SPEAKER_00 0:05

From Washington, D.C. to the heart of America, this is Congressman Mark Alford's Capital Recap, the voice of truth with a behind-the-scenes look at what's really going on in the swamp. Defender of conservative values and a man who believes our best days are still ahead of us. Here he is, Congressman Mark Alford.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Well, hi, once again, folks. Yes, this is Congressman Mark Allford. Good to have you with us this week. You know, each week, right here on Mark Alford's Capital Recap, we talk about what's happening in D.C. From the White House to the People's House. We covered all. This week we've got a lot to go over. We're going to break down the ongoing shutdown, the Democrat shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security and why it's happening, why it needs to end now. We'll also talk about the Senate finally taking up the Save America Act and how my friend and fellow Missouri colleague, Senator Eric Schmidt, is really leading the charge to strengthen that act with President Trump's additions to it. And we're going to take a look at two major executive orders from President Trump. They're really aimed at making the American dream of home ownership more accessible again, more affordable, saving the American dream. And we're going to take you inside a conversation I had with Missouri State rep Jeff Vernetti. He is a rising leader working really to protect the integrity of our elections in the Showmee state, all that and more. Let's get started. We're going to start with the update on what's happening here in D.C. Right now, the Department of Homeland Security is shut down thanks to the Democrats. And unfortunately, there's no deal in sight really. I call it the stupidest shutdown in U.S. history. We're going on a month now into this, and here's where things stand today. Senate Democrats are still refusing to pass a full funding bill unless their demands on immigration enforcement are included. They want the masks to come off. They want to be able to dox these ICE employees, enforcement officers, and they want judicial warrants, which is not happening. The President's given in a lot to their demands, I think five demands that he have really given in to. He's kind of negotiating this deal. At the same time, they're pushing a new strategy, trying to fund parts of DHS like TSA and FEMA, but leaving out Border Patrol and ICE entirely. Folks, that's not going to work. DHS isn't something you can fund halfway. You can't say you support national security and then cut out the very agency responsible for enforcing our laws and securing our border. And it's getting worse. I don't know if you've flown lately, but the TSA agents have now been working without pay for weeks. Airports all over the country are seeing delays, huge delays, not so much at our airport in Kansas City because those are private companies that are actually doing the work for the TSA out there, so it's a little bit different. But the airlines are really upset now. They've written a letter for the Democrats to end this. The TSA is going on its second pay period now of not getting paid. Behind the scenes, negotiations aren't moving along that fast. The White House has offered some concessions, as I mentioned, things like more transparency and oversight. But the Democrats won't take yes for an answer, basically. They're still grandstanding because they care more about illegal aliens than they do about your safety. So where does that leave us? You know, a lot of frontline workers right now are just stuck in the middle. Travelers are dealing with all the chaos and the head headaches and the long lines. And our country, while we are in this conflict with Iran and we are basically sitting ducks here in the homeland from these Islamic terrorists that the Biden administration led in with this open border policy, we need homeland security. We need to be safe at home. This is not complicated. We have to fund the Department of Homeland Security fully. Support the people protecting our great nation and stop playing games with our national security. I do want to touch on something else happening right now in Washington. My friend Senator Mark Wayne Mullen from Oklahoma, of course, is President Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security after the ouster of Secretary Noam. He's been going through the confirmation hearings this week, and as you might expect, it got a little heated, especially from Rand Paul, who's still hurt over the way that Mark Wayne Mullen talked about him years ago. But here's what matters, all right? Mark Wayne has a very strong support from the people on the front lines, including the National Border Patrol Council. And I think that really tells you everything you need to know right there. They are backing him. We need leadership at DHS, especially right now. Let's talk about the Save America Act. The House has passed it twice, okay? Now it's the Senate's turn and they've they finally took it up this week. It's been something we've been pushing for with a lot of urgency because it's something very simple: making sure our elections are secure and that every vote cast is legal, making sure that illegal aliens cannot vote in our elections, making sure that when you register to vote, you have to show proof of citizenship and that when you go to the polls, you have to show an ID to vote. It's common sense, folks. Common sense protections. Senator Schmidt is leading the effort in the Senate to strengthen this bill even further, adding the provisions that President Trump has called for. He did that last week at Darrow in Florida. I told you about that. We were there listening to that. He wants stronger protections for male in voting, safeguards for women's sports, right? No men in women's sports, and also protections for our kids, no sex change mutilations for for kids. All right, it's pretty simple. Let's hear directly from Senator Schmidt.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

