The legislative session is back in full swing. We hope that with vaccinations, good health and safety guidelines - and people already being exposed - that we can conduct business in a fairly normal manner.
Sometimes, the activities outside the Legislature are the most entertaining and important parts of helping me keep balanced as a legislator. I attended the Blair Oaks football team banquet as a Lions Club worker. I assure you anybody who thinks there are not a lot of great kids around has not met these kids. There is another generation of good workers and level-headed people. We need to stay positive.
Another interesting event I attended was the Cattlemen's Association Banquet. It brought back my old Ag Econ memories from college. Soybean farmers were happy beans were $14; the livestock producers were concerned that was driving up their feed costs; the corn producers were first happy about the increasing price of beans because, through cross elasticity, that would raise the price of corn. However, the higher price of corn and the lower price of gas has caused some ethanol plants to shut down. This, in turn, will drive down the price of corn a little, but it will also mean we will have fewer DBG's, a high protein by-product of ethanol production that is used by livestock producers for feed. It reminded me life as a lawyer is a lot less complicated than a farmer.
I was proud to see so many dedicated people working to support, expand and maintain agriculture. We need to make it a great opportunity for our younger generation going into farming because the average age of a farmer is 57 years old, and while that doesn't seem that old now, at one time in my life, that was a senior citizen.
The speaker of the House did make various committee appointments. I have been entrusted with several important committees.
Once again, I have been selected to serve on the Judiciary Committee. This year, I was honored to be selected as the committee's vice chair. This committee reviews a lot of legislation and bills dealing with protecting our judiciary, torts, various types of immunities and business legislation.
New this year is the Legislative Review Committee, which is going to try to review any proposed laws as drafted to look for mistakes and then works to fix any errors that the laws might have and try to eliminate some of the legislation that goes out that merely results in additional litigation and confusion. This committee is one of the speaker's new committees and one he set up to address these and other issues. I think my open comments about some previous unartfully drafted legislation may have been a way of him telling me to put my actions where my mouth is.
The Higher Education Committee is another committee I am on. Having worked with the chairman and vice chair of this committee before, we are excited we can possibly address some of Missouri's higher education issues. We believe better coordination of tech schools, junior colleges, and four-year colleges, along with other post-secondary education institutions, can better prepare our students for careers and integration into the workforce. We have to make a post-high-school education affordable not only so we can have a well-trained and skilled workforce but also so our young people are not drowning in debt.
To do so, we will have to make changes. One thing I am looking at is reducing the number of required courses to get specific degrees. For example, a pre-med student does not need to be taking political science to be qualified for medical school. While I am not opposed to a broad education and think it definitely serves a useful purpose, the cost of it is simply too high for a lot of students.
I am on the Special Committee on Government Accountability. I believe this committee is going to end up being an investigative committee. This will use not only my law degree but also my ag/econ degree and all the accounting courses I have taken. As a state, we are giving out a lot of money, and we need to make sure entities using that money are held accountable for it. We are continuously told of waste in state government. Now, we have a committee investigating that and looking at how the money is spent and ways to make them accountable for it. Every state agency assures us they are using their money in a conservative manner, and their policies are as unrestrictive as possible. Now, we have this additional means to make them prove it and hold them accountable.
The last committee I was assigned to is the Special Committee on Urban Issues. This committee is a bipartisan committee and is chaired by a Democrat. Just like rural parts of the state have their unique issues, urban areas have issues that are unique to their environment and their situation. Those issues need to be addressed. I have always claimed to be open-minded at the Legislature, and this the opportunity to do that because there are certainly a lot about urban issues that I do not know about. But I want to stay open-minded and make judgments only after hearing what both sides of the aisle have to say.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Being here is challenging and fun so long as I can get something accomplished because it is a sacrifice for my wife, children and grandchildren for the time this job takes.
Again, thank you for your support.
State Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Jefferson City, represents Missouri's 59th District, and shares his perspective on statehouse issues twice a month.