Marshall still weighing possible Senate bid

U.S. Congressman Roger Marshall, who represents the 1st District in Kansas, has the blessings of his wife, parents and children, but is still undecided on whether or not he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pat Roberts in 2020.
Marshall, currently serving his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives, told those attending a town hall meeting Saturday morning at the Concordia Chamber of Commerce office that he is close to making a decision on a Senate bid.
“My wife has blessed it, my parents have blessed it and my kids have blessed it and this state is starving for leadership,” Marshall said.
Marshall said that everywhere he goes in the First District the challenges are the same, whether it be Concordia, Pittsburg, Atwood or Atchison.
“This district has a history of sending congressmen to serve in the senate, and we are getting close to a decision,” Marshall said, “USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) has just occupied way more time. I thought it would be done by now. So it is really hard for me to think seriously about a senate campaign and trying to get USMCA passed.”
Marshall touched on a number of topics during the town hall, including the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.
Kent Anderson told Marshall that farmers in the area are surviving and not thriving and one reason for that is the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on countries which import U.S. agricultural products.
“I am surprised there aren’t a dozen farmers here complaining about the tariffs and what has been done to the price of corn and soybeans and other agricultural products,” Anderson said.
Anderson said what he would like to see is lawmakers from rural states to go in to the president’s office and say ‘you are killing us out here with these tariffs.’
“You said he (Trump) already understands all of this, but I really wonder if he does,” Anderson said.
Marshall said that he has been doing exactly what Anderson said.
“Since day one I have said that USMCA is a huge part, that is NAFTA 2.0, and that the tariffs are killing us,” Marshall said.
Marshall said that President Trump didn’t cause the problem in agriculture in Kansas.
“The previous administration just kicked the can down the road. We have had one good year in the last 10 in agriculture as far as I can remember. Maybe there was two in the last 10, but certainly this last downturn is now four, almost five, years old,” Marshall said, “So however bad I thought China was, it is worse.”
Marshall said that USMCA is his highest legislative priority.
“We export four times more to Canada and Mexico than we do to China. If NAFTA 2.0 is approved, it is going to grow agriculture by five percent. It is going to mean thousands of jobs  and a couple of millions of dollars in revenue in Kansas. So that is something we can control,” Marshall said.
Marshall said that there were the votes to pass USMCA but Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi will not bring it to the floor of the house.
“Because she doesn’t want to give President Trump a victory, and that is a theme. Whether it is build the wall or immigration or infrastructure, the will of Congress is there to do it if she would let us,” Marshall said, “I think the biggest challenge in Washington right now is the relationship between the speaker of the house and the president of the United States. That is my prayer right now--that they could somehow patch that up. If President Reagan and Tip O’Neill could figure this out, surely President Trump and Nancy Pelosi can figure this out.”
On immigration, Marshall said that we should be able to secure the border and have a better immigration process.
“We got so close to passing something on the House floor last year. We actually had two votes that I thought were good solutions, not perfect solutions. We are not going to get everyone to agree on a perfect solution,” Marshall said.
Marshall said that the U.S. must secure that border first.
“If we don’t secure the border now, whatever solutions we throw out there we will be facing again in 10 years,” Marshall said, “I think the number one national security issue for the United States is securing our southern border.
The legislation that Marshall supported had $25 billion for a wall along the southern border.
The bill also included an agriculture guest worker visa.
“We probably have 50,000 jobs, maybe more,  in Kansas that are dependent on an agriculture guest worker visa. There was no pathway to citizenship, it  was clearly a work visa that would require folks to go for about three months every three years. Not necessarily at the same time,” Marshall said.
Marshall said that the far right and far left blew up the bill for different reasons, and those pushing it could not get it across the finish line.
“The president supported it. It didn’t have everything he wanted, but it was the most I could get to get that close to it. Paul Ryan refused to put it on the House floor,” Marshall said.
Talking about health care, Marshall said that a House committee is currently writing a replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act.
Marshall said that President Trump told him to take care of everyone who has a pre-existing condition.
“I went to D.C. to fix health care, to make sure everybody has access to health care, so number one, we are going to make sure people all have access to real health care. Right now, 28 million people still don’t have health care other than cash to go to the emergency room and so on,” Marshall said.
Marshall said they are going to do what the Affordable Care Act did not address, the cost of health care.
“It is not the cost of health insurance--it is the cost of health care,” Marshall said, “This country has a four and a half trillion dollar budget, the numbers are so huge, and 1.1 (trillion) of that is going to health care,” Marshall said, “If you want me to balance the budget, which I think is the biggest threat to national security, biggest threat to our economy, is our debt. If we don’t address the cost of health care, I am never going to be able to balance that budget. So we have to drive the cost of health care down.”
Marshall said the approach to driving down the cost is making health care more transparent, promote innovation and allow patients to be consumers again.
The centerpiece of that process is making health care savings accounts more expansive.
Marshall also said that there needs to be transparency in regards to the pharmacy benefit managers.
“I think the biggest people who are stealing from the systems are pharmacy benefit managers,” Marshall said.
Tom Tuggle, a member of the Cloud County Community College board of trustees, thanked Marshall for his help in the college receiving grant funding for the construction of a solar farm.
Marshall said that he had recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the largest solar farm in the state in Johnson City.
“And probably the bigger news though is that they said there are three or four projects on the line that will be even bigger than that,” Marshall said.
Marshall said that he does care about our climate.
“I am proud that Kansas’ water and air is cleaner now than when I was growing up. I am proud that the United States has a downward carbon footprint from 2003. The reason those things are happening are innovation, moving away from coal to natural gas. As natural gas became more affordable, more of our electricity is being generated from natural gas. The wind energy is coming in line. All of those things happening. More fuel efficient cars. So I think that conservation and innovation are the key to driving that carbon footprint down,” Marshall said, “I also think we need some common sense.”