(soft music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) - Welcome to "Meet the Candidates" ahead of the November 5th general election.

I'm Jak Titchenor from WSIU Public Broadcasting.

We're joined by incumbent Republican Congressman Mike Bost of Murfreesboro, who has represented the 12th Illinois congressional district since 2015.

Welcome to "Meet the Candidates".

- Thank you for having me on, Jak, - You're, you're very well known to most people in the 12th district, former firefighter, Marine, Jackson County board member, longtime state representative before going to Capitol Hill.

What should voters know about you and your record before they go into cast their ballots in November?

- Yeah, so I have served on three vital committees that are vitally important to Southern Illinois.

The Illinois 12th District is made up of 34 counties, the most Southern 34 counties.

The number one employer is Scott Air Force Base, the second largest employers ag, and the third is SIU Carbondale.

And because of that, the three committees that I serve on, I serve on transportation infrastructure committee, which is very good, one because that affects my district tremendously.

And my background in the fact that I was raised in a family trucking business and know the industry.

As well as the fact that I'm on the ag committee, which is vitally important.

And I had to work to, when I first became the, what's known as ranking member of the VA committee, that was removed for me for two years and two months because they don't normally allow you on three committees.

But I'm back on there now for the Farm Bill, which is vitally important for the district, as well as the fact that I am the chairman of the VA committee, which is an honor.

I can only say, I've been blessed by God to be there and my colleagues who voted me in to be the chairman of that committee and the first full committee chair south of Springfield, I think in about 40 some years.

And so the fact that I'm on those three committees and have learned and got the experience necessary so that we can get things done for southern Illinois and for the nation as a whole and for the veterans as well.

And throughout these committees to know, understand, and know the process, which is vitally important when you're in Congress.

- When you look at this district, and we were talking about a little bit before we started the interview, this is the largest territorial in, in terms of territorial expanse in terms of congressional districts in the state of Illinois, 34 counties, as you pointed out.

Take the global view, as you look at this kind of a snapshot in time today, what are the biggest issues that you consider are, are facing residents of this district?

- Well, it's really wild because a lot of the national issues are real issues to them in the district.

Now, let me tell you that because of the strength in agriculture, naturally the Farm Bill that we're trying to push through is vitally important, knowing and understanding, and what a lot of people don't realize is only about 16% of the Farm Bill is about agriculture.

The rest is about the SNAP program and food nutrition.

So there, there's that that's important to our farmers.

Of course, there's also the economy and watching over the last four years of our dollar not being able to buy as much as it used to.

I believe that was caused by the third or four, actually fourth COVID bill.

The first was a, but, but the last COVID bill was, even though economists said we shouldn't have done it, it was pushed forward.

I did not support that one.

That drove us into this, this inflation issue that we've not seen since the year, since the 70s.

Dealing with that is vitally important.

And even though we're not a border state, I think the issues that are occurring with immigration and the border are vitally important to the district.

And I hear a lot about that out there as well.

Government overreach quite often.

And then the other issues that are out there, not so much as in the Southern district because they don't understand this part of it, but like I said, my largest employer is Scott Air Force Base.

A whole lot of it is make sure that the mission that Scott Air Force base is handled right through the Department of Defense, that we understand what the mission, that I understand what the mission is there and a clear voice for them as well.

- You touched on inflation.

Consumer prices rose 2.5% during August, July was the first time the inflation rate had been below 3% since, since 2021.

Even so a lot of Illinoisans are still feeling the pinch of higher prices when it comes-- - You bet.

- To food and other necessities.

What is Congress's role in trying to help working families make, make ends meet?

Or does it have a role?

- Yeah, well let me lemme explain to you that, you know, when we did the Tax and Jobs Act of 2017, there's this group of, of those tax reforms that will expire.

They will expire for the middle income, small business, inheritance tax, all of those things.

When you, when we pass that bill, if you'll remember, up until COVID, our GDP was growing with leaps and bounds.

And if we get the GDP and get job growth back, then you're going to see that dollar go a little further.

Get us back on track there.

We do not need a tax increase.

And one thing we don't need is some other type of stimulus package to throw more money out there where you have less, or more dollars chasing less products.

And that's what was a problem that we dealt with there.

So what congress needs to do is go back and deal with making sure that we make those tax reforms permanent and then also make sure that we continue to work like we did prior to this administration in reaching out to do the things we need to do to encourage jobs to return to the United States.

And we need to do that for two reasons.

One for the question you just asked.

How do we, how do we make sure that that we bring down and make the economy burn that, that our dollars go further and that we're back where we were prior to COVID.

And that's how one way we're gonna get there.

But the other important reason for doing that to bring those jobs back home is, is what we saw in COVID.

