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Representative Vicky Hartzler at Rotary
Nevada Daily Mail
"My job is to listen to you and take your ideas back to Washington," said U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler at Thursday's Rotary meeting at the Nevada Country Club.
Those ideas come from her trips around the fourth Congressional district as well as meetings her staff holds in the district.
Hartzler said she serves on three house committees: agriculture, armed services and budget.
"I grew up on a farm near Archie and am one of four members of Congress who lives on a working farm," Hartzler said, adding that other members of Congress have a farm background.
That lack of a farming background for more members impacts agriculture related legislation.
"It took three years to do a farm bill. That's because fewer members of Congress have a farm background," she said.
And much of the farm bill deals with other areas than farming, like food stamps.
Her membership on the armed services committee is particularly valuable to the district with two of the nations premier military bases in the fourth district.
Fort Leonard Wood, located near Waynesville, is well known for its basic training facilities, but it also houses training facilities for military police, and chemical/biological/nuclear specialists.
"It is the only base with live biological agents," she said.
The facilities at Fort Leonard Wood are also used by emergency medical services and fire department personnel for this type of training.
It also house an engineers school to learn how to build bridges and facilities, as well to locate IED's.
She said the forth district also has Whiteman Air Force Base, near Knob Noster, which is home to the B-2 bomber, Apache helicopters and A-10 Warthog, which was designed for close air support, including attacking tanks and other armored vehicles.
Hartzler said she traveled to the Middle East last March and met with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan's King Abdullah and Syria's President Assad.
"ISIL is a very real threat to our allies in the Middle East," Hartzler said, adding that it in the process of setting up caliphate in the Middle East.
She said the organization started as ISI in Iraq and then moved to Syria, where it became ISIS. This group is definitely setting up a caliphate over the entire Middle East.
Hartzler said that she did not know if the plan to train the Syrians will provide enough of a ground force, with the U.S. providing air support, will be able to defeat ISIL, even with help from Kurds.
"I hope Turkey gets involved. It has the second most troops in the area," she said.
Another issue Hartzler said the U.S. must watch closely is Ebola.
"We need to be vigilant, as this virus has a 70 percent death rate and there is no known cure," she said.
"We need to look at restricting visas for people from the countries with Ebola until it is contained," Hartzler said.
She said that the U.S. needs to establish a 21-day quarantine period, preferably in a controlled setting, for people who have been working with Ebola patients in Africa.
"The Pentagon announced it will do a 21 day quarantine of soldiers returning from the Middle East," she said.