U.S. Rep. Sam Graves 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.

Rural Missouri congressional district has more square miles than nine U.S. states

April 7, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

A Missouri House committee working on congressional redistricting will hear public testimony Thursday morning in Jefferson City from residents in northern Missouri’s massive Sixth Congressional District, which covers more square miles than nine U.S. states.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (left) meets with Missouri Governor Mike Parson at the Capitol in Jefferson City on February 24, 2020 (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

The district includes 36 of Missouri’s 114 counties. The Sixth District includes St. Joseph, Tarkio, Cameron, Chillicothe, Bethany, Trenton, Kirksville, Macon and Hannibal. The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are both in the district.

The district is represented by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Tarkio), who’s the dean of Missouri’s congressional delegation. He’s serving his 11th term on Capitol Hill.

The Missouri House Special Committee on Redistricting will meet Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Statehouse in Jefferson City. The committee will hear in-person testimony, and written testimony will also be accepted. Committee Chair Dan Shaul (R-Imperial) says the committee is looking for information on what makes the district good and bad, and key characteristics about the district.

Flooding has been a major issue in the district, for the past 30 years. The flood of 1993 devastated the district. The entire town of Pattonsburg had to be relocated. The floods of 1995 and 2019 also caused major problems. Congressman Graves has been critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for how they’ve managed the Missouri River.

Agriculture is also a big issue in the district, as is transportation. The district includes I-29, I-35 and Highway 36. Graves is the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Graves was re-elected to his 11th term in November, beating Democrat Gena Ross with 67 percent of the vote. Graves received 258,709 votes, while Ross received 118,926 votes.

Northern Missouri hasn’t sent a Democrat to Capitol Hill since former U.S. Rep. Pat Danner (D-Smithville), who served four terms from 1993-2000. The late U.S. Rep. Jerry Litton (D-Chillicothe) also represented the district, serving two terms from 1973-1976. Congressman Litton was killed in a plane crash in August 1976, after winning Missouri’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.

Missouri’s governor warns against potential natural gas price gouging

February 18, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s governor said Thursday that numerous constituents have contacted his office about huge price increases in natural gas. Much of the state has been impacted by multiple snowstorms and below freezing temperatures for about ten days.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson briefs Capitol reporters in Jefferson City on February 4, 2021 (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

During a Statehouse news conference, Governor Mike Parson said the demand for heating fuel has increased significantly, with extremely cold temperatures. The governor tells Capitol reporters that he knows there have been some supply issues.

“However, we will not tolerate any effort to price gouge or take advantage of customers at a time when there is no other choice or alternative options,” Parson says.

The governor encourages Missouri residents who believe there has been price gouging to contact Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s consumer protection hotline at 1-800-392-8222. Parson says his administration will use all resources that are possible to stop any kind of gouging.

Meantime, a bipartisan group of Missouri’s congressional delegation is asking federal officials to review the natural gas supply, in light of extreme winter weather.

Republican U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley and seven of the state’s eight U.S. House members say there’s been a surge in energy demand across Missouri and that residents have been experiencing electricity outages and rolling blackouts.

“In light of these challenges, we need to ensure there is an adequate supply of affordable energy and natural gas for families, farmers and businesses in Missouri and the Midwest,” the letter from the lawmakers reads, in part.

The letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Blunt and Hawley and by U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, Jason Smith, R-Salem, Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, Billy Long, R-Springfield, and Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin.

645 MoDOT employees have had COVID-19; pandemic is major theme in Missouri transportation department’s annual report

February 9, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s transportation director says more than 600 of his employees have had the coronavirus. State Department of Transportation (MoDOT) director Patrick McKenna testified before the Joint Committee on Transportation Oversight on Monday in Jefferson City, delivering MoDOT’s annual report.

A truck driver travels on I-70 near Mineola Hill in east-central Missouri’s Montgomery County in 2019 (file photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Transportation)

MoDOT has about 5,100 employees. McKenna testifies they’ve been able to slow the rate of transmission in the past 45 to 60 days. MoDOT has implemented the boxed-in strategy. If any one person tests positive in a MoDOT facility, McKenna says they test anyone who’s been in that facility in seven days.