And that is making sure that we're producing the products that we can become self-sufficient inside our borders.

Not to be locked out of the world, but be secure in the world and the fact that we don't have, all of a sudden we don't have a product that's vitally important because we've allowed another nation and we have to become dependent on them.

- I wanna segue into the Illinois economy a bit more.

Statewide unemployment rates in Illinois stand at 5.5% in July compared to the national average of around 4.4%.

A lot of the counties in the 12th district are performing right around the national average, but we have some that are leading the state in terms of unemployment like Lawrence with 9.5%, Pulaski with 8.3, Alexander with 6.8, Wabash with 8.3%.

You were talking about the diversity of this district between rural and metropolitan.

How do you improve those statistics overall by creating more jobs?

- Well, one thing you do is, is you, you make the proper investments.

The sad thing is, is we actually made an investment when I was state legislature and then I've been working with it in Congress with your local state legislators to try to bring the new loading facility into Cairo.

And unfortunately by the process of the state of Illinois and administration there, there were some mishandling of funds that those funds would've stimulated to get that job in place.

If you remember, Brandon Phelps and I worked together to create the Port authority down in the Alexander County area that allowed this to occur.

Jim Fowler has, or Dave Fowler has been working tremendously hard to try to get that all lined up.

And the other issues are trying to recruit industry to come in.

There's a major project that, in Gallatin County that we're looking at to try to use an existing port area over there on the Ohio side to try to stimulate new growth that way.

And depending on which counties they are, and that's why you have to know with this job, each county what is the thing that we can reach out and do that will encourage job growth.

Now some of those counties have a very small population and very few people work in them anyway as far as working in county.

They usually travel outside the county to work.

But the farmers is, so you have to stay abreast of the ag.

And right now we've gotta make sure through the ag when we pass the Farm Bill, we also have to give trade promotion authority to whichever president it is.

And understand this administration has not asked for any.

But they've got to be able to make those negotiations and those trade deals with those foreign countries so that our grain prices will increase so that a farmer isn't just planting a crop, harvesting a crop that won't even pay for the money he spent planting it, he or she spent planting it.

So these are the things we have to know while working in Congress that okay, and me, believe me whenever I say it is a, we are asked as members of Congress to know a lot about a lot of different things and we have to work with our staff to make sure that we're well aware of how each piece of legislation affects our district.

And that's what I end up doing as far as trying to make the economy grow in each one of those counties.

- We talked a little about kind of the larger employer aspect with the port projects and things like that.

And of course agriculture is a huge part of the, the economy here.

What about small business?

What is, what are, what are your policies for small business development say in the range of 20 to 20, 20 to 25 to 50 workers?

- Right.

Well lemme tell you that if, if the, if the tax cuts go away that were passed in 2017, it will hurt those small businesses.

And so those, if you, if you overburden them with regulation and overburden them with that taxation, they will not invest in that business to grow.

They're gonna curl up like a turtle coming on back in the shell and just try to survive.

That'd be the best way I can describe it.

Just today I was endorsed by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and that is because knowing and understanding, 'cause Jak, I know you understand this, I did come from small business, a small trucking business.

My wife and I, for years owned a beauty salon.

So dealing with small business is what I understand.

And because of that, you know, we need to make sure that no oversome burden, burdensome regulations and that varies by business and we have to watch that very closely.

And also then making sure that they're in a situation where we don't tax 'em out of existence.

- Just before coming on the set, I was, I was reading an update on the Farm Bill.

There's so much attention right now of course, that, and Congress focused on disaster relief because of the hurricanes and other natural disasters.

It doesn't appear that there's much chance at this point that there's gonna be much progress on that $2.2 trillion Farm Bill in the lame duck session.

What's at stake for farmers as this plays out and what are the key components you wanna see in the final product when it eventually is passed?

- Right.

Well one thing for sure is I actually spent last year when we thought we would be able to get it done in the year it was supposed to be done, right.

We actually toured all 34 counties.

We had meeting with all of the farm bureaus, individual stakeholders to make sure they, what was the most important thing in there.

And for all of them, it was the fact that we make sure the safety net, which is the crop insurance, is in place.

Because just, believe me with prices, like even though we're having gonna have a really high yield this year, the fact that the prices are gonna be so low can be devastated to them.

And if all of a sudden they would take, and next year there is something that destroys crops or have year that that, that they all of a sudden need crop insurance, it has to be available.

Now we've done, made sure the crop insurance is available even though we haven't passed the Farm Bill by doing a CR, a continuing resolution of the existing Farm Bill.

Will we see us do that if we can't pass it in lame duck, I'm still hopeful we're gonna pass it in lame duck.

