Representative Of Adrian Smith’s Office Speaks To Jefferson County Commissioners

By Gordon HopkinsJerad Reimers who serves as U.S. Representative Adrian Smith’s district coordinator, attended the meeting of the Jefferson County Commissioners on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.“The purpose of the district offices are primarily to provide constituent services, which is a variety of things, but the main role is case work, which is the way that members of Congress assist constituents with navigating federal red tape,” said Reimers. “The big one is probably working with the VA (Veterans Administration) as well as navigating the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).Smith serves on the Ways and Means Committee as chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade. Reimers explained, “The priorities of the committee as a matter of protocol are basically the priorities of what Nebraska would need for trade purposes. So, that’s the big reason why, when they’ve been engaging the African Union as well as Japan and working to deal with Mexico and Canada on Britain on their protest related to the current version of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is that ag issues have been kind of the priority of the conversations.” Reimers also discussed Representative Smith’s priorities for the remainder of the congressional session, “While there’s not a lot of time left this session of Congress, the bills that he’s been pushing with what time is left would be to continue to work toward the repeal of the expansion of the IRS with the roughly 80,000 agents worth of funding that the Biden administration had requested, in addition to what amounts to a school choice bill for the federal level of the Department of Education.”Regarding the Department of Education, Reimers added, “What that really looks like is more about repealing the empowerment of the DC level of the Department of Education and empowering local and city county level conversations as far as what curriculum looks like and what education funding looks like, and things of that nature. The short version is disempowering DC.”County Commissioner Michael Dux asked, “What does the Department of Education on the. Federal level really do?”“That’s the issue,” Reimers responded. “They allegedly are supposed to be the ones that keep the consistency of the curriculum, in particular, in line with every state and county and community across the country and assure that the standards are being met. As far as a congressman can see, that hasn’t really been happening.”Dux said, “And they’re probably trying to give us East Coast values, compared to what we want.” Commissioner Mark schoenrock took the opportunity to thank Representative Smith for his efforts on behalf of the county with a long delayed road project, “He and Senator (Deb) Fisherwere instrumental in helping us get the funding that’s going to complete our Pawnee City-Wymore-Fairbury (PWF) Road here. That’s $8.5 million of community project funding.”Schoenrock added, “That’s going to affect the lives of thousands of Nebraskans here in southeast Nebraska and northern Kansas. People use that road every day.”The other major topic discussed at the meeting was governemnt spending and inflation.“We’ve got to get federal spending under control. Associated with that, with the inflation, it has become increasingly difficult, not only for individuals, families and businesses, but local governments, to make ends meet. This last year, when we did our budget, the cost of everything has gone up so much,” said Schoenrock. “We don’t have a printing press here in the back room to make up the difference, like they do in DC. You know, they just they make it up in deficit spending.”Reimer said, “It’s a fight, especially in the House, but it’s definitely something he’s conscious of.”

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