The pandemic is a major theme in the agency’s annual report, which is nine pages. MoDOT notes actual state highway-user revenue for motor fuel, motor vehicle sales and motor vehicle and driver’s licenses was about $38 million less than projected for fiscal year 2020.

McKenna testifies the number one objective during the pandemic was the keep the transportation network open, and that has happened.

Director McKenna also testified about several key projects across the state. He announced that construction will begin in the spring of 2022 to replace the aging Buck O’Neil bridge in Kansas City, which connects the Northland to downtown. McKenna says Massman-Clarkson has been selected for the design-build contract.

“This past week, the (Missouri Highways and Transportation) commission actually just approved the design team and construction team for the Buck O’Neil bridge, a major initiative for Kansas City,” says McKenna.

This is a $220 million project, and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, helped to secure $25 million in federal funding. Graves is the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation Committee on Capitol Hill.

The current Buck O’Neil bridge opened in 1956, and MoDOT says about 50-thousand vehicles use it daily.

Director McKenna is also touting the massive I-270 north project. The $278 million project is the agency’s largest single project in the past decade. It runs along I-270 from I-70 all the way to Riverview Drive. It involves replacing multiple interchanges and updating an outer road system.

Safety was also a key theme of Director McKenna’s presentation to lawmakers.

Despite lower traffic volumes due to the COVID pandemic, he says Missouri saw one of its highest levels of traffic fatalities in recent memory in 2020. McKenna, Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri State Highway Patrol raised concerns about the trends several times last year.

Director McKenna says speeding and distracted driving are factors.

“We’ve closed out the year and it looks like there will have been 986 lost souls on Missouri’s highways this past year. That’s well up, we were below 900 last year,” McKenna says. He also notes 66 percent of the vehicle occupants killed were unbuckled.

McKenna also says Missouri also saw a record number of pedestrian deaths in 2020.

The report is also critical of a new law that allows Missourians to ride motorcycles without helmets. The report says 40 to 45 people will die each year, because of this action.

The law, which took effect in August, says that qualified operators 26 or older can operate a motorcycle or a motortricycle without a helmet, if they’re covered by a health insurance policy or other form of insurance that would provide them with medical benefits for injuries as a result of a crash.

Long to file Corps bill again; three kayakers have died in same spot in southwest Missouri in past 17 months

December 30, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A congressman from the southwest Missouri Ozarks will file a bill again in 2021, aimed at preventing future deaths of kayakers.

U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, at his Capitol office in Washington in July 2019 (file photo courtesy of Congressman Long’s Facebook page)

U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, notes three kayakers have drowned in the same location on Bull Creek in the past 17 months. The drowning deaths happened near Saddlebrooke, between Springfield and Branson.

Congressman Long tells Missourinet that he’ll work closely with another Missouri congressman to get the bill passed next year.

“With all of the emphasis on COVID relief, it (the kayaking bill) was not able to be moved through the legislative process in the 116th Congress. I will introduce it again at the start of the 117th and will work with Rep. Sam Graves to make sure it goes through his T&I committee and gets on the floor for a vote in the House,” Long says.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, is the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Long’s bill would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an in-depth study of the nationwide permitting process.

He says a southwest Missouri landowner received a linear transportation nationwide permit (NWP) from the Corps for a low water crossing. Long says the contractor built a structure 18 feet wider and one foot taller, than approved by the Corps.

“So I went down there to look at it and honest to goodness, I thought that I was looking at a county bridge, where we were going to cross and get over to where this low water crossing was. It was a massive structure,” Long told Missourinet in an October story.

He notes the landowner removed the structure, after the three deaths. Long says high water in that area near Saddlebrooke formed a dangerous vortex.

He says two kayakers died in the first incident.

“The second incident was a man and a wife, and the man could get over to the side and he actually had a hold of his wife, if you can imagine anything so traumatic,” Long said in October. “And he couldn’t hold her. It (the vortex) just sucked her out of his hand, he couldn’t hold her.”

