A Kansas Senate seat is up for grabs this November, with fourth term Senator Pat Roberts headed into retirement.
As a congressman and healthcare provider, Dr. Roger Marshall says that he is working with the administration to connect packing plants with the coronavirus testing and protective gear they need to stay operational.
“I picked up the phone and called the White House and by the next morning I had 6,000 tests to be done, and then in 48 hours we had that entire community organized,” he said. “The Health Department, local nurses, the National Guard and we started checking hundreds of people and we were able by working together to flatten that curve so to speak, and though most packing plants shut down all the way, ours never shut down between 50-60 percent.”
Marshall volunteered at the local hospital in Liberal, Kansas and says that the White House supplied additional ventilators and PPEs when supplies were tight.
He also says that it is important to protect rural hospitals from burdensome regulations.
“I think the big picture is this, when there are lots of rules and regulations it overly hurts small community banks and small hospitals, that maybe a huge hospital, corporation can take on the rules but it really hurts us. So, more specifically I fought for 34-B funding for rural hospitals and we actually increased the Medicare funding for rural hospitals in Kansas,” he said.
Congressman Marshall applauded the President for his work expanding trade access and says that he will continue fighting to promote exports for Kansas farmers.
“We renegotiated China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and Canada, so we need to make sure as those agreements go forward people are honoring their side of the agreement,” he added. “Then going forward, we have opportunities with Great Britain, with the European Union, India, Brazil, and then the African nations.”
Looking ahead to the 2023 Farm Bill, Marshall says that he wants to listen to constituents and build on the success of the previous legislation.
“We are going to protect crop insurance, I’ll be interested in Title 1. This last Farm Bill, folks wanted to use RMA data, we got that; they wanted to be able to switch from PLC to ARC year-to-year, we did that as well. So, I want to know how that’s working out.”
As farmers await an EPA decision on dicamba, Congressman Marshall joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers in calling for a new product registration.
For the full interview, click HERE.