We Need to Work Together by Congressman Sam Graves

Dear Friend,

Wednesday was a day of unity. It was a day to recognize the many achievements of the outgoing administration, while welcoming a new President.

Over the last 4 years, we’ve made a great deal of progress toward rebuilding our country and restoring American greatness. We cut taxes for millions of working families for the first time in years, putting them in control of more of their own money instead of Washington bureaucrats. We cut countless overbearing regulations churned out by the Obama Administration, getting big government off our backs and letting entrepreneurs lead our country to record-setting economic growth.

We rebuilt our military, destroyed ISIS, and made unprecedented progress towards peace in the Middle East—securing not one, but three historic peace agreements with Israel. Perhaps most importantly, we fought back against the COVID-19 pandemic, rapidly ramping up production of ventilators, distributing millions of tests across the country, and developing multiple effective vaccines in record time.

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the leadership of former President Trump. After hearing President Biden’s speech yesterday and his calls for unity, one might believe that job number one of his administration would be building on these achievements and moving our country forward together.

Unfortunately, much of President Biden’s actions in his first 24 hours in office haven’t matched his rhetoric. Instead of working with leaders on both sides of the aisle to help rebuild our country and get through this pandemic, he’s busy gutting immigration laws—allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to flood our borders and suspending deportations of criminal illegal aliens. He’s busy killing critical infrastructure projects, like the Keystone XL pipeline, that support thousands of good-paying American union jobs, strengthen our allies, and reduce our reliance on oil from Venezuela and the Middle East.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The way to get things done is by working together. That’s how we’ve been able to get legislation important to North Missouri done, like the Water Resources Bill, which will help protect communities from flooding. Americans from all walks of life agree on the core issues that will help our country. We need to rebuild our infrastructure, we need to reopen our schools and businesses safely, and we need to rebuild our economy.

President Biden, Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have an opportunity to live up to the promise of unity that was made during the inaugural address yesterday. Based on day one’s Executive Orders, I’m not very confident that will happen. Regardless, I’m still ready to work on the issues that are affecting the American people and look forward to doing so this year.

Sincerely,

Sam Grave