Long’s bill would require the Corps of Engineers to determine how much funding and personnel they need to inspect every structure like this, and to include public safety as a condition of compliance.

Congressman Long says the Corps currently only has enough staff to visit ten to 20 percent of completed structures, adding that there is no requirement for the Corps to inspect completed projects after NWP’s are issued.

Missouri Congressman Graves: it’s time to get the economy open again

November 4, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Voters in northern Missouri are sending U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, back to Washington for his 11th term on Capitol Hill. Graves captured 67 percent of the vote Tuesday against Platte City Democrat Gena Ross.

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

Graves, the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation Committee, tells Missourinet that it’s humbling to be re-elected.

“You know I want to continue to do exactly what I do, and that is represent the 6th District to Washington D.C. I will not represent Washington D.C. back to the 6th District,” Graves says.

His top priority is getting the economy open again.

“We have businesses and small businesses that are literally going broke because of what the government has done. And we have to get this economy going again and we got to get people back on their feet,” says Graves.

He’s also focusing on agriculture. He notes there are fewer and fewer farmers in the Congress.

The sixth congressional district covers 36 counties, and is larger than nine states. Graves’ district includes St. Joseph, Bethany, Chillicothe, Hannibal, Macon and Memphis.

Graves is the new dean of Missouri’s congressional delegation, after U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, was defeated in the August primary by Cori Bush. Ms. Bush was elected to Congress on Tuesday, becoming the first African-American female to represent the state in Congress.

Graves and Clay had been the co-deans of the delegation. Both were elected to Congress in 2000.

Drowning deaths of three kayakers in southwest Missouri getting attention on Capitol Hill (AUDIO)

October 18, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

A southwest Missouri congressman says three kayakers have drowned in the same location on Bull Creek in the past 15 months, prompting him to file legislation aimed at preventing future deaths.

U.S. Rep. Billy Long’s district includes Springfield, Branson and Joplin (2017 file photo courtesy of Congressman Long’s Facebook page)

U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, says the deaths happened near Saddlebrooke, which is between Springfield and Branson. He says a landowner received a linear transportation nationwide permit (NWP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a low water crossing. Long says the contractor built a structure 18 feet wider and one foot taller, than approved by the Corps.

He says the landowner has removed the structure, after the three deaths.

Long says high water in that area formed a dangerous vortex. He notes two kayakers died in the first incident.

“The second incident was a man and a wife, and the man could get over to the side and he actually had a hold of his wife, if you can imagine anything so traumatic,” says Long. “And he couldn’t hold her. It (the vortex) just sucked her out of his hand, he couldn’t hold her.”

Congressman Long’s legislation would require the Corps to conduct an in-depth study of the nationwide permitting process. It would also require the Corps to determine how much funding and personnel they need to inspect every structure like this, and to include public safety as a condition of compliance.

“When the water gets up high, it obviously forms some kind of a vortex down there and just sucks these kayaks down into it. And when three people in two different incidents died within a year of each other, I just thought something had to be done,” Long says.

Long tells Missourinet that his role as a congressman isn’t to point fingers, but rather to identify the problem and work to try to fix it. He also says his bill aims to ensure that these structures are built safely, without infringing upon property rights.

Long says the Army Corps of Engineers currently only has enough staff to visit ten to 20 percent of completed structures, adding that there is no requirement for the Corps to inspect completed projects after NWP’s are issued.

He says he hopes to get his provision included in the federal water resources bill, and says he’s working with U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, on it. Congressman Graves is the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full five-minute interview with U.S. Rep. Billy Long, R-Springfield, which was recorded on October 16, 2020:

Platte City resident hopes to become first Democrat to represent far northern Missouri in Congress in 20 years

October 14, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

(News director Brent Martin at Missourinet St. Joseph affiliate KFEQ contributed to this story)

The Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, in northern Missouri battled COVID this year, and says a mask mandate early on could have saved lives.

