Pittsburg Supporting Boyda

Another encouraging op-ed in the Pittsburg Morning Sun today, detailing the support for Rep. Nancy Boyda in the 2nd District.

Dear Editor:
It has been a reassuring two years since Congresswoman Nancy Boyda was elected to the Second Congressional District. Nancy hit the ground running and has aggressively worked for the people. She has been available to all of her constituents on a regular basis. As a freshman, she wrote a successfully passed bill which eliminates retirement benefits for members of Congress convicted of wrongdoing.

Nancy recognizes the elderly and retired have not been helped by a Congress which passed a confusing Medicare pharmaceutical bill that has not lowered the cost of drugs. She understands universal health coverage is not only the humane thing to do, in the most advanced society in world history, but is economically sound policy because it provides the 47 million uninsured and the 20 million underinsured with comprehensive preventive care.

Nancy has supported every single issue which helps ordinary working people and has steadfastly refused to accept money from lobbyists who represent large multi-national corporations that have the political and economic power to influence unhelpful domestic and foreign policies affecting us all.

How nice it is to have a congressperson who can write legislation which benefits ordinary folks and who wants to end the ill advised decision to invade and occupy Iraq. It is now time for a change in the senate and the executive branch.
Harry L. Humphries
Pittsburg

We certainly agree with Harry's assessment. Rep. Boyda has gone above and beyond to look at issues that help our families.

Pitt State for Boyda

I love college newspapers. I love colleges. Lets be honest, some of the greatest activists, Representatives, and volunteers come out of the college community. College is a time when people learn more about articulating their own ideas and understanding issues more to uncover their opinions and get started on how they can impact the world through their chosen field.

The Kansas 2nd District has more Colleges, Universities, Community Colleges, training academies, and tech schools in it than most districts do. And it creates a vibrant environment to engage our leaders at a more thoughtful level.

This week's Pittsburg State Collegio published a piece about Congresswoman Nancy Boyda's recent tour of the Kansas Technology Center and the Kansas Polymer Research Center. Both groups are on the front lines of building the next generation of Kansas workers who are staying here at home in the 2nd District to develop their communities.

"She's really engaged with the students - asking them where they're from," said Steve Scott, vice president for academic affairs.

PSU administrators say they have been working toward getting money for the technology programs for two years. Recently Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and Boyda teamed together for the final passing of the bill in Washington.

"Representative Boyda has been a good advocate," said Scott. "She sees this as an investment."

The Omnibus bill will give the second district of Kansas $387 million.
Pittsburg's funds will begin to arrive in March through the Department of Agriculture's Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service.
More than $1.1 million of the grant will go to the KPRC and $263,310 will go to the technology center.

Most of the money will be used for updating materials and research projects.
"We have to submit a program to the USDA that hopefully they will approve," said Sara Riddle, director of administration for the KPRC.

The grants could be renewed annually because the funding is not an earmark but a line item on the bill.

"We are extremely pleased to be receiving these funds," said Steve Robb, director of the KPRC and the PSU Business and Technology Institute, in a press release issued in January. "It's not every day something like this happens. Our challenge is to leverage the federal money into some special projects that can benefit the state of Kansas and the country as a whole."

What better way to help students learn more and gain more experience than investing in our systems of education.

This is not the first time Rep. Boyda has been to Pittsburg State University (as the article attests). Nor will it be the last.

In fact, Rep. Boyda has gone above and beyond when it comes to connecting with folks in the 2nd District. Her own House website features a map that shows exactly what I'm talking about.

You can even go further to explore what activity or event took place in the area. Even zoom in to see what building it was in or where it was more specifically.

You can't very well represent the people if you don't know where they stand and what they are facing. This is a perfect visual representation that Rep. Boyda isn't another politician that is out of touch with reality. She's one of us.

"I think of pork-barrel spending as bridges to nowhere"

The quote in the headline is from Dr. John Iley, Chairman of the Pittsburg State University Technology Studies and the Automotive Technology Department. He said it after Congresswoman Nancy Boyda asked him if he thought the $263,310 federal allocation to the school’s Kansas Technology Center she secured fell in that category.

We agree, and we think most Kansans would agree, with his "of course not" assessment, and that maybe, just maybe people are starting to realize "earmark" isn't a dirty word.

Working in tandem (and in a bipartisan manner) with Senator Sam Brownback, Boyda was able to secure a total of more than $1.3 million for PSU in an effort to make sure the university has the best equipment possible.

It's about the future of Kansas, both Boyda and Illey said, and it's about making sure Kansas graduates can compete on a global scale.

[...] but she said this money will make a difference in preparing PSU students for careers. She also said the money will be used at the technology center for woodworking, plastics, automotive and other programs.

“We’ve got to get ready for the 21st century,” she said. - The Joplin Globe

Just another example of Boyda's bipartisan leadership style, her dedication to her district, and her smart use of federal dollars to improve the lives of all of us back at home.