Opinion

There was a time when serving on the local school board was a position of honor for businessmen and women, retired educators and sometimes people with aspirations for a higher office. Nebraska communities are filled with those stories and those people.

Over the past year, Nebraska’s economy has been booming, creating more and more great opportunities here in the Good Life. We currently have the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.3 percent. That equals our state’s lowest rate ever and is less than half of the national unemployment rate of 5.4 percent. According to Local Area Unemployment Statistics from the Nebraska Department of Labor, 92 of our 93 counties have an unemployment rate at or below 2.7 percent. Statewide, our manufacturing employment is above prepandemic levels and has reached its highest point since the Great Recession (October 2008).

On August 26, 13 American heroes and more than 150 Afghan civilians lost their lives in a terrorist attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. I was devastated to learn that a son of Nebraska, Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page of the U.S. Marine Corps, was among them.

The Nebraska Constitution is very clear about when the Legislature is to meet, and for how long. Article III, Section 10 states that the Legislature is to commence its business for each year at 10:00 a.m. on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January. During even-numbered years, the Legislature has a maximum of 60 days to get our work done. During oddnumbered years, the Constitution allows us a maximum of 90 days, with the extra 30 days intended to give us the time we need to formulate our biennial budget.

The scenes from Afghanistan over the past week have been harrowing. As the Biden Administration quickly approached their expedited deadline to withdraw the final U.S. troops from the country, Taliban forces took over regional capitals and major cities as regular Afghan soldiers fled their posts or surrendered. On Sunday the Taliban overtook Kabul, the capital, as former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and handed over power. While this collapse is a disaster, we must remember why the U.S. military was there and understand why the Biden Administration’s withdrawal plan failed so we can better protect Americans and our allies going forward.

Summer’s last hurrah is upon us. Labor Day is September 6. The University of Nebraska Husker football team has started its season, the State Fair ends on Labor Day and public schools are back in session.

Energy reliability and independence are pillars of our country’s national security. A reliable power grid has helped our nation build the world’s largest economy, and our focus on developing domestic sources of energy has made our country’s fleet of automobiles and airplanes less dependent on overseas oil. Earlier this year, U.S. News and World Report ranked Nebraska #3 nationally for power grid reliability and #8 overall in their energy category which “tracks the reliability of power grids, renewable energy consumption and the price of electricity.”

Each year, the month of August affords me the opportunity to do a critically important part of my job: speaking directly with Nebraskans about the things that matter to them. I was able to do that recently at the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Summit, where I spoke about the bi partisan infrastructure bill the Senate passed earlier in August.

What a difference just one week makes. Last week I wrote about how quickly U.S. Afghanistan policy was collapsing. The Taliban were reported fighting about 10 miles from Kabul when I wrote this update last week. Now they are sitting in the Afghan President’s office. In the photograph is one of the terrorists Mr. Obama let out of prison in Guantanamo in trade for the deserter, Mr. Bergdahl. Tens of thousands of Americans, soldiers and civilians, European and NATO allies, and God knows how many Afghans who helped us are now trapped and surrounded at the Kabul airport. This will soon become Mr. Biden’s version of the evacuation of Dunkirk in WWII. The only reason an American is still alive in Kabul right now is because they are worth more alive. Before this is over, pallets of U.S. cash money will be required for the ransom. The international prestige of the United States will not be restored in my lifetime. The President and many in the Pentagon should resign. This is going to get much worse.

Nebraska’s Third District is the number one agriculture district in the nation. This past week, I hosted an agriculture summit where I was able to engage directly with Third District producers to hear how we can ensure our producers remain among the top producing in the country.