Platte City resident Gena Ross won the August Democratic nomination and is facing Graves, a dean of Missouri’s congressional delegation. Ross is an adjunct professor at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. She’s also an assistant professor of business and American government at a Kansas City area community college.

She tells Missourinet St. Joseph affiliate KFEQ (AM 680) that she was hospitalized twice for COVID, spending a total of nine days in the hospital. She tells KFEQ host Barry Birr that her experience showed her how devastating the coronavirus is.

“Corona is wicked. It is demonic,” she says. “It has no respect of person. It’s invisible. So, just protect yourself the best that you can.”

She also criticizes President Trump, saying he didn’t take the virus seriously enough, soon enough.

Ross faces Congressman Graves next month. Graves is seeking his 11th term on Capitol Hill. The sprawling, rural district hasn’t sent a Democrat to Washington since Pat Danner. The Smithville Democrat served in Congress from 1993-2001.

The sixth congressional district is larger than nine states. It includes 36 counties and the towns of St. Joseph, Chillicothe, Trenton, Bethany, Kirksville, Hannibal and Memphis.

Congressman Graves’ priorities on Capitol Hill have included agriculture and flood control.

Click here to read the full story about Gena Ross, from Brent Martin at Missourinet St. Joseph affiliate KFEQ Radio.

Lawmaker worries northern Missouri’s flooding in recent years could impact Census numbers (AUDIO)

October 7, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

(This is the second part of Brian Hauswirth’s two-part series on the status of the 2020 Census in Missouri)

A state lawmaker from northwest Missouri’s Carrollton is worried that the 2020 Census may miss residents who’ve been impacted by Missouri River flooding in recent years.

State Rep. Peggy McGaugh, R-Carrollton, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on May 13, 2020 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

State Rep. Peggy McGaugh, R-Carrollton, represents the Missouri House on the state 2020 complete count committee. Her sprawling district stretches from near Lexington to Mendon.

“The people that have been affected by the many floods we’ve had in the last ten years have been upended and maybe in some other part of their city, their county, the state, that just simply didn’t get reached,” McGaugh says.

While she’s pleased Missouri is trending at 90 percent-plus census completion, she wants to make sure that all residents are counted.

She says residents in the Missouri River sugar tree bottoms area were displaced for about seven months. Representative McGaugh’s district has seen flooding annually in recent years.

“The (39th) district here is so large and so rural that it would be difficult for maybe one person or a team to really, really go door-to-door and find these people,” says McGaugh.

McGaugh’s district takes about two hours to get from one side to the other.

She is pleased that the U.S. Census Bureau will continue its count through the end of October. McGaugh lives in the district of U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, a district with 36 counties that is larger than nine states.

“I worry about his (Congressman Graves’) area, the whole top of the state of Missouri that might get left alone and not get the money that the Census brings in for the roads and the infrastructure and the schools. I don’t want them to be forgotten,” McGaugh says.

During the 1990s, northern Missouri had three congressional districts. They were represented by then-U.S. Reps. Pat Danner, D-Smithville, Harold Volkmer, D-Hannibal, and Ike Skelton, D-Lexington. Today, northern Missouri has one district (Graves), with one or two counties being represented by U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, and Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville.

That’s because of northern Missouri’s continued drop in population numbers.

The 2020 Census aims to count every person living in the United States and five U.S. territories. The complete count committee is working to ensure an accurate count of everyone living in Missouri to secure federal funding and fair representation for Missourians during the next decade.

McGaugh praises Missouri 2020 complete count committee chair Karen Best, saying the former Branson mayor has done an excellent job. Former Mayor Best notes this year’s Census has been unprecedented, because of COVID-19.

Former Mayor Best says the committee’s goal is to submit a final report to the governor by November 30. McGaugh says she looks forward to helping with the final draft of the report to the governor.

McGaugh also emphasizes the effort has been bipartisan, saying it’s crucial that all residents in traditionally Democratic St. Louis and Kansas City are counted as well. She says it’s about ensuring that Missouri gets fair representation in the U.S. House.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with State Rep. Peggy McGaugh, R-Carrollton, which was recorded on October 6, 2020:

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: