Mann presents update on his first term in Congress

Tracey Mann, elected in November to represent the First District of Kansas in the United States House of Representatives, made a stop at the Broadway Plaza in Concordia for a town hall meeting on Thursday morning.
Mann is serving his first term in the House and represents a First District that includes 63 of the 105 counties in Kansas.
“It is the greatest district in the country to get to represent,” Mann said. “There are 435 congressional districts and we are the number three ag producing district in the whole country. So if you line up all 435 districts we sell about 14 and a half billion dollars of ag products a year. There are only 10 districts in the country that are $10 billion or more.”
Mann said that he thinks the First District is kind of the pilot light for the country.
“The basic values that we hold dear of faith, of family, of caring for your neighbor, of working hard. Those values are alive and well here in the Big First, here in Cloud County. But we have got to make sure that we don’t let those values go out. Because if they go out here, it is really bad not just for us, but it is really bad for the country,” Mann said.
Mann presented an update on the legislation he has been involved with during his first term in Congress.
“I have introduced 12 pieces of legislation, I think signed on to 110. Co-sponsored another 110 pieces of legislation so far,” Mann said.
Mann voiced his opposition to an infrastructure plan that has been proposed by President Joe Biden.
“I am really concerned you all with our debt and deficit to the country. We are approaching $30 trillion in debt and I was really concerned when we were approaching $13 trillion 10 years ago. And the current president has proposed adding another $6 trillion to our debt. And we just can not afford to keep spending at this rate and think there are not going to be consequences,” Mann said.
Mann said that the infrastructure proposal has a cost of $2 trillion and only about six percent, $100 billion of that, would go to what he would consider to be infrastructure such as roads and bridges.
“It is an attempt to implement the Green New Deal and call it infrastructure, is what that bill really is,” Mann said. “Really concerned about the proposal of how to pay for it.”
Mann serves on the agriculture committee in the House, and said it was his highest priority.
He also serves on the veterans affairs committee.
Mann was asked if he could see anything bi-partisan happening in Congress.
“We are in a season of hyper-partisanship but there is some bipartisanship,” Mann said. “My first piece of legislation was a VA homelessness bill, had bipartisanship support, passed and got signed into law,” Mann said. “I think there is bipartisan support to get something real in infrastructure, roads, bridges. So I think there is bipartisan support there. I also think there is bipartisan support on rural broadband, and also improving broadband in urban areas.”
Mann expressed concern about inflation as the country starts to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am really concerned about inflation. You can’t inject this much money into our economy. A trillion dollars passed in December, $1.9, almost $2 trillion passed in March with the American Rescue Plan. That alone, you can’t put that much money out into the economy and not think that prices are going to rise. Interest rates have to go up to fight off inflation, and it just puts our economy in a bad spot. Really bad for us in the Big First,” Mann said.