One of the senators blamed for stalling action on key issues on the final day of Missouri’s legislative session last week wants the governor to give lawmakers another chance to take action on banning the sale of farmland to China.
Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, who came under bipartisan fire for a final-day filibuster that effectively ended Senate work for the year, penned a letter Tuesday to Gov. Mike Parson urging him to schedule a special session immediately on the issue of foreign ownership of agriculture land.
“We must ensure the security of our food supply and protect our military installations from dangerous foreign actors,” said Eigel, who is considering a bid for governor in 2024.
The letter was signed by eight Republican senators, most of whom are part of a hard-right conservative faction that has battled with Senate leadership for more than two years, resulting in a gridlock and “chaos.”
In an interview with the Post-Dispatch Monday, Parson offered no hint that he was planning to call lawmakers back to the Capitol for any reason this year. Last year, Parson scored a big victory when he called the GOP-controlled Legislature into a special, late-summer session for a round of tax cuts.
Eigel has made farmland ownership a key plank in his unofficial bid for governor. The issue is seen as a way to reach conservative rural voters at a time when China is seen as a threat rather than as a potential trading partner.
In February, Eigel launched a series of digital ads criticizing two of his fellow Republican opponents — Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
In one ad, Eigel focused on a 2013 law that allowed 1% of farmland to be foreign owned. Previously, foreign ownership of farmland had been banned. The law allowed a Chinese company to purchase Smithfield Foods and its 40,000 acres of Missouri farmland.
Source: stltoday.com
Categories: Missouri, Government & Policy