Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kansas, fielded questions Monday and talked about his work in Washington, D.C., during a town hall meeting at the Kansas Oil & Gas Museum. Mann wrapped up his stop in Great Bend by encouraging everyone to observe Independence Day next Tuesday by reading the Declaration of Independence.
“It’s an incredible document and reading it takes 15 minutes start to finish. I just think we cannot lose sight of the fact that when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, in the preamble (he said), ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’”
Rule changes
Among the 435 Congressional districts, the “Big First” district of Kansas is the third-largest ag-region district, Mann noted.
“We also have more hospitals than any congressional district in the country. And you might not think about this, but with KU in the district, now we have more higher education in our district than any district in the country.”
Some significant rule changes went into effect when the new Congress was sworn in on January 2.
“There are some basic things like no more multi-subject bills, one subject per bill,” Mann said. “There is also a 72-hour rule, meaning if you announce you’re going to vote on something, you’ve got to wait 72 hours for that vote.”
Mann said he supports term limits and there will be a vote this term on the rules for term limits.
About six weeks ago, the House passed a border security bill, he continued. “There’s also a requirement in the House that any budget that passes out of the House has to balance,” he said.
“Another big change is there’s now a requirement that all 12 appropriations bills have to pass out and be considered individually.” Mann said Congress hasn’t done its job for the last 15 years, regardless of which party was in charge. “So all 12 bills come together in a great big bloated package, called the omnibus. New rules in the House prevent that from happening. I think that’s a good thing.”
The current Farm Bill expires on Sept. 30 and is one of the 12 appropriations Mann is working on.
Ag news
Mann sits on the Ag Committee and has been fighting to maintain Stepped-Up Basis, a tax policy that eliminates the capital gains tax on the lifetime appreciation of the decedent’s property. It is an issue that affects family farms and small businesses.
“An increase in the tax basis is a big deal,” Mann said. “The Biden administration last year in the budget proposed doing away with the Stepped-Up Basis but we jumped up and down about it. We called everybody’s attention to preserve the Stepped-Up Basis,” Mann said. This year, “they once again tried to do away with the Stepped-Up Basis.”
30 by 30 and the Farm Killer Tax
John Francis, owner of an investment firm and an oilfield company, asked Mann how the Stepped-Up Basis ties into “the 30 by 30 land grab.” His fear is that third- or fourth-generation farmers will be forced to sell.
Mann recapped the 30 by 30 plan, an executive order issued when Biden came into office, that said by the year 2030, 30%, of American land should not be in production. Reading that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, Mann said. “In Kansas, where we live, 98% of our lands in production, and a whole series of questions come up. How do you define 30%? Do you include land in CRP or not? ... There’s a lot of concern about what the federal government would do in this land grab to get to his bogus 30% goal. And so this is something we’ve been watching very, very closely and fighting tooth and nail.”
It does apply to the Stepped-Up-Basis, Mann agreed. He explained, “Another thing the Biden Administration tried to do is impose this tax we called the Farm Killer Tax. This is obscure language they put in their budget – and these budgets are like 3,000 pages long – there was this provision that any business or property owned, subsequently or consecutively, by a family for 90 years or more, would be subject to a one-time capital gains tax payment in 2030. So just think about that. Any farmland or business, if you if it’s been in your family since before 1940, in 2030, there’d be a one-time capital gains tax. It would be a massive hit which would be devastating, so we call it the Farm Killer Tax. We’ve raised a red flag about it and made a bunch of noise about it. They’re backing off of it.”
Overregulation and the REINS Act
In addition to the ag committee, Mann serves on the transportation committee and the small business committee.
“I would argue small business is the backbone of this country,” Mann said. “I believe our federal government is way larger than our founding fathers ever intended.”
Three weeks ago, Mann voted for the REINS Act, which passed the House but has not yet passed the Senate. “This is a pretty good bill,” he said.
The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act is designed to restrain the administrative state by amending the Congressional Review Act (CRA) of 1996. It would require congressional approval of certain major agency regulations before agencies could implement them. The REINS Act defines major agency regulations as those that have financial impacts on the U.S. economy of $100 million or more, increase consumer prices, or have significant harmful effects on the economy.
WOTUS, immigration and more
Roger Long from Kansas Farm Bureau asked about WOTUS, the Waters of the United States regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Congress approved a bipartisan CRA to strike down the regulations but the president vetoed it, Mann said. “There were not enough votes to override the veto.”
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 9-0 that WOTUS was an overreach by the EPA that violated the Clean Water Act.
• Mann noted that since the Lesser Prairie Chicken was added to the endangered species list by the Biden Administration, “we’ve been fighting this every step of the way.” He applauded legislation introduced by Kansas Senators Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran to strike down the Lesser Prairie Chicken Listing.
• “I voted for legislation that would strike down Biden’s effort to forgive student loan debt,” Mann continued. “If this goes through, the administration will spend about $400 billion without Congress’s approval to wipe away student loan debt.”
• Kip Spray, owner of Venture Corporation, asked if the H-2B visa program for temporary non-agricultural workers could be more like the H-2A program for agricultural workers.
“I would be for expanding the H-2B program,” Mann said. “I’m for legal immigration, I’m not for illegal immigration. I think we need to figure out how to make legal immigration easier and illegal immigration harder. Meanwhile, we’ve got a wide-open Southern border; I’ve not talked to anybody in our district that thinks that’s a good idea.”
