Kustoff talks plans for legislative session

When the new United States Congress session began two weeks ago, it began with a lot of drama and energy as it took 15 votes before the House of Representatives could elect a Speaker of the House.

David Kustoff, the Republican representative of the Eighth District of Tennessee that includes Madison County and most of rural West Tennessee, said he supported the eventual Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) throughout the entire process.

“He’d been the minority leader and was pretty aggressive during the mid-term elections last year getting out and campaigning for other Republicans across the country,” Kustoff said. “So I thought he was the best choice because he has the relationships and the experience to be a good Speaker.”

Once that was over, the House simply had to get to the business of being the House, which started with adopting the rules for the session and then begin filing and discussing bills.

Kustoff, who’s been in the House since 2017, already got a bill passed in the first few days of the session to undo a move made by the Biden administration and the former Democratic majority in 2022.

“Our bill essentially eliminates the funding for the new 87,000 IRS agents passed under the Inflation Reduction Act, which I voted against last August,” Kustoff said. “And they were trying to create different reasons to audit families and businesses more.”

Kustoff cited two examples. One was calling for a required audit for anyone who had more than $600 in a bank account or anyone who had more than $10,000 flow through their bank account in a year.

“There’s a lot of people the $600 option would affect,” Kustoff said. “And how many times do most families have $10,000 flow through their account.

“You don’t have to save that money. Just have $10,000 in income and then spend it, and most families do that a few times a year. And that’s just wrong and so many levels of unnecessary bureaucracy and taxing the American people.”

Kustoff said the bill was one small step in his pledge to work toward ensuring his campaign promises and platform from last year’s re-election campaign.

“When we ran last year, we had a platform called ‘Commitment to America’ that had four prongs to it,” Kustoff said. “Those prongs were a strong economy, a safe nation, a future built on freedom and an accountable government.

“So every bill that I file and any bill that I vote on will be measured against those four prongs. Does this bill support a strong economy, a safe nation, a future with freedom and holding the government accountable? If any of those are threatened by any bill, I won’t vote for it. Because that was my campaign promise to the people who voted for me.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news