We all know it is.
The question is what do we do about it?
President Trump is well on his way toward dealing with this problem, and I applaud his initial efforts. Congress can help, but as we're seeing, Congress is slow to act. I have a priority list that I plan to work towards from day one, and I will work to get others to join me.
Hold a Monthly Meeting in the District. How could we know anything of any substance about the behavior of the federal government? How can we know we are being heard? Most elected to a federal office just disappear to DC and only come back to Texas at election time. This is why I will hold a monthly meeting somewhere in the district that is open to the public. I want you to be able to ask the questions, hear the answers, and discuss the issues in person. I want to keep my district informed in as close to real time as possible about what has taken place and what is coming up, and if at all possible, I want them to hear it straight from me.
Erase the Deep State. Too many in DC think that they are above review. No job in government is an entitlement. Everything should be in consent with the people. Far too many of the two million federal workers belong to what's become known as the "deep state" - those in DC who implement and control government policy without the approval of the president, lawmakers, or the people. This unseen power was on full display the last year of Biden's term.
Amend the Requirements to Hold Office. I will put forward an amendment to the Constitution to modify the language in Article 1:2.2 of the U.S. Constitution, "...and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States", to reflect the same requirement as a POTUS - "No Person except a natural born citizen of the United States, and to clarify a natural born Citizen to be one born of parents who are both naturally born. We do not need misplaced loyalties of any kind holding elected offices in the USA.
Protect Farmers from the Corporate Takeover of American Agriculture. Farming debt is at a record high but that is primarily due to corporate influence in government. Almost none of the $130 billion in subsidies given to farmers over the last 8 years has gone to the farmers. The farmers have been just a pass-through for those subsidies to get to the corporations that are taking over agriculture and running family farms out of business. Just in the last 40 years, over 1,000 seed suppliers have been cut down to just 3. At one time, there were 46 fertilizer manufacturers, now there are just 4. The cost of seed, fertilizer, and machinery rises faster than the prices farmers can get for their crops. Family farms are going under at an alarming rate and the government has become a weapon for corporate agriculture companies to use against those same family farms and to control our food prices.
Accelerate Deregulation. No one thinks about the impact that the cost of regulation has on the price of goods and services, much less the extreme rate of government spending and debt. It's inflationary. President Trump demands less regulation, which will bring down costs, but the people need to understand that the spending and debt issues start and stop in the Congress.
The DOGE project began chipping away at the deep state, as well as the insane spending none of us knew about. DOGE was the only reason we found out about the many problems with redundant and ineffective agencies and programs, such as USAID. My question is this: why did it take outside contractors on the DOGE team to find these issues? Congress, on behalf of the people, must be in the lead on this. As your Congressman, I will push Congress to assume this role.
Place a Ten-Year Moratorium on Immigration. Decades of progressive immigration rulings and policies gave us a border that is not secure and allowed untold millions of illegal aliens to use social security cards, which takes from your benefits. The damage to our economy has been massive and the damage to our culture has been even worse. We have endured too many years of this government using OUR money to pay for moving "refugees," generally men, from other countries. Their culture does not align with ours, and our government has forced us to accept "any culture" against our will. It's time to stop this insanity and implement a moratorium on all immigration and work visas.
English Only. We waste too much time and too many resources trying to accommodate every individual from every country in the world. It's completely unnecessary and does more harm than it does good. The time to implement an English Only policy is now.
No Non-Citizen CDLs. Illegal aliens and non-domiciled drivers should be removed from the road permanently. They are making the roads less safe, unnaturally affecting market prices, and driving insurance rates higher. Remove them and hold the companies that are hiring them accountable.
Use Article III Authority. There is no such thing as "three co-equal branches" in the federal government. According to the U.S. Constitution, the most powerful branch by far is the legislative branch and, of the two chambers in the legislative branch, the House of Representatives holds the most power, and one of its most important powers is controlling the judicial branch.
The federal judicial branch routinely oversteps its jurisdiction. From attempting to limit President Trump's ability to manage agencies that are completely under his authority to involving itself in a multitude of cases for which the Constitution gives them no jurisdiction... not only is this behavior wrong, it's a violation of the separation of powers. Congress has Article III power to reign in out-of-control judges, and it's time they did just that. Once elected, I'll push others to join me and use this authority.
Protect the Sovereignty of the States. As your Congressman, my overall goal would be to reduce the size of the federal government, and return more control to the States and to the people. We need to stop centralizing power in the hands of a few people we will never meet and can never influence, and start divesting power back to the individual States and the people. We need to move back to the federal system on which the Constitution was founded and away from the National system we are forced to live under today.
From one Texan to another,
Dwayne Stovall