There are moments when the Senate is asked whether it will merely manage decline or whether it would whether it will still govern. This is one of those moments. What is before us today is a test. A test of whether the Senate still understands what it's for. A test of whether Article I of the Constitution still means when it says that Congress possesses the power to write the rules of the road. A test of whether this body still exists to defend the American people, strengthen the Republic, and use constitutional authority for the common good. That is why I rise in support of my substitute amendment to the Save America Act.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Well, now let's talk about something that hits really close to home for me. As some of you may know, uh before I came to Congress, I was working in television, but I was also a realtor. One of my biggest priorities was always and is now making sure the American dream of home ownership is in reach for Americans. And that's why the new executive orders from President Trump really matters for this. You know, for years, slow permitting and costly regulations have made it more difficult and more expensive to build homes. In Kansas City, after the Inflation Reduction Act passed, the Green News Scam, Kansas City adopted the Green News Scam Initiatives for Building Codes. It raised the price of building a home 25%. Builders did not want to take that on. And so that affected our housing stock in Kansas City proper. That's changing now. And families trying to buy their first home, young couples, they just want to build a life. The average age now for first-time home ownership is 40 years of age. 10 years above the age it was even 10 years ago, 15 years ago. President Trump's new executive order, along with our work in the House, is taking direct aim at that. They're cutting unnecessary regulations that delay the construction and raise the costs. They're streamlining permitting, they're expanding access to mortgages, especially through community banks, which is huge. If we can get more of our community banks making these loans on homes, these mortgages, you're going to have a better relationship with your community banks. They're going to know your situation, and they are going to be more apt to lend money to people they know and do business with them. Bottom line, this is really about increasing supply, lowering the cost, and giving more Americans a fair shot at the American dream. That dream should not feel out of reach, and it is for a lot of people right now. Hey, before we go to the break, let's talk about one of our critical roundtables we had this week with the U.S. Postal Service. You know, a lot of you are having issues with the Postal Service. I sat down with the Postmaster General to talk about something I hear about all the time from folks back home: the delayed delivery, especially in our rural communities. Look, if you're listening from rural Missouri right now, you already know what I'm talking about. Delayed packages, mail showing up late. Uh heck, we just got a newspaper in our district office in Raymoor last week. Okay. It was a newspaper that we got from another part of our district. It was shipped in November, early November. In fact, it had a Black Friday circular in it. So that tells you how screwed up things are. That's not acceptable. I raise that concern directly about the changes that the Postal Service has made that are actually slowing delivery in rural areas and ask a very simple question: do you really believe that rural Americans should have to wait longer for their mail? Because that goes against the really core mission of the Postal Service to provide reliable service to each and every American, no matter where they live. I also shared some real examples from our district, including mail taking over two weeks to get to the same zip code. I know it is frustrating for for you. So rest assured we are on top of this. We're trying to get answers. The Postmaster General that they have in place now comes from a business background. I used to run waste management. And one of the things they're looking at, it didn't get public support before, but going from a six-day delivery down to a five-day delivery, maybe not delivering on Wednesdays, perhaps. It would save them about two and a half billion dollars a year, and that's about what they're losing each year in their cost operations. They're in the hole, basically. So they're trying to figure out some solutions. I don't know if the American people will go. You know, everyone tends to freak out if they're not getting their mail six days a week, but let's face it, you're not getting it anyway because it's delayed. So if they can kind of write the ship and maybe cut out something like Wednesday delivery, that might be an answer. Um, we're looking at that. They're looking at it. Hey, when we come back, I had the chance to sit down with Missouri State rep Jeff Fernetti to talk about something that's really been impacting our state for years. Outside groups coming in, influencing our elections, and even gathering signatures to change Missouri law. So together, we're working on solutions to protect the integrity of that process. After the break, you'll hear the full conversation. You're listening to Mark Alford's Capital Recap.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Welcome back to Congressman Mark Alford's Capital Recap. Here he is once again, the voice of truth, Mark Alford.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Well, hey folks, we're back. Thanks for joining us for another edition of Mark Alford's Capital Recap. Want to take you to Missouri's State Capitol in Jefferson City, where I had the chance recently to sit down in the office of Jeff Rennetti, a state rep from Canman County, Lake of the Ozarks area. Great guy. He's a rock star, rising rock star in the Republican Party in Missouri. We were talking about a bill. He's got a bill in the state house. I've got a bill we've introduced here on the federal level, but it has to do with outside groups coming into Missouri and influencing our ballot process. Take a listen. Jeff brought to our attention something really that has plagued Missouri for some time now and recently through the whole initiative petition process and these outside groups and entities coming in to gather signatures to overturn the will of the people when it comes to the Missouri first map that you've heard so much about. And Jeff came up with a solution. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Yeah, I mean, it's a real interesting process. First, thanks for having me. But uh really we have the e-verify system for a number of other things and a number of other industries. So why not protect the integrity of our elections and do the same with signature gatherers? So, you know, again, there's the that's those same groups want to say that you know we're having tremendous influence on it. This isn't about this isn't about the policy. This isn't about changing policies. So people will still vote all they want. It's just the how it gets done, and protecting our constitution has to be critical. I know on the state side, the Missouri Constitution is one of the easiest state constitutions in the country to amend, and those things have to change.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Well, so in case folks listening didn't know, outside groups came in in September, October, November, gathered signatures, some over 300,000 signatures to try to get the ver Missouri First Map reversed on the ballot. And many of these people were from not Missouri, and some were illegal aliens.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

How does that happen?

