Big First District Representative Tracey Mann, R-Kansas, met about two dozen constituents Friday morning during a town hall meeting in the basement meeting room of J.H. Robbins Memorial Library to update them on the session and to answer questions.

Topics during the 45-minute meeting ranged from the farm bill to special education funding, reining in the overreach of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, rural broadband access and the war in Ukraine.

“Because we’re a big ag district, I view my job is to really support Kansas agriculture,” Mann said.

As a member of the House Ag Committee, Mann said he worked on maintaining the stepped-up basis, which is a long-standing provision in the tax code that prevents heirs from paying capital gains taxes on inherited assets such as land, equipment or buildings.

“There have been efforts in Washington to do away with that the last couple of years,” he said. “We’ve worked hard and reinserted legislation, so we’ve been able to preserve the stepped-up basis.”

Mann said he has also been working to prevent the Lesser Prairie Chicken from being added to the threatened species list. He said there have been efforts by the Biden administration to do so. Mann said if it goes through, it will make it harder for ag producers and the oil and gas industry.

“It was supposed to go into effect Jan. 24,” he said, “however, we got that delayed by 60 days, so right now, that date is March 24, so more to come there.”

Mann said the United States hits its debt limit this summer.

“We are $32 trillion in debt,” he said. “I will not support in any way us defaulting on our debt, but at the same time, when you max out a credit card, I think it’s responsible to ask yourself before you issue another credit card, ‘how did we get here?’ I think we need to have an adult conversation in this country about spending.”

Other subjects covered included:

• The New Farm Bill — Mann said the current five-year farm bill expires Sept. 30.

“My biggest priority will be crop insurance,” he said. “I think it is such an important risk management tool for our ag producers.”

Mann said in Kansas, agriculture is a low moisture and highrisk proposition.

“So, we have to have tools in place to help manage that risk,” he said.

Mann said crop insurance should be strengthened and made better.

Another priority in the farm bill for Mann is funding for MAP (Market Access Program) and FMD (Foreign Market Development).

“I think when we look at the future of agriculture, we’ve got to be looking at opening up more markets,” he said.

Mann said 87 percent of the monies contained in the Food and Farm Bill go to food and nutrition programs.

“Less than 20 percent goes to production agriculture,” he said.

• Reining in an overreaching ATF — Mann said more regulation has come through the ATF regarding the designation and regulation of pistol braces and short-barreled rifles.

“I signed a letter and also signed up for legislation that would prevent that from happening,” Mann said.

As far as reining in the ATF goes, Mann said there is regular and constant resistance to Second Amendment rights being diminished on both the regulatory and legislative fronts.

• Adding 87,000 new IRS agents — Mann said that is an issue that the overwhelming number of people in the Big First District strongly oppose.

“They (the IRS) are down right now,” Mann said, “so they’re not filling their current duties. So, to go and think we can increase what they’re doing and hire 87,000 more when they’re not able to fill the current openings just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.”

• Rural broadband access — Mann said he thinks there is broad bipartisan support for both rural and urban broadband.

“I have been frustrated with the maps the Federal Communications Commission put out saying there’s coverage where there is not,” Mann said. “We’ve been working on this for years.”

He said there are currently multiple different places for funding for broadband.

“We help service providers try to navigate where this funding is,” he said.

• Special education funding — Deena Hilbig, superintendent of USD 327 Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo, asked Mann to advocate for the full funding of special education.

“We have a $223 million shortfall here in Kansas,” she said. “The state says we’re going to fund it at 92 percent. Schools need that funding.”

• War in Ukraine — After a patron passionately expressed her concerns that the Biden administration was leading the U.S. into a nuclear war with Russia over the war in Ukraine, Mann said he has not voted for the last several appropriations bills to send military equipment to Ukraine.

“I have some concerns about the oversight and transparency,” he said. “I’d like to see Ukraine win; I certainly don’t want to see Putin win. I think if you would have said a year ago when the invasion happened that Ukraine would still be standing, I think most people would have disagreed that would even be a possibility.”

That said, Mann noted the U.S. has a lot of other priorities as well.

“I think some other countries ought to be stepping up and doing more,” he said. “It’s a really dicey situation.”