Congressman Yakym Stops In Warsaw As Part Of Main St. Tour
February 21, 2023 at 9:33 p.m.
Congressman Yakym Stops In Warsaw As Part Of Main St. Tour
By David [email protected]
“On the Main Street Tour, we’re meeting with a lot of downtown businesses and people who are concerned with things that are happening in the downtown Main Street environment,” the 2nd District Congressman said before taking part in a Kosciusko County Community Action Coalition roundtable discussion at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation. “And so, as a part of that, we’re just hearing from Hoosiers and hearing what’s on their minds and their concerns. But also, I’m someone who is really passionate about the revitalization of downtowns, particularly in our small communities. And so we’re seeing a lot of things that are happening in our smaller communities this week.”
Yakym agreed there’s a lot happening in downtown Warsaw, which was his second stop Tuesday. Their first stop was downtown Rochester where they saw the theater that had been revitalized. “Now we’re here in downtown Warsaw for the afternoon,” he said.
One of the things Yakym said his office is hearing “loud and clear” from Hoosiers is the issue of inflation.
“The cost of inflation are impacting people, particularly in our small, rural communities in a substantial way. We know what’s caused it and that’s the unbalanced federal budget. We can not continue to spend a trillion to a trillion-and-a-half dollars per year, more than the federal government is taking in. It’s the unbalanced federal budget that’s causing that,” Yakym said.
The annual inflation rate for the United States is 6.4% for the 12 months ended January 2023 after rising 6.5% previously, according to U.S. Labor Department data published Feb. 14.
Many small communities are experiencing cost increases on everything from labor to food, Yakym said. “Commodity prices, gas prices are going up substantially and we need to make sure that we get those under control.”
Overall food prices have really gone up the most out of all prices in the U.S. economy, he said. “That impacts small families. That impacts our senior citizens whose costs are going up for food and prescription drugs faster than what they can possibly raise their incomes.”
While Americans are dealing with the rising out-of-control cost-of-living expenses, the war in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia continues. Feb. 24 will mark one year that Russia invaded Ukraine. On Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, and promised more support to the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that Russia would pull back from a key nuclear treaty, ratcheting up tensions with the U.S., according to USA Today.
China’s Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Russia’s president in the coming months, according to people familiar with the plan, as Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine and portrays himself as a standard-bearer against a U.S.-led global order, according to a Wall Street Journal article Tuesday.
“What we know for sure internationally is that weakness arouses evil, and we’ve got evil coming from Vladimir Putin advancing on the western front in Ukraine. We have China doing things to our country, whether it’s the theft of our intellectual property, the manipulation of their currency or floating a spy balloon across our country,” Yakym said. “People are doing things internationally that are not great or good for our domestic security, and so I think we need to maintain a strong presence on the international stage militarily. I do think we’ve done a number of things that have aroused that evil in terms of the weakness from this president, but I will also give the president credit where it’s due.”
Yakym said Biden was right to go and visit Ukraine this past week.
“I’m glad he went there and sent a strong message,” Yakym said.
This week, Yakym was named a vice chair of the aviation subcommittee within the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. His appointment comes at a time after there’s been a series of serious close calls at airports in Austin and New York, and a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, more than two weeks ago.
“So there’s a couple of things I would say on that. First of all, within aviation, we’re about to go through an FAA reauthorization bill. We authorize the FAA to operate in five-year increments, and that bill is coming through the aviation subcommittee, of which I’m vice chair, later on this year. First and foremost, the number one priority is safety. We have to make sure that Americans can commute across our continent in a safe manner. The United States has a stellar record of safety in aviation and we need to make sure that we maintain that,” Yakym said.
“We also want to be able to do it in a way that’s affordable. We’ve seen a number of cost increases overall in aviation, particularly recently. We want to make sure that we open up access to regional airports, whether it’s South Bend or Fort Wayne, with a number of direct flights commercially.”
Yakym then noted the Warsaw Airport expansion project that’s been in the works for a number of years.
“We’ve been working with the community leaders, interfacing with them, on that airport expansion. I’ve been meeting with folks in the executive branch back in Washington, D.C., to make sure that we don’t experience any more regulatory issues as it relates to expanding that airport,” he said.
The city is looking at moving the Warsaw Municipal Airport to a city-county airport authority to help with funding. The Board of Aviation Commissioners at its last meeting voted to recommend the city council approve the authority, which also will need approval from the county.
In terms of the local funding mechanism, Yakym said that’s up to the local leaders.
“My role in this is really making sure that from the FAA’s perspective, we have good communication with the FAA so that we can remove the remaining regulatory hurdles to actually get the project done and do what’s right for Warsaw,” Yakym stated.
On the Ohio train derailment, he said safety has to be of a paramount importance.
“What I think we’d also like to see from the administration is, we have an open question of, ‘What’s the plan?’ We don’t know exactly what happened. We don’t know what the plan is from the administration to help make sure it gets cleaned up. We don’t know what the plan is to ensure that the residents of that town are safe, secure and healthy. We’d like to see a plan from our Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as just the overall macro-administration,” Yakym said.
Buttigieg has received a lot of heat for the way he’s responded to the recent near-collisions at airports and train derailment, including some calls for him to step down.
