid expansion supporters say the measure would provide healthcare to Missourians who earn less than $18,000 annually.

Chairman Smith says the August Medicaid expansion ballot measure is projected to cost $200 million in state general revenue, and $1.8 billion in federal funding each year. He also says it will raise Missouri’s Medicaid rolls from 950,000 to more than 1.2 million participants.

Smith also says COVID-19 has had a major impact on Missouri’s economy.

“More than $1 billion has been cut from the state’s general revenue budget in recent months,” Smith says, in a statement. “Just this month, services requiring state support have been drastically reduced, including elementary school funding, college scholarships, and support services for those in need. Amendment Two will be a knockout blow to the state budget as more services will be cut or eliminated to pay for the healthcare of able-bodied adults.”

Supporters of Medicaid expansion disagree, saying the measure will create thousands of new jobs, many of them in rural communities.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and many unions have endorsed Amendment Two. The Chamber has quoted a study from the Missouri Foundation for Health, which says Medicaid expansion will create more than 16,000 new jobs annually during its first five years, while increasing personal income by $1.1 billion annually.

The Foundation for Health says most of the new positions would be outside of St. Louis and Kansas City, and that 90 percent of those jobs will pay more than $15 an hour.

Medicaid expansion supporters also say that Amendment Two will help keep rural hospitals open.

The Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) says ten rural Missouri hospitals have closed since 2014. Five of the ten ten closings happened in the southeast Missouri district of U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem.

The Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest general farm organization, is opposed to Amendment Two. Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst says it could cripple the state budget by imposing massive new healthcare costs on Missouri taxpayers.

37 states have expanded Medicaid.

Graves says northwest Missouri is still impacted from record 2019 flooding (AUDIO)

July 24, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A congressman who represents northern Missouri says it’s been about 500 days since the Flood of 2019 began, and that thousands of acres of the world’s most fertile farmland are still covered under water or silt and sand.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, visits with officials and residents in flooded Holt County in March 2019 (file photo courtesy of the congressman’s Facebook page)

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, says two small farming towns northwest of St. Joseph have been especially impacted.

“Craig, Missouri being one of those,” Graves says. “Corning, Missouri another. Those are just two that are in Holt County.”

Holt County saw record flooding in 2019, which covered heavily-traveled Highway 159. Graves says some residents there have lost their farms and homes, multiple times.

The Missouri Farm Bureau says more than 1.4 million acres of farmland in the state went unplanted in 2019, due to flooding. One of the hardest-hit areas was in Holt County.

Graves, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He says flood control and navigation should be the Corps’ top priority for the Missouri River.

He says 578-million tons of goods are shipped by barges annually.

Congressman Graves and Governor Mike Parson have both criticized the Corps. Parson and the governors of neighboring Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska have met with the Corps at least three times, to discuss what needs to be done differently in the future.

The governors have signed a four-state agreement to cooperate on issues relating to flood control and the Corps.

Graves tells Missourinet that some towns in his district are still behind temporarily-repaired levees.

“In many cases too, they’re building back to the exact same criteria that was there before,” says Graves.

Graves is optimistic that Congress will approve a major water resources bill before the November election. He says the bipartisan bill is aimed at helping communities impacted by repeated flooding.

“I think it will go very easily off the floor of the House. Again, it was unanimous out of committee, and then it will go over to the Senate and then we’ll work it out in conference,” Graves says.

He says the bill gives towns more help in planning and implementing flood control projects that limit the risk of future floods.

Graves, a dean in Missouri’s congressional delegation, represents 36 northern Missouri counties. He’s finishing his tenth term on Capitol Hill. His district includes Craig, St. Joseph, Chillicothe, Bethany, Macon, Kirksville and Hannibal.

Click here to listen to the full eight-minute interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, which was recorded on July 17, 2020:

Beef plant that opened in March in western Missouri now has 175 employees

July 6, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A veteran Missouri lawmaker who serves on the House Agriculture Policy Committee says the newest modern beef processing plant built in the United States now has about 175 employees in western Missouri’s Lone Jack.

The Republic Foods beef facility is located in far western Missouri’s Lone Jack, a town of about 1,000 residents (June 2020 photo courtesy of Rep. Warren Love)

Lone Jack is a small town of about 1,000, and is southeast of Lee’s Summit. It’s located in Jackson County.

State Rep. Warren Love, R-Osceola, tells Missourinet that Republic Foods started operating the plant in March. He says it is processing about 250 head of beef cows per day. Missourinet contacted the company, which confirms the numbers provided by Love.

“These are what you call hamburger cows,” Love says. “They come in, they’re completely deboned, the meat is, then it’s processed into hamburger. They call it lean-trim.”

Love says about 75 percent of the cows are purchased in Missouri.

Love and other state lawmakers toured the plant in June, and were joined by representatives of the Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA). Love says the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association and Missouri Farm Bureau also participated in the tour.

“I think there were eight legislators, seven of them from the House, all serve on the Ag (House Agriculture Policy) Committee,” says Love. “And then we had one senator, Senator Justin Brown from Rolla.”

Senator Brown co-chairs the Joint Committee on Agriculture.

Love, who’s finishing his eighth and final year in the House because of term limits, is a member of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association. He says it’s possible that the Lone Jack plant could receive some of the $20 million in assistance appropriated by the Legislature this year for meat processors dealing with COVID-19.

The $20 million is for plants with less than 200 employees. It’s designed for support, workforce assistance, equipment and capital improvements.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and State Rep. Warren Love, R-Osceola, which was recorded in June 2020: