By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Asked what he thought about Tuesday's indictment of Donald Trump charged in a Justice Department investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan., had no specific comment.
He had not yet read through the indictment, he said.
That's because Mann was on the road traveling across western Kansas in a series of town hall meetings with constituents. Late Wednesday morning he was at the Hays Public Library.
"I would say this. It sure feels like there are two different justice systems right now," he said
Murmurs of agreement echoed throughout the audience.
"You have a presidential candidate that's leading in the polls. Then information came out this week about the president's son's business dealings. Then later, the next day, you've got the DOJ (Department of Justice) doing what he's doing.
The indictment is the third criminal case brought against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.
Mann said his office would have a statement forthcoming.
Other questions from the audience related to issues more specific to western Kansas, including the new U.S. farm bill and the effects of the current drought.
The current farm bill expires Sept. 30.
Mann, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee and comes from a farming family in Quinter, said "it's important that we get this right. It's important that we get it right for agriculture and for rural America.
Committee members are working on the text.
"In a good farm bill, the process is the ag committee goes and has listening sessions," he said. "You want to hear from producers and stakeholders in a really robust fashion.
"There's probably more engagement than in any other bill in Congress, you could argue."
Mann has fronted several of the listening sessions including one near Salina a couple months ago. The chairman has been to more than 40 states, he said.
Although there is some public speculation the farm bill will be delayed, "we're being told the base drafting of the text will be released later this month, early next." He expects amendments to be considered by the committee in September shortly after Congress returns from its summer recess.
The overwhelming majority of today's farm bill—81 percent—deals with food and nutrition. The remaining 19 percent addresses everything else, including crop insurance and conservation programs.
For Mann and many western Kansas ag producers, the biggest interest and priority in the farm bill is crop insurance.
"I just think it's such an important risk management tool. We in Kansas are low-moisture, high-risk agriculture, and we have to have tools in place to help manage that risk," he said.
"Every indication is that this farm bill will be evolutionary, but not revolutionary. I think we'll use a scalpel to make some tweaks but not wholesale changes. But until it comes to the House floor, you don't really know."
The "Big First District" stretches west from Lawrence to the Colorado border and is the third largest agriculture producer of country's 435 total Congressional districts.
Hays city commissioner Mason Ruder, who owns a day care center along with his wife, asked why a federal food reimbursement program for day care providers lapsed July 1.
"Now we're having to pass those inflationary food costs for the children on to parents who are already paying exorbitant costs for child care," Ruder said.
Participating day care providers were receiving $7 a day per child. With the program ending, the reimbursement rate fell to $3.
"I've never been able to feed a kid for 95 cents a lunch," Ruder said.
Mann said the ag appropriations committee is looking at the program now and some sort of resolution will be included in the farm bill.
Mann chairs the bipartisan House Hunger Caucus.
He said the school lunch program is part of the conversation, although it is overseen by the education department and not agriculture "but a lot of those things are interconnected so you're gonna see a lot of discussion about that reduction," Mann told Ruder.
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Other topics included illegal immigration and southern border security.
"The president's policy is wrong," Mann said, who has led a Congressional delegation to McAllen, Texas.
"This is solvable. I'm for legal immigration.
Mann said Democrats "quietly recognize the problem."