But the other issues that are out there are, the new Farm Bill actually does increases in a lot of the areas as far as our trade and our ability to trade and the increase the, so the dollars amount so we can actually try to make sure those markets are opening up to the level they need to around the world.

And it's, what we did was we increased that for the first time since 2002 Farm Bill.

That's a long time not to make the investment that we need to make.

Now we're gonna need to make the sure that we get these things taken care of as far as the, you just mentioned the hurricanes and, and the disasters are going, but we're going to have to make sure that the, that is provided for.

But we have to be very, very wise now in how we spend our money.

But you gotta get return on those dollars and the Farm Bill does that.

It gives you return on your dollars.

- Let's turn to immigration for a moment.

The US customs and Border patrol agencies reporting that recent border security measures have led to a nearly 30% drop in border patrol apprehensions from May to June of this year.

But that still remains a huge concern for a lot of folks.

A congressional solution apparently will have to wait until the new congress takes office next year.

What kind of border protection plan would you endorse if you're reelected?

- I would endorse the one that we had during the Trump administration and that is the fact that we would go ahead and secure the southern border.

You can call it a wall or you can call fence, whatever you wanna call it.

I have actually been to Eagle Pass twice and watched the situation there.

Let me tell you that the numbers that are, because I looked at these numbers very closely that you showed that there's a reduction over the last couple months, that has a whole lot to do with what, not what the federal government is doing, but what the state of Texas has done for themselves as far as stopping the flow across Texas.

So they're now moving over to the other states.

So what we need to do is we need to have a true bill to deal with, secure the border.

We need to have an administration that aggressively deals with the Mexican administration and say that the remain in Mexico policy is reinstated and send a clear message that if you want to come here legally you can, but coming here illegally, well you will be deported under the laws of this nation.

Because if you're, I want anyone who wants to come to this nation, we're all from, well I say that unless you're American Indian, or a Native American, you've came from some sort of immigration.

Mine might have been a hundred years before yours or yours, a hundred, a hundred years before mine.

But that being said, immigrating legally is vitally important to a great nation that has golden opportunity.

I just had, I had this conversation of all things with an Uber driver just the other day about the concerns that he has as a person trying to get his citizenship that came here legally.

- Even so, there are still a lot of undocumented immigrants in the United States at this point, and a lot of those folks want to go to work, they want to be productive citizens in the United States and make and claim a stake here.

What about increasing the number of work permits for folks who find themselves in those positions?

- That something different.

- Yes, it is.

- Not for the ones that are here and have, undocumented, but understand that those who use the visa to come in, and for instance in southern Illinois, we use a lot of migrant workers to come here for our apple orchards and our peach orchards, at dairy farms for many of the jobs for landscaping.

These are vitally important.

Now we tried to deal with that Jak back in 2015 under the, the Good Latch one and Good Latch two bill.

I supported those reforms.

And those reforms are the types of things we need, not amnesty, but reforms in the system to allow for the workers that need to be here for those type jobs that the people running those operations know that they're gonna have the workers here, that then they still have the touchback back to their home country.

But there was a real argument, and I saw this in Eagle Pack, in Eagle Pass, Texas, the people who were those migrant workers that would come across are very frustrated because the actual immigrants that are coming into this nation untethered a lot of the, the American people wanna put them in the same pot.

They're not in the same pot.

It's a real problem though, whenever we, we don't have controlled borders to control that.

- I wanna talk about, I wanted to ask you about your position on reproductive rights for women in the wake of the-- - Yeah.

- Dobbs decision.

Some congressional Republicans continue pushing in the House Republican Conference, keep pushing for a national ban on abortion.

Do you support that?

- You can't.

So I'm pro-life and there's no doubt that I'm gonna, that I will support pro-life language.

But I want to tell you that we argued for Roe versus Wade to be returned to the states.

It's now returned to the states.

I believe that that's where it's going to stay.

I don't think that, look, I wish there was never, ever abortion ever, but let me tell you that we need to make sure that we fought for pro Roe versus Wade a return to the states.

If we fought for that, it's very hard to come back and say, oh no, we're gonna make a national ban.

The question is, if it was before me, would I vote for it?

I'll have to read the actual language and see what it says.

I'm pro-life myself and it has been my issue.

And if people don't like my pro-life stance, I can't change it.

It's a moral issue for me.

- If it came up as a national issue, if Congress was going to approach that as a national ban, would rape, incest or protecting the life of the mother, be part of the exceptions?

- I think that rape, incest has always been in there and the Hyde Amendment, rape, incest, life of the mother.

Don't confuse what like VA has right now.

The VA is saying, they said they used that the, the Hyde Amendment, they do not.

First off VA is not supposed to be, is not supposed to be doing any abortions even though this administration is doing that.

