In this edition:

Addressing Missouri Flooding
Funding for Columbia Regional Airport
Preserving Military Dollars for Military Needs
Hosting a Telephone Town Hall
Listening and Learning on Important Issues

Dear Friend,

We have been hard at work here in Washington getting our veterans the benefits they deserve, providing funding so we can rebuild our military, and sanctioning hostile countries which continue to pose a threat to American national security so the world will know America will not tolerate aggression. This week the House passed defense appropriations which included important provisions for our area in Missouri. This includes 22 F-18s that will be made in Missouri, more funding for schools around Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base, phase one of a hospital facility to be built at Fort Leonard Wood, and much more. Thank you for your time, and keep reading for more updates!

Addressing Missouri Flooding

(Major flooding hit Missouri this week)

Our region has been devastated by the flooding in Missouri this week, and this issue continues to be a top priority for myself and my staff.

My legislation, The FEMA Relief Improvement Act, ensures residents receive better guidance, more accurate information, and greater certainty from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It passed out of the House last month and just passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee this week. This marks a major step forward for this legislation, which will help victims like those affected by the recent floods that devastated Missouri in the past weeks.

This bill requires FEMA to focus efforts on its core mission – helping people recover from disasters. In past disasters in Missouri, there have been repeated incidents of lost or misplaced paperwork, poor coordination between state and federal agencies, and general lack of information from FEMA officials. There are still pending cases from 2013 following the floods in my district. The people deserve better, and this bill delivers.

When disaster strikes, victims don’t have time for a government bureaucracy to get its act together. They need help, and they need it fast. This bill clears the red tape so victims can get the help they need before it’s too late. I'm glad to see its progress in the Senate, and I hope it will be on the President's desk soon.

(Congresswoman Vicky Hartlzer toured flood damage in Pulaski County earlier this year)

Funding for Columbia Regional Airport

I’m pleased to announce that Columbia Regional Airport has been awarded $298,453 in grant funding for runway extension and improvements. I have supported and worked with Columbia Regional Airport in the past to obtain federal funding and support their continued expansion plans.

Columbia Regional Airport will be receiving these funds so they can continue their important work enhancing their facilities. This money will enable the airport to invest in runway extension and improvement so they can serve more consumers.

Top-notch service is a vital component to the Columbia Regional Airport’s master plan and this funding will help make mid-Missouri a destination location for business development and personal travel.

Preserving Military Dollars for Military Needs

Donald Trump announced significant changes to the Department of Defense policy on transgender service members this week, and I applaud his decisive action to prioritize military readiness and preserve defense dollars.

The transgender issue began in June of last year when under President Obama, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender service members could serve openly. The new Obama policy would require that the military recruit transgender individuals and pay for their extremely expensive sex reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments. The policy would also require that service members share living quarters with members of the opposite sex with gender dysphoria and all soldiers receive hours of training on how to deal with these situations, such as how to respond when a male soldier informs you they are pregnant.

There are clearly major issues with this policy, so I have been fighting to have the policy changed. I reached out to the Administration to express concern over the policy and urged the Administration to change it. I introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would prevent the military from paying for transgender surgeries, which would cost $1.35 billion over the next ten years, but the amendment narrowly failed. For that amount of money, the Pentagon could purchase 13 F-35 fighters or 14 F-18 Super Hornets. My colleagues and I did not give up. We raised significant awareness on the issue and brought it to the attention of the Administration, who, thankfully, took the steps needed to reverse the 2016 Obamacare transgender policy so every defense dollar goes to meet the threats facing us as a nation.

As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, it is my mission to make sure our precious defense dollars are spent on improving our national defense in the most efficient way possible. Spending over a billion dollars on transgender surgeries when we face threats around the world is clearly not a wise investment. Aside from the high cost, soldiers who undergo these surgeries are then recovering for more than 250 days. They cannot be deployed, so someone must go in their place. Why would we work to create soldiers who cannot be deployed to meet the treats that face us? Also, our soldiers are under tremendous stress on the battlefield, and we should not add the privacy concerns of forcing them to sleep in the same quarters as someone of the opposite sex.

Our military is the most effective, efficient and well-funded fighting force in the world, and as the president notes, our armed forces should not shoulder the tremendous costs and disruptions that transgender service members in the military cause. I’m glad this policy will be corrected, and I am dedicated to rebuilding our military and using our taxpayer dollars wisely so our national security is stronger than ever.

For more information on the exorbitant cost of sex change operations, see this article in the Washington Free Beacon: https://freebeacon.com/issues/transgender-surgeries-would-cost-pentagon-1-3-billion/

Hosting a Telephone Town Hall

This week, I held a telephone town hall where I was able to reach out to thousands of constituents and answer questions on many of the issues impacting Missouri and our nation. We addressed health care, tax reform, the farm bill and more.

If you missed the telephone town hall, you can listen here:

https://vekeo.com/api/2.0/event/preview/?event_id=19964&nonce=e1ef8e06b2

I very much enjoyed hearing everyone’s concerns and appreciate responding to the questions, concerns and issues important to our community. I look forward to our next telephone town hall!

Listening and Learning on Important Issues

Disabled adults employed at Missouri Sheltered Workshops visited Capitol Hill this week. I am a big supporter of them and appreciate the great job they do contributing to our communities. It was great to visit with them about their jobs and about legislation I am pursuing on their behalf. Details will be coming on that.

I enjoyed attending the Army’s Annual Depot Caucus Breakfast. Facilities like Lake City Army Ammunition Plant are crucial for our Defense Industrial Base. I’m glad I was able to hear from these experts, and I look forward to working together to rebuild our military.

I want to leave you with this picture I had the opportunity to take with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen. I am so proud of the work he is doing as Vice President, and it was an honor to speak with him at an event in D.C. He is such a man of character, competence, and compassion who is a great advocate for the hard-working American people. I'm honored to work with him to make America great again. Together, we can make the necessary changes to get our country back on track!