by Mary Rupert
Gun control and immigration were two of the residents’ concerns at U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s town hall meeting this morning at Donnelly College’s event center in Kansas City, Kan.
Sen. Moran, whose Senate seat is up for election on Aug. 2 and Nov. 8 this year, answered residents’ questions before heading back to Washington, D.C. More than 100 persons were in attendance.
Fielding questions that were both in favor of more gun control and in favor of recognition of Kansas’ concealed carry permits in Virginia, which recently decided not to recognize several states’ permits, Sen. Moran said he supports reciprocity on states recognizing permits, but he doubted if that would happen while President Obama is in office and while 60 votes are needed to pass legislation in the Senate. The votes are not there currently, according to Sen. Moran.
Sister Therese Bangert said she agreed with President Obama’s executive action on gun control.
“We live in a community where there are way too many guns, and way too much gun violence, and we lose children in this community from gun violence,” she said. She has served as a police chaplain and said she believes concealed weapons would be a threat to police officers. “We have too many guns,” she said.
Sen. Moran said the president’s plan so far seems to be just playing around the edges. He said he didn’t know what else the president would have to say. Few would disagree that there are too many guns, he added.
“The question is, can you solve the violence by eliminating the gun?” Sen. Moran, whose residence is Hays, Kan., said. He said he worries that when the solution is a restriction on guns, that the rights would be taken away of the people who abide by the law, and it doesn’t change the availability of guns to people who don’t care about the law.
“So we end up diminishing somebody’s rights in hopes that we are protecting ourselves, and yet we have people who don’t really care what the law is. Guns will be available to them,” he said. He added he felt comfortable with limiting access to guns to people with a history of violence and mental illness.
He also criticized the use of executive orders.
“What I learned about government in my high school government class is not being exercised by this president and this administration,” Sen. Moran said. “Congress makes the laws and the president executes them.”
The focus should be on Congress determining the policy and the president executing it, he said. Even if one agrees the president’s policies are right, if the policies don’t go through the process of Congress passing the law, and the president executing the law, then something is being done wrong that is damaging to the constitution and freedoms, he said.
‘Immigration needs to be better handled’
An audience member said in Kansas City, Kan., a large number of international refugees have contributed to the community, begun careers and started businesses. Far from being a threat, the refugees are making the city, state and country a better place, he said.
He asked Sen. Moran not to let Kansas sway with the political winds of fear, hate and greed. He was confident in the screening process. “Don’t let our state turn its back on the thriving refugee population that is already here, and the benefits that will come from us welcoming more,” he said to a lot of applause.
Sen. Moran said immigration needs to be better handled by the federal government. He said America wants to be welcoming people who are in danger and who are fleeing their countries because of fear of persecution.
“The only thing you said that causes me pause is your certainty of the vetting process, and I need to be certain myself of that,” Sen. Moran said. “My goal would never be to single someone out because of their religion. My goal would be to single out people who come here as a threat to Americans and those who live here.”
He said there is a need to find out who is a threat and keep them out of the United States. Religion is not a criterion by which people should be judged, he added.
“If you compare this process (entering the country) to other things that occur in our immigration system, our immigration system is totally broken,” Sen. Moran said in answer to a question about illegally entering the country. “It all needs our attention.”
Most people here illegally are here because they once came here legally and outstayed the permission for them to be here, he noted.
He said he would like the Department of Homeland Security to come to Congress and brief them on security, so he could reach the conclusion there is a satisfactory vetting process, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Sen. Moran said it is not likely that immigration policies will be fixed until there is a new president. He said he does not think there is enough goodwill between the House and Senate to accomplish anything.
While he is critical of the president for stepping beyond his authority, he is also critical of Congress for creating the gaps that allowed him to do that, he said. It takes 60 votes in the Senate to do anything, after a rules change, he said, and that has prevented some issues from advancing. He supported elimination of the 60-vote rule after the Iran nuclear issue surfaced.
