With a new Congress often comes new assignments, and I’m looking forward to the important work that will be getting done on my committees and subcommittees. I will continue my service on the House Small Business Committee that serves as an advocate for the small businesses nationwide who work so hard for the communities they serve and keep our local economies humming along. My work on the House Financial Services Committee will continue, and I will be leading the new Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions as Chairman. This subcommittee coordinates nicely with my new assignment to the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The world has been turning a blind eye to inappropriate actions of the Chinese Communist Party for far too long, and I plan to hold them to account in both of my capacities.

As I discussed last week, I’ve been chosen to serve on the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. This committee will help United States keep a closer eye on the corrupt CCP and their many unwelcome invasions on the American people – most recently via our airspace. While the Chinese are spying on us via the internet and electronics daily, these flying objects sent a clear message to the United States: the Chinese government has no regard for the privacy of American citizens and does not fear our government. After some hesitation from the Administration, we have since learned that this balloon left China in January and flew over where some of our country’s most secret and powerful weapons are stored – which did not exclude Missouri. This overt display of aggression just reinforces the fact that the Select Committee’s work is more needed than ever. We plan to take a deeper look into how else the CCP is invading our national privacy and ways we can sanction and stop these unethical, corrupt practices. Our national security is at risk, and holding the CCP accountable for these practices has become an urgent matter.

But my work holding the CCP accountable won’t be exclusive to the Select Committee on China. This Congress, I have been elected to serve as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions on the House Financial Services Committee. My goal in leading this subcommittee is to combat the threat China poses to our nation’s financial health. It is no secret that the Chinese have been interfering with and influencing our economy for years. But in the CCP’s quest to become the world’s greatest economic superpower, they have also become blatantly corrupt with shady business dealings, continue to profit off human rights violations against their own people, and have proven they are not to be trusted with stunts like flying a spy balloon in plain sight over our country. But the biggest problem is the hand the Chinese government has in the American financial system, and that’s where my subcommittee comes in. While we can’t necessarily control the way another country does business, we can do more to stop China from inappropriately accessing our financial markets, combat the IP fraud they use to steal American technology, and stop institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund from giving the CCP preferential treatment and sweetheart loan agreements. The CCP is currently being held to a different set of standards and rules than the rest of the world, and that needs to end.

This Congress I am also proud to serve on the House Small Business Committee again. Last Congress, our goal was getting our nation’s small businesses through the pandemic and overseeing the Small Business Administration to ensure it is doing its job of advocating for American job creators and entrepreneurs. Now that life is back to normal and most of these businesses are out of survival mode, helping them thrive is our top priority. Eliminating unnecessary regulation and government red tape so they can spend more time serving customers than doing paperwork will be very important. And my colleagues and I will of course continue working to get our economy back on track so small businesses can stop paying the current inflationary costs for goods and labor that make it impossible to turn a profit.

Regardless of what committees I serve on, my priorities for serving Missouri’s Third District remain the same: advocating for our farmers and ranchers who work tirelessly to keep our state’s agricultural tradition alive and well, building on the historic progress we’ve made in the fight for the unborn, protecting Second Amendment rights, and righting the ship with our economy so that families and small businesses can support themselves without worry – to name a few. There’s no shortage of work to be done, and we are just getting started.