By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Retired United States Sen. Pat Roberts is proud of his work both on the Agriculture and the Intelligence Committees.
Roberts leaves Washington, D.C. after 40 years; representing the First Congressional District of Kansas, then Senator for four terms.
Roberts is known for chairing both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Agriculture Committees, but he also chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee which investigated worldwide intelligence failures in wake of the first Iraq War, an investigation which became a blueprint for the 9/11 Commission.
“I think we’ve done a great deal. I wish we would renew our efforts with (military) exercises that we used to conduct,” Roberts tells St. Joseph Post.
Roberts went with others on the committee to Russia after the Soviet Union fell, attempting to keep former Soviet scientists from going to terrorist states. At a city he toured, he was shown a lab in which pathogens were being designed to take out a country’s food supply.
“You do that and you have the country on their knees,” Roberts says. “I was shocked and dismayed.”
The investigation eventually led to creation of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
Roberts had his disagreements with fellow Republican, President Donald Trump, but says Trump hasn’t gotten enough credit for reviving an economy which had grown stagnant.
“I know that a lot of people do not care for the president’s personality and I get that,” Roberts says. “But, deregulation and that tax bill, that enormous tax cut, really got our country back and competitive; more jobs, everything else. And then, of course, we get hit by COVID.”
Roberts is leaving the Senate at a time when politics in Washington is fraying.
Roberts says Senators from the two political parties don’t bother to get to know each other, which prevents them from working together in the country’s best interest.
“Today, we just don’t know people the way we should,” according to Roberts. “We are a reflection, rightly or wrongly, of the balkanization we have in the country. That shouldn’t stop us from (getting to know) an individual and trying hard to get something to work out.”
Roberts says gridlock seems to be the new normal in Washington. He adds it doesn’t have to be that way, that the Senate can decide how to conduct itself and how to approach problems facing the country.
What is next for Senator Roberts?
“I just haven’t made any decisions. I’ll keep my finger on the pie. I’d like to be part of, at least a discussion on a future trade policy that hopefully would be beneficial to our farmers and ranchers and growers.”