Commentary

Dear Friend, They said it couldn’t be done. The naysayers swore up and down for the last two months that Republicans would never be able to get all 12 appropriations bills done to avoid a shutdown. Yet that’s exactly what we did this week. With the passage of the final funding bills we had left…

The Missouri Senate completed the third week of the legislative session with a shortened schedule due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. As a result, we convened just three times during the week. While two bills from our office were originally scheduled for committee hearings, both were postponed and are now expected to be…

Dear Friend, “Milk. It does a body good.” Remember that line from the ’80s? Or how about “Got Milk?” from the ’90s? Both advertising campaigns aimed to get kids to drink more milk, focusing on strong bones and healthy teeth. Not only were those catchphrases highly successful at the time, but the idea that milk…

This week marks week two of the 2026 legislative session, and the Missouri Senate continued its work on setting priorities for the year ahead. One of the major events this week was the governor’s annual State of the State Address. He outlined budget proposals and legislative priorities and helped set the stage for the work…

Hello from Jefferson City. First, I would like to express what an honor it is to represent the 12th District in the Missouri Senate for yet another year. This week, legislators returned to Jefferson City for the Second Regular Session of the 103rd General Assembly, and I, too, left my farm in Chillicothe to begin…

Dear Friend, America is at its best when we get big government out of the way and give people the freedom to innovate and succeed. It’s when the government invades people’s lives, starts dictating everything we do, and bureaucrats decide they know better than us that we see America at its worst. That’s why Ronald…

Dear Friend, As we wrap up 2025, I’m reflecting on what has been a busy year and looking forward to what’s ahead. We’ve gotten much accomplished and I’m proud of the things that I’ve specifically been able to get done. After being named the “Most Effective Legislator” of the last Congress, the bar was certainly…

Dear Friend, Anyone who has ever built a road, undertaken a water project, or constructed a home knows that the permitting process can hamstring the whole thing. While permits do serve a purpose, there’s no need for them to be overly burdensome or cause massive delays, particularly at the federal level. While the Clean Water…

Dear Friend, For too long, we’ve been kicking around “WOTUS.” Short for “waters of the United States,” it was originally supposed to lay out what was regulated under the Clean Water Act. However, the Obama Administration decided to weaponize it, and we’ve been fighting it ever since. In 2015, President Obama decided to reinterpret the…

Dear Friend, Government does two things well: nothing and overreact. The first is a big part of the reason why our infrastructure is crumbling. You can’t hardly drive anywhere without slamming a bone-shattering pothole, getting stuck in awful traffic or creeping across a weight-restricted bridge. How is it that we live in the wealthiest, most…