“There are often things that happen that are outside of your control. Things that, I don’t necessarily blame the administration for the cause, and a lot of people are quick to step up and point fingers and assign fault and blame,” Yakym said. “What I am most interested in seeing is a game plan. And have the administration be forward-facing in terms of explaining what happened and explaining the game plan to make sure it gets cleaned up quickly and what are the measures we’re going to take to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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“On the Main Street Tour, we’re meeting with a lot of downtown businesses and people who are concerned with things that are happening in the downtown Main Street environment,” the 2nd District Congressman said before taking part in a Kosciusko County Community Action Coalition roundtable discussion at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation. “And so, as a part of that, we’re just hearing from Hoosiers and hearing what’s on their minds and their concerns. But also, I’m someone who is really passionate about the revitalization of downtowns, particularly in our small communities. And so we’re seeing a lot of things that are happening in our smaller communities this week.”
Yakym agreed there’s a lot happening in downtown Warsaw, which was his second stop Tuesday. Their first stop was downtown Rochester where they saw the theater that had been revitalized. “Now we’re here in downtown Warsaw for the afternoon,” he said.
One of the things Yakym said his office is hearing “loud and clear” from Hoosiers is the issue of inflation.
“The cost of inflation are impacting people, particularly in our small, rural communities in a substantial way. We know what’s caused it and that’s the unbalanced federal budget. We can not continue to spend a trillion to a trillion-and-a-half dollars per year, more than the federal government is taking in. It’s the unbalanced federal budget that’s causing that,” Yakym said.
The annual inflation rate for the United States is 6.4% for the 12 months ended January 2023 after rising 6.5% previously, according to U.S. Labor Department data published Feb. 14.
Many small communities are experiencing cost increases on everything from labor to food, Yakym said. “Commodity prices, gas prices are going up substantially and we need to make sure that we get those under control.”
Overall food prices have really gone up the most out of all prices in the U.S. economy, he said. “That impacts small families. That impacts our senior citizens whose costs are going up for food and prescription drugs faster than what they can possibly raise their incomes.”
While Americans are dealing with the rising out-of-control cost-of-living expenses, the war in Ukraine between Ukraine and Russia continues. Feb. 24 will mark one year that Russia invaded Ukraine. On Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, and promised more support to the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that Russia would pull back from a key nuclear treaty, ratcheting up tensions with the U.S., according to USA Today.
China’s Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Russia’s president in the coming months, according to people familiar with the plan, as Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine and portrays himself as a standard-bearer against a U.S.-led global order, according to a Wall Street Journal article Tuesday.
“What we know for sure internationally is that weakness arouses evil, and we’ve got evil coming from Vladimir Putin advancing on the western front in Ukraine. We have China doing things to our country, whether it’s the theft of our intellectual property, the manipulation of their currency or floating a spy balloon across our country,” Yakym said. “People are doing things internationally that are not great or good for our domestic security, and so I think we need to maintain a strong presence on the international stage militarily. I do think we’ve done a number of things that have aroused that evil in terms of the weakness from this president, but I will also give the president credit where it’s due.”
Yakym said Biden was right to go and visit Ukraine this past week.
“I’m glad he went there and sent a strong message,” Yakym said.
This week, Yakym was named a vice chair of the aviation subcommittee within the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. His appointment comes at a time after there’s been a series of serious close calls at airports in Austin and New York, and a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, more than two weeks ago.
“So there’s a couple of things I would say on that. First of all, within aviation, we’re about to go through an FAA reauthorization bill. We authorize the FAA to operate in five-year increments, and that bill is coming through the aviation subcommittee, of which I’m vice chair, later on this year. First and foremost, the number one priority is safety. We have to make sure that Americans can commute across our continent in a safe manner. The United States has a stellar record of safety in aviation and we need to make sure that we maintain that,” Yakym said.
“We also want to be able to do it in a way that’s affordable. We’ve seen a number of cost increases overall in aviation, particularly recently. We want to make sure that we open up access to regional airports, whether it’s South Bend or Fort Wayne, with a number of direct flights commercially.”
Yakym then noted the Warsaw Airport expansion project that’s been in the works for a number of years.
“We’ve been working with the community leaders, interfacing with them, on that airport expansion. I’ve been meeting with folks in the executive branch back in Washington, D.C., to make sure that we don’t experience any more regulatory issues as it relates to expanding that airport,” he said.
The city is looking at moving the Warsaw Municipal Airport to a city-county airport authority to help with funding. The Board of Aviation Commissioners at its last meeting voted to recommend the city council approve the authority, which also will need approval from the county.
In terms of the local funding mechanism, Yakym said that’s up to the local leaders.
“My role in this is really making sure that from the FAA’s perspective, we have good communication with the FAA so that we can remove the remaining regulatory hurdles to actually get the project done and do what’s right for Warsaw,” Yakym stated.
On the Ohio train derailment, he said safety has to be of a paramount importance.
“What I think we’d also like to see from the administration is, we have an open question of, ‘What’s the plan?’ We don’t know exactly what happened. We don’t know what the plan is from the administration to help make sure it gets cleaned up. We don’t know what the plan is to ensure that the residents of that town are safe, secure and healthy. We’d like to see a plan from our Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as just the overall macro-administration,” Yakym said.
Buttigieg has received a lot of heat for the way he’s responded to the recent near-collisions at airports and train derailment, including some calls for him to step down.
“There are often things that happen that are outside of your control. Things that, I don’t necessarily blame the administration for the cause, and a lot of people are quick to step up and point fingers and assign fault and blame,” Yakym said. “What I am most interested in seeing is a game plan. And have the administration be forward-facing in terms of explaining what happened and explaining the game plan to make sure it gets cleaned up quickly and what are the measures we’re going to take to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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