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And it's another Well, they they've just got huge deep pockets to be able to do this. And we've seen it recently, of course, with the America First Maps, but this has been an ongoing problem. If you look at the the last decade in Missouri, all of the key liberal things that have been put into the Missouri Constitution and the things that have been controversial, you know, legalizing marijuana, sports gambling, a number of things. No matter what side of the aisle you're on, they're tremendously influenced by outside money. And one of the biggest ones was last year, last cycle, I should say, the last election, there was an outside organization that got, tried to get paid time leave and sick leave uh ingrained in Missouri law. They did. They spent over four million dollars. All of that came from a Swiss billionaire. Why is a Swiss billionaire putting four million dollars into a Missouri legal situation? Because obviously they're gonna benefit from it on the long term. We're they're doing it in a number of states. So Missouri just needs to tighten down. That's why we're trying to make initiative petition more difficult.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

That's also going to be on the ballot, possibly in November, possibly in August. But Missouri voters will get a chance to take out this horrible thing that's been in state law uh that allows uh outside groups to come in and influence our elections.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Yeah, law, look, and you see it on a much grander scale than I do, but law should be difficult to make. It should be a slow, well-thought-out process. And what we're seeing is that we should never take away citizens' right to get involved with the initiative petition process. It's a wonderful part of Americana and it's a wonderful part of Missouri. However, now it's been twisted into a business practice. And you don't see people going and volunteering and you know what, I disagree with this, let's rally our people. No, they're just paying people to do it. And you're right, some of those folks are illegal. And what's happening is uh is a largely conservative state is having uh a number of liberal policies thrust upon it. And so again, if Missouri voters want to vote a certain way, they certainly can. This doesn't change any of that. It just it what we're gonna try to change is who's gathering those signatures. Let's let's make sure that Missouri and and and grander laws are influenced by actual people from Missouri or actual people that live in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Aaron Ross Powell, so the name of the bill on the federal and state level is Protect Our Ballots Act. Uh both require nonprofits involved in election-related work to use the e-verify system to make sure that if you're going to come and affect elections, uh we we want to do it on the federal level, you want to do it on the state level, that you are a citizen of the United States of America. Yeah. Jeff, you wore a lot of hats. Uh you were a sports broadcaster, if you can't tell from his great voice, a business owner, developer, community leader, and now a state representative. What made you want to run for office?

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Yeah, really, I it was one of those opportunities I've always wanted to run for office, never really knew exactly what I wanted to do. It's, you know, you try to decide is it something I can affect locally? You know, you you consider everything, as I'm sure you did. But I just felt like uh in in our area at the time that I I chose to run, uh the Lake of the Ozarks, as you know, is it's part of your uh part of your district. It's really an engine for economic growth in Missouri. And I think and I thought for uh quite a while um it had just been kind of pushed to the side. It wasn't made as important as it as I think it should be from our past representatives. And just I thought it was an area where I could bring my expertise and uh influence and and try to make a difference. And so far here, and you know, I'm a year and a couple of months into my first term. I I think we're starting to do that.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

What business lessons did you learn in those many years in business that you have brought to Jefferson City?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yeah, really it's it's a relationship business. Uh, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of business ideas that are great that you try to go sell, whether it's a product you're selling or an investment you're trying to get people to make. Uh but most of the time, no matter what level that is, big or small, people ultimately invest in in the person or the people they're doing business with. And that could be a couple hundred thousand dollars to multi-million dollars. You you want to be in business with the right people. So I've kind of taken that and and tried to work with people on both sides of the aisle as as you have. And look, even inside our own party, there are moderates, there are people that are in purple districts, there's people that are in even more conservative districts than mine, and that's hard to believe. And you've got to work with all of those people and make sure that their initiatives are important as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Well, Jeff Renetti, thanks for being with us, and uh, let's get these bills made into law.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Definitely. And I want to thank you too. You know, I was uh talking out there as we were waiting for this. There, you know, there's a lot of folks in in your position. Uh you're getting pulled in a multitude of different directions, but I want to really compliment your staff on their ability to work with all of your representatives. I'm sure they all get the same attention I do from little tiny things to major things. Uh you you guys are right at the top of constituent services, and that's that's critical for our area because there's so many things that a state rep can do, but most of the things, of course, shift up to you guys, and you're getting pulled in a lot of different directions, and I appreciate the attention.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

What's your website if people need help?

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Yeah, you you can uh obviously uh state reps, anything that you need to connect with uh is all on the House of Representatives webpage, and you can search for my name, Jeff Vernetti. But you I also put a lot of that information on my personal page at Vernetti123123 is my district, Vernetti123.com.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Very good. Jeff, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Well, folks, there is a lot happening right now in Washington, D.C. and in our state, from the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security to the Senate finally taking up the Save America Act. We'll continue to track that for you and so much more. Folks, be sure and keep up with everything that's going on in Washington by signing up for our newsletter. It's a great newsletter. It comes out every two weeks. It tells you everything we're doing in Washington. Behind the scenes, look at our office and what's going on here. Go to offered.house.gov. That's offered.house.gov, and you can sign up right there. And then follow us on social media. That's at repmarkofford. At repmarkofford. I can't tell you what a joy it is to represent you in Congress, being your voice and your vote. Thank you for sending me here. Until next time, I believe in you. I believe in America, and yes, I do. I believe that our greatest days are still ahead of us. Good day, and God bless.