That was banned in 1996 through the VA. And let me say it this way, that rape, incest, life of the mother was the Hyde Amendment.

I would never, ever, I've got a wife, I've got three, I got two daughters and I got seven granddaughters.

I would hope that they would never be in that situation.

But my position has always been that I'm, I'm solidly pro-life.

- On the topic of gun violence, mass shootings defined by incidents in which four or more victims are involved still dominate the headlines.

The last figures I saw as of July 31st were we had nearly 500 people killed and over 1500 people wounded in almost 400 shootings.

What's your solution to the problem?

I know that you're a pro Second Amendment.

- I'm pro-Second Amendment, yeah.

- But what about, what about tougher background checks at the federal level, renewing a national ban on assault weapons.

Assault weapons.

- Well, the problem is, Jak, the problem with the assault weapons ban is that you've got people who don't understand what an assault weapon is.

You remember that Illinois have had the assault weapon ban and then they got rid of it.

But the thing was that the, a Ruger 10-22 rifle that I used to hunt squirrel, according to their definition, because it had a, had a pistol grip on it, was an assault weapon.

So as you say, what is an assault weapon and everything like that, you understand in the 30s, we banned fully automatic weapons.

And the issue, I believe with a lot of the gun violence is, look, there's no tougher state than the state of Illinois as far as gun law.

And but yet we have more killings in one city that are people that don't have the right, they don't have the rule, they don't meet all the rules and criteria set by the state of Illinois.

So it doesn't work that way.

I believe we need to make the investment into mental health.

We need to make and make sure we make the investment like we did with the School Safety Bill, which has been used throughout my district and, because it allows for a grant through the Department of Justice by the local police to go to the school district for the needs they have.

And it's very unique needs in the fact that Lick Creek where I, where I had some schools, they wanted special locks, they wanted to school safety officer or whichever, Lick Creek just needed a cell phone tower.

So in a case of emergency, somebody could make a telephone call.

So knowing and understanding that as far as the gun violence, gun violence is out there, we've gotta deal with mental health.

We've gotta deal with all of those issues.

But we've got to deal with them as we see them come up.

But as far as, we've gotta be very, very careful because the Second Amendment is still just that.

It's the Second Amendment.

I'm as faithful to the Second Amendment as I am every other amendment.

And I will continue to be so.

- We're running short on time, a little over three and a half minutes left.

The Heritage Foundation's project 2025 plan calls for eliminating the US Department of Education.

Do you support that?

- Well, let me tell you that I have never read the 2025 even though, and, and you'll find out that most Republicans have not.

And you'll also find out that the guy that wrote it from the Heritage Foundation has been fired.

But as far as education is concerned, I think that, you know, the states control their education and should.

I was on the education committee and higher education committee in the state of Illinois and have been a supporter of education.

but I also am a supporter of the person's right to either use private schools and/or homeschool.

Right now, there's some real problems that are going on with a lot of our schools.

If you just have to look at, at Chicago school districts right now, I think that there needs to be some sensible changes.

Now, what those changes will be, I do not know, but we're going to, I'm not on that committee of jurisdiction, but I know the people that are on it and you know, we've got to make sure that the education that we provide for our, for our children is for our children, not necessarily for the people who are working in the system.

- The Clean Air Act of 1990 basically built, dealt an almost fatal blow to the Illinois coal industry that employed thousands of miners at one time.

How would you make the 12th district more competitive when it comes to renewable forms of energy?

- Well, here's one thing.

First off, I've, I've always been an all in type person.

Let me tell you though, whether it is solar or wind, the bad thing with solar and wind is we offer a tax incentive to put it out there, but we don't have a tax incentive once the solar panels start failing or the wind industry start failing, but yet in the coal industry, we had to have a reclamation.

Along with the nuclear energy, we have to have that, that there's some way that we deal with the waste from the nuclear energy.

I think that there's a lot of things that are going on right now, Jak, in that industry.

Unfortunately, we've got to be very, very careful that we don't put ourselves in a position that we demand a, an industry to change that science has not got to that point yet.

We'd love for solar to always work and for wind to always work.

One thing we are doing is, is they're coming out with the new, new nuclear plants and we're looking into that.

They are the smaller generators, almost like a nuclear submarine.

And finding that way.

I'm still a believer.

I don't wanna see the major, the cleanest coal burning fire plant in the, in the world in my district be shut down.

But if it is gonna be shut down, it's not under the federal rules.

It's the, the rules that the state of Illinois passed and if they stay in place, they're gonna wanna shut Prairie State Energy down by 2035.

- And Congressman Bost, we are at the end of our time for this edition of-- - Thank you.

- "Meet the candidates."

Thank you very much for your time and we appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues)