(Missouri Independent) – As the midterm election season ramps up, the Biden administration wants rural Americans to know it’ll be spending a lot of money to improve health care in rural areas. It has tasked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack with delivering the message that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed long-standing problems with health care infrastructure in […]
The Second Harvest Community Food Bank has received a $211,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to assist the food bank with increased expenses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Emergency Rural Health Care Grant will also facilitate mobile food distributions in Northwest Missouri. Emergency Rural Health Care Grants are part of […]
(Missouri Independent) – State Rep. Ed Lewis had just hours to say goodbye. In March 2020, his 89-year-old mother had to go to the hospital after suffering from a fall. Lewis’ sister was their mother’s primary caregiver, but in the pandemic’s first days as hospitals restricted visitors, family members weren’t allowed to stay with her. Lewis […]
(Missouri Independent) – President Joe Biden Monday unveiled the Department of Justice’s plan to regulate untraceable firearms known as ghost guns, as well as announced his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The Department of Justice’s final rule bans the business of manufacturing ghost guns, such as “buy build shoot” kits […]
(Missouri Independent) – The biggest state budget in Missouri history could also leave the biggest surplus in state history when the next fiscal year ends. The Missouri House on Thursday sent 15 appropriation bills to the state Senate, one supplemental spending bill for the current fiscal year, and 14 spending $46.5 billion in the coming year. The […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Biden administration Wednesday announced its plans to extend the pause on federal student loan repayments until the end of August. “I recognized in recently extending the COVID-19 national emergency, we are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “If loan […]
Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick joined 26 other state financial officers in calling on the Biden Administration to promote American energy production. In a letter to the President, the state leaders emphasized the need to re-establish American energy independence amid the massive increase in the price of gas and diesel, which is contributing to the […]
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, expressing deep concern with the administration’s decision to rescind the Title 42 order amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis – with numbers surging at the southern border. Senator Hawley also inquired about disturbing new reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) […]
Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06) joined Representatives Tracey Mann, Jason Smith, Bob Latta, and a bipartisan coalition of more than 70 members of Congress in introducing a resolution recognizing the important role of the stepped-up basis in preserving family farms and small businesses. “If the President gets his way and guts the stepped-up basis, it would […]
(Missouri Independent) – The U.S. Senate advanced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic Supreme Court nomination in a 53-47 procedural vote Monday evening, hours after the Judiciary Committee deadlocked along party lines. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah voted with all 50 Senate Democrats on the procedural […]
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry are suing the Biden Administration for rescinding the public health policy, Title 42, during the worst border crisis in decades. The revocation will result in an unprecedented crisis at the United States southern border that will have a devastating […]
(Missouri Independent) – Despite facing competition from the state health department, the nonprofit Missouri Family Health Council Inc. will continue to administer federal Title X family planning funds. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded more than $250 million in Title X funding this week, including $5.3 million to Missouri. That money helps pay […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that the government will terminate a Trump-era policy that prevented migrants from claiming asylum during a health crisis, including the coronavirus pandemic. The policy will end on May 23, the CDC wrote in its notice. “There is no longer a serious danger that the […]
(Missouri Independent) – President Joe Biden called Thursday for U.S. energy companies to do their part in lowering gasoline prices by boosting supplies of oil, saying the industry should plow record profits back into increased production. Biden also said he would release 1 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve daily for the […]
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri children would be better protected from lead poisoning under a state legislative bill to require schools to nearly rid their drinking water of the dangerous toxin. The bill, heard Monday by the House Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, would require schools to test drinking water, remove old coolers and filter water where […]
The Missouri Attorney General joined 20 other states in a multistate action against President Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued use of the unlawful mask mandate on public transportation. The attorneys general argue that the mandate exceeds the authority of the CDC. The Biden administration continues to use a failed interpretation of a […]
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the Department is extending to May 11, 2022, the application deadline for the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, which provides funding to expand meat and poultry processing capacity. The decision to extend the deadline comes after Rural Development heard directly from applicants about challenges with […]
Ag groups are calling on the Biden administration to provide flexibility for prime farmland in the Conservation Reserve Program as the Russian/Ukraine conflict has the potential to impact global food security. Ag economist Scott Irwin at the University of Illinois tells Brownfield Ukraine produces about 60 million acres of crops which are at risk this […]
(Missouri Independent) – The Biden administration announced Thursday steps to expedite asylum cases at the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to resolve a years-long backlog, but policy advocates worry the streamlined process could prevent asylum seekers from obtaining legal representation if their cases are denied. “If somebody is not approved in the first instance, they’re […]
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves says it appears financial sanctions imposed by the United States and the rest of the West are beginning to have an impact on Russia. But Graves says President Biden should have imposed the sanctions long before Russia invaded Ukraine. Graves, a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, says […]