“I’m all about trying to get a Senate that works,” he said. “I thought that when given the opportunity, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you didn’t go there to do nothing, you went there to advance things you believe in. I’ve yet to see enough of that happen, but I’m not willing to give up yet.”
The challenge on immigration policy is to do it in a way that does not reward more illegal behavior, he said. He said the general sentiment of Kansans seems to be that they would welcome anyone who is here to better themselves and contribute to the community, and not take advantage of the system.
Help for entrepreneurs
Sen. Moran said he has worked in the Senate to try to help entrepreneurs. He said growing the economy would help the United States pay the debt and put people to work, also. A question from the audience pointed out that some “angel credit” funds at the state level were drying up.
He said he used reports from the Kauffman Foundation to help put together federal legislation and is promoting the third version of the Startup 3.0 bill. So far it has not passed.
“Entrepreneurship can be a variety of things, but it’s somebody pursuing their dream, and putting themselves and others to work,” he said.
‘Many veterans are falling through the cracks’
Sen. Moran said he has helped get services for military veterans.
“The VA is overwhelmed, many veterans are falling through the cracks,” Sen. Moran said. He said he favors a program allowing veterans to receive services at their hometown hospitals as well as through the VA.
“We are working our way, individual veteran by veteran, trying to get services,” he said.
Earmark legislation
In answer to a question on the reintroduction of earmarks, Sen. Moran said earmarks were abused, overused and set the stage for excess spending. He said Congress was right to end earmarks, but he also thinks in the absence of earmarks, Congress has turned spending decisions over to the administration. He said he is willing to sit down and figure out if there is a way to have earmarks.
He said it was particularly objectionable that there were earmarks for private businesses, and that ought to be off the table. Earmarks were so abused, that before going back to the path, Congress should sit down and figure out the right way to do it, he added. Also, he said spending decisions recently have benefited “bluer” states than Kansas.
EPA regulations: ‘The question is how you do it’
Sen. Moran, in answer to a question, discussed Environmental Protection Agency regulations discouraging the use of coal. As natural gas replaces it, natural gas prices are expected to increase. He said he had many discussions with Board of Public Utilities officials concerned about the effect on residents here as utility costs increase.
“Clean water and air is important to everybody, the question is how you do it,” he said. And how to do it so it isn’t so damaging to people and the economy, he added.
“Sometimes the policies that are designed to do good end up being the most damaging policies to the people who have the hardest time paying their bills,” he said. “Wealthy people will be able to figure out how to get by with increasing gas and increasing utility costs, but poor people much less so.”
Policies coming out of Washington are too often those that drive up the costs of energy, he said.
Funding for college education
Kansas City Kansas Community College President Doris Givens asked Sen. Moran about federal funding for college education. There is currently a discussion about completely funding community college education across the country. One of the major reasons students do not continue at community colleges is the funding, she said.
Sen. Moran said to his knowledge, the administration had not actively pushed the issue, and Congress had not paid significant attention to it.
He suggested studying the reduction of time it takes to get a degree in order to reduce costs associated with it. “We need to look for ways,” he said.
“The best thing we can do for graduates of our schools is to have a growing economy in which jobs are available,” he said. That would allow them to better pay back the debt, and find job satisfaction.
“I would not think free tuition of community colleges is in the near future. If it develops, it would be more likely at the state level than federal,” he said. Community colleges are not federal institutions, but state institutions, and decisions ought to be made there, he added.
Presidential campaign endorsements
After the meeting, Sen. Moran said he would not be endorsing anyone in the Republican presidential primary campaign. He is not against any of them, he just doesn’t want to single any of them out, he added.
Social Security raises
In answer to a Wyandotte Daily question afterward concerning elderly residents who received no Social Security cost-of-living raises this year but who face electric and natural gas bill increases, Sen. Moran said his position is that he supports changing the formula that determines how much Social Security they will receive in Social Security payments.
No one can believe the costs for senior citizens have not gone up, and much of the costs are related to health care, he said.
To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].
