Food and energy independence are a matter of national security for Kansas Representative Tracey Mann.
“At the end of the day, food security is about freedom for our country, and we got to make sure that we’re producing food here, locally, here domestically, we’re seeing what’s happening. We have to rely on other countries for our oil and our fossil fuels. We don’t want to have that happen for food. And so, congress has legislation like this just make sense in my mind.”
He introduced the “Use Stocks, Stop Russia Act,” which would resume construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and encourage more domestically produced energy like biofuels.
“There is no reason that our country is relying on other countries for our fossil fuels. We were finally under the trump administration becoming more energy independent. We should be exporting natural gas LNG, we should be increasing our domestic oil production. These are competence policies that affect our freedom and at the end of the day effect.”
Congressman Mann also introduced “The Emergency Relief From Duties Act” in the house which looks for solutions for high fertilizer prices related to import tariffs.
“It says in the time of emergency, like now, we would really give agricultural producers relief from the duties they pay on imported fertilizer. The companion this was introduced in the senate last week as well. We are really excited about it and have a good potentially lower fertilizer producers for our farmers and ranchers.”
Last year, the International Trade Commission placed a 19% tariff on imported fertilizers from Morocco and the commerce department is recommending more on urea ammonium nitrate imports from Russia, Trinidad and Tobago.
In addition to the legislation, Mann is sending a letter to the commission asking them to stop.
“This letter will be for the ITC and it will specifically ask for relief from duties for phosphorus fertilizer that is imported from Morocco and nitrogen fertilizer that’s imported from Trinidad and Tobago. We’re circulating the letter amongst other offices to get a lot of co-sponsors cosine knees and we’ll see what happens there.”
Once levied, the duties are in place for five years, unless companies or the country believe conditions have changed and tariffs are no longer needed.
Congressman Mann holds a “Farm Bill Impact Series” on the house floor every week, where he talks about rural issues like broadband, biofuels, and livestock markets.
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