Northwest Missouri has a bit more clout in Washington D.C. with the appointment of U.S. Congressman Sam Graves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Rural Enterprises, Agriculture and Technology.
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Northwest Missouri has a bit more clout in Washington D.C. with the appointment of U.S. Congressman Sam Graves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Rural Enterprises, Agriculture and Technology.
Graves was appointed to the post late Wednesday afternoon. The chairmanship comes on the heels of Graves recently being chosen as a member of the House Transportation Committee as well as being named an assistant majority whip for the House Republicans.
According to Graves, the subcommittee will be an oversight group for a number of areas involving small business, agriculture and communication.
One of the initiatives in which the subcommittee would be involved is rural education development, an area in which he worked while in the Missouri General Assembly.
?I?m just as happy as I can be getting appointed to this chairmanship,? Graves said during a telephone interview today ?This is a subcommittee that will have oversight over a number of things and we can go into a lot of different areas.?
Right now, Graves is focusing on efforts to secure disaster relief for farmers, which he said has been somewhat difficult because of concerns from legislators in non-agriculture areas.
?Our big obstacle right now is trying to sell the idea to those who represent the East and West coasts,? Graves said. ?Without them, it won?t get passed. It?s an education process and we?re all working on our colleagues to explain to them the importance of this legislation. The Senate has already passed its version of the legislation and it?s now up to us to come with with a package that is beneficial to farmers and that can get support from all legislators.?
Graves also discussed the State of the Union address given by President Bush on Tuesday night, which the congressman said presented a good balance of domestic and foreign agendas. Graves noted that the president?s proposals for an economic recovery/jobs package as well as prescription drugs for senior citizens are among the priorities he supports as well and noted that the economic package should see some action by the House very soon.
?We passed three bills involving economic stimulation out of the House last year, but they went nowhere when they got to the Senate side,? Graves said. ?I think this year we?ll be able to get some of those things in place that will help the country get moving.?
That would include making permanent now tax cuts approved last year that were to be implemented over a period of time.
?We need to get those things in place now,? Graves said. ?All taxpayers will see some kind of benefit with these cuts, which would include elimination of the marriage penalty and death tax as well as encouraging expansion of business to create more jobs.?
One item that is not included in the proposal which Graves would like to have made a part of the legislation would be a decrease in the number of years it takes businesses to be able to depreciate technology items, such as computers.
?The way things are now, we depreciate those items over a far longer period of time than they are actually worth,? he said. ?I?d like to see us decrease that maybe to three years instead of the six or seven now in place.?
Graves said the president also ?made a good case? for going to war with Iraq.
?They are a serious threat and while I would like to see us get Saddam out of there diplomatically, things don?t look promising,? Graves said. ?There is a lot more support out there for us than what people think and when it?s all said and done, Germany and France will be with us.?
Graves went on to say that the Iraq situation ?is about the safety of U.S. citizens.?
?We don?t want another situation to occur like the one on Sept. 11 where over 3,000 U.S. citizens were killed in their own country,? he said.
Graves said that he was part of a briefing on the situation held Wednesday, in which leaders met with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
?And from everything that?s being said, I?m convinced it?s the right thing to do,? he said. ?This is